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triaelf9 · 10 months
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Monthly Perks are up on Patreon and Ko-fi!
This month's wallpaper & chibi! Remember, new and upgrading patrons & ko-fi members, and one time ko-fi supporters for this month will also get the seasonal Dragon illustration, & so much more!
And then this month's TTRPG assets are up in the Adventure Archive, a collection of 388 items!  Patrons & ko-fi members $5 and up get access to the asset archive for their games & can make monthly requests for ones they'd like added!
If you like what I do and what to support my work, this is the best way to do so! We also have a new milestone we’re working towards, so every dollar counts!
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Please consider joining the party on either site! ^_^
https://patreon.com/TriaElf9 
https://ko-fi.com/triaelf9
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baboon-87 · 2 years
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literally everyone who plays dnd, dm or player character, should go check out openai's playground. this thing is amazing
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jennifercrowart · 2 years
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⚔️~ SHOP RESTOCK! ~⚔️ All creature sizes for the D&D enemy map tokens and initiative markers are back in stock! 😊
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craigofinspiration · 1 month
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How I Run Initiative In Dungeons and Dragons 5e (and a free download!)
There are many ways to handle initiative in D&D and TTRPGs in general. It took me some time but I finally found a method that works for me. I know this won't work for everyone but at least I hope it inspires you. Let me know what you think.
There are many ways to handle initiative in D&D and TTRPGs in general. It took me some time but I finally found a method that works for me. I know this won’t work for everyone but at least I hope it inspires you. Let me know what you think. So the first thing I do before the session even starts is determine the initiative I’m going to use for the monsters. Depending on the combat I’ll use their…
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educationaldm · 9 months
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What's your favourite map-making tool?
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galilleon · 5 months
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Hey all, This is my first Tumblr post ever! I'm pretty new here, but I'm hoping to share some DM techniques, tools and tips and to make some new friends as well! Feel free to send a chat request (an ask[?]) if you're interested!
With that aside, on with the post!
Better and More Meaningful Random Encounters!
Random encounters are a staple of DnD, they are expected to be there during exploration as a way to make the world feel alive, to have it have an aura of adventure and danger, to eat up party resources and put pressure on the PCs to make interesting and important choices, and also as a way for a DM to reasonably 'stall' the party with a quick and easy situation.
Usually, it ends up something like this:
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There's just one problem with most random encounter tables though, it's so easy for them to be GOSHDARN BORING! Especially for a newer DM.
Making them interesting becomes gambled improv on the DM's part if they're not used to it, and it's hard to keep track of the important factors that need to be kept in mind
Luckily, I ended up finding a great source for random encounters from 'Dungeon Masterpiece' on YouTube, and I integrated it into my own DMing. I figured that I'd share it here for any that want to work it into their own sessions as well!
After adjustment, a single table can account for multiple entire sessions of in-depth worldbuilding and fun without getting dull!
Sources:
Source 1 (Creating interesting Random Encounter Tables):
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Source 2 (Making Random Encounters reflect your Worldbuilding):
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There's 4 major methods we can use to improve the Random Encounter table
1. Make the table a straight 1dx roll.
2. Adding 'depth'.
3. Adding meaningful encounters.
4. Prerolling and/or Multirolling.
You can also check out the "Where to Start?" section for some direction to make getting it down and prepped all easy peasy!
1. Straight Roll:
Its enticing to go for 2d6 or the such in order to add non-linearity to the rolls, but these sorts of adjustments only end up making one or two encounters extremely likely and leave all others in the dust, it often ends up defeating it's own purpose of interesting randomness.
In the previous example, it was extremely likely to only get Wolves, Barbarians, Orcs, or Spiders, from a table of 12! A straight roll would serve us much better. The rare rolls are already rare enough as is!
Simply enough, adjusting the original example by replacing the 2d6 with 1d12, it'd become something more like this:
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#2. Adding Depth:
We can add more columns in the encounter tables. These columns will represent different aspects about the encounters that we can roll on separately!
Usually it can be difficult as a DM to naturally come up with motives for the encounters, showcase the worldbuilding and have it all come together.
This setup can give you a solid guideline on how the creatures/people think (if any), and also sets up the overall area so that you get an idea of what events tend to occur there as a result of its occupants. 
We want to add 3 more columns to the tables to convey different aspects of the encounter. Fill in these new columns corresponding to the expectations of each encounter.
We'll roll each of these and combine them, then we'll interpret them to make a robust, in-depth random encounter with truly unexpected results!
