Let the King Be King ft. Ollo Clark

Status can inject intense drama into roleplay, too bad it's not only in the hands of the GM.

Ever wished your tabletop RPG sessions felt more like epic 'do-or-die' tales and less like casual dice-rolling? Well, in this episode, our friend Ollo delivers us a golden key to unlock another level of immersive storytelling and roleplay. Character status, both internal and external, is that roleplay key, but the players are the ones who hold it. 

Status is the secret ingredient that powers those intense in-game moments, where powerful NPCs truly command respect and spine-tingling fear. Ollo Clark, Creative & Art Director for Escape Plan Games, joins us to reveal the status concept's power and how to apply it to our tables.

First, we break down the distinction between internal and external status and why it matters. You'll learn how to play with the dynamics of low and high internal status on the fly. Referencing Succession to Game of Thrones, Ollo shows us how to broadcast status in creative ways.

For GMs, we discuss how to respond when players act brashly towards powerful NPCs and reveal the rewards and consequences of their actions. When to get players to buy into this fiction (hint, it's ASAP). How to create your own system for determining how the world responds to your players status and discuss ideas for how status affects the world around them.

Then, for players, discover how the power of status can shape your character's internal standing, easing roleplay and character decisions. While status is rarely a game mechanic, it might just be one of the most important roleplay secrets you'll learn. After all... actors have long been subtly using it to draw us into their drama.

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As always, thanks for all of you! Our wonderful Patrons who made this episode possible.
Inigo the Brave!, Adam F., Alex R., Steve A., Sigma, Kuraidoscope, Skyler E, Deadman, NinjaDuckie, PseuArt, Blackthorne, FirstLaw, PeakcockDreams, DM Thunderbum, Marley R., Timewarp, DangerousMarmalade, Zach G., No Ma'am, Michelle T., Adlerious, Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., DM Natske, Heavyarms, Leprecan, Will HP

How to Win at Warlock Characters

Weave a warlocks tale of morality, hard choices, and being the most metal party member.

Warlocks inspire a lot of wonder, right out of the gate. They've got an incredible story hook baked right in, and one can sit there considering how terrifying they look for ages. But where we've fallen down before is really making that hook pay off. This episode explores the themes and potential stories that warlocks offer us, and how to play them to their heights.

In Kinship Camp we explore how to make the three elements of a warlock shine. When planning your character, you really have to consider their want and need. What were they trying to fix with their shortcut to power, and what's going to set them free from their pain? When creating your patron, work with your DM to consider their goal and the relationship between them and the warlock. Finally, we talk about steps to create a simple but powerful origin story for their deal, where their story could go, and some methods for roleplaying this unique class.

As always, huge thanks to the support of our patrons for making this episode a reality.

DM Thunderbum, Marley R., Garr the Pirate, Timewarp, DangerousMarmalade, Zach G., NoMaam, Michelle T., Alan E., Felix R., Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., Tyler G., Ty N., Heavyarms, Erik R., Aldrost, Leprecan, Will H-P.

Show, Don't Tell ft. Ollo Clark

Bring moments to life in a way that inspires roleplay, not rules referencing.

Those great sessions that are packed with character moments, epic fights, and emotional highs seem almost magical. Well, this episode unlocks a piece of that magic. We talk to Ollo Clark from Escape Plan Games all about how the storytelling concept "show, don't tell" can apply to all the elements of TTRPG's, and help us encourage those memorable moments.

In The Strategy Stateroom we go through Ollo's four filters he uses to create great descriptions.

1. Purpose. What do I want my players to feel or experience?

2. Action. Can I do it with action instead of emotive language?

3. Sensations. Can I use sensations instead of descriptions?

4. Meta. What can I do outside of the fiction to emphasize the moment?

Next, we use these steps to think about how we would introduce some NPCs, monsters, locations, and weapons starting from some great prompts from a few of the show's patrons, which they gave us on the Hook and Chance discord.

Then we go to The Heroes Stage to learn more about Ollo's journey to becoming a Creative & Art Director, how his education in literature and acting has influenced the way he runs games, and some of the innovative features that Tavern Tales Volume I brings to the world of 5e supplements. Check out Escape Plan Games - eplangames.com

Follow Ollo on Twitter @jackbnimble42

As always, huge thanks to the support of our patrons for making this episode a reality.

