Finally getting round to make the generic double-sided tokens that The Lazy DM Sly Flourish shows off in his DM kit video below. Well ordering the bits I need.

I like this idea a lot. And a lot cheaper and lighter than carrying a ton of minis. If I don’t have the minis already and can’t find them at a really affordable price. This is a fantastic super affordable option.

In fact if you follow the links on the video you are sent to a site that does something similar using images from MtG cards. So they can be as fancy as you like.

What is missing from the video above is the link for the images used. Luckily over on another social media platform called Twitter is a tweet from Sly Flourish with the links to the items required and more importantly a pdf of the images used. I’ve included those links below.

Materials to build ten double-sided generic #dnd monster tokens for improv fights and missing minis.

One-inch hole punch: https://t.co/dbr4oZqQWR

Epoxy one-inch stickers: https://t.co/N8nfYh6brQ

Glue-sticks: https://t.co/rZCMBiMxVS

Token sheet: https://t.co/O5LfaMBjiZ pic.twitter.com/cHz21AWJRe

— SlyFlourish.com (@SlyFlourish) March 29, 2018

Apparently the icons used were from the website game-icons .

While I’m sharing useful links for Dungeon Masters I have stumbled across a website to generate various sized sheets of graph paper. Here is the link. I used it to generate an A3 sheet of graph paper with 1 inch squares. Ideal for battle maps.

Like most things D&D has it’s various factions when it comes down to certain topics within the game. Such as Critical Role good or bad?, are Challenge Ratings useful?, theatre of the mind verses tactical combat. The list goes on.

Both sides of the discussion, and it usually is a discussion, rarely have I seen these things turn into all out flame wars, have good supporting arguments usually, and are on the whole polite and respectful.

In this post I’m going to talk about how I create encounters for my sessions. Which as you may have gathered by the first couple of paragraphs might just fall into that category of being a controversial subject.

In the DMG they go into great detail about making sure an encounter is balanced.

The DMG has you calculating the XP threshold of your party of adventurers, adding up the XP of monsters being used, and other maths things just to work out of what you want to do falls into the difficulty level of the encounter you want to give your party.

In XGE an alternative method is presented, still reliant on CR, but simpler to follow and quicker to use. (I think the Lazy DM uses the idea behind the tables presented here for his own quick encounter builder.)

As a new DM (which I am) it’s great that there is a way presented for me to create an encounter, despite it seeming overly complicated. Although I do like the four difficulty levels for describing how dangerous an encounter is. It just seems great as a way to help plan the encounter, and make sure that the encounters are varied in their challenge to the players. You shouldn’t be constantly throwing just deadly encounters at the players (unless your intention is to TPK them) or just easy encounters. The sessions would quickly become boring and monotonous. Varying the difficulty level of the encounters encountered allows for an ebb and flow that can build tension and excitement, and moments of relief. Which keeps the game interesting for everyone.

I fall into the camp that chooses which monsters to use for the encounter not on their CR, but on do they make sense story wise to be there.

For me this helps present a more cohesive, immersive adventure to the players. And for those experienced players used to seeing level appropriate monsters based on CR a few surprises.

Naturally if you are using higher level monsters you will need to adjust them to be more inline with the level of the party they are going up against (I’ve summed that process up in a previous post). But before I do that I use the tables created by The Lazy DM to see what ratio of that monster I should be using with the party based on it’s CR rating. I may still need to adjust the stats a little because I want to use more or less of the monsters depending on the encounter I have planned.

I think if I remember correctly The Lazy DM mentioned somewhere (in a blog post or YouTube video) that his tables should fall into the hard encounter difficulty level. So based on those tables and my adjustments I have a rough idea of the encounters difficulty. Which may see me fiddling with quantities or stats, or even adding new monsters to move that encounter difficulty to the desired level.