I recommend rolling alot of complete encounters at once and interpreting the context to the vast general area the party is travelling in.
i. Behaviour: How the creatures act. Are they friendly, scared, aggressive, curious, mischievous?
ii. Complication: Something behind the scenes in the encounter. Do they have sick young? Broken equipment? Are they starving?
iii. Significant Impact: This is a tick box, and will only be present under ONE of the rows. It will be rolled like the other columns, but ONLY once. It signifies which encounter is the Significant Encounter
The Significant Encounter will have its encounter's presence prominent amongst all the other random encounters in the area. There could be burn marks and carcasses from a rampant dragon, or a goblin raid leaving tracks moving through the area. Which is the most impactful of the different encounters?
Adding this to our previous example would expand it to:
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Rolling this would give us things like:
Significant encounter: Owlbears
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Note that the significant impact shows that the Owlbears are a massive problem in the area. Perhaps the Owlbears are agitated for an unknown reason, and are unnecessarily aggressive.
The significance of Owlbears gives us context to the second one as well! Perhaps the hunters raided an Owlbear den, and adopted an Owlbear cub from there as well.
There could be uneaten carcasses, ravaged trees, less wildlife, etc around these parts.
Note how much sheer CONTEXT these columns add to our encounters. It's invaluable!
3. Adding Meaningful Encounters
Usually random encounters tend to be rather mundane and very one-note.
There's usually some general wildlife and monsters, different disparate factions without any rhyme or reason, and maybe a general non-combat encounter or two, but these don't really tell us about the area or its surroundings at all by themselves.
Instead, we can add in wildlife and monster encounters specific to the biome, non-combat encounters, and encounters of nearby factions and/or settlements to the table, and we can even add environmental encounters in there as well.
Note that we're not tied down to 12 encounters, and can expand it ad infinitum according to our need of diversity in our encounters.
Just add in specification and connection, and suddenly the dominos all fall into place.
Lastly, we'll also be adding in 'DOUBLE TIME' which will let us roll on everything twice, and make it so it's a double encounter!
Thus, the table can instead be adjusted to:
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Note how each and everything has its relation in one way or another, but through the sheer variance, they remain truly random and novel.
4. Prerolling and/or Multirolling
Lastly and this is just something that I do, but that I found gamechanging. Be sure to pre-roll 5-7 encounters for each session, for the general area the players are going to be headed in.
Note that you don't need to really prep anything at all, just interpret all of them on a surface level as a buffer.
Also note that you don't need to use all of them if they're not needed. The foreshadowing and signs are worldbuilding and having secrets that the players don't unravel is just as useful as the ones that they do, perhaps even moreso. It adds depth and detail beyond the scope of what the party will encounter
It simply let's you get an idea of the connections between encounters, allows for foreshadowing, and acts as a deterrent to getting caught off guard.
Even if you roll mid-session, I recommend calling for a 5 minute break, rolling 5-7 encounters at the same time and interpreting them and their connections before resuming the session.
It WILL make a difference, trust me
Where to start?
It can be difficult getting inspiration or direction to get started in creating these random encounters, and sometimes you don't want to go through the hassle of thinking them up from nothing
For some great conceptual headstarts and examples for these tables, you can check out 'Worlds Without Number' and it's:
- Page 205 (Great general templates for encounters differentiated by broad creature types such as Beasts and Monsters, Sapient Monsters, and Humans)
- Pages 206-219 (For inspired locations to occasionally run rare encounters or groups of encounters in. This works best with flexible/discovered worldbuilding given the significance of some of these, and you also want to add these in sparingly to keep them significant)
- Pages 246-247 (These pages have great templates for the kinds of encounters and situation to be included in the tables, and it can be expanded vastly, and certain options can be selectively and repeatedly chosen to meet our needs. Mood works well as a complication.)
There might be other pages that are useful as well for these sorts of random encounters in the wilderness that I haven't come across yet. If so, give them a shout out and I'll be sure to add them in. It's worth checking it out in its entirety for some great tips!
Conclusion
Again, credit goes to Dungeon Masterpiece and Worlds Without Number for excellent adjustments. This has been quite long, but I hope you stuck around till the end.
Many a session have been made easy but complex ever since this was introduced and I hope that this helps you out as much as it helped me in my prep and improv!
Feel free to give any advice in formatting on Tumblr, or any feedback on the post itself. It really means a lot to me, thanks!
