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Running Campaigns With Multiple Factions - an Overexplained, Step By Step Guide

We take a look at a workflow you can use to make running a campaign with multiple factions more manageable. We implement the concept of user stories, story mapping, and backward planning to create an evolving and flexible campaign.

It's a long one so grab a snack and something to drink. Feel free to use it to help you fall asleep :)

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Do you make parties that can do everything?

Hey folks! What's better than having a party of optimized characters? Having a party of optimized characters that work well together! Let's look at the concept of T-shaped individuals and how they can help us create parties that are resilient, and can do anything.

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How to not let PvP Wreck your D&D Game

Hey folks! Conflicts between player characters are very interesting when it comes to the narrative, but can be dangerous to the health of your gaming group. If you want PvP in your games, you best know how to do it safely. In this video we discuss some strategies to do just that. How do you navigate inter-party conflicts for drama that does not make your group implode?

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Crochet Potion Bottle Dice Bag

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You don't have to be a trained actor to roleplay well

Hey folks! Here's an approach to roleplaying / finding your character's motivation that you've probably not seen in a D&D or TTRPG setting before. A lot of us, I think, could fall into the skyrim stealth archer trap. We start our campaigns thinking we're gonna play a PC that's unique. But as the sessions go by, we find out that we've been "roleplaying" ourselves after all. With this approach, we learn about the CHAMPFROGS - ten moving motivators that make up most people. With them, we can hopefully stop roleplaying ourselves, and instead graduate to Capital R roleplaying (if that's what we want to do of course - you're not doing it wrong if you're having fun).

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Values vs. Technique: What Makes a Great GM?

Hey folks! We often praise our DMing heroes for their many skills like improv, enhancing immersion, compelling roleplay of believable NPCs, and the like. There are resources aplenty for how to speak in accents, how to not use accents but still have distinct voices, how to plan campaigns, or speed up combat encounters. But are these skills really what make our favorite DMs great? I argue no. I believe great DMs begin with a foundation of values that guide how they use their skills, and I discuss my version of those values here.

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Are You In A Dysfunctional D&D Group?

Hey folks! This week we explore a potentially controversial topic: Is your D&D Group dysfunctional? If you have that nagging feeling that something is not working well in your gaming group, but you can't quite put your finger on what it is, then this video will hopefully expand your vocabulary and set you on the path to making things better.

I say it in the video, but I will also write it down here explicitly. A dysfunctional group does not mean it's a group made of bad people. It's just a group that does not function as well as it should.

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A DM Screen System that ACTIVELY helps you run games

Hey folks, here's a different way of organizing your notes for your campaigns. It actively helps you run the game, rather than just being a big document for you to read. The system only has two rules to follow, but you would be surprised at how much it helps when it's time to actually play. The method itself is also quite powerful when you use it to organize your to do list, especially during the times in your life when things get a bit hectic and overwhelming. I hope it helps!

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An Agile Practitioner's guide to generating buy-in at your table - Tactician Series Part 2

Here's part 2 of my tactician series, now about generating buy-in. I use these techniques for work. There were times when I caught myself treating my work colleagues better than my friends with whom I play d&d, especially when my tactician tendencies bubbled up. It seems the things I do on the job translate well to my gaming tables, and I hope they can serve you too.

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An Agile Practitioner's guide to being an unproblematic tactician - Part 1

As a DM or a Player, I find tactician players are awesome. However, they seem to have a bad reputation as disruptive, bossy, no-fun party members. In this video I share why I think they are awesome, and instead of giving advice for how everyone else should deal with them, I try to give tips for how the tacticians themselves can get better at tacticianing.

This is part 1 of a loveletter to my older self, in whom I saw tactician tendencies and may have behaved suboptimally from time to time. But when I recognized a few of these things, I've not had bad table relationships since.

Do you have any thoughts on the topic of tactician type players? Do you think the approach I described would help the problematic tacticians you've encountered before?

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An Agile Practitioner's guide to running Linear Campaigns without Railroading your players.