Marley R., Garr the Pirate, Timewarp, Nico Y., Zach G., NoMaam, Michelle T., Alan E., Felix R., Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., Tyler G., Ty N., Heavyarms, Erik R., Aldrost, Leprecan, Will H-P

The Tragic Backstory Made Useful

Make your tragedies matter to your character, the party, and the story.

Have you ever felt the backstory pains that we used to? This was our strategy: We write an elaborate backstory full of murder, mystery, and utter loss. We imagine telling our friends around the gaming table, hearing their "oohs" and "aahs" as their minds are blown by our creative genius. Then we get to the game and realize that it's probably inappropriate to give a half-hour monologue about how Goretrax the dragon emperor tricked us into shooting our family into the sun. And so the backstory is forgotten. To top it off, we play a character that exists completely separately from the backstory we labored over! Well, since then, we've grown and considered how the tragic backstory can not only be interesting to the party but create incredible moments for our characters.

In The Strategy Stateroom, we lay out what we think are four crucial questions about your character. Their answers will bring their tragedy into the game in the best way. We dive into each of them in the episode and talk about specifics that will help you get the most out of them.

• What is the source of your character's trauma?

• What is your character's path?

• How does your character's trauma manifest?

• How does your character's trauma get resolved?

Then we go to The Extra-Dimensional Gateway to talk about the traumatic backstories of Iron Man and Arya Stark to see what we liked about them, what we can borrow, and how they differ.

Fear, Cause Fear, and the Frightened Condition

Turn a flash of fear into one of your character's most defining moments.

When you're in the middle of an epic fight, whether you're the one inspiring the darkest fears in your enemies, or they're the one summoning the terror within you, it feels like that should be a big deal, right? Yet what we so often end up with is a restrictive mechanic slapped down that makes someone hang out for a turn or two. But we're talking about one of our most primal human emotions here! The one that can reduce us to a shivering pile, or cause us to funnel it all into pure rage and explode against our foes! Shouldn't this be a moment? We think it should, so that's what this episode is about.

In Kinship Camp, we use the five-step structure we talked about in Episode 126. The Five Steps to Every Story.

• Step one, the inciting incident, covers how we can make that moment of causing fear land. What can your character or monster do that's truly terrifying, and what are the physiological effects of fear that we can describe?

• In step two, challenges, we discuss what your character could do in their fight, flight, or freeze, and what it feels like to come down from fear.

• Step three, the choice, is about whether you're going to actually overcome your fear at that moment, or lean in, and turn the fear into something to wrestle with as a character.

• Step four, action, is about looking for your moment to show your choice, whether it be a two-handed screaming ax blow or a retreat to the shadows.

• And finally, step five is figuring out how your character feels about their fear afterward.

Then we go to Grandma B's Schoolhouse to take inspiration from three real-world creatures, and how they cast fear on their enemies. It gets nasty.

As always, huge thanks to the support of our patrons for making this episode a reality.

Garr the Pirate, Time Warp, Nico Y., Zach G., No Ma'am, Michelle T., Hentenius, Alan E., Matthew T., Felix R., Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., Tyler G., Ty N., Heavyarms, Erik R, Aldrost, Leprecan, and Will H-P.

The Narrative of Leveling Up

Tell the tale of your characters growth by exploring the story behind the levels.

We always want our games to be more immersive, and jam packed with the drama and fun of our characters. Having goals and conquering foes is great, but in this episode we want to turn the focus to roleplaying out what it's like for your character to gain their new stats, abilities, and spells. The whole table can end up a lot more invested if every player is adding this to the pot.

In The Strategy Stateroom we go through a bit of a mental filter to get the details of leveling out for your character. We talk about laying the groundwork for your next level by considering your upcoming abilities, and working them into how you character spends their time. This looks a little different for each character depending on if they are focused on physical, mental, or spiritual upgrades. Consider how you can find strength from within, get help from party members, or use the world you are in to fuel your ideas. Then we discuss how to find a little moment to roleplay your level up regardless of how quickly it's happening. Even if you're in the middle of an epic battle, you can give that level up a little pizazz. And finally, we have to mention the fact that reacting to your party members new abilities is going to make the moment and the roleplay that much better.

