SlaytheDungeon

Thanks everyone who has stuck with me so far! Some things came up in my personal life, and it was hard to do D&D stuff and work stuff, but that will change here in the future! ____________________________ Looking for a DM for your next game? Pick me! Check me out at: https://startplaying.games/gm/dmroncarr Check out my current game lineup! (all times in ET) Wild Beyond the Witchlight (Tue, 7p) : https://startplaying.games/adventure/6128fd79b1942100081cb9ec Wild Beyond the Witchlight (Wed, 7p) : https://startplaying.games/adventure/612903d14b6e9a0009914250 Curse of Strahd (Sat, 1p) : https://startplaying.games/adventure/61317d593357590008e3641a Wild Beyond the Witchlight (Sat, 7p) : https://startplaying.games/adventure/612ae15c53451f000ab61607 Curse of Strahd (Sun, 1p) : https://startplaying.games/adventure/61317c819e31300008e6d423 Curse of Strahd (Sun, 7p) : https://startplaying.games/adventure/61317d04325a090007bfb935 ____________________________ Feeling generous? Support me! Any little bit helps! Minds: https://www.minds.com/slaythedungeon/shop Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SlaytheDungeon?fan_landing=true

Build your worlds LIKE A PRO! Use Icewind Dale, Tomb of Annihilation and Curse of Strahd as fantastic examples! ____________________________ Looking for a DM for your next game? Pick me! Check me out at: https://startplaying.games/gm/dmroncarr Feeling generous? Support me! Any little bit helps! Minds: https://www.minds.com/slaythedungeon/shop Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SlaytheDungeon?fan_landing=true Video Title: WORLD BUILDING like a PRO! Icewind Dale, Tomb of Annihilation and... STRAHD?! #dnd #5e #worldbuilding

Today, we adventure into my homebrew world, currently known as Akastria. This is the team's 8th official game, and I estimate this game will go about 14 sessions in length. Our band of heroes are working to solve the murder in the trade town of Adalwulf, a town on the boarder of the country of Akastria, and is the main supply route in the south. The murder takes place about a week prior to the game starting, at night on the night of the full moon. In the recent months prior, there were property damage and the slaying of livestock, also under the full moon. If these are to be connected, how? Who committed these crimes? Lord of Castle Lupinfang, a dutchy in the south which contains Adalwulf, declared that this murder was not done by animal, and insists it was a humanoid. This person will be brought to justice, and is offering 10,000 GP as reward to anyone to bring this person, alive, to the Duke. Lord Lupinfang says that, in one months time under the next full moon, there will be a party thrown for all citizens in the dutchy at the castle in celebration, and to stand defiant against any criminals who try to sully his name. Video Title: Murder in Adalwulf | D&D Homebrew Murder Mystery Ep6 #dnd #5e #murdermystery

Today let's look at tips that WILL SLAY your writer's block and help improve your world building and story telling at the table! #1 - Start SMALL Start with something small, something that players will interact with in the first few sessions of the game. Start with something like the initial quest, the town that quest is in, who's in the town and why are they there. As we are building, we can do small world building things on top of the town, such as, maybe the town has a god, which will give you a reason to flesh out that one god a little bit while prepping for session one, a little bit will doing session two, et c. #2 - Build WHILE you play! Running a game of D&D has standard aspects to it. If you are a new DM, you will quickly notice, even in session one, that players will destroy your plans right away. They will zig and zag and never go where you intend them to go. You can have a rough idea of some things in the first few session, but even then, players can and will do insane things. A tip to help this is if they do zig and you wanted them to zag, simply move whatever you had planned from where it is in the world to wherever they are going. They won't know, and that prep isn't wasted. #3 - Have your PLAYERS build the world Your players love building backstories, which is why there is a meme of the 9 page player backstory, so let's use that to our advantage. If they want to be from a general location, splat down a town there and let the players build up that town. Personally, when I'm a player, I love when GMs do this because I naturally like to build things up (part of the reason why I like being a GM to begin with). Let your players have free reign over the town. #4 - CONTAIN your players into ONE REGION Players tend to want to see and do everything. We are busy people and we can't have a fully fleshed out world on day one. People build up their worlds over years of play, so have your players stay in one place for the time being. You can give in game reasons for it, like they can't sail to other continents because of Krakens or whatever, but it would be better to just tell your players "listen, I'm one person, I can only do so much, for this campaign, I want to do this one region" and players generally understand that. #5 - DON'T RUSH THINGS If you have good ideas, toss them in a notebook so you can flesh out these ideas later. Building up good ideas you have right away kills some of that creativity. Put it away, sleep on it, come back after a day or two or before your players move on to the next quest or section of your game, then you will have time to get some good ideas going. Some ideas are good but you just aren't running the right campaign for them, so you can also keep them for another campaign or group as well. #6 - Give each LOCATION a personality Treat a location like an NPC. If you're country is a LG country, with strict law and order, you can build up your country that way. It also allows you to have things stick out if your town seems a certain way, but then a thieves' guild thrives in the city, your players might ask "... why is that?" and boom they are hooked into a story. #7 - Factions are GREAT Set up factions like locations, give them personalities. You can give them names, colors and possibly logos, and then just toss them out. You can also forgo that, and let your roleplay during the game set the personality up, which can retroactively reflect their past. You can back yourself into history of these factions when your players run into them and engage with their story more and more. BONUS - START with the END If you know where you want to end up, you will know what your players need to be victorious in the end, and how to guide your players to the end that you want without railroading them into what you want. Starting with the end can let you know which bread crumbs to drop to get your players engaged in with what you want them to do, and sort of trick them into going the "right" path. Video Title: THE 7 BEST World Building Tips That WILL SLAY your WRITER'S BLOCK and tell BETTER stories! #dnd #5e #worldbuilding

