dmethan

FIRST Steps for More Roleplay in DND

You can get your players in character and roleplaying in your dnd game starting with these three steps + included bonus tips.

Check out the new video on Tiktok and Instagram for some more tips.

You are always welcome to post questions here or DM me!

Thank you all for supporting this patreon and hope these tips are helping yo...

How to run character arcs in dnd + 30 famous call to actions

You want get far in your dnd dungeon master career before you hear about "calls to action". These are also referred to as the inciting incident, and the hook, and most groups won't get far without these! 

I compose a list of 30 of the most famous calls to action in media to give you a ton of ideas on CTAs to introduce to your dnd grou...

Ending First EASY Campaign Method: Three Steps

You can easily get your dnd campaign going using this method. A lot of dungeon masters get lost or overwhelmed because they plan too much of what happens in between. But if you just follow these steps, you'll be able to start quickly with an ending in mind and you're players will have tons of room for agency.

And since you're crafting the...

What do you want to see?

If you joined in the last couple months, you probably came from my social media posts! I've been a DM for over 20 years and do a ton of reading and analysis on actual plays, games I play in, and, of course, my own games that I run. So I've got a ton of insights, opinions, but I also create and consume a ton of D&D content both for my game an...

Example Overland travel + MASSIVE Bonus Map

Like if you want more of these. Just in time for Fall, an overland travel example. You can find the dice rolls included on the Morning card, and the six Times of Day I mentioned in one of my videos.

This example would be for some well-traveled road, half a day or more outside of the nearest town.

This map features 300', as it assum...

Easy Combat Tips for Beginner DMs

If you want to have an immersive world with heart-felt roleplay and touching moments backed up by challenging adventuring days and epic combats that push your players to the limit, then this is for you. And the best part is, you're really just capitalizing on what you already do well and just making a couple small changes to how you set up and r...

Script writing in progress!

Thank you for supporting me here!

If you're still eagerly waiting for Train Heist, it's still in progress. Slow but steady!

Nine new scripts planned as well, 3 to go, so should have some new social media posts coming this weekend.

You supporting me here means you're my top priority in my content creation. I've been seeing wh...

3 Tips for Player-driven D&D Campaigns

Player-driven campaigns are super popular right now, and a lot of DMs are interested in running them. Here are some of the things you can start with.

I made the shift to running more player-driven campaigns over the last few years, and my games are definitely better for it.

Thanks for supporting me on here

Ethan 2023-08-29 22:12:26 +0000 UTC View Post

3 Steps for Dynamic Dnd Combat

You can do a lot to avoid toe-to-toe combats in D&D. These are 3 of my go-tos anytime I want to add a bit of movement to a battle.

I've been running games for over 20 years and these 3 have been a mainstay in my last several campaigns.

Give them a shot, and thanks for your support!

3 EASY Steps for Believable NPCs

Believable NPCs make your world so much more immersive. These steps take less than a minute and have been my go to for the last few years. As a bonus tip, you can use scene goals and NPCs to create or release tension in your game.

Session Zero Checklist (Public)

You can run a great campaign and really care about your players and your game. But a lot of us get off to a wrong start. So here's what you do. First, schedule a session zero. This is a super low pressure, casual chat about your game. I've been doing session zeroes for about five years now, and it has dramatically changed how I run the game. Thi...

EASY Steps for D&D Travel

Travel inevitably pops up in every D&D game, and there's not much good advice out there on how to handle it. Unfortunately, this leads many DMs to skip travel altogether, and then later wonder, "How can I make my world feel more real and immerse my players?"  

I started this with a more in-depth guide but I've got too m...

Notes on Increasing Roleplay from TikTok + Gnome Heist Adventure Update

Here's some notes from the Increasing Roleplay TikTok I made. These are just rough notes that I made to expand on what was in the TikTok script. They're rough! But I went ahead and added some bonus tips, and attached the example to the bottom. Down the road I might clean these notes up! Make them into an infographic. This technique is still a wo...

Narrative Structure for D&D Adventures

An infographic for an upcoming video looking at narrative structure more in-depth.

Thanks you for supporting me!

