My current Dungeon Master loves designing scenarios that feature the alarm spell. Currently we’re sneaking around a dragon’s lair complex for the second time… having triggered an alarm the first time, lost the element of surprise and been forced to beat an undignified retreat. On our second attempt we’ve been casting detect magic a lot […]
Tag: D&D
Last Christmas I ran the Bone Dragon Pyramid from The Creative GM’s Guide To Extraordinary Locations as a one-shot for some of my old school friends and their kids. I placed the pyramid in Chult (Forgotten Realms) and inserted a Heart of Darkness-style boat ride up the river Tyriki to reach the pyramid, after which […]
I’ve seen even experienced Game Masters resort to railroading at the gaming table. Hell, I’ve been guilty of it myself, and on more than one occasion. But why would any GM stoop that low, when pretty much the one thing that everyone in this hobby agrees upon is that “railroading is bad”? Contrary to what […]
Too often in Dungeons & Dragons, DMs and adventure writers default to creating temples for their settings that closely resemble real-life churches. And I’m not talking about just the aesthetics. Often the entire “vibe” of fantasy temples, along with their role in society, are copied and pasted from how Christian churches function in the real […]
Over the course of 2025, I’ve seen multiple bloggers and Youtubers attempt to fix D&D 5.5’s new hiding rules. While these are all folks I respect, most of their revisions ended up as 2,000+ word treatises full of technical jargon that made me want to reach for the Ibuprofen more than my gemstones. So, as […]
Designing and running truly fantastic Dungeons & Dragons scenarios time after time ain’t easy. More often than not your instincts and tools will help you create a great gaming session… but sometimes what sounded cool in your imagination doesn’t spark the game into life, the players lose interest and the session falls flat. I’d be […]
While cities in Dungeons & Dragons are jam-packed with adventure potential, it can be much harder for DMs to find the drama in an urban setting, versus that of the dungeon or wilderness. This is largely because the Dungeon Master’s main tool – monsters – can’t be deployed with the same frequency and credibility in […]
