DM Tips Twitter Archive: June 2011
by Mike Shea on 7 July 2011
Below is an archive of all of the Sly Flourish DM Tip Twitter posts for June 2011. Get daily DM tips at http://twitter.com/slyflourish!
Very much looking forward to running my group through this Gloomwrought adventure, Reign of Dispair: http://t.co/EUcueNZ #dnd
In case you missed it, Terrain Effects and Terrain Props Podcast with @deadorcs and I: http://bit.ly/im3MZE #dnd
Next, I run a level 30 adventure over two nights where our old company, the Shieldbashers, goes after Lolth! #dnd
Finished our 17 session Dark Sun mini-campaign, the Children of Blood, tonight. Here's the log: http://t.co/M9LQ4pa #dnd
#dnd tip: Let your players choose which NPCs have a big part in your campaign. Don't force the ones you like.
Second rule of internet happiness. Take responsibility for what you read on the net. It's not the ass-hats fault for writing it.
My personal internet rule of happiness. Don't go to sites or sources that make you unhappy.
I think the Monster Vault Threats to the Nentir Vale map might be the best con map you can pack in a bag. #dnd
Disappointed that Daggermaster's crit on 18-20 stayed in the Rogue rewrite. No one should ever crit on anything but 20. #dnd
#dnd tip: Too many NPCs filling up your campaign? Do what Stephen King did in The Stand and blow a few of them up to keep things focused.
#dnd tip: Write down your last week's summary and post it to your Obsidian Portal adventure log to save yourself some time and energy.
#dnd tip: Have two groups of PCs? Consider splitting up simultaneous events, telling half of a single story one night and half the next.
#dnd tip: Stephen King's The Stand (available on Netflix Streaming) is a great seed for a Gamma World campaign.
#dnd tip: Running an adventure in a location from a campaign guide? Try googling the name to see what else others have done with it.
#dnd tip: Need a quick minion? AC = level + 15; Def = level + 13; attack = level + 5; damage = 4 + 1/2 level; init = 1/2 level.
#dnd tip: Set up an assault or a defense of a small keep, noble house, or inn as a sandbox game with a purpose.
#dnd tip: Sometimes your group just wants to fight hordes of minions. Give them that chance.
#dnd tip: Use damaging terrain effects to scale encounters up without making your battle take longer.
#dnd tip: Hand out disease cards to those afflicted to keep track of it across games.
#dnd tip: When designing monsters, keep standard monsters simple - one or two thematic powers will do.
I am just in awe of these Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardlon painted minis: http://t.co/wIvBVT8 - http://t.co/diIr6cm!
Pulled out Legion Devils and Kobold Dragonshields from Ashardlon and replaced with the Kobolds and spiders from Ravenloft. #dnd
#dnd tip: To build some easy monster sheets, take screen grabs from the compendium and paste them into a word or pages document.
#dnd tip: Use between two and four different monsters in combat to keep things interesting without getting too complicated.
By the way, always feel free to invoke Orwell's "Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous." to any of my tips.
#dnd tip: Keep your stories simple. You might love all the plot twists in your game but your players might have a hard time keeping track.
#dnd tip: Scale monster damage by starting at level + 8 and increasing or decreasing based on the number of targets or rarity of the attack.
My Gloomwrought campaign is definitely going to have a techno soundtrack. Lots of Depeche Mode. #dnd
#dnd tip: Mix up your dungeon tiles, dry-erase maps, and 3d terrain to make things interesting.
#dnd tip: Cheap plastic shoe boxes work really well in storing miniatures.
Here's a tip. The 30" by 36" acrylic sheet from Home Depot is the one to get. The bigger 48" one has waves in it.
#dnd tip: Reskin monsters around the miniatures you have rather than the old " this human pig farmer is actually a wyrmling".
#dnd tip: Named bad guys can be more real and more interesting than generic brutes. Try to come up with details for sub-bosses.
Game pic from my big street battle last night. Ran well! http://t.co/BhJSmo8 #dnd
#dnd tip: Don't worry if your battle map isn't perfectly aligned with the encounter map in a published adventure. Mod it to suit your group.
Running my "Gangs of New York" brawl scene in my Dark Sun campaign tonight. Wish me luck! #dnd http://t.co/KnNLaYh
#dnd tip: Build evil NPC parties from the humanoids in the Dark Sun Creature Catalog and Monster Vault.
In case you missed it, here are some pics of my #dnd noble house attack adventure (no, not bin Ladin's compound...) http://t.co/jLKvPbK
#dnd tip: Don't send your DM a tweet with a picture of your junk, even if it's covered in tighty whities. It won't get you any new gear.
#dnd tip: Imposing a house rule that limits PCs to one interrupt power per character can avoid chains of interrupts in your game.
#dnd tip: Mix up dungeon, wilderness, and city encounters to give your group a variety of locations.
Watching "The Warriors" to get some ideas for my Dark Sun and Gloomwrought campaigns.
#dnd tip: A good hand-held white erase board and a dry-erase marker can work better than scraps of paper. Better for the earth too.
#dnd tip: Reskinning and re-leveling monsters are great tricks to learn to speed up your game prep.
#dnd tip: Try to give players a non-predetermined choice at the end of each adventure or even each battle. Kill or not to kill is easy.
By the way, when your plague demon gets immobilized, prone, dazed, slowed, and stuck in difficult terrain, give him a room-wide nec 10 aura.
Well, since @gregbilsland is a big meanine, we'll have to live with my p1mp'd out Orcus! http://t.co/CunL954 #dnd
#dnd tip: Avoid using more than one "permission" room in an adventure, rooms that severely limit player mobility or actions.
Pondering what I can do to make tomorrow's Dark Sun game more Dark Sunny - besides a TPK, that's already planned.
If you enjoyed these tips, take a look at Sly Flourish’s Dungeon Master Tips book or Sly Flourish’s Running Epic Tier D&D Games. You can also use these links to purchase the Dungeon Master’s Kit, the Monster Vault, the Heroes of the Fallen Lands or bookmark this link to buy anything from Amazon.
Need some battle maps? Pick up some Gamemastery Flip-Maps from Troll and Toad, an official Sly Flourish sponsor.
Send feedback to mike@mikeshea.net.
