#dnd tips

I track every dice roll for the DnD campaign I play in. For every player. Every. Single. One.

Before you say "oh that sounds like it would annoy your fellow party members," my group loves this so much they will happily tell me every roll that transpired while I was in the bathroom/downstairs or just not paying attention.

I have data on hundreds of rolls. I have a detailed google sheet document with the breakdown of Nat 1 and Nat 20 percentages. I have charts that show how often each player rolls a number. I have one player who cannot roll a 17. It's been 12 sessions of tracking they still haven't rolled a 17.

I post updates on everyone's stats in our discord and it's usually met with horror and elation. One player has a 9.7% chance of rolling Nat 1s. Absolutely insane.

It's the weirdest and most nerdy thing I've ever done. I started doing it because we rolled FIVE Nat 1s back to back in session 3 and nearly killed our entire party before we even started the adventure. I made a blood pact with our DM to save our lives. I had to know if our adventuring party was just particularly unlucky.

“The sweeping hills of Faerun unfold before you as your epic adventure begins. Your companions beside you and a sword at your back, you walk.” We’ve all heard these words before. They’re the flowery language that Dungeon masters try to employ when they want to immerse their players in the game. As every player knows, these kinds of descriptions don’t always do the trick. While you can’t force your players to be perfectly immersed, there are some tactics that can help.

1. Music

Music is used in almost every piece of media it can be to immerse viewers into the story. Having some kind of background music can change the tone of a scene drastically. Although, just playing any kind of background music isn’t going to work.

1a. Playlists for Vibes

Doing a bit of deep diving into the themes that you want to explore in your campaign is integral to this step. For example, if you’re doing a typical DnD adventure, you will definitely want a “Travel” or “Happy” playlist. On the other hand, if you’re doing a dark, spooky campaign, you may want to have a “Suspense” or “Eerie” playlist on hand.

Here are a few ideas for playlist vibes to help you get started!

Travel

Calm

Battle

Happy

Suspense

Danger

1b. Playlists for Places

Discovering the tone of the locations in your world is a whole other blog post entirely, but once you have them in mind, you can start making your playlists. Having playlists for a location can help give players an idea of what that area might be like and they will act accordingly. These places can be as broad as “Forested Area” or as specific as “The Mischief Inn”. 

When deciding, try to think about how you want your players to behave in these areas. How cautious do you want them to be with their actions? How do you want them to act around NPCs? How should they treat problems that they face? Combine these answers, and then find music that evokes the right mood to prompt those behaviors. 

1c. Playlists for Characters/NPCs

Presentation is always key when it comes to introducing a character. Havinig certain songs that go along with NPCs greatly improves presentation! Assigning one song or in particular to a character can once again set the tone, but also make for some fun moments. 

Picture this: your players have had a long fight through a dungeon, they’re on the way to rescue a beloved NPC, but haven’t found them yet, then suddenly there are those familiar beginning notes to the NPC’s song! The table erupts in excitement and your player’s gusto is once again restored. These fun moments can be absolutely pivotal for campaigns when your players are beginning to feel a bit worn down. 

2. Address the Characters, Not the People

(Peep the Dropout reference)

Players getting to feel like they are their character in the world fighting monsters is the fun of DnD. So, you should address your players as such. If you want them to feel like they are their characters, you should also view them as their characters. Instead of “What does Alvera do?” ask “Alvera, what do you do?” 

You can also remind players to have discussions in character. If players are talking about their plans for a heist, but they’re doing it all out of character, encourage them to have that talk in character instead! Putting your players into the position of their character making decisions on the fly is the perfect immersive tool.

3. Actions Before Rolls

Describing complicated maneuvers and convoluted plans is the heart of DnD. The plan is often far more important than the roll itself, and that is why I always ask my players to describe their action before they roll. This tip is something that I include in my set of “rules” that I’ve created over my years of being a DM. 

This may look something like a player usually saying “Can I roll perception?” While this is okay, it doesn’t give much context as to what they’re trying to do or learn from this roll. A better sentence would be “While I’m walking into the tavern, I want to look around and see if I spot anyone who matches the description of the person we’re looking for.” That way, I as the DM know 1) What the player is looking for, and 2) How to give them an answer that will set them properly in the scene. 