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DM Tip: Being a better Storyteller
I talk a lot on this blog about constructing better stories, but I frequently forget to talk about what I call “Tableskills”, those parts of the DM’s craft that are less about formulating plots and laying out narratives than they are relating those narratives to the people around the table.  The thing is, teaching tableskills is a lot harder than just suggesting ideas about stories that could be told, as every DM or prospective DM has their own particular type of storytelling that they’ll grow into as they master the art. As such, there’s no hard and fast rubric I can pass down, only the things that have improved my own performances over time.
The basics: The DM Narrator Loop
I’ve been playing d&d for well over two decades now, and I’ve never heard the DM’s art summed up any better than this video by VOX: Describe, Decide, Roll.
You as the DM Describe what situation the party is in and ask them what do they do next ( in a very leading tone, pulling them forward or offering them direct choices)
The players Decide among themselves what they’re going to do, with clarifying input as needed.  
If anything needs to be decided by dice, you Roll and figure out the outcome, then you snap right back to the descritption phase. 
Keep doing this and your party will be guided along your storiy at a steady clip while having a lot of fun. Keep rolling to when it’s really important, and you’ll be doing just fine.
All Killer No Filler
The most basic trick I’ve learned for tabletop storytelling is asking yourself “ what’s the most interesting thing that could happen this session “ and then telling a story abouthow the party gets from where they are to where that interesting thing happens.  Sometimes that interesting thing kicks down their door and forces them to react, other times it doesn’t quite happen on time, and you need to elude to the fact that it’s about to happen next time they play. Sometimes your players will take the initiative upon themselves to make interesting things happen, ranging from deep roleplay moments to taking an unexpected narrative turn and throwing all your plotting out the window. Learn to love when this happens, but don’t rely on it. Players should be given the spotlight when they stand up and take it, but that doesn’t mean you should shove them on stage before they’re ready. 
Because you’re running a live session and thus have limited “screen time” in which your interesting thing might happen, you should focus on scenes that push the party forward, building narrative momentum while offering the party a chance to break off and do their own thing. “Does anyone want to do anything before we X” and variations of it is your best ally here, as including a pending time limit spurs the party to act before circumstances change while also giving them a direction to fall back on when they don’t want to make a decision. This is where radically open world/hands off DMs fail, because the players showed up expecting to be part if a story rather than entirety making their own fun while a friend if theirs silently chides them for not pretending to be an elf good enough. TLDR: Always be moving towards something interesting happening inside the session, but never be afraid to detour when it looks like your party is going to do your job for you. 
 Economy of Information
I often have a problem with expressing my ideas to other people because I either trip over myself trying to get out all the data required at once, or I leave people hanging because I presume they can infer what comes next. Naturally this is a trait I’ve had to train out of myself when I’m being a dungeonmaster and I did that by studying a bit of cinematography. Movies are not subtle about how they want you to feel at any given moment: If the audience is supposed to be on edge, the surroundings are eerie and the music is discordant, if you’re supposed to like a character they'll either be reminiscent of a wholesome archetype or the camera will deliberately show them doing something nice. Don’t sweat the details when you’re describing a scene or doing background world building, paint in wide strokes and then fill in the details as necessary. Likewise, don’t let your scenes dawdle, bake in a reason why the scene is going to end before too long and use that as a ticking clock to spur your party into action.
When in doubt, be a Cartoon
 As gritty as some people like their tabletop roleplaying, at the end of the day it’s just a big game of pretend, and in my experience the best way to tap into my player’s emotional base is to engage the sense of play they’ve been fostering since they were kids. Unsure how to describe something? Picture how it’d look in a disney movie and your word-picture will come across clearer  in your player’s minds. Not yet confident enough to RP a nuanced NPC? Overact like a caricature of who you’re pretending to be, and you’ll suddenly have a lot more wiggle room to play with. However gritty some people profess to like their tabletop gaming it’s all a big game of pretend in the end, and the way you engage your party’s emotional core is by appealing to that sense of play they’ve been holding on to since they were a kid.
Follow the Fun
It took me a while to realize that “fun” was like oil in the engine of any d&d game, and that the primary job of the storyteller was ensuring that it was properly circulating throughout the session. Not enough fun? whole thing grinds to a halt and playing feels like pulling teeth. Too many sessions like that and a campaign falls apart.  It takes a bit of practice as a DM, but try to be attentive for when fun “bleeds out” of your campaign.  Players beating their head against a puzzle? Skip it, try a different sort of puzzle next time. Someone doesn't’ enjoy shopping trips? give em something to do while the rest of the party is perusing. Combat bogging everyone down? Experiment with techniques to make it snappier. Keep up this mindset and your games will be pumping along like a precision engineered machine.
