If you’re in my party and you see this, shoo. Go on, git.

I’m about to start running Curse of Strahd with a party of three people! Session 1 is this weekend. Two of them are very new to DnD so these are only their second characters ever. We have a necromancer, wild magic sorcerer, and a battle smith artificer. None of them are really built for the front lines, so I will definitely need to adjust some combat to avoid them getting stomped. I don’t want to make every battle design long-range or soften it so much that it’s no longer challenging.

I’m considering starting them off with a limited DMPC whose sole purpose is to take close-range punishment in combat and take some heat off the PCs. Not a damage dealer, just a meat shield. He’s not going to butt in on any roleplay/decision making and I won’t force him to stay with the party if they want rid of him. I might kill him off for the plot once it feels like a good time to take off the training wheels.

What do y’all think? Would this be a good or bad idea? Any other suggestions for how to accommodate this type of party in a way that feels natural? Thank you all for the help!

EDIT: maybe DMPC is too strong of a word for the idea! If I give them any sort of companion/NPC I’d want them to be as unobtrusive as possible. But yall are making very good points about that idea, so thank you for giving me a lot to think about!

In my campaign, my players will unlock memories of the lost dwarven city of Khaz’Mithral. If I do a lore dump, it would be like they are witnessing memories of the past while I narrate what happened. The other option is letting them actually play through those memories as they happen, experiencing the city, the people, and the events firsthand, but they wouldn’t be able to change the outcome.

Would you rather play through the memories and experience the lore yourself, or just sit and listen to a 15-minute explanation of what happened?

​Hey everyone,

​I could really use some advice on how to upgrade my tabletop setup. There are so many ways to go about it, and I’m completely torn right now.

​Currently, I’m just using a standard dry-erase battle map and throwing some scatter terrain on it. It works and it’s okay, but it’s just not that awesome. I want to take my game to the next level (I briefly thought about a TV table, but decided against it for now).

​I’m currently debating between two main approaches and would love your input:

​Option 1: Crafting DIY Terrain (XPS foam or cardboard)

​The Pros: Total creative freedom. I could easily make curved walls, round rooms, and custom shapes.

​The Cons: It’s a massive time investment per piece. Also, if I want different biomes or ground textures, I’d have to craft a ton of different pieces. Plus, they don’t naturally interlock, so I’d probably have to mess around with magnets to keep the board stable.

​Option 2: 3D Printed Systems

​I’ve been looking into 3D printed tiles (like OpenForge Click & Lock, or grid systems where you can insert individual floor tiles and attach walls).

​My Ideal Setup: I’d love a system with a base grid where I can just swap out the floor plates (water, swamp, city streets, cave floor, etc.) and securely plug in walls, hedges, and pillars so they don't constantly get knocked over during play. (Obviously, I could still just place regular scatter terrain on top of it).

​The Cons: Everything seems so strictly square! I can hardly find any curved tiles. Furthermore, there are so many different systems out there. I haven’t found a perfect "all-in-one" system on Maker's World yet (maybe I’m just using the wrong search terms?).

​The Question:

​I am going back and forth on this. What do you guys use and what would you recommend?

​Should I start crafting and use magnets? Should I go for a 3D printed Click & Lock system? Or a Grid system with inserts?

​Any advice, system recommendations, or specific search terms would be highly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

So many changes in so many playlists is difficult to keep track. Of immediate notice, links to Charles Dexter Ward’s and The Maker And The Source’s profiles with dozens of curated lists. Obviously the playlists include some of my own projects so you’re warned. Let me know what kind of music you need right now, I have over a thousand playlists, I should have over that fits like Strahd’s gloves!

I started DMing in January for my husband and my son. I was nervous about it, because although I'd played for years, I'd never run a game before.

I ran a couple sessions from DOIP, and was bored with the story, so I made changes. Those changes evolved into a whole new storyline, set in an alternate reality along the Sword Coast.

After about 6 sessions, a few of our friends asked if they could join my game, (bring our PC total to 8) and things got more involved and everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun.

Lately, one of my players has been having a lot of issues getting to our game, or not feeling good and so we end earlier than we'd planned to. 2 of my players are in it for combat more than story, and I'm ok with that.

But the last couple sessions, no one seems to be interested in more than bare essentials, and I really want to be able to highlight the intricacies of the storyline.

To be clear, the players have been deciding where they go and how they do things, not me. I've woven in backstory for the players who've given me one, and done all I can to give each player decent table time, and moments for their characters to shine.

Any suggestions on how to increase the excitement?

This is the first long term campaign I have done (3rd time as a dm). I am doing a bit of home brewing by mixing water deep dragon heist and curse of stradh.

The basics are that before it was waterdeep, it was barovia and a group stood as a resistance. They created a ritual spell of banishment and planar shift to get rid of strahd and all the vampires he ruled. While trying to finish the spell there was something that had gone wrong and it teleported part of barovia (which is now the harbor of waterdeep) but strahd was not part of it. He has been in waterdeep the whole time due to being weakened by his separation from his powers. He has tried to get back, but the way to get back is to break the spell book that first cast the spell, which was locked in the vault. He has since taken control of and is leading the zhents in waterdeep to look for the spell book which he knows is in the vault.

The stone of golor is a medium that shares part of the memories of the time when they were ruled by strahd and it shares the location of the keys (which will be vestiges from the party that fought him and made the banishment spell). Each key is made to fit the players class and backstory, each will be a tool of some kind that exposes one of strahds weaknesses.

Strahd will assist the players throughout the game until they get him in the vault, where he will help kill the dragon with the players or by himself to get to the spell book. He will break the spell and this will send them all to barovia where we will start the curse of strahd campaign. His goal in the pocket barovia is to amass an army, return to waterdeep and take over the continent.

Ive never played DnD before but really wanna get into it. Id like to get into the game by just playing a few oneshots, but finding a group has been hard. I heard that people are always looking for Dms so Ive considered just doing it myself, since I wanna be a Dm at some point anyways. Am I in over my head as someone who has never played before and isnt a particularly good roleplayer?

https://reddit.com/link/1v3ltjo/video/pwjfvrgk9teh1/player

Download a free version of these maps and read more about it in our Blog.

These awesome cartography pieces were featured in one of our full-ledged adventures, House of Krampus. On our Patreon page you can get it in PDF format. The downloads include hi-res images for the maps. There are two PDF variant versions, designed for Dungeons & Dragons and Shadowdark RPG.

My Tomb of Annihilation game will wrap up eventually so part of me is interested in running the Campaign through Tiers 3 & 4, and so I am coming up with a story that I think will satisfy.

It will involve an ancient plot to unleash Dendar the Night Serpent by The Sarrukh (ancient creator race for the Yuan-ti)

Part of it I'd like to send them to check on the integrity of Dendar’s prison by crossing The World Tree where it intrudes into the Prime Material.

The Ice Giants are (borrowing from Norse Mythology) afraid of Ragnarok when the Dragon Niddhogg is prophecised to gnaw through the roots of Yggdrasil - a cultural reflection of Dendar caught in Ubtao's trap in the lower Plains - as a part of The Apocalypse.

Anyway I'm having not much luck finding adventure material for a high level juant across the bows of The World Tree that I could either incorporate or use for inspiration.

So, Reddit any ideas?

Over to you.