Then we go to Tymora's Tavern to apply this to a couple characters we want to level up soon. One is a disaster of a dwarven paladin named The Junker. The other is Ged, a gross little goblin druid that turns everyone's stomach when he concocts his spells. Nobody wants them to become more powerful, but in our games, we'll know exactly how they did it.

As always, huge thanks to the support these folks give on our Patreon.

ISeeSpidersWhereThereAreNone, The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., Ty N., Heavyarms, Erik R, Aldrost, Leprecan, and Will H-P.

How to Fix Mistakes in Your Game

Confidently sit down for D&D, knowing how to roll with whatever screw ups occur.

Making mistakes as a DM or player was once our biggest fear. Then, we learned that the greatest games happen due to unexpected occurrences, and that the best thing we can do in the face of creative adversity is just keep moving,. In this episode, you'll learn how to do that in any gaming situation that seems bad.

Making and fixing mistakes that you make in D&D is really no different from how you play the rest of the game. It's a series of unexpected events that lead you to the question "What next?" Well, first we head to the Strategy Stateroom to cover three steps to take with any mistake. First, make sure everyone is on the same page about mistakes. Essentially, everyone makes them, so let's all just chill and have fun. Second, determine if you've actually made a mistake, or if you just weren't expecting this. Can you move forward with no ill effects? Well, do that instead of panicking. If it is a mistake, figure out what negative effect it's causing. Thirdly, if it is a mistake, undo the underlying negative effect. Then we cover common mistakes like overpowered items or encounters, not giving out enough information, weakening characters, discussing how to fix them and what not to do.

Then we take a brief sojourn to The Temple of Inspired Hands to talk about a new tabletop roleplaying game coming out through Kickstarter called Shiver. It's a mega flexible horror themed system that introduces new mechanics that keep tension high, and let you tell stories inspired by horror movies, cult classics, and pulp tv. Check it Shiver Here.

Build Religious Characters with Depth

Create a confident zealot that feels real enough to roleplay.

If you've listened to our last episode, you heard us create a system to create unique gods and religions. Well, now it's time to apply that to your incredible character! We combine our culture creator and our character planner and show you how flipping fun it is to create characters that have a lot to them and their beliefs, without studying manuals of lore or spending months creating your own.

Character creation is always a blast, but there's not a lot of space on the character sheet for including all that great godly stuff. And it should all be conceived of together! So we go to the Strategy Stateroom, where we each create a deity, a religion, and a character from the ground up. One is a seafaring survivor that respects and fears the goddess of the oceans, the other a struggling small-town citizen that received a gift that changed their life forever.

Then we jump over to Grandma B's Schoolhouse to discuss some fascinating religious offshoots that really exist, to showcase how many offshoots of religion can exist, with one little difference of opinion. If you want to find the resources to create all of this on your own, check out our resources on the website, specifically the Culture Creator and the Character Planner.

Create Gods and Religions with Ease

All you need for rich religions without the lore spiral.

So you want your world to feel real, and it's time to scheme up some godly goodness. There's two ways we know to screw this up real good. The first is to just forget to do it, and all the sudden you've got a fantasy ripoff of whatever religion you know best in real life. The second is to go way too deep. Reading a 350 page tome cover to cover that goes into a wild fantasy pantheon, then realizing your table did NOT do their homework, and this is gonna take a lot of exposition. Well, following the system in this episode will give you just enough for some incredible roleplay.

It's a lot of fun to create gods and religions for your games, and the process is pretty easy to get you playing. We first hunker down in the Strategy Stateroom where we talk about building a deity, then a religion to go with it. The deity requires a backstory, traits, and a goal, similar to any NPC. Building a solid religion takes figuring out some values, a goal of the followers, the path to get there, allies and opposition. That's it! This gives your characters and your game master so much to work with.

Then we head over to the Extradimensional Gateway to pull some of our favorite people into D&D, turning them into our pantheon of extraordinary deities.

How to Handle Character Death

Transform character deaths from the worst fate to the grandest moment.

Can you keep the threat of death in a game without worrying about pissing off the players? We think so. There's a few strategies that can make death a lot more important and meaningful in a game, which leaves everyone a lot more satisfied. It goes a lot farther than the classic rationalization of "let the dice fall where they may".

