Browsing All posts tagged under »Advice/Tools«

3 Years Behind the Screen

July 20, 2011 by

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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 […]

Reader Tutorial: Build Your Own Aerial Combat Stand

June 20, 2011 by

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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

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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 […]

Moral Conundrums & Tough Choices in Your Game

March 17, 2011 by

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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 […]

NewbieDM.com Minicast Ep.14

February 24, 2011 by

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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 […]

TheSheDM’s Tutorial on Building an Aerial Grid

February 22, 2011 by

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If you read Penny Arcade, you might remember Gabe’s post regarding his infamous free-fall encounter and you might have been impressed with his multi-tiered set up. I was, and a while back I decided to create my own version. An upcoming game for my players involved their first combat with a real flying opponent. How […]

Gametable organization

February 3, 2011 by

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I enjoy the occasional online game of D&D, and while it will never really replace good old fashioned  face to face gaming for me, it satisfies a need every so often.  My virtual table of choice, and I’ve said it before, is Gametable.  It is a no frills, easy-to-use program that gives me exactly what […]

The Smallest of Gaming Groups: DM+1

November 29, 2010 by

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Recently, after a 3 years hiatus due to my son being born, I’ve gotten back into Warcraft.  I played Warcraft before 4e came out in order to satisfy a gaming itch I had, and now the recent Cataclysm event in the game piqued my curiosity.  But this isn’t an article about Warcraft, but rather what […]

The Powers That Be

November 10, 2010 by

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One of my biggest gripes about 4e has always been in the presentation of it, and specifically the presentation of powers.  Now I’m not saying that I dislike the power system of 4e, on the contrary, I find it to be a great way to spice up the otherwise boring attack, repeat, attack treadmills of […]

A new Episode of the “Dungeon Master Guys” is out

October 18, 2010 by

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It’s hard to believe we’ve reached Episode 6 of the Dungeon Master Guys, the podcast I co-host with Phil “ChattyDM” Menard and Dave “The Game” Chalker both from the Critical-Hits website. I (admittedly) haven’t done a great job publicizing the show too much on this site, but you really need to check it out.  It’s […]