Battlefield Prep for D&D Combat Infographic

Patron exclusive infographic for upcoming D&D combat tip video.

Thank your for your support!

Roleplay encounter infographic

Free infographic from my TikTok

Goblin Cave - 5 Room Dungeon (40x30)

Summer update! Thanks so much for your continued support!

Hey everyone. I've been still playing a ton of D&D, as normal, as I have for, you know, the last decade, and then off and on for another decade before that. So that's been going good.

I've also been really working on my schedule and considering what sort of responsibilities I have for my day job, what sort of responsibilities I have to...

Train Heist Preview

Welcome back!

Dropping this preview of the train heist map here! The final will likely include a few revisions and post-processing, but the layout shouldn't change much from here!

With the map done, that means work is starting on the adventure itself! Super excited to get back to work on some of the heist gameplay ideas we brainsto...

Billing Pause

Don't think I've abandoned you all!

I've been laid up the last week with a combination of allergies, cleaning supplies-induced respiratory irritation, and a cold ;_;

Since I've got a busy summer schedule and a lot of 9-5 work to catch up on, I'm going to pause billing for at least the next month!

Will be publishing the new ...

Preview from Upcoming Adventure

Tentatively named Gnome Ship in the Fey Hole, this new adventure for you is a heist adventure courtesy of one of the patrons in the Custom Adventure tier.

In keeping with the heist genre, we're having a Preparation stage. In the current iteration, the preparation stage will involve a handful of scenes the party can seek out in o...

Crafting Roleplay Scenes that Make Your Players Have an Opinion

Recently, I’ve been talking a lot about how challenging gameplay in D&D often makes you think about combat. And it’s true that a lot of DMs, those starting out and experienced DMs alike, often want to know how to challenge their players in combat.

And that’s very valid. Challenge is one of the 6 types of fun and very prominent in...

Gold Dragon Egg Release

Download it here!

Included for you:

3-6 hour adventure with a gold dragon finale

35 room dungeon (with keyed map)

12,270gp worth of treasure

9 new monsters plus tokens

Easy to run PDF

Custom maps

If you need any different files please let me know! I'll update this post with more ov...

Content schedule update

Thank you for joining! If there's anything you want to see more of or a guide you'd like, don't hesitate to comment or shoot me a message!

Gold Dragon Egg is coming along great! Five more room descriptions to go (out of thirty five!). A few of the rooms I want to go back and add some conflict too, specifically the ones with NPCs. You can d...

Gold Dragon Egg Update!

Hello everyone,

I'm excited to share with you some news about the Gold Dragon Egg adventure! It's much larger than my previous two adventures, and I'm happy to say that it now has 33 rooms! I've been working diligently whenever I have free time to get it finished, but I regret to inform you that it's going to be delayed.

I apologize ...

Gold Dragon Egg Map Preview

30+ rooms in this dungeon for you

Breaking it up from the previous 2-location adventures. The final version will have some post-processing with lightning, color, and some additional assets on the map. As well as the no label and various formats. If there's anything specific you want please let me know!

Lot's of writing to...

Frog people rooms

Some rooms for the frog people in Gold Dragon Egg 

Amphitheater

Sleeping area

Sunken Library

Insect farm / storage

Part of the conflict in the dungeon involves how to interact with the frog people, who are on edge after being recently attacked by bandits seeking the gold dragon egg.

Yo...

Preventing Rests in D&D

Recently I posted about having a visual element to represent time and attention that players had generated while in a dungeon or on an adventure. If you're wondering what that looks like, it's a very simple technique. The first time I saw it, it was referred to as "tension dice" and you can see an example/adaptation in both Necromancer's Curse a...

Misconception that sandbox games are more prep

You might have seen my post on social about sandbox games being less work. And I do think that is the case, but I understand that that isn't how it may seem at first. I remember just struggling to run my first ever campaign, and the effort it took to execute the "story" in a satisfying way.

Now that was my first campaign ever, and the focu...

Tier update

Just a quick update. The $2 tier has been changed to Early Bird and caps at 25 patrons.

With this change, I've unlocked all the content in this Patreon for both the $2 and $3 tier.

The $15 tier is still the only one with the custom adventure benefit.

Thanks for your support!