Cutting Words

Trimming a bad mechanic from 5e to improve the flow of combat and eliminate adversarial DMing posture.

The Gunslinger Misfire

Examining the Gunslinger's Misfire mechanic as a cautionary tale for importing character options from other games. Why to never base a class on a "critical fumble" mechanic.

Critical Saving Throws

Adding mechanical benefits to critical saving throws so players don't feel like their 20 is wasted.

Expertise Skill Hack

5th Edition D&D has a skill problem. It lies in a feature called expertise, which allows you to add your proficiency bonus twice when using a skill. Let's see what problems this causes and I'll give you a simple hack to fix them!

The Hotel California Rule

The Eagles masterfully set the scene in the first few lines of Hotel California. Learn how we can employ that lesson as Dungeon Masters.

Narrating Missed Attacks

We often say an attack that misses by 2 hits your shield. Yet, a shield isn't your last line of defense--it's one of your first! Can we establish an order of operations for missed attacks that assists us in narrating combat more accurately?

Simple Trap System

Traps can be fun. A great myth is that traps need to be carefully curated to be worth anything. While curated traps are wonderful, even simple traps can be great. Here's a simple system for running fun and impactful traps at your table: Download the PDF via DM's Guild Elements of a Good Trap For … Continue reading Simple Trap System →

Breath Weapon Dice Pools

Torching the whole party with a dragon's breath weapon is one of the most fun moments as a Dungeon Master. How can we tweak this rule to have greater control over its power and establish ludonarrative harmony?

Speak Your Secrets

Metagaming is one issue we encounter in tabletop RPGs. Players have their characters act on player knowledge that their character does not possess. A DM's defense against this is to gently remind the player to act within the confines of character knowledge.

This can lead to an overcorrection where every time a single PC finds out information, the other players ask "do you tell us that?" Any time a strange routine like this becomes habitual, we should streamline the process.

Druid Wild Shape Options by CR

If you run Druids by-the-book, then they can only Wild Shape into a limited number of forms that the Druid has seen: DMs have a lot of control over Wild Shape. Since the Druid doesn't get Wild Shape until Level 2, you aren't committed to allowing the player a certain number of Wild Shape options … Continue reading Druid Wild Shape Options by CR →