It's great to address character death at every stage of gameplay, just so everyone knows what to do. We go to the Strategy Stateroom to discuss how to do that. First you want to establish the deadliness of your game in a session zero. Then prep for character death by making sure consequences come due to the character's actions. In their final moments you want to play out the action in glorious detail, making their last stand a grand one. After their death, make sure the world reacts to it, based on what they did and who they connected with. Finally, have a backup plan when all your plans go to heck, which they will. That leads us down to Milly's Shop of Wonders, where we suggest a few magic items that can help a party avoid the end of their characters.

Roleplay Like an Actor ft. Joanna Gaskell

Unleash your games potential by embracing the spirit of improv acting.

Want a little help getting that finely crafted character or NPC from the page into the game? Or maybe you've got all these ideas as a DM, but find it tricky to run those flowing, exciting sessions you see in your mind? Well, Joanna Gaskell is here to help. She's a cast member of a D&D improv show, DM's professionally, and even wrote, produced and starred in a long running D&D inspired web series!

We jump into The Strategy Stateroom with Joanna to hear how she makes her games great. Some takeaways, you say? She shares how letting go of control can lead to more dynamic and fulfilling games. Focusing on other players ideas can create a fun, chaotic snowball where everyone's on board. Listening, rather than scheming, always creates an atmosphere where incredible improvised roleplay happens.

Then we go to the Heroes Stage to hear how Joanna got started down her creative path, what she's working on, and what projects of hers we can look for next. Find her at @mightyjoanna on twitter to keep up with new short films, watch her web-series Standard Action, check out the online D&D improv show The Critical Hit Show, or listen to her play in a group of rotating DM's and rotating systems on What the Quest! You've got options.

Keep Players Hooked with Cliffhangers

Get your party beyond excited for the next session.

Cliffhangers are an incredibly powerful tool for your games. They create a serious psychological desire for closure, which makes people eager to return to the table. Sitting with that unresolved story also means they'l have time to roll it over in their minds, imagining all the possibilities. Ending on such a great moment also means your players are gonna remember what's happening a lot faster! So many reasons to use cliffhangers!

Yes, there are many types of cliffhangers for all kinds of stories. Some are meant to stay unresolved, leaving a meaningful question for viewers to ponder. Some are built on the entire story, where it leads to an epic twist. These are doable in D&D, but it's an integral part of the story that should be considered well in advance. What we're talking about is cliffhangers that threaten something the players care about, and leave that threat unresolved.

To lay out how to reliably produce these cliffhangers, we go to the Strategy Stateroom. The Steps are:

1. Craft the Cliffhanger, where you determine what you're going to threaten and how.

2. Build Tension, where you lay out three details that lead towards your cliffhanger.

3. The Big Reveal, Where you lay out the threat in as much dramatic glory as possible.

4. Drop the Bomb, where you give them that last crucial detail and then bring a drastic halt to the session.

Then we get weird in Tymora's Tavern, where we pit our D&D parties against each other. The twist? They're made up of our favorite cliffhanger rich TV series. Listen to us discuss said cliffhangers, which means plenty of spoilers, decide which team you think wins, then let us know so that one of us can rub the other's face in it.

Better Roleplay Using Character Dynamics

Create endless interaction between characters by creating connections.

Staring at another player, sweating through the seconds, thinking to yourself "must...roleplay..." is a rough moment. Instead, we want the moments where people are verbally bouncing off each other, and it feels like a real group of people chatting about the dangers of dungeons. Well, a little consideration of the relationships your character has with each party member can go such a long way.

Defining the relationships your character has with those around them is fundamental to roleplaying. If everyone does this with each other, a bunch of individual characters transforms into an engaging team so quickly. First we go to the Strategy Stateroom to boil character relationships down to a single sentence that defines them, providing a quick pregame prompt. Add details, keep it simple, however you want to take it. The components are:

1. Determine your Relationship Role

2. Establish your Role Dynamics

3. Create Conflict and Harmony

That single sentence result? Here's some samplers.

• They are antagonistic frenemies defined by their shared love of nature and their conflicting materialistic values.

• They are supportive siblings defined by their shared family secrets and their conflicting moral judgements.

Then we go to Moradin's Forge to discuss a simple mechanic for encouraging teamwork in the party. The benefits are that it encourages players to make their characters vulnerable during combat for the greater good, and it shows players how their selfish character behavior actually affects gameplay.

