Crit Hits – A Tip for Dungeon Masters
Let’s take a moment to talk about critical hits, particularly in regards to rolling a natural 20 on your attack. I have never liked the way the rules work for this, and as I have talked about before, I made …
Idea Rolls—A Tip for Dungeon Masters
Even the best players get stumped sometimes. Maybe the problem you presented to them was just too hard, or maybe there is something going on in their real life that is hurting their ability to focus. We also need to …
Making Unique Painting Choices with your Miniatures
I’ve been painting up a cadre of lizardfolk for my players to encounter soon. When I first unpacked the miniatures, I thought to myself, Lizards are green, right? So I chose one of the minis with the simplest equipment and …
Musings: What Valheim and Jigsaw Puzzles have in common
My wife and I enjoy the occasional jigsaw puzzle.
We’re not aficionados, but we have a few puzzle options stacked in the closet at any given point in time. It’s a nice cooperative activity; no one loses; and there’s …
Consequences—A Tip for Dungeon Masters
We’ve talked about player agency in the past, which means we need to address something that results from players being able to make their own choices: consequences. Everything the players do in game should have an effect on the world …
Player Agency—A Tip for Dungeon Masters
You, as Dungeon Master, are just one voice crafting a story, the players are the others. As such, it is paramount that you do not take their voices from them. True, you have quite possibly spent hours, days, even weeks …
Your Group’s First Game Night (or First Night Back)
We’re still a ways away, but one day, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, this pandemic will come to an end. It’s only a matter of time before we find that our social circles have been mostly vaccinated and we feel …
How Pokemon gets me thinking about numeracy
If you talk to me long enough, you will have heard me talk about numeracy – literacy for numbers, as it were. Numeracy is often something you learn while you are learning something else – math, more obviously. And while …
Making Choices – A Tip for D&D Players
You love playing Dungeons and Dragons, and the odds are good that everyone else at the table with you does as well. In the end, we all are just here to have fun, and that is something that is important …
What the Heck is a Living Card Game? (Four Years Later)
Exactly four years ago today, Barrister Brian wrote an article on Fantasy Flight Games’ series of expandable card games known as Living Card Games. Fittingly enough, Brian went on to work for Fantasy Flight shortly thereafter, so we can …