4. Let Your Players Do Cool Things

“The Rule of Cool” is the idea that a DM will abide by this rule and allow players to do certain things, even if it doesn’t completely follow the game rules. I do this quite often in my games since I tend to be a roleplay heavy DM and don’t often care as much for sticking to the rules. 

Although, you don’t have to throw away the rules to let your players do cool things. Doing things like providing inspiration in a dire moment, having an NPC help a player on a roll, or even helping your players make new mechanics for their characters can make the game so much more fun. Creating a game where your players feel comfortable to ask you to do the “cool” things is the most important part.

Conclusion

and I use them every D&D campaign

1. Deck of Player Safety. Going over lines and veils during a session zero is a must for every campaign I run. Recently, Diana of the rose made a video about the digital deck of player safety. Super easy to use. Just click on the cards and it shares them anonymously. There’s even a card for anything goes and you can make your own if you don’t see it here. digital.deckofplayersafety.com

2. Character Connections. This d100 table is the best way I have found to create adventuring parties that know each other currently and have a little bit of history together. There’s everything from ex lovers, school mates, or even being directly related like a sister or a cousin. I like this because the strong primary connections lead to fun secondary connections too. Like your best friends little brother or your ex’s lovers cousin. https://ko-fi.com/s/89ba1414e8

3. Character Backstory. The minimum backstory I like to have for PCs is 3 questions and 3 NPCs. Where are you from? What is your vibe? What do you want? As for the 3 NPCs, 2 should be in your corner and 1 should be to push against you. The 2 in your corner could be family, friends, coworkers. And someone who knew the old you should be the one to push against you and challenge your new beliefs.

4. Notion. Notion has been so helpful for me. I found a session planning template so I have a page for every session I run. I even have my home-brew world broken out into Regions, Kingdoms, and Settlements. Being able to cross reference and link to other pages is super helpful when world building and session planning.

5. Simple Monster Stats. Every time I start home brewing a dnd monster I start with this handy chart I made. It has basic monster stats organized by CR. You have your AC, HP, to hit bonus, # of attacks, and the 6 ability scores bonuses. I even included an example monster with skills they may be proficient in to help you even more. https://ko-fi.com/s/4a36794760

Have a Session 0 where you explain to them the vibe of the game and build your characters together. Make sure everyone has built a character that will want to engage with the story. Hash out any ground rules you'd like to have.

Being a DM is like any performance - Things will go wrong, but only you know how things are meant to go. No one else will realise when things have gone off track, so don't panic (it happens to every DM) . Just roll with it, I'm my experience things get back on track eventually.

You're meant to be having fun too! (I'm serious) If you're not, then that's a good time to check in with your players and problem solve how y'all can contribute to a great table

Everyone at the table is a team (unless you've clearly set out it's DM vs players in session 0, which may be a simpler dynamic for your first campaign). With this in mind, everyone should be contributing to things running smoothly.

Getting into the role play side of things will probably not happen immediately. It's hard to focus on being your character while you're still learning the ropes. This is fine! You'll all find your rhythm as you work together to build the world

Combat will probably be unbalanced for a bit. The Challenge Rating system is a useful guide but how things turn out will definitely depend on your players. It'll take you a bit to adjust to your tables' dynamics.

If you don't want PCs to die, have a plan (no I'm serious). Have a TPK plan as well. It doesn't have to be elaborate, could be a local healer or a character's god. Many new DMs accidentally kill characters. Tell your players about this plan so they're not afraid to take risks; Learn and experiment!

Encourage feedback. At the end of the day, these are your friends. You should all feel comfortable communicating with each other if things are going wrong or you think they could be better. Encourage feedback on things that are going well also! Sometimes it feels like you're DMing into the void, so knowing they're enjoying sessions is very useful.

Make up backstories for every sapient enemy, and then deliver a eulogy for them at the end of the encounter.

Give two of your players voodoo dolls of themselves that will stop at nothing to escape and do *something*.

You don't have to tell them what it is. You don't even have to give reason. Just watch them squirm and freak out.

Any DM tips for playing/creating an evil doppelganger type character of a PC?