In my session notes and the adventures I’ve shared on here you will notice that I only give the monsters name(s) for the encounter. I don’t give how many there are in that encounter (the odd occasion I have though before anyone points it out). Yes I know that for my session that my party are at level X, but I don’t know what level other people (if they use what I have created) will be using with it. So even though I may have in my mind while creating the adventure this is aimed at a tier 1 party of 4 adventurers. I think it should be usable by more powerful parties. I basically leave it up to the DM running the adventure to decide the difficulty of the encounter they want to throw at their party. They have the monsters that fit thematically, story wise for the encounter. The rest is up to them.

So that’s how I work. I’ve found a system I like, that works for me. It may not work for you. That’s fine. I don’t think any two DM’s are the same. Find what works for you and don’t let anyone tell you are wrong. But don’t stop learning and trying new things, and tweaking what you do. Become a magpie, pick and choose the nuggets of information you like and horde them away in your DM’s nest.

Yeah I know Halloween was five days ago, so this is a little late.

But hey give me some slack I only just came across these two D&D Beyond posts.

Yes you could argue if I had checked D&D Beyond last week I could have posted this in a more timely manor.

Although in my defence I did post about trying a fantasy horror D&D adventure for free at the start of October. So in a way I was ahead of the game.

However D&D Beyond now have a couple of articles about playing Curse of Strahd in a single session that can be played at Halloween as a one shot.

Sadly to make use of these two most excellent posts you will need a copy of the Curse of Strahd Adventure book. They also recommend (although not necessary) the Galeforce 9 produced tarokka deck, a sixty minute hourglass, a top down map of Ravenloft (they point to a battle map pack on the DM’s Guild).

Here are the links to the two D&D Beyond posts.

Strahd Must Die Tonight! How to Play Ravenloft in a Single Night

Strahd Must Die Again (And Again And Again)

But what options are there if you don’t like the Ravenloft setting or want a break from the D&D system? Hence why I’m not mentioning Pathfinder first edition and the horror scenarios and rules it has. Plus not sure if they are out in second edition. I don’t play Pathfinder.

Well there is always the Lovecraftian Call of Cthulhu RPG. Like all good RPG’s these days they have a Starter box set that allows new players (both to RPGs and the system) to dip their toe in the system for a relatively cheap price. Sadly it’s not entirely possible to try the game for free with a bunch of friends. But if you visit their page here, you can get the basic rules and a solo adventure (both in starter set).

Another alternative is Tales from the Loop RPG. “In this roleplaying game in the vein of E.T. and Stranger Things, you’ll play teenagers solving mysteries connected to the Loop. The game rules are based on Mutant: Year Zero.” Sadly I’ve not located a free way to try before buying. Personally I think that’s a mistake. Which as far as I can tell the following two recommendations also make.

For a more mature r rated RPG gaming experience there is Vampire: The Masquerade which might be worth a look.

The final option that is the FFG The End of the World Series of RPG’s. In particular the Zombie Apocalypse one. Which seems more appropriate to the time of year than alien invasions or machines taking over.

I wish there was more “you can try these or play these for free” above. I don’t like the idea of splashing out money for stuff that might only see the light of day once a year. Plus that free option is great advertising to get people to maybe buy into the system once they have tried it.

Every now and then it has been known for the YouTube recommendations to recommend a hidden gem.

This morning it recommended a doozey

I like seeing and reading about how other DM’s prep for a session, or what they have in their DM tool box and the contents of their DM folder. They are great for stealing ideas from.

Every DM is different, the way they prep, the tools they use and the contents of their folder is unique to them. What works or is useful to one DM may be completely wrong for another. Plus the way they prep, the tools and content is constantly evolving. So whenever you get to see what another DM does, it is always just a snap shot of what they currently do. Come back a month, six months, a year later and it can be completely different, or there might be bits you recognise.

Back to this morning. After I refreshed my recommendations page on YouTube, I scanned the thumbnails for something interesting to watch. There amongst the usual mix of football analysis, recipe videos, and boardgaming/RPG videos was one from a channel I hadn’t seen before aFistfulofDice about prepping for an RPG (here is the actual video).