Here I share the concept of backward planning which, when combined with Story Mapping, allows you to drive towards your singular inspiration without resorting to railroading your players. I hope it helps anyone struggling.

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Advent's Amazing Advice: The Night Before Wintermas, A Holiday One-Shot fully prepped and ready to go!

I hope everyone is having a Fantastic December! With the Holidays in full swing, I wanted to give everyone here a present, by doing all the prep work for a fantastic Holiday One-Shot for you! Then, in turn, you can gift that experience to your players! And what better gift is there for players who have been so good, than an opportunity to let loose and be evil for a change! Yes, that's right, The Night before Wintermas is specifically designed for Level 5 Evil/Neutral aligned players.

Thanks to the creative mind of jmanc, you'll bring your players to The Town of Frosthold and join a morally bankrupt Toy and Tabacco company to put an end to Santa's charitable operations by Infiltrating his workshop and dealing with the problem for good!

Experience holiday music to fit every scene, face your favorite Christmas Characters...in a battle to the death, earn unique magic items to help you take on the fat man, and live vicariously through your newly evil characters! This is a One-Shot you won't want to miss!

Without further ado:

Included in The AAA Collection is:

  • A Word document with all my notes including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
  • Special PDF for the encounter. This includes the enemy stat block organized neatly along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP
  • An Alternate encounter PDF for Frosty and The Snowmen \*(Updated 2023)
  • Custom Maps for Santa's Grotto
  • Custom Boss Fight Music
  • Handouts for the Scrolls of Haste and Invisibility
  • A Preview PDF of Flee Mortals

Other One Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns:

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! If you have any advice on how I can improve my notes further, please let me know either here or leave a comment on the Google doc itself! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early, feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,

Advent

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Advent's Amazing Advice: Grammy's Country Apple Pie, A perfect One-Shot for kids and adults alike fully prepped and ready to go!

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes fully fleshed-out notes, music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

We're back at it again with another Level 1+ One-Shot, this time by the amazing Jennifer Adcock! Grammy's Country Apple Pie is the perfect One-Shot to run for a group of kids who are looking to just have some fun. They can go in the hard way and try to fight everything or they can try to practice those bard-like skills and converse their way through the challenges!

In Grammy's Country Apple Pie, a wizard named Tyndareus develops a craving for a special treat from his childhood, he will stop at nothing to get his hands on the best apple pie in the whole world. He hires your group to seek out the bakery that once produced the wonderful dessert – unfortunately for them, the bakery has long since been overrun by goblins. But all is not as it seems at Grammy’s Bakery, and Tyndareus isn’t the only one who’d do anything for those pies.

Parents and Teachers can oftentimes be even busier than the rest of us and with this Fully Prepped One-Shot I hope I can help get families together and bring new generations of players to the table!

Without further ado:

Included in The AAA Collection is:

  • A Word document with all my notes including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
  • Special PDF for all encounters. This includes the enemy stat blocks organized neatly along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP
  • Custom Maps of Grammy's Bakery

Other One Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns:

If you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,

Advent

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Ring of Deadly Digits

lemmy.world [OC] Ring of Deadly Digits - Lemmy.World

[OC] Ring of Deadly Digits Legendary, requires attunement As an action, when the finger (or toe) wearing the ring is pointed at a target, it will glow brightly. On the subsequent round, the ring will shoot forth the following at the target (roll 1D20): 1-3: Nothing happens (but see below). 4-6: Magi...

[OC] Ring of Deadly Digits

Legendary, requires attunement

As an action, the wearer points a digit (finger or toe) wearing the ring at a target, and the digit will glow brightly. On the subsequent round at the beginning of the wearer's turn, the ring will shoot forth the following at the target (roll 1D20):

1-3: Nothing happens (but see below).

4-6: Magic Missile at 1st level spell ability.

7-9: Eldritch Blast at 1st level spell ability.

10-12: Entangle at 1st level spell ability.

13-15: Firebolt at 1st level spell ability.