Today we look at tips I would give new players to JUMP START a D&D 5E (and other TTRPGs) player character's life at the table and in the world. #1 - Roleplay against type This can be by far the easiest thing to do! Think of the thief with the heart of gold or vulgar paladin. Don't lock yourself into thinking that all rogues are brooding lone wolves, some are James Bond! #2 - Adapt real world archetypes Talking about Bond, bring real world archetypes in game. Think of what would make a spy, and what make spies cool, and craft a character around that concept. Have your stats tell the story of your character and assist you in roleplaying! #3 - Have an incomplete backstory The one that annoys me the most is when players have complete backstories with no holes to fill in. If you ever wonder why your DM doesn't integrate your backstory into the world or game, or does so seldomly, this might be a reason. Your characters aren't gods, and couldn't possibly know every single detail that they don't see from their perspective. #4 - Have your backstory told from your character's perspective As mentioned above, let your characters tell the story from what they see. They can only be at one place at one time, so let them tell you in their own way what they experience. This should be focused on why they became adventurers, and not their whole life stories. Check out Matt and Talesin from Critical Role talk about creating Percy's backstory below. #5 - Characters should have 2 relationships with other PCs or NPCs This goes with tip #3. If you have a backstory, but have no one from your backstory alive to interact with, how do we do anything with your backstory? Many players don't have any NPCs alive from their backstories, like their parents, because they don't want the DM to mess with them or use them against the player. Why not? They are fictional characters! Have fun with it! Go on crazy adventures trying to save them or help them! #6 - Large plot holes in your backstory is fine! And to bring it all in, have large holes in the plot in your backstories, or large chunks of time that your character doesn't know about. These things give the DM the ability to fill them in for you, and help with the collaboration aspect of D&D. It assists your DM making the story, so take a load off your DM and give him room, literally, to work with your character! Bonus: Don't be an annoying character archetype Briefly mentioned before, but don't be the annoying character! Rogues are the typical punching bags for this; don't play a rogue that is a lone wolf, or that steals from the party. For newer players, this can create weird circumstances that are hard to navigate unless you're a skilled roleplayer. Really, the "lone wolf" archetype only works if you work with another member of the party, even though, yes, that does defeat the purpose of the lone wolf. Matt & Talesin talk backstories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT3FR5ujQBw Video Title: THE BEST PC Backstory tips to JUMP START great characters for D&D 5E #dnd #5e #pcbackstories