Yeah I’d seen the videos of how Matt Colville (yep worked him into the conversation) and how he preps for a session. I’d read The Lazy DM books. So my interest was piqued for how this DM went about prepping for their sessions.

The DM/GM who produces the aFistfulofDice videos uses notebooks (who doesn’t? Even in this digital age they can’t be beaten for easy of use and portability). And a combination of the Lazy DM, the 3-3-3 method and they talk about the IARR method.

Now my prep workflow (yeah let’s use some hip sounding jargon) is very personal to me. I use this blog to record ideas, think aloud and one day possibly get some comments, suggestions, about my up coming session. I capture notes for the session in Scrivener.

The image below shows the project structure I have for the current campaign.

Each session has it’s own folder. Plus the general research folder. Which is where I capture any relevant notes to the campaign, like webpages with useful info on.

Each session folder then has several documents inside it that contain my notes for each of the encounters for the session.

One of the nice things I like about Scrivener is that I can export just the pages for the session as a pdf. I have total control of what makes it into the final document. Which for me is the notes for the up coming session.

My notes vary in detail for each encounter. If I’m using a new mechanic, like the exploration or group challenge in the previous session, my notes will be more detailed. Otherwise they can be just a handful of words. I have noticed that I have been writing less detail in the notes compared to my first session.

I also use GoodNotes as a general digital notepad for the campaign. I use Excel to keep an up to date table of the players stats. I did use it to record the stats for each encounter as well. But I’ve moved away from that now I have the monster cards. I just make sure I have the relevant card handy, and just track the individual monster hit points during a combat.

But that’s enough of my process for the time being. I can write a longer more detailed post at a future date.

I naturally went to the channel page for aFistfulofDice and found a video they had done on their DM folder. That was very interesting. Well to me it was, granted it may not be for most people.

That DM folder idea was like striking a rich vein of gold. It came across that they used the folder more as notes for creating adventures than running them. Although with the info there it has (and I’m pretty sure they have), could be used during a session to generate something on the fly.

The find (ok it’s not exactly hidden) of the Lazy DM cheat sheet with NPC and adventure hooks was a great one. I’m going to get that printed out and added.

In the video they use some tables from the dungeon toolbox from the Pathfinder Games Master Guide. So I went and got a digital copy and boy am I glad I did. This book is a gold mine of useful info for a GM. The running the game chapter alone is worth the price of admission as they say. It’s fairly generic guidance, and easily applied to other systems. There really is a lot to love about the chapter, from the adventure structure to the emergency game prep advice. And advice on TPK’s! Then we have some tools for GM’s. These are tables and charts to act as inspiration for a GM. These too are generic and usable in any system. The cultural titles tables are fantastic, want to know the Chinese equivalent of a knight? These are the tables to refer to. But my favourite table has to be Words Every Game Master Should Know. Wow. Love, love, love it.

This is just a wealth of info and inspiration. I will be talking about one or two of them in future posts. Yes Pathfinder is not D&D. This Games Master Guide is for the first edition of Pathfinder. Which happens to be based on D&D 3.5. With the Pathfinder second edition now out, it should be possible to pick up second hand copies of this on the cheap. But the electronic version is not that expensive.

Another source of tables to use while creating an adventure that the video used was the Dungeon Alphabet. I’ll look into that one, it sounds interesting and useful.

It’s been a good morning for being inspired.

With the general election in full swing now, battle lines are being drawn. Lies and smears of the elite are being thrown at the threat they see from Corbyn. Which will only get worse as the election goes on.

MP’s shout sound bites into the void of social media, hoping that the half truths and out right lies stick. Aided by a compliant press unwilling to pull them up on it.

It’s all too depressing really.

The title of this D&D 5e homage to the video game classic Doom seems so apt.

So what we have below is a first attempt to make this a one page adventure.

It was definitely an interesting exercise trying to fit everything onto a single page. I did this version in Pages on the iPad. The results are so so at best.

So next I tried using Word on the iPad.

I’m happier with the results. But still not brilliant.

