When managing a group of players, especially a large group, a DM faces all the usual challenges of finding a time and place that suits everybody. Initially this may be quite simple if all your players go to the same school, same university, same workplace or just lack a social life. But it gets harder as time progresses and situations change.

One player joins the army, another goes in England for a while, one moves across town, several get romantic attachments and wish to spend time with their beloved rather than their dice, but all still feel at least a small desire to play occasionally.

So what to do in this situation? You can’t jst stop playing, especially not with all those miniatures and rulebooks your bought, but getting the same group together just isn’t going to happen more than once a year, so any chance of them remembering the plot is zilch.

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Categories: people who play
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 It’s a conundrum that many Dungeon Masters find themselves facing- why exactly is the bad guy doing this anyway?

The reason is that many Dungeon Masters are fundamentally nice people on the inside, and being evil just doesn’t come naturally. Other Dungeons Masters are just logical, and must have a reason why the Bad Guy is being Bad, rather than using methods that are rather less inconvenient to everyone else.

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Categories: Uncategorized
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Life happens. Especially if that life is an inconvenient one your DM decided had to happen because your high charisma character took ‘roleplaying’ a bit too seriously, or if you decided that a pregnancy would be a brilliant step in character development.

Whether it was your idea or a burden you have to bear, having a pregnant character can add a new aspect to your game. Children and parenthood typically don’t feature greatly in Dungeons & Dragons, kids being used more as plot elements or guilt trips rather than fully fleshed out NPCs, in fact it’s quite hard to even find them illustrated in the D&D artworks. Pregnancy can be used as a plot or sidequest all by itself.

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Categories: Designing Adventures
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A TPK (or Total Player Kill) is an annoying and frustrating event that happens (usually) by accident and completely ruins a DM’s day. The death of one PC is manageable, but the death of the whole party means you need to spend time creating new characters with a reason to be on the adventure, or scrap the whole thing and start afresh.

Not only is is inconvenient, but if you players have spent any time investing in a personality or backstory for their character, they have to start all over again and it makes them less attached to that character. It makes them more likely to take risks, which means that TPK is more likely to happen again.

I have a very clear understanding with my players: Stupid characters who do stupid things die in stupid ways. Thus far that fact has been respected, but just in case that dreaded TPK does happen by accident, chance or stupidity, I have my back-up plan. 

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Categories: Designing Adventures
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 The rules of genetics don’t always apply in the Dungeons & Dragons Universe. Heck, the laws of physics don’t always apply. Mysterious, insane wizards of old brought such hybrid creatures such as owlbears, griffons and chimeras to the attention of adventurers. Mysterious, insane old authors brought new templates to the attention of Dungeon Masters, allowing to create bizare hybrid creatures of our own, whether or not it makes any sense.

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Categories: Designing Adventures
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