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Thoughts on running the beginning of Descent into Avernus

October 11, 2019 by newbiedm

I’m a few sessions into Wizards of the Coast’s latest D&D hardcover, Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus for my home group, and I thought I’d put out some thoughts about my experiences running the beginning of the adventure. For those of you into this sort of thing, here’s my party’s makeup: Human Fighter Kobold Ranger […]

Launched a new campaign last night and other gaming updates

March 9, 2018 by newbiedm

It feels like forever since I’ve updated my blog, and I’ve had so much to talk about here but haven’t had the time. So last night I launched a new campaign on Roll20.net, and I’m pretty excited about it. It’s a Star Wars game set in the new films’ era, right after Last Jedi, and […]

Paper Minis!

August 31, 2017 by newbiedm

Everyone loves their minis. Everyone loves having a unique mini that represents their character, or in the case of DMs, that represents the monsters that the PCs will ultimately face. Even back in the old days, when I was a player in 1e or 2e games, we had minis there to represent marching order and […]

NewbieDM Review: Encounter Decks 3 by Inkwell Ideas

September 2, 2015 by newbiedm

During Gencon, I saw that my friend Mike, who runs SlyFlourish, picked up a deck of cards with what looked like an encounter and a map on them. These cards intrigued me, so I looked around and picked up a batch from Drivethru RPG. I picked up the bundle that includes the PDF of the […]

The 5e Overland Travel Montage

March 9, 2015 by newbiedm

One of the things I’ve had to deal with in the 5e game that takes place in the 2nd Ed. era of the Forgotten Realms is overland travel. That map is huge! And there are quite a few empty spots along the way (one of the reasons why I’m switching to the 3e map actually, […]

Rethinking Initiative

January 28, 2015 by newbiedm

“You enter a room, the smell in here’s musky. The ground is covered in a fine dust, and you can see footprints, along with a few drops of fresh blood.” “The creatures must have come through here. I want to roll perception, maybe to see if I hear something… 15… Anything?” “You do, you hear soft […]

Update on the minicast’s return, and old episodes available again

November 8, 2014 by newbiedm

I’ve been swamped lately with work and a lot of other stuff which has cut into my free time, but progress on the return of the ENnie nominated NewbieDM.com Minicast is moving along. I was looking for (and found) a way to host it on the cheap, and through a wordpress.com/feedburner combo, I’m doing just […]

Converting the 2e Realms to 5e

September 29, 2014 by newbiedm

In a previous post I wrote about setting my home game in the Forgotten Realms around the time period of the 2nd edition version of D&D, which would put us in Faerun in 1368DR. For those of you keeping track at home, the original boxed set of the Forgotten Reams placed the timeline at 1357DR, […]

Campaign building with the Monster Manual

September 10, 2014 by newbiedm

“This bestiary is for storytellers and world-builders.” – Monster Manual introduction The D&D 5th Ed. Monster Manual releases on September 19th for those stores that take part in the WOTC WPN program, and on September 30th for everyone else. A few Monster Manuals saw the light of day at Gencon, and we’ve seen some bits […]

Bringing back the NewbieDM.com Minicast for 5e

September 7, 2014 by newbiedm

So 5th Ed. launched and it’s a thing, and I want to get back to doing what I like with D&D, which is talking with and helping DMs with their games. So I’m bringing back my old (and ENnie nominated) NewbieDM Minicast. It’s been far too long. If you’ve never heard of the minicast, it […]