16-17: Melf's Acid Arrow at 2nd level spell ability.

18: Fireball at 3rd level spell ability.

19: Lightning Bolt at 3rd level spell ability.

20: Finger of Death at 7th level spell ability.

Range is based on the spell effect rolled. If the target is out of range, the effect occurs at the end of the maximum range of the spell effect.

Cursed - This item is cursed. When the item is used, the digit that the ring is on will itself shoot towards the target, turning into the effect rolled on the table above, and the digit will be destroyed; the exception to this is a roll of 1-3 on the chart above, which will cause the digit to fly up to 50ft at the target and bounce off harmlessly. After the ring is used, it will appear on the next closest digit to the right; if all the digits on that appendage are gone, it will move to the next closest appendage. The ring cannot be removed until all the user's digits are gone or a Remove Curse is cast on it. Digits cannot be brought back except with Regeneration or Wish (a Ring of Regeneration is not strong enough to bring the digit(s) back).

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Some items from my game

lemmy.world [OC] Some items from my game - Lemmy.World

These items were all created by a wizard in my game who is insane. He also has a short attention span and left many items unfinished. Ring of Left-Handed Invisibility - A Ring of Invisibility. It only hides you if your left side is facing someone, and it only works on your left hand. Right Wing of F...

These items were all created by a wizard in my game who is insane. He also has a short attention span and left many items unfinished.

Ring of Left-Handed Invisibility - A Ring of Invisibility. It only hides you if your left side is facing someone, and it only works on your left hand.

Right Wing of Flying - A cloak that turns into a single bat wing that lets the wearer fly, but only in a tight circle. The user can fly up to a maximum height of 12 feet. Activates with a command word.

Gauntlets of Halfling Power - Gives the wearer the strength of a halfling.

Clumsy Animated Shield - An animated shield that hovers to protect you, but gives you Disadvantage on attack rolls because it's always getting in the way.

Cloak of the Owl Bear - This cloak turns into an owl bear when thrown on the ground. The owl bear is not under the user's control and will attack anything it can until defeated. It turns back into a cloak when the owl bear reaches 0 hit points. 1 use/day. No experience is gained from killing the owl bear.

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Advent's Amazing Advice: The Haunt, A Halloween-Themed One-Shot fully prepped and ready to go!

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes fully fleshed-out notes, music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

It's October, the month of Halloween, so of course I had to prep a spine-chilling One-Shot! The Haunt is one of the highest-rated 5th-Level Horror-Themed One-Shots around by Phil Beckwith. In it, your players will have to survive, solve puzzles, and uncover the mysteries of Montarthas Manor.

In ages past, an ancient town was lost and destroyed by a siege of orcs. Only one building survived and to this day, the manor is the only still standing building to be seen for miles around. Some say it is haunted, a few whisper of great treasures within, whilst others whisper that it is the manor itself that lives! No one knows for sure, only that a great evil haunts its halls. Do you dare enter Montarthas Manor?!

Without further ado:

Included in The AAA Collection is:

  • A Word document with all my notes, including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
  • Special PDF for all encounters. This includes the enemy stat blocks organized neatly, along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP
  • Handout for The Scroll of Invisibility
  • Custom Maps (Credits: just\_2\_clarify, Before the Lore, Anonymous, PogS\_3)

Index:

Other One Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns:

As always, If you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers, Advent

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Homebrew magic consumable: The Martyr's Evil Eye

I had an idea for an offensive consumable item, and I figured I’d share it and get some feedback. Its power scales with the user, so it should presumably be pretty rare. on consuming, it casts a spell, but I didn’t want to make the spell separately so I’m just describing the item as though it was a spell too. it perhaps tries to do a bit too much, but I thought it wouldn’t be the same if I took away any particular aspect.