Trust is a powerful force that must exist between great adventurers. This optional rule was designed to represent that trust in and out of combat, and to encourage players to earn each others trust through gameplay.

Earning and Losing Trust

Trust points exist between each member of the party. A character can give or take away one trust point from any other character once per day. Trust points exist on a scale of -5 to +5, representing the level of trust a character has for another.

Trust Effects

Social Trust

Your trust for another gives them greater or lesser influence over you.

The character with the trust point(s) of another has an equal bonus or penalty applied to all charisma skill checks aimed at the character that gave them the trust point(s).

Positive Trust

You can use the trust of your allies to your benefit when necessary in difficult situations. Your allies will immediately respond, without question, to requests for aid. This response is nearly instinctive, without regard for any personal downside.

To use a positive trust point, a character must be within 30 ft. of the character that granted it to them. A character can use a positive trust point to get advantage on an attack roll, or impose disadvantage on a saving throw made against an ability or spell of theirs. The character whose trust point was used gives advantage to any incoming attack rolls made against them, and takes disadvantage on any saving throws made until the start of the turn of the character that used the trust point. Once consumed in this way, the trust point is gone. The character that gave the trust point can give another trust point the next day, if they choose to.

Negative Trust

It’s hard to be effective when working in close quarters with someone you do not trust.

The less you trust them, the wider berth you need to give them when you need to be at your best. A character that has given a negative trust point to another takes disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws when within 10 ft. of the distrusted character. Each negative luck point adds 10 ft. to this range.

Better Roleplay Using Tropes

Take your party from good to great through character dynamics!

Ever play in or see a game where the party is just role-playing seamlessly with each other? It's magic! Ever sit on the edge of a group that's doing that but you don't know how to get into that groove? It's infuriating. With a little bit of knowledge about group tropes, you can capture that meshing feeling a lot quicker. These dynamics influence why groups like the Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Avengers are so satisfying to watch.Figure out where you fit into a group, and the role-playing between party members becomes so much easier. The fundamentals of this concept is that there's two characters that contrast each other, and there's characters that bridge the gap. This plays out in different ways in different group sizes. First we go to the Strategy Stateroom, where we break down groups from 2-7 members in size.

Two Character Dynamics

1. Adventure Duo
   Example: Cable and Deadpool in Deadpool 2
   The Hero: Focused, literal, determined, stubborn, serious
   The Weird One: Unfocused, scatterbrained, out of touch with reality.

2. Action Duo
   Example: Woody and Buzz in Toy Story
   Action Hero: Physically impressive, confident, performs incredible feats.
   Action Survivor: Physically unimpressive, agile, avoids danger rather than confronting it.

Three Character Dynamics

1. Freudian Trio
   Example: Kirk, Spock, and Bones from Star Trek: The Original Series
   Id: Acts Impulsively on instinct and desires
   Superego: Acts logically on ideas of morality and rules
   Ego: Acts realistically, trying to satisfy the other two without negative consequence.

2. Comic Trio
   Example: Ray, Egon and Venkman from Ghostbusters
   Navigator: The confident fool with a plan.
   Driver: The unaware fool that follows the plan unthinkingly/
   Passenger: The sane one that tries to talk the others out of it.

Three Character Dynamics

Example: Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Cynic: Critical, distrustful.
The Optimist: Determined, loyal to ideals and morality
The Realist: Objective, calm mediator, adaptable
The Apathetic: Along for the ride, mysterious or different motivations, wild card.

Four Character Dynamics

Example: Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Thor, Black Widow
The Leader: Confident, Charismatic
The Lancer: Contrasts the leader in a major way
The Smart One: Clever, uses mind first
The Big One: Strong, uses muscles first
The Heart: The peacekeeper, the key to a functioning group

Five or More Character Dynamics

Double up on roles
Example: R2D2 and C3PO
Add two more contrasting characters like the old and the young
Example: Dr. Strange and Spiderman from The Avengers

Then we go to Milly's Shop of Wonders to explore an idea for a magic consumable that encourages characters to help each other in the heat of battle! Or the heat of a dance off, whatever you do in your games. The basic idea is it allows characters to use the help action as a bonus action, in the name of teamwork!

Live to Tell the Tale ft. Keith Ammann

Tired of feeling like the survival of your character is completely in the fickle hands of fate?

