Lately there’s been a lot of noise concerning Twitter and Dungeon & Dragons. For example, in Wizards of the Coast’s organized play “D&D Encounters”, the PC’s can gain buffs during the encounter just by following Wizard’s own twitter feed where on game night they tweet all sorts of different things for that particular encounter of the week.
Also, today on ENWorld, probably the largest unofficial D&D community on the internet, they posted a list of what D&D people to follow on Twitter. I’ve often made references to twitter on my articles, “…today on twitter….” that sort of thing. Well, I just wanted to share with you guys that may not be on twitter, or may not really understand what it’s all about, just how cool it all is for D&D stuff.
On twitter you can converse in pretty much real time with all sorts of D&D related people, including the very designers and writers that work on the game. Guys like James Wyatt, Chris Sims, Greg Bilsland (just to name a few) are guys whose names are in your D&D books and you could chat with them, make suggestions, or just listen to what they have to say about the game. There are daily D&D related conversations and discussions that are great fun, and are only happening on twitter. For example, there was a debate today about cannon and D&D settings, and what makes a setting unique. The people participating on it were mostly D&D designers.
If you are a new DM, there are tons of DMing advice conversations happening at any given time, a lot of back and forths between bloggers, designers and players of the game. I know I’m very active on there, as are many other bloggers.
If you haven’t gotten the twitter bug just yet, there is a great thread on the ENWorld forums, kind of a quick how-to guide for entering the world of D&D and Twitter. Check it out here.
Once you get on twitter, feel free to start following me too. I’m always posting interesting links, and all sorts of D&D and DM’ing related topics.
www. Newbie DM .com 
Daniel M. Perez
June 21, 2010
Can I be pedantic & point out that it is always Twitter, with a capital T?
😉
Seriously, though, Twitter rocks. It has replaced forums for me and the direct conversation with pretty much anyone trumps all other forms of social media communications. If you’re not on it, what are you waiting for?
newbiedm
June 21, 2010
Yes. Even pedantic folk are on Twitter. With a capital T. T. T. Capital T.
🙂
thadeousc
June 21, 2010
Twitter has really helped me to become both a better DM and blogger. It’s really a great living community with tons of helpful information suggestions and opportunities.
Kato Katonian
June 21, 2010
I have been pleasantly surprised by the size of the D&D (and RPG) community on Twitter. It’s really interesting to watch all the conversations about the game go by between DMs, players, and Wizards of the Coast staff. I have to tip my hat to Wizards for having a pretty relevant Twitter presence–knowing that the devs watch and participant in the ongoing dialogues is pretty great.
I’ve met a lot of interesting D&D folks already through Twitter, and found a ton of great sites and blog. I am ever impressed that I can tag something with the #dnd hashtag and have totally random people respond. It’s a great community.
gamefiend
June 22, 2010
Twitter is an awesome spot to be for roleplaying folk. Lots of great convos, great tips, and also the occassional contest or announcement!
theWeem
June 22, 2010
I am hugely addicted to Twitter, I love it. I have always called myself a “forums” guy, and really, I do love them, but right now Twitter has my mostly undivided attention – especially with regards to getting my D&D fix online.
Oh, and thanks for the reference to my “quick how-to” guide – just noticed, hehe 😉
Swordgleam
June 22, 2010
“For example, in Wizards of the Coast’s organized play “D&D Encounters”, the PC’s can gain buffs during the encounter just by following Wizard’s own twitter feed ”
See, it’ schemes like this that turn me off Twitter. That just sounds less like a cool benefit for people who go the extra mile and more like Wizards trying to blackmail people into following them on Twitter so they can be marketed to more effectively. Not that I don’t offer bonuses to people who subscribe to my newsletter, but somehow similar tactics really annoy me when applied to Twitter.
newbiedm
June 22, 2010
In wotc’s defense though, they never really use their twitter feed for too much marketing. They tend to link to blogs a lot, community stuff, and yes, the occasional article on their site.
thadeousc
June 23, 2010
Swordgleam I hate to argue but you don’t even have to follow WotC on twitter to get the tweet buffs. They are all broadcast on the #dndenc hash tag so anyone with twitter can see them. No purchase no follow necessary.
Not everything is a scheme, some things are actually just them reaching out to the greater community.
Colmarr
June 23, 2010
Oh, everything is a scheme, but some of them are more benign than others 🙂