#The Martyr’s Evil Eye

  • range/area: self / sphere 5ft + 5ft for every level of exhaustion sacrificed
  • duration: instantaneous
  • damage: necrotic / remaining caster HP + 1/3 max HP for every death save sacrificed
  • save: CHA save for half-damage

A black marble with faint green swirls, that seem to move when seen out the corner of the eye. With a willing sacrifice of life force and stamina, the marble cracks open and a necrotic aura radiates out, quickly obscuring those within the sphere. Flashes of green light from within briefly silhouette nightmarish creatures. The aura expands out, reaching its maximum size, before popping like a bubble and exposing the haggard survivors and withered bodies of the dead. The fragments of the marble turn to dust.

Item must be in contact with the caster. All creatures within the radius of the sphere, including the caster, take damage equivalent to the caster’s remaining HP. The caster may increase the damage by 1/3 of their max HP for every death saving throw they sacrifice. All creatures, except the caster, take half-damage on a successful CHA saving throw. Radius of the sphere is 5ft plus an additional 5ft for every level of exhaustion sacrificed.

The item is for self-sacrifice in a moment of desperation. The more you sacrifice, the more damage is dealt, but the lower your chances of escape and survival. Sacrifice more of your own life force to deal more damage to each enemy, sacrifice your exhaustion to deal damage to more enemies. If you sacrifice all 3 death throws, or all 6 levels of exhaustion, then you’re instantly dead, but you deal the maximum damage to maximum enemies.

I thought that an item that always killed the user was kind of boring, so i included the part about death saves. I included the part about exhaustion so that even if the unconscious character is immediately healed back to consciousness, there are still lasting repercussions that make rejoining the fight or even fleeing difficult. Plus it fit thematically - health for health, and effort/exhaustion to cover area.

I also imagined the exhaustion bit as a ring, where you could increase range/area of a spell by spending levels of exhaustion.

What are your thoughts? Its kind of mechanically complicated, but I didn’t know how to simplify it without losing something too much character.

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Advent's Amazing Advice: Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk, A Campaign Fully Prepped and ready to go! (Part 1 Cragmaw Hideout)

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes fully fleshed-out notes, music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk stems from The Lost Mine of Phandelver a classic and beloved starter set that many new DMs run. Even with this being the most recent release it still has an issue, the same as with many others...it doesn't describe the best way to transform the book's contents into an actual session. The Book-to-session conversion can be difficult between figuring out when things should happen, understanding motivations, and even organizing encounters.

Well, fortunately for you, 99% of that work is done! Only a few things are really left:

  • Read the book, I know surprising, but It can be extremely confusing when you don't know where everything leads to.
  • Consider the needs of your group. As you've heard or are about to hear a million times, every table is different. If you plan on combining this with a campaign, you'll have to make tweaks here and there.
  • These notes aren't meant to be the end-all-be-all. Tweak to your heart's content, and don't consider any of what's written to be set in stone. For me having notes like this helps give me the confidence to go off the rails and follow along with what my players want. It helps me understand where things were meant to go and why. Having that understanding allows me to guide the players and create other new and interesting stories. These are all things that will come with experience, though, so don't freak out and enjoy the journey!

Advent's Notes: I was surprised with how few changes were made in the book considering how long this adventure has been around and all the wonderful things the community has come up with, I was even more surprised when they started adding more monsters to Cragmaw Cave. It's already pretty rough in there and with the additional creatures, it's almost assured there's going to be a TPK. I've kept most of the fights the way they were with only a few minor adjustments, the most important changes are just subtle nods to the Psi Goblins that will be encountered later on.

Without further ado:

Included in The AAA Collection are:

  • A Word document with all my notes, including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
  • Special PDFs for all the encounters. This includes all the enemies' stat blocks organized neatly, along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP.
  • An additional PDF with Sildars stats should he join the party as an ally
  • Custom maps of Cragmaw Hideout. I enlarged and printed this out for my players as a battle map!

Index:

Other One Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns:

As always, If you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,

Advent

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So you've beat Baldurs Gate 3, well now it's time you had a real DnD Adventure!