Ok before I start stocking the 5 Room Dungeon Meet Thy Doom. My homage to the classic FPS shooter Doom from iD Software.

I thought I better share the “final” map for the dungeon.

Yeah I updated it again after yesterday’s post. The additions are some secret compartments that items and monsters can be hidden in. Plus I show where the trigger is in the red room (door 4). It will be a light beam or some other trigger. I’ve also show in the blue room (door 3) that potion(s) are locked behind the portcullis wall on the raised platform in the room. I’ve also decided that the Green room (door 1) will operate slightly differently. Once they get the key the walls won’t disappear. But the secret doors will still open releasing the monsters inside them.

Ok in D&D sadly looking through the Monster Manual (MM), Volo’s Guide to Monsters (VGM) and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes (MTF) an imp like the ones in the game.

However I did find in VGM a Kobold Scale Sorcerer. Which can be used as is, or re-skinned as the imp from Doom. The Kobold Scale Sorcerer is a level 3 spell caster and has a CR of 1. It knows the fire bolt cantrip.

Although if you want something a little easier Magmins from the MM would be worth a look.

Once again there is no Lost Soul but we do have a Flameskull in the MM. It is a CR4 creature, but it’s AC is 14. So not hard to hit. It’s 40 HP and spells (5th level spellcaster) and only destroyed with holy water. Does make it a bitch to kill off.

Shotgun Guy/Zombieman once again classic Doom characters. Which we need to map across.

For these two classic pieces of cannon fodder I’m going to suggest using one or two of the NPC’s from Appendix B of the MM.

For the Zombieman I’d use maybe a Scout, Thug, Bandit or Guard. The CR for these are all under 1. So you could throw a few of these at the players.

For the tougher Shotgun guy I’d use possibly a Bandit Captain, Berserker, Knight or Veteran. Which have a CR of 2 or 3. Possibly even a Gladiator if I wanted to increase the challenge with a CR of 5.

There are no Cacodemons in D&D but there are Beholders and Spectators. Not exactly the same. I’d go with the CR3 Spectator. But like all things it depends on the level of the party tackling the dungeon. I might change the eye rays of the Spectator, and look at what options I had from the related Beholders.

So which monsters go into which room?

Red Room (door 4): Imps

Blue Room (door 3): Lost Souls

Yellow Room (door 2): Mixture of the previous three rooms monsters spread amongst the platforms.

Green Room (door 1): Shotgun Guy and Zombieman.

Hallway: Cacodemon

I do think that there needs to be clues/warnings spread through out the level foreshadowing what they will be facing. So maybe tapestry’s or murals on the the walls.

Which D&D monsters would you use and for which classic Doom creature?

I was going to write a post on my prep for session four of the campaign.

But those works in progress are so much fun to work on.

The Temple of the Slaad has got to a stage now where it needs words to bring it to life.

I think this list naming the rooms gives an idea about each rooms use.

Room 1: Slaad Temple

Room 2: Crypt

Room 3: Living quarters

Room 4: Storage room

Room 5: Inner Slaad birthing room

Meet Thy Doom

So the following brief notes give an idea how I see each room working.

The players start in the hall way, with the double door behind them sealed shut. No matter what they do the door will not open without the correct key.

In front of them four coloured doors, (from left to right) red (4), blue (3), yellow (2) and green (1). The only unlocked door is the green door. The rest need the appropriate coloured key to open.

Behind the green door: once the players pick up the red key the maze walls disappear, monsters appear.

Behind the red door: when the players step into the room the platform at the far end of the room lowers revealing the key and monsters.

Behind the blue door: monsters in this room are contained within portcullis like cages. The room is flooded, but it’s shin deep. On the altar in the middle of the room is a button. When pressed it lowers the portcullis like cages, freeing the monsters.

Behind the yellow door: on the four platforms (not middle one) are monsters. Once defeated a second portal opens to take players to next platform in the sequence.

I might tweak the map adding in some secret recesses that will hide monsters (green door room) and potions and scrolls.