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Planning Neverwinter

September 9, 2011 by newbiedm

One of the strengths of the Neverwinter campaign setting, as I stated in my review, is the inclusion of character themes. Character themes were first introduced in the Dark Sun setting as a way to tie the PC’s into the world, with a ready to go plot hook for the DM to build stories around. […]

The Ipad DM: Goodreader

September 1, 2011 by newbiedm

In my previous post on this series, I wrote about Index Cards, a screenwriting app suitable for organizing details of your campaign. Now, I’m going to show you Goodreader, the app I use for reading, organizing, marking, and making printouts of pdf’s in my gaming library. At $4.99, it’s cheap and very useful, and I […]

3 Years Behind the Screen

July 20, 2011 by newbiedm

Last month marked my third anniversary as a full time DM, and I still enjoy it so much that I haven’t passed the baton to someone else. It’s actually pretty incredible that I’ve been able to do it for so long without losing much interest (and the same goes for running this blog), as I […]

The Easiest Combat Map You’ll Never Make

July 15, 2011 by TheSheDM

Like a kid playing with Legos, I derive a childish glee from clearing off my coffee table and laying out dungeon tiles. I also have vinyl grids and wet-erase pens. When tiles can’t help me, carefully drawing vinyl maps is a close second in the glee department. I’m a busy DM though, I don’t always […]

Reader Tutorial: Build Your Own Aerial Combat Stand

June 20, 2011 by newbiedm

Hey guys, NewbieDM here…. As you may know, I love showcasing what readers of the site do in their own games, and often provide a space here for tutorials and other things that DM’s may find useful. This article, by Scott Harris, caught my eye when he first proposed it to me. Aerial combat is […]

The Ipad DM: Index Cards

June 2, 2011 by newbiedm

I recently purchased an Ipad, and am now using it at my gaming table. My primary use for it is my gaming books, which are in PDF form, rather than print copies. But this series of articles will not really be only about reading pdf’s (although I’ll cover pdf software eventually in this series), but […]

Bribing Participation

May 27, 2011 by TheSheDM

I have always disliked “bribing” my players. Background write ups, treasure wish-lists, and other issues some DM laments that his players don’t contribute enough of it and inevitably someone replies with a suggestion to bribe the player with experience, items, gold, bonuses, action points, or whatever else seems applicable. It’s not usually my cup of […]

The DM Binder Project

May 3, 2011 by newbiedm

I had an idea while recording the latest “Dungeon Master Guys Podcast” that I thought would be cool for the blog. Some time ago, I posted an article called “The DM’s Binder, Folder or Notebook” that proved to be pretty popular. In it I wrote about different things that DM’s should keep in their notebook, […]

Splitting the Party

March 18, 2011 by TheSheDM

“Never split the party!” When the party decides to split up all kinds of problems arise. A DM has to juggle focusing on two groups interacting with two different environments or NPCs. Maybe characters struggle not to die as an encounter meant to face six players gleefully wallops its way through three players. The DM […]

Moral Conundrums & Tough Choices in Your Game

March 17, 2011 by newbiedm

One of the things I’ve learned since I began DMing Dragon Age is just how good placing moral conundrums in front of your players is. The Dragon Age adventure philosophy, by design, encourages this approach to story-telling, and I’ve found that it really makes players become more involved in the story you are all trying […]