The Differences in Mystara, Greyhawk, and Forgotten Realms (Part 1)

D&D is a chance to share a world with people. So after an adventure, you probably want your players to remember the setting it took place it. The experience of being transported to that world is usually one of the important takeaways DMs want to instill in their audience. But unless your players are completely new to all fantasy fiction entirely (e.g. no real exposure to things like elves, wizards, dragons, orcs, etc.) then the baseline assumptions of D&D’s “implied setting” aren’t going to have that impact you’re looking for. You have to go a step beyond to make them feel the world as an element of the story.

What Kind of Content I'll Actually Buy or Use

I'm writing this just as much for myself as for others. When thinking up whatever it is I want to write and publish, I try very hard to keep in mind the question of what other people would even want. I wonder how close it is to the kinds of things I myself want.

If you don't already watch the YouTube channel Questing Beast, then you should. There are other channels that also review RPG products, even ones that focus on OSR content, but they aren't as good as this one. Same guy (Ben Milton) who wrote Knave, in fact. Anyway, you'll greatly enjoyed perusing his video collection and seeing all the wild and crazy shit that he's reviewed. There's no shortage of fantastic content being made by creative individuals in this hobby. So what factors make the difference whether I'll spend my money or not?

PSA to Dungeon Masters: Intentionally "Metagame" More

Let’s get through this one right off the bat: people generally take metagaming way too seriously. It’s a transition I see lots of gamers go through. They hear about it early on and spend way too much time and energy thinking about it as a problem that must be overcome or worked around or whatever, they experiment in how to get past it, they insist that metagaming is one of the most serious bad habits a player can have, and then… they eventually get over it. I’ve seen this journey of personal growth pretty consistently in lots of players at this point. So if I’m going to revisit the question of metagaming, I want to attack it from a new angle so that it’s worth it.

DMs are the worst about navigating the complications of metagaming. Yes, DMs.

Weird Dwarf Traits

It is important to me that the demihuman races feel properly distinct and non-human. Or at least, they should be exotic or foreign, and especially easy to roleplay in a memorable way. As we know, dwarrow (dwarves) tend to all be the same. We should fix that. Here are some miscellaneous things about dwarrow culture I’ve either brainstormed sitting here or accumulated over the years. Some are pretty creative and original, others are straight-up cultural appropriation but, like, you’ll enjoy them.

Navette (or Marquise) Story Structure

(Firstly, the culture around jewelry and precious stones is kind of stupid. Anyway...)

I want to tell you about a structural tool I find extremely useful, but it is slightly more advanced than a lot of other DMing advice out there. I think a lot of my stuff is. This blog isn't a 100 or 200 level course, it's a 300 or 400 level course, so I usually assume you've already done a lot of the basic readings (you know, Dungeoncraft 101, Metagaming 150, Player Types 210, Random Encounters 215, etc). Most of the stuff that Matt Colville would have made a video about or the Angry GM would write about, I assume you're familiar with. So I want to take a very basic concept and start deconstructing it: Railroads vs. Sandboxes.

Campaigns Are Overrated

Postulate 1: there are many obstacles (mostly social and logistical) to playing D&D, contributing to the infamous “looking for group” dilemma.

Postulate 2: there are more people interested in playing D&D than people who actually play it.

Postulate 3: there are more people who have played D&D than people who are currently in the regular habit of playing it.

Postulate 4: people who aren’t currently in the regular habit of playing D&D are generally considered to be inactive gamers. At least, many of them think of themselves that way.

Advanced Darkness

Let’s do some more DIY D&D and hack the rules. I’m going to introduce to you my favorite and most important houserule: Advanced Darkness.

Overview

Why do we come up with houserules? Because there’s some kind of problem. Maybe not everyone sees it as a problem, but that’s oftentimes just because people have learned to live with it and be complacent with a deficiency that could be fixed.

How do we come up with houserules? We 1) identify the sources of the problems and 2) identify the results we would like to see instead. Creating a rule is creating the “cause” in a cause-and-effect relationship. In order to know what cause you should aim for, you need to know what effect you’re after.

What do we do with houserules? We test them out and explore their full implications. We look for vulnerabilities that could be exploited. We try to break them. We consider some unintended consequences. We try to think of ways it could interact with other game elements. We playtest it. We adapt it. We eventually figure out the best ruling possible. Maybe it’s a refined version of the houserule, or maybe its the RPG’s original ruling after all.

Electrum is Underdark Money

This is an example of why we need to make DIY D&D the norm in this hobby. I have seen, far too often, DMs dismissing an idea or mechanic or game element because they don’t like how it works when they instead could've hacked it to unlock its true potential. How many DMs don’t even bother with Alignment or Encumbrance or Darkness just because, as they exist in 5th Edition (and throughout the editions, generally), they kind of suck and need some reworking? I’ll show you how to do that right now.

In D&D, currency comes in three common denominations. Ten copper pieces to one silver piece, ten silver pieces to one gold piece. Beyond that you can have ten gold pieces for one platinum piece, and of course the infamous one, five silver pieces to one electrum piece AKA two electrum pieces to one gold piece. Electrum is the one that breaks the nice, consistent pattern. It is exceedingly rare. It seems pointless. It feels like if you received that as your treasure from the DM then they were trying to troll you a bit. So most people don’t use it and that’s that.

That’s the lame way of doing things.

How to Make Problems for Your Players

TL;DR: The Player's Handbook gives you a list of challenges for your players that you didn't realize. I included it at the bottom.

How do you plan a list of encounters? How do you think of problems for the heroes to overcome? Do you just pick a stat block out of the Monster Manual and put that monster in the next room? Pretty easy, but I think most of us are here because we agree that a great DM puts a little more effort in than that.

What if I told you that you were thinking about this all backwards? Like, literally backwards. Maybe you should be starting at the other end.