Category Archives: DMing

I’ve alluded to phased bosses a few times, but I haven’t gone in-depth about it. A phased combat encounter is any encounter with multiple stages as part of the same fight. These stages must be mechanically distinct; a knight who … Continue reading →

Players most strongly remember two kinds of fights: the very easy and the very hard. If a fight seems difficult on paper and the players blow clean through it with good rolls, good strategy, and/or a good builds, they’ll tell … Continue reading →

Stealing boss ideas is easy once you get used to it. A DM can pick up almost any game with a boss, pick almost any boss in that game, and apply it to their game for a fun encounter. But, … Continue reading →

Boss fights are hard. Most editions of D&D really aren’t designed to handle them, so there’s no simple math you can do to turn a fight into a boss. You could just apply a template to a monster or give … Continue reading →

A few actual, non-hyperbolic years ago, I said this: Yes, having an odd ability score as an ability damage buffer is a type of metagaming. But it’s also a way of defining a character. As in, “Rock Hardslab is so … Continue reading →

I’ll admit the name of the last post inspired this one, but its a valid topic besides. I have been fortunate in my DMing career in that I’ve rarely had to deal with players who cannot stand each other. It’s … Continue reading →

I’ve begun a new campaign, because I am very dumb. While Faith is closing out its first season I’ve also put together Under the Stars, a campaign I loosely described to the players as Breath of the Wild meets Ni … Continue reading →

In my last post I mentioned what I do the day after I run a session. That’s not exclusive to this campaign. Most of the time I use the next day to think about what worked, what didn’t, and where … Continue reading →