Fail Faster
I’ve listened to this video so many times I could probably repeat it as liturgy.  Just like any performance art, the main metric for advancement is realizing where you’re doing poorly and then figuring out ways to improve upon them. Sooner you figure out what you’re doing on and why, the sooner you can try out ways to fix them, and the sooner you can find things that works. Take on an experimental attitude towards your own works, if something is hard: find a way around it that works for you.
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retrocgads · 9 months
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USA 1990
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rhozahscraftedcatalog · 3 months
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Time for some new loot, another Curious Collectibles Series table is ready to be rolled on!
This table is available for you to use in your home games as inspiration for some new and fresh loot options! Hand out some new treasures, a new potential plot device for future stories, or as a change from the same boring gold and repetitive magic items!
If you love ttrpg stuff like these and want access to more options for your Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder game as well as a hoard of printable paper minis, terrain and monsters to help fill your table, check out my Patreon page! I create affordable paper minis, VTT Tokens and more, with a release every week! You can follow for free so you never miss a drop or join as a member to get access to all the extra Patreon exclusive goodies.
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beckelhimer · 1 year
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Truths & Rumors
When starting a new campaign or wanting to create a brand new setting try this with your group: Before starting your first session go around the table starting with yourself and ask each player, "What is one true thing that is known by most in this world?" These are the 'Truths' of this brand new campaign/world. These are the things that are just known about the setting/world. Next, starting with yourself again, go around the the table and ask each player, "What is one rumor that is known by most in this world?" These are the 'Rumors' of this brand new campaign/world. These are the rumors that pass around the world by word of mouth. Recent rumors or legends of old. With these rumors they can be rolled on to see if the rumors are true or false. Or maybe some rumors just stay rumors. But some rumors can cause trouble when rumors are to be believed true by others.
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guidomv · 1 year
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lovinthosecrits · 2 years
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Guys, Dungeon Alchemist is literally so much fun and so cool!! It's available on Steam now. I found the kickstarter like right before it ended, and look at how beautiful this is??? 10/10 would recommend
You can export to an image or VTT format or direct for a roll20 format or etc etc etc. You can the 5ft grid squares if you want (or you can hide them...)
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dndcreaturesinfo · 1 year
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Making a Hybrid Race
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craigofinspiration · 9 months
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The Dungeon Master's Handbook: Tips from June 2023
Take a look at my top ten Dungeon Master Tips from June 2023. What do you think?
Here are the top ten Dungeon/Game Master tips that I posted to various social media channels in June 2023. These tips are great for almost any TTRPG like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, or Old School Essentials. Don’t build out your campaign arcs until you’ve seen what sorts of characters your group brings to the table. Don’t be afraid to mark up your sourcebooks. You’re not a museum curator.…
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educationaldm · 1 year
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Even though I'd never just generate a whole dungeon, there are many things that are helpful about dungeon generators.
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galilleon · 5 months
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Obsidian is a LIFESAVER for TTRPGs
This is a heads up for other DMs or even dedicated players, especially for those interested in detailed, interconnected notes that need to be organised.
Try out Obsidian. It's a stellar note-taking application/program that HAS FULLY SUPPORTED MODS (plugins) in the app itself
This isn't an advert or something, the app is just exactly what I've been wanting for a long time, that I never really acknowledged until someone showed me how insanely useful it could be.
Why does that matter?
The reason 'mods' are so good in such an application is that, usually in note-taking apps, developers stick to a vision and scope and don't go beyond it to keep it all simple for newcomers to pick it up.
The problem with most is that eventually, you get deep into using a note-taking application, and you find an extreme limitation that almost completely roadblocks your progress, and is very infuriatingly annoying to work around.
Obsidian has a solution to this. Community Plugins
The Community Plugins are basically mods that are created by other users like you to fulfill your needs and wants for the darn thing. They used it, found something lacking or something with potential and added it in.
So you can start it default to keep it simple, and when you find that you want something that you want or need, just search it up in-app and add it.
Et voilà! Low skill floor, very very high skill ceiling, extreme customisation as per your preferences and needs.
Any guidance?
There is a guide made specifically for TTRPGs below. The site and the first few videos from the series really helped me get into Obsidian and helped me to explore it all on my own later.
Importantly, they show you how to install the app from scratch, have you enable useful settings, guide you in the basics of plugins, and recommend a bunch of great, useful plugins catered especially to DnD.
For those interested, later parts of the series continue for a really long while as it gets into many intricacies of the app.
The site:
The video series:
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