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Warstories: The Unprepared Player

April 16, 2010 by newbiedm

I'll assume that at some point in our collective gaming careers, we've all been guilty of this. Heck, I know I have on more than one occasion. I'm talking about the player who shows up to his game with no pencils, 2 dice, a barely legible character sheet he scribbled on a napkin, and a few pages from a scanned copy of the rule book.

Reader Voicemail: Presenting Your Adventure

April 14, 2010 by newbiedm

I thought this voicemail would be better answered as a post, rather than on the minicast. So here goes… How a DM prepares or presents adventures is something that I am sure varies from table to table. In my particular case, and how I mentioned in our new “Dungeon Master Guys” podcast, I constantly seek […]

“The 36 Dramatic Situations” by Georges Polti

April 8, 2010 by newbiedm

“The 36 Dramatic Situations” is a 19th century book by french author Georges Polti. By analyzing Greek texts and contemporary French writings, Polti attempted to categorize every dramatic situation that might occur in a story. This list of 36 situations remains, until today, very popular among writers and storytellers. Here now are the situations: 1. […]

How To Be An Effective Dungeon Master

March 29, 2010 by newbiedm

The following comes from the classic “Keep on the Borderlands” module, by Gary Gygax. It’s a very accurate description of Dm’ing, and one worth reading every so often. How To Be An Effective Dungeon Master As Dungeon Master, the beginner is faced with a difficult problem. The DM is the most important person in the […]

Mike Shea from slyflourish.com on the minicast

March 22, 2010 by newbiedm

Episode 3 of the NewbieDM minicast has been released. In this episode of the minicast, Mike Shea, who runs the wonderful DM blog Sly Flourish helps answer a voice-mail from a listener asking for tips on what to do when players loot an NPC carrying far too many magical items. You can find the minicast […]

Reader Voicemail: Building an Adventure

March 9, 2010 by newbiedm

The response to the voicemail has been pretty fantastic so far, and there’s probably no way that I’ll be able to take advantage of all the voicemails that have come in through a podcast alone, so I thought I’d create a new section for the site called “Reader Voicemail”, where I’ll write an answer, rather […]

Hating the sound of my voice…

March 1, 2010 by newbiedm

Just a quick post to plug two things… I had the chance to join in on a discussion of the “Underdark” book over at “The Tome Show” podcast with the show’s host, Jeff Greiner and two additional guests, Mark from Dice Monkey and Chris from Icosahedrophilia. Go check it out if you want to hear […]

Homemade condition cards

February 23, 2010 by newbiedm

In my quest to speed up the table of players world wide (how presumptuous of me) I offer these homemade condition cards. The text will seem a bit different to you than what you may be used to, and that’s only because I wanted to stay out of trouble, but the meaning didn’t change. I […]

Storing my Dungeon Tiles and Miniatures

February 2, 2010 by newbiedm

I’ve been asked how I store my minis and tiles, so rather than write it up, I thought I’d show you. Check it:

Some ways new dm’s can create roleplaying opportunities

January 31, 2010 by newbiedm

One of the things I find that most gives new gaming groups problems are finding and encouraging ways to make role-playing part of the table experience. 4th Ed, which is designed with a big slant towards combat encounters, seems to also be a source of concern for groups, if what I read on forums, groups, […]