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Why I Left DDI

April 11, 2011 by newbiedm

There’s no way to write a post like this without sounding like, or coming across as, a troll looking for cheap traffic. And those are two things I’ve tried never to do in the 2.5 years I’ve been running my blog. Having said that, I feel that it is a topic worth exploring and writing […]

7 Weeks in my Realms

April 7, 2011 by newbiedm

My name is Mike Lemmer, and the last campaign I GMed stalled a year ago. Eager to shake the rust off before starting a new one, I posted a call to arms on the RPTools forums for an adventure set in 4th edition D&D’s Living Forgotten Realms. I vowed to create & run 6 homemade […]

Our own Helm’s Deep

April 1, 2011 by newbiedm

I ran a real neat encounter in my Dragon Age game, and I thought I’d share it here, along with some ideas you could steal from it for your game, whether its D&D, DA, or something else. The encounter isn’t mine, it’s part of a published adventure found in the excellent “Blood in Ferelden” supplement […]

rpgKids craziness and Adventure Pack update

March 22, 2011 by newbiedm

This past week I saw rpgKids hit outside of the insular D&D community and blogosphere in a big way. I was contacted by the popular BoingBoing blog to write an article about the game for them, and it led to many people picking up the game to (based on emails I got) rediscover gaming by […]

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 […]

More on Star Wars using AGE

March 11, 2011 by newbiedm

On my off time I’ve been quietly working (for fun) on a Star Wars conversion of the first 5 levels of Dragon Age. I’m not spending too much time on it, but I admit that the prospect of an AGE powered Star Wars game is appealing to me, if not for nostalgia alone, as the […]

GM worksheets for Dragon Age

March 10, 2011 by newbiedm

I originally posted this article and the accompanying sheets over at the Dragon Age Oracle blog, but wanted to bring them over here as well. I hope someone gets some use out of them, and enjoys their old school look and flavor. I recently got my hands on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon […]

Where’s D&D Going?

February 28, 2011 by newbiedm

I never really do posts like this, but I thought it would be fun to throw my speculative hat into the ring along with every other blogger out there making claims about D&D and what the future holds not only for 4e, but for the brand. This is all speculation and wild theory, just for […]

NewbieDM.com Minicast Ep.14

February 24, 2011 by newbiedm

There’s a new episode of the ENnie nominated NewbieDM.com Minicast out today, and my guest this time around is Dave “The Game” Chalker , Editor-In-Chief of the Critical Hits blog. Also, regarding the Minicast, I intend to get back on a more regular schedule, and I’m opening it up to the Dragon Age RPG as […]