After nearly 10 years of blogging, here is a list of my favourite posts that I feel are still worth returning to today – or checking out for the first time if this is your inaugural visit to H&D.
The majority are for DMs, but there are a few posts players might want to check out as well.
My 20 Best Posts for Dungeon Masters
Some posts age better than others. Here are 20 that I’m still proud to have written, and I think can still help DMs today… (writing them often helped me understand the game better! A nice perk of being a blogger is it forces you to reflect on the game and order your thoughts about various aspects of it).
- My One Word Secret Ingredient to Great D&D…
- 8 Lessons I’ve Learned from Watching Matt Mercer DM
- Designing Unforgettable Combat Encounters for 5e D&D
- “How To Fix Slow Combat?” Is The Wrong Question… (But Let Me Fix It Anyway!)
- The 9 D&D Quest Types
- How To Run Urban Campaigns in D&D
- How To Run (Murder) Mystery Adventures in D&D
- Designing & Running Heists in 5e D&D
- 9 Haunting Horror Stories for Halloween
- 6 Alternatives To Starting An Adventure in a Tavern
- The Four Ways to Start An Adventure
- Not The Dreaded DC 15… (Rethinking “Average” DCs)
- Failing Forward in D&D (and Some Alternatives!)
- How To Make Balanced & Fair Rulings
- How To Run a Chase in 5e D&D…. Step by Step Rules!
- 101+ Terrain Features for Better Combats
- 31+ Time Pressures to Put in Your Adventure
- 37 Adjectives To Spice Up Your Monsters (…And Subvert Expectations!)
- Does No One Search for Secret Passages Any More? (Running Secret Doors in D&D)
- Legendary Resistance (Throwing Casters a Bone in Boss Battles)
For more posts aimed at DMs, check the post category “DMs Tips“.
Putting some of my own advice into practice, on a warm Barcelona evening!
Best Posts for Players
Aside from a couple of posts about playing the game in general, I’ve penned some useful homebrew that I think most DMs will be willing to accommodate in their games, particularly for rogues, fighters, barbarians and monks, and some weapons-related stuff. And, if you’re shopping for dice, be sure to check out the fourth article on this list, as I sorted out discounts with several vendors.
- How Not To Be A Really Annoying Player
- How To Be A Great D&D Player
- Player Tips: Maximising Bonus Actions & Reactions
- Stunning Metal, Sharp Edge & Gemstone Dice Sets
- Cunning Tricks for Rogues
- 3 Super Simple Fixes for Monks
- Meteor Hammer Feat: How To Play Gogo Yubari in D&D!
- Exceptional Weapons (from 2nd to 5th edition!)
- 9 Powerful New Weapon Feats
- Phobias for PCs & NPCs (5e D&D)
- Rage Against The Mainstream: The Ultimate 5e Barbarian Guide
- Path of the Berserker: Feel The Fury! (My Berserker Fix Using “Fury Points”)
- The Best Battle Master Maneuvers (incl. Unearthed Arcana + Homebrew)
For more advice for players check out the blog category “Player’s Tips“.
Why Not Subscribe?
If any of these posts were useful to you, why not subscribe to the blog and get updated whenever a new post drops? In a world of paywalls and Patreon, Hipsters & Dragons remains 100% free… and you can always unsubscribe if you change your mind. Sign up form is in the sidebar, to your right.
My RPG Products
My book The Creative Game Master’s Guide to Extraordinary Locations was published in Jan 2026 by Bluestone Books. You should be able to find it in most good bookstores in the USA and Canada, but it’s also available to buy at Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.
I’ve also published some adventures on the DMs Guild that I think fulfil their flavour of fantasy pretty damn well… so if you ever wanted to have a pulp action gladiatorial smash of an adventure, check out DRAGONBOWL, whereas for a really in-depth mystery which requires genuine detective work, check out Candlekeep Murders: The Deadwinter Prophecy.
Treat your players to tickets to DRAGONBOWL….
More of my work here.
Note, this Best of the Blog section replaces the old Players Tips and Dungeon Master’s Advice pages.