Keith Ammann, author of Live to Tell the Tale and The Monsters Know What They're Doing is here to explain how players can think a bit differently about their characters and their desire to survive. Using new concepts like Ability contours he explains how characters can lean on their strengths, position themselves in combat, and know how to escape deadly situations.

One can probably consider their characters professional adventurers. Well like any professional, they probably consider tactics and drills like their life depends on it because it does! Keith presents some thought-provoking takes on why all players should spend some time considering their characters, not just for survivability alone but to be a better roleplayer as well as help your party.

You can follow Keith’s work on his Twitter, over on his wildly popular blog The Monsters Know and order a copy of his new book at Spy and Owl.

More Magical Monks

Build a monk that either pays respect to the class or breaks the boundaries completely.

This means that you can benefit from Jordan's mega deep-dive into the awesome mix of history/religion/lore that surround the Shaolin monks and their unique fighting style and avoid a potentially awkward converation about cliche or cringeworthy characters and play one right. We also chat about a unique system created by James Intracaso to fully and completely customize the underlying race system of D&D for when you really need to colour outside the lines but not break the system.

Here is a link to James Introcaso's post

Also check out the bad-ass pugilistic half orcs. How could you not want to play them? https://www.deviantart.com/ianllanas/art/Half-Orc-Brawler-436419289 https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/8t8urg/scartoof_2_the_punchening_art/

Captivate With Your Character Introductions ft. Beth Ball

Make an impact with a dramatic character introduction story!

Ever picture your character as incredible in your head, but then deliver a line like a goober, only to realize your party sees you as a goober? Dang, Goober. In this episode we are joined by the incredible author Beth Ball, who help us figure out how to introduce our characters in a way that capture the other players attention and conveys who they really are.

We are joined by author of Buried Heroes Beth Ball to share her insights on how we can accomplish this task with ease.

This episode is accompanied by a resource to help you write a few paragraphs of an introduction for your RPG character. The core idea to this guide that can not only help you get into character quicker and stay true to them but also to help other players understand the most important impressions you want to give quickly. Stats don’t tell anybody about who a character is at their core, but this will.

The resource is a form-fillable and printable PDF that you can find over here.

You can find more of Beth’s work over at D&D Duet and check out Beth Ball Books for a preview of the book before its impending release. Then, when you love it, go preorder it!

Also for a really helpful review and notes on the process, give Beth’s blog post about this specific topic a read. She provides some really helpful insights into the exercise and how it helped with her character Evelyne.

Immersive Theatre of the Mind ft. GMTim

Playing D&D with all the power and freedom of Theatre of the Mind.

Think D&D needs more maps and minis? Theatre of the Mind, or more simply, playing D&D with only a character sheet, can be daunting, especially for such a math and map driven game. So the talented GMTim joins us to teach how to try Theatre of the Mind and all of the benefits it brings with none of the challenge or fuss.
We use maps and minis exclusively, heck, we have a digital tabletop to display living and moving maps, so we completely understand that D&D and tabletop RPG's are entrenched with physical representations of fantasy and sci-fi lands. That being said, learning to harness the power of theatre of the mind style play, means being a powerful player and DM that can conjure these places and locales without using these things like a crutch. Being able to utilize both styles whenever needed or when the scene is best served by one or another, means we are all the more able to capture an incredible game of D&D.

The GMTim's website

So You Want to be a Goblin Adventure on the DMsGuild

Infernal Insurgency on the DMsGuild

The Ultimate Guide to Hair on Kickstarter on Kickstarter

Make Great Characters with Greater Problems

Create Motivated Characters That Are Easy to Play

There's so much out there on character creation that makes you think you're creating the ultimate hero. It's creative, fleshed out, nuanced, detailed, and has a killer backstory. We've made our fair share of those, and we usually find that once you try to role play those characters, they don't have much to say or do. We lose interest fast. This episode is about fixing that. If you define three problems your character has, their journey becomes effortlessly engaging and playable.

Magic Items and D&D God Mode II

Give Players the Feeling of Epic Without Breaking Your Game.

Balanced encounters that challenge players, tax their characters, and give them a great challenge are the best. What we're all about. But once in a while, it's fun to throw in an encounter that removes the limits, and just gets completely unpredictable, out of control awesome. Here's how we do.