I have learned a lot from watching other DMs at work, whether they are folks I’ve gotten to play with at home, or Actual Play DMs on streams or podcasts. Among the latter, I’m most familiar with three: Matt Mercer, Brennan Lee Mulligan, and Aabria Iyengar. They are all very different DMs—though they’ve clearly influencedContinue reading “Phrases to Steal”
Tag Archives: skills
Where are the Non-Combat Mechanics?
In the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Chapter 8, “Running the Game,” specifically pages 242–245. Done. … Why are you still here? Okay, okay. A common-enough critique of D&D 5e is that it focuses most of its rules on Combat. Even if we assume this is true of the Player’s Handbook (which is actually questionable—in the PHB,Continue reading “Where are the Non-Combat Mechanics?”
✨ Magic
I was thinking about magic the other day and how I think it works—or at least my default, for settings I run. Being between books this week, I was re-reading random parts of Rothfuss’ The Kingkiller Chronicles and one of the sections I read was Kvothe’s introduction to sygaldry. In that universe, sygaldry is theContinue reading “✨ Magic”
Mechanics that Create the Fiction
Three related things recently: First, Colville using guns as an example of his rule design process (an interesting topic for another time). He talks about how you want to create mechanics that encourage the fiction to happen. For example—if you don’t want to watch the video right now—if you’re creating a sub/class around a Western-styleContinue reading “Mechanics that Create the Fiction”
DCs between PCs
One more house rule that I have adopted and so far like—and one more where credit to Noam is necessary—covers interactions between PCs. Specifically those social interactions where there’s no evident opposed check. To provide some context, one of my goals is to enable players to play high-Charisma characters even if they aren’t such greatContinue reading “DCs between PCs”
James DM 