Have you gotten with Astarion or maybe you were blown up by Gale for the hundredth time? Are your adventures as wild as you had hoped...have you even gotten out of character creation!? Well if you're one of the legendary few who have, why don't you take a step into the real world of D&D so you can go back into an imaginary one!

I get it, DMing for the first time can be scary, you might not even know where to start. The prep alone can seem like a mountain to climb. You find a cool-looking One-Shot open the PDF or book and just think to yourself, how in the heck do I turn this into an actual session?

Well, I've got you covered! I want as many people out there as possible to experience the Amazing world of D&D and most importantly DMing! I've taken the following One-Shots and Mini-Campaigns and fully prepped them so you can run an unforgettable session with ease! The best part, all of it's free for you to use!

Let's dive in:

A Most Potent Brew: This One-Shot brings together a group of rookie adventurers on a classic quest; clearing out a cellar from some rats. Things take an unexpected turn though and lead them to their first dungeon! This level-one One-Shot will take your players into the depths of a brewery, that turns out to be connected to an abandoned mage tower basement. Will your players survive their first adventure slaying giant rats, centipedes, and more?

Coming in at approximately 2-3 hours of play, this is the perfect one shot for both new players and DMs to show what D&D is all about, without being an overwhelming 6hr+ session!

(Credits: Winghorn Press)

The Wild Sheep Chase: This One-Shot is on par with some of the craziness that you can experience in Baldur's Gate 3! Your party will be enjoying a relaxing time at a tavern when a sheep suddenly bursts in and grants them a scroll that allows them to speak with each other. Your players will go on an epic chase, face off against polymorphed guards, and even fight a dragon...made out of a bed!? You can't make this stuff up...oh wait!

(Credits: Winghorn Press)

Dragons of Stormwreck Isle: This Mini-Campaign is for when you're ready to step things up and want a more serious Adventure. You'll go from level 1-3 learn of the history of Stormwreack Isle and face off against...you guessed it a dragon!

(Credits: WoTC)

The Lost Mine of Phandelver: This Mini-Campaign spans from levels 1-5, the only thing past this would be a full-blown campaign, but let's not get ahead of ourselves! This one is a classic, the very first starter set that WotC released and it stands the test of time, Heck, they're making an expansion for it coming out later this month! You'll face not 1 but 2 dragons, explore deadly dungeons, save a town, and live out all of your heroic fantasies! When you've done a one-shot or two I couldn't recommend running this more!

(Credits: WoTC)

If none of those tickle your fancy I've got over 2 dozen more sessions fully prepped and ready to go for you, here's a preview of what else I have to offer!

Index:

Other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns:

If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,

Advent

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Advent's Amazing Advice: The Wild Sheep Chase, A One-Shot fully prepped and ready to go!

Sometimes you just don't want to prep. Sometimes you get a last-minute call to run a session. Maybe it's your first time DMing and you don't know where to start.

Whatever the reason, prep may seem like a mountain to climb. Well, allow me to help you! I remember when I was first trying to figure everything out and I stumbled across The Wild Sheep Chase. It's a fantastic One-Shot by Richard Jansen-Parkes that you can get for free over on the DMsguild. The only issue at times can be how do I convert this pdf into an actual session?

Some DMs have a gift, they can read it once and go from there, some are masters at improv, storytelling, and off-the-cuff humor. Well, I unfortunately don't fit that boat and I'm sure many others out there are just like me. I need a ton of notes; because once I've got things organized, then I feel comfortable taking things in new directions.

So welcome to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes fleshed-out notes, music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible! Onboarding new DMs should be easy and I hope with this I can help grease the wheels!

Without further ado:

Included in The Complete Collection are:

  • A Word document with all my notes including a link to music tracks for ambiance and fights
  • Special PDFs for all the encounters. This includes all the enemies' stat blocks organized neatly along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP.
    • A complete spell list for Noke which gives full details so you're not bouncing around for info.
  • A map of Shinebrights tower. I use this as a reference when drawing out the map for my players
  • A handout for The Scroll of Speak with Animals

Index:

Other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns:

As always, If you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,

Advent

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