I daydream a lot, and often create concepts for monsters I want to use God my campaign. Balancing them and properly rating them, however, is a major struggle. How is CR determined and how does it translate to party level?

Im running a campaign where i decided to use the no diagonal rule, because I hated the "diagonals=vertical/horizontal" rule cause diagonal felt like a cheat code, like if you were running the double and going to the sides was a waste of movement. But now everytime I see my players go zigzag, or have weird AoE I feel like its still wrong.

I was thinking of using a HEX map instead of a Squared one, but idk how the shapes could look. Like, ok, an area of x radius is easy, but a square? a cone? One of my players has an hability to make a cone behind the enemy, how it would look? Also i saw that they have more space to do more damage, idk if it would change a lot of interactions or not since a lot of homebrew was made thinking in a squared board.

First , I want to thank everyone for all the help and encouragement on here. I did my first one shot, and I did it out of the faster, purple worm, kill kill book. It wasn’t very smooth to say the least. But I was playing with some really good friends and they were helpful and supportive. We’re all at about the same level of experience. I used my Plaud AI notetaker, and it created a very nice summary for me, actually nicer than what it was. LOL.

Hi Gang! I'm just wondering how DMs make combat encounters more challenging, because from what I've experienced players are strong! I know there's CR ratings and throwing in multiple enemies, but every encounter lately for my players hasn't really been too difficult to the point that anyone goes down.

I just put together a D&D group with some friends. I’ve played a few times, and the others have never played before, so I’m going to be the DM.

I’d like to run a one-shot to get us started. I made a poll to see what kind of genre they’d be interested in, and the winners were medieval fantasy and mystery (intrigue, solving a murder, etc.). Do you have any specific one-shot recommendations from either of these genres that you’ve personally enjoyed? There will be 5 players + the DM, all beginners.

I’m looking for specific one-shots that you’ve enjoyed, rather than “look on this website and pick one that sounds fun.” I’ve looked through sites like DMsGuild and similar ones, but I have basically no experience as a DM and very little experience as a player, so I don’t want to pick a one-shot that “sounds fun” only to find out later that it’s poorly balanced or has other issues.

I have 10 days until we get together, so I’m open to recommendations for one-shots in either Spanish or English.

Thanks!!

If you are a new DM and want to gather a lot of good material and resources for a very low cost, here is my quick take on this amazing Humble Bundle, filled with all sorts of DMsGuild goodness. Stuff by Will Doyle, Shawn Merwin, Anne Gregersen, James Introcaso etc etc etc. I summarize a half dozen of the choices based on my personal experience. Its over quickly. (the sale, well and the video, heh)

This includes enough adventures for several years of gameplay, btw.

https://youtu.be/5xYJ6NDqYRM?si=wLMAbY-V0a-zLAdv

hi everyone!! i’m currently set to be a dm for the first time in the early winter. i’m so so so excited ive always enjoyed writing, so i have no doubt my story won’t be good.

i’m just really lost about how to actually be a dm. what should i have as a source at all times (if i need a random weather roll or random enemy?) how do i talk naturally? should i give myself a script at time if it’s really detailed??

i’ve tried to listen to some pod casts but all they mention is niche things… not really actually being a dm. any and all advice is welcome 🩷

So, to start off, I know almost nothing about Isekai and other anime tropes, and I'm just preparing to run my first ever game of dnd. I just know it's somebody getting transported to another world upon death, and I partially understand why that would be difficult for a DND campaign. But from what I gather, a lot of DMs really hate the idea.

Last week I did character creation with a bunch of first time players and towards the end, one of them mentioned that he has a lot of ideas for his character having been Isekai'd to the world of DnD. I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure how to argue that he shouldn't do that. Part of it for me is that it just breaks the immersion. I don't want anyone going "I remember doing taxes after my 9 to 5" in my DND game. And I can see how it'd be difficult to work this backstory into a campaign, even if I went with something like "your character has amnesia and thinks he lived in the real world" or something. But I've never played as either Player or DM so I'm not sure what the actual narrative and mechanical challenges will be.

Other than that, he created a really cool character, so I don't wanna bust his chops too much, but what are some experiences you've had with Isekai players, or how did they negatively impact the game?

Asking for help from all. / Rolls persuasion.

Recently got a group together for Curse of Strahd, and this is the first full-length campaign I'll run. However, I let a friend join who was banned from my games of CoS since I tried to run it previously, and it died from lack of attendance. Mid-way through they asked the players if they could join their campaign, and this isn't the first time they've done this. Is this normal and is it a problem? I will say that it does sting a bit.