Colette asks – Hi! I’m DMing a campaign for three friends, and one of those friend’s girlfriends is interested in joining. I like her and think she’ll be fine, but I’m having trouble thinking up a way to work a completely new character into the story. For reference – this is a D&D 5e game …
Tim asks – I currently play a wizard in my D&D 5e campaign. Folks listen to our game so the advice I am looking for is – what are some fun things to make your wizard feel truly magical. He is incredibly talented but with a good heart so figuring out better and flashier ways …
Claudio asks – My players and I are in the middle of a long campaign. There are five players in the group and the rest of the campaign is probably going to deal with three of them primarily, since the other two have more or less resolved their character’s storylines. The characters themselves don’t really …
Beth asks – I’m in a campaign with a GM I generally like, but one thing he does is really grating. Whenever we’re in combat and he’s rolling for an enemy, he’ll curse if he rolls a miss or a critical failure. That is, he’ll roll for an enemy, that enemy will whiff and his …
Max asks – I’m running a short adventure for some friends, some of whom know each other well and some who haven’t met each other. All of them are experienced role players. How do I minimize awkwardness and maximize fun? Building rapport among gamers that haven’t yet gamed together is an important part of any …
Beth asks – I love being a GM and I want to challenge myself. I’d like to use the D&D 5th edition rules but create my own world to run a campaign in. What advice could you offer on how to build it? Building a world from whole cloth can an incredibly fun and deeply …
Ben asks – What is the silliest or most absurd rule that you enforce as a GM? Ben, let’s first define “silly.” There are plenty of bad or cumbersome rules (see my column about encumbrance), but I tend to categorize them as “crappy” instead of “silly.” Silly and absurd, for me, have positive connotations when it comes to …
Brandon asks – Do you enforce encumbrance? Brandon, the very unglamourous answer is “it depends.” While I’m all for playing most games with the rules as written, I do think that incorporating “house rules” or tweaks to some of the more boring mechanics of certain games make for a better overall experience. In some circumstances, …
CJ asks – I’m running a campaign that’s about ten sessions old and two of the players want to split off and hunt down an artifact that I kind of mentioned by accident. Is the whole “never split the party” thing good advice or should I let these two go on their search? CJ, yours …
Chris asks – I’m someone who has just recently gotten into tabletop gaming as player, though I’ve been accumulating ideas for a game of my own down the line. I’ve started writing down the initial plotline, and thankfully, I still have some time before this game could get started in proper, so I can map …