Sweating the (really) small stuff – over-prepping for a game"There are DMs who are like, ‘F**k it, this is imagination-land; I will wing all of this.’ But I am not one of those people."
Have we won yet? – coping with villains who have different squad goals"We did not go into this fight with the right strategy at all. We were all about defeating our enemies in the usual way, by killing them."
Doomsday device activated – coping with minor setbacks in the campaign"My character learned that his entire religion was a Ponzi scheme by extra-planar tentacle-monsters, so it was a stressful session for him."
A death in the family – coping with character death"In D&D, it’s not a kill-your-darlings type situation, because they’re someone else’s darlings."
As per my last session - Writing up recaps "Here is the recap I wrote for the very first session I ever DM'd. Looking back at it, the plot was definitely...not the strongest."
Yay for the Critical Fail – The Joys of Natural Ones"It’s never bad to have moments where you’re reminded that this isn't a game where you have a better experience if you succeed all the time"
Adventurers Found - playing 5th edition at the Fringe"Well, I was a boozy wine mom, so some material I did bring over from our games."
Tasty treat or terrible cheat? – Fudging rolls: can you, should you, do you?Our players' exact words were ‘omg dms fudge their rolls’ followed by ‘i feel… / betrayed…’
Guess Who’s Coming to D&D – having cameo characters in your gameWe have different approaches. You're very much a ‘I will put in hours of work’ type DM; I’m a bit more like, ‘There’s a sheet, off you go.'
Villains get got – when your cool characters don’t get to do any of their cool stuff"I think, ‘Oh, they’ve got no way of taking these guys on’, and then the party does something I don’t anticipate and crush it."
Villainous trades – swapping out some useless spells"He did have a very good BAB. If only he hadn’t spent most of that fight blind and not hitting anyone."
Do elves dream of eclectic sheep? – A little bit of our world lore"Freud would absolutely adore hanging out with you."
Play it again, DM – using music in sessions"The moment where the song started playing and you all went from, ‘Everything’s cool; we got this,’ to ‘What!? We're about to be murdered!"
May Day Madness – we ponder spells and socialism"I wouldn’t want the focus of this moment to be, ‘Do we have enough money?’ Dying is bad enough anyway."
The fulcrum of a campaign – building compelling one-time villains"Then we got to fight her so she stopped being so distant, literally and metaphorically."
You are now leaving the monster sector – why there are no(t many) dinosaurs in our world"I’ll let you put whatever you want in the sea. The sea’s weird."
Rogue One-Shot – our experience playing a one-off campaign"My character’s en route to becoming a villain in the main campaign."
More than a storm in a teacup – our new and revised thoughts on sorcerers"All characters need at least one weakness so that they can get mad when the DM uses it against them. It helps the party bond."
All revved up and ready to ride – mounts as animal companions"If you’ve sacrificed a whole level into a particular class in order to get a mount, it should be better than any old horse you buy."
I want to hit and heal and own a horse – multiclassing your characters"It doesn’t really hold you back in the way that one might think."
