DM tip: When a character is on their Death Saves make them exit through an afterlife hobby shop filled with figurines and if they come back to life, that means they found a little miniature of themselves.
— Todd Kenreck (@ToddKenreck) December 4, 2020
Man, the rose-colored glasses about #dnd 4e skill challenges. It was like doing income taxes or SATs. Here’s a spreadsheet of skills and actions you can take. Fill out seven of these before three of these. No you can’t do that thing you want to do, it’s not on the spreadsheet! The solution was to make skill challenges flexible so players could choose which skills they wanted to use through in-game fiction. I called this "playing D&D". I never understood what skill challenges brought to the table and I tried hard for years.
— SlyFlourish.com (@SlyFlourish) February 2, 2021
I see folks try to bring skill challenges back into 5e and while it lacks the tax form aspect, I still usually don’t like it. I prefer environmental interaction over that forced character sheet-based improvisation. It can work when played for laughs, like a sledding chase. The "skill challenge" concept that 4e introduced was a great idea implemented poorly and without proper design/development. It's something that DMs had been doing for years, just without giving it a name. It invites DMs to take a bit of time to develop RP/exploration encounters.
— Shawn Merwin (@shawnmerwin) February 2, 2021
One issue with its implementation was that rather than instructing DMs on how to integrate the mechanics with the narrative/RP, it relied solely on mechanics. Experienced DMs could do that translation on their own, but too many did turn it into a skill tree rather than a story. Escape from Sembia by @christulach was a great adventure that laid out a fun scene series that was facilitated by a skill challenge. Many great stories unfolded from that. But you had to understand the checks in the challenge were story pieces and not pass/fail gates.
— Shawn Merwin (@shawnmerwin) February 2, 2021
Thanks Shawn! My purpose in writing that adventure at the dawn of 4E was to demonstrate differences between 3.5 and 4 and showcase how adventures can take advantage of the mechanics of skill challenges. I’m glad someone remembers! The tables I ran that adventure for had an absolute blast. Both tables, at the end of that last encounter, were totally blown away with adrenaline and excitement. And then I said, "Remember, that was just first-level characters…"
— Shawn Merwin (@shawnmerwin) February 2, 2021
daily #dnd creator tip: Monsters! When creating your monster, try to use the "one cool thing" rule. What makes your monster cool in the world, and what makes your monster cool at the table? Even the lowest CR minion should have something cool. Also, cool doesn't mean overpowered.
— Shawn Merwin (@shawnmerwin) January 18, 2021
Give a goblin a cowboy hat and folks Will be asking for your DM’ing tips for the Next 6 years 🤠
— Shawn Merwin (@shawnmerwin) January 18, 2021
daily #dnd creator tip: No one's creative process is the same. That doesn't mean you shouldn't listen to advice. It just means you should experiment until you find your groove. And take it easy on yourself if your process doesn't always work or needs to change.
— Shawn Merwin (@shawnmerwin) January 2, 2021
daily #dnd creator tip: Balance in D&D design is a bit of a myth, because the rules are too complex for perfect balance. However, avoiding the most egregious power imbalances is important. And balance can also include complexity/simplicity and the time rules take at the table.
— Shawn Merwin (@shawnmerwin) January 8, 2021
Me: Good advice here from Shawn.
Also me: 2nd level party? They can handle this. The math checks out.
— Shawn Merwin (@shawnmerwin) January 8, 2021
I always tell people that the only balance in D&D that matters is between characters at the table, so nobody feels left out/behind. Anything else the DM can account for by simply raising or lowering the challenge of the encounter. It's not the ONLY balance that matters, but it's true for a large part if you're talking about people's enjoyment of the game while they're at the table.
— Shawn Merwin (@shawnmerwin) January 9, 2021
It's like being a teacher; just stay a chapter ahead of the class. Read the adventure module over and over. If creating your own, set up story and character arcs that pay off over time. Have fun, understand your players, and prep. Keep a list of names and follow your inspiration!
— WI_DnDSupport (@dndsupport) December 7, 2020
This is why designers need several drafts of a project. The first draft gets down ideas. Then write a draft where you're thinking like the DMs running it. Then write a draft thinking like the players playing it. Each iteration adds needed content and eliminates the dross.One key method to increase the usability of your D&D adventure is to strip out anything that doesn’t help the DM at the table. Consider the following room description from an old Dungeon magazine adventure (apologies for image quality). #dnd #ttrpg https://t.co/RH3ghNJ5iu
— Shawn Merwin (@shawnmerwin) October 21, 2020
Most of the information in that paragraph is useless to the DM. It doesn’t matter what happened in the room over the preceding centuries, only what the PCs see now.What's worse is that the author, in telling us interesting things about the past, doesn't tell us anything interesting about the current state. What sort of refuse? What sort of rusty equipment?
— M.T. Black (@MTBlack2567) October 20, 2020
People can (and do) argue that the extra fluff is bonus material. But I would argue that extraneous material actively makes the adventure worse, because it makes it harder to find the relevant information, and also greatly increases preparation time.Massively long backstories at the start of an adventure are another culprit here. Please – just tell me enough backstory to make the adventure coherent. If you have heaps of additional flavor info about the history of the empire or whatever, perhaps put it in an appendix.
— M.T. Black (@MTBlack2567) October 21, 2020
daily #dnd creator tip: Creating something "flavorful" is about a focus on key themes, and not neglecting the themes during design. Poe's "unity of effect" applies here. Always refer back to your theme even as you focus deeply on rules bits. Also, too many themes = no themes.
— Shawn Merwin (@shawnmerwin) January 6, 2021