STOP watching Dungeons and Dragons shows like Critical Role and High Rollers DND and start PLAYING D&D! D&D is an amazing game and nothing compares to getting your hands on your first character! Please like, share and subscribe if you enjoyed this video (my first!) After watching Critical Role for YEARS, I started playing D&D in the first week of February 2020 and it is one of the best decision that I've ever made. NOTHING compares to making a character that you create from scratch, totally from your own imagination, and bringing it to life with friends or strangers you can meet online. Some things holding me back from starting is that I kept telling myself that I didn't know anyone who plays D&D. In the information age, this is just an EXCUSE! You can find people to play with online, easily, on multiple different virtual table tops, like Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds. But what about DMing? Even if you're new, you CAN still DM. As I said, I've been playing for one year, and I've started DMing. Think about this: some groups start with no experience at all, and someone has to DM so someone in the group just starts. If you've played D&D for any amount of time, you have more experience than the example I just gave, so be like Nike and JUST DO IT! Title: D&D: STOP WATCHING Critical Role! Start PLAYING D&D 5e! #DungeonsAndDragons #CriticalRole #HighRollersDND

Struggling with exposition, lore dumps or players not caring about your world backstory? Here's one thing I do in my games to help tell the story of my world without beating my PCs over the head with it! The main tip is to make a part of the game that they care about tie into your world in some way. Some PCs like combat, others like exploration, some like haggling with merchants, and some insist on crafting things. Let's combine combat and crafting to tell our story, without explicitly telling our story. What if you had a world where the races of the world are different. That is going to be the same as all other D&D worlds, but what if it was something specific that sets them apart. Taking the two typical fantasy whipping boys, dwarfs (yes, this is the correct plural of dwarf) and elves, let's take their two crafting styles and make them unique. What I do is picture how dwarfs would craft something. Dwarfs, in my mind, a strong, stout and sturdy. They pride themselves on being strong, able to defeat enemies much larger than they are, so how are they going to do that? What if the weapons and armor they made are more dense? Weapons are more dense, so they deal +1 additional damage (not to-hit) and are non-magical. This gives players a reason as well to craft their gear and associate themselves with the world instead of just using standard magic items they find, because they can craft amazing things on top of something that already does more damage. To contrast this, what would the elves make? Elves are quick, graceful and fight with flair. They cannot do this with heavy weapons, so let's make their weapons lighter by contrast. In game mechanic terms, we can give them +1 to hit (not damage) and are non-magical to contrast against the dwarfs and what they make. We can do this same technique contrasting any two races and give them reasons to do so. You can have one race craft weapons that crit for more damage, adding an additional die, contrasting them against another race that crafts weapons that are easier to crit with, increasing your crit "range" by 1. There are an endless amount of ways this can be done. Experiment with your world, and see what your players like and what they interact with. Video Title: Implicit Story Telling, and how to do it | D&D 5E #dnd #5e #storytelling

Struggling to make PC backstories? This is how I help my players create backstories in D&D 5E. Start with typical demographic information, for example, what is your character's name? What player race are they? Where are they from? What starting class are they going to be? These things aren't special, and everyone pretty much does this with their backstories, so this shouldn't be a surprise to you. The only a-typical thing I do with demographic information is that I don't ask for a hometown, or where they are from specifically; I ask players for the "place of origin." I do this just because some players will want to make characters that aren't from anywhere. They want to make characters that are nomadic, or outcasts, or live in such a small town that only one or two families live there so it doesn't have a name. From there, I like asking players what subclass they are thinking about taking in the future, although this answer isn't set in stone until they pick the subclass during the level up. This gets them thinking ahead on what they want for the character and gets them thinking about how they are going to integrate that subclass into the story of their character, if they choose to do so. After that, I ask for what path they want to take with their characters. This is to figure out which multiclass options they want to take, and when they expect to take them. This also gets them to think ahead like before, but unlike the subclasses, I do *require* story reasons for multiclassing. This is for me to help them multiclass, so I can set up a scenario around the appropriate level so they can be set up to multiclass. What does your character love? What do they fear? These things are set up to have your PCs roleplay their characters. This also isn't set up to hinder combat or anything else. Firefighters can be afraid of running into a burning or collapsing building, who wouldn't? Even though they are afraid, they push through, and so can their characters. It isn't always about having a fear, and running away scared at the sight of it. Same with their loves, they don't need to ignore everything else and pursue that thing with disregard to everything around them. Is your character a hero? Why or why not? Some PCs set out on adventures not to be heroes, some do it for fame, glory, money or just a way to escape their small (or huge) town/city. Who are your character's parents? Get them to flush out their backstories more, and effectively make two other PCs in the form of their parents. They don't need to be as detailed, but knowing who your parents are help you know who you are, since your parents would have raised you. Why are you an adventurer? What are your immediate goals? These questions help figure out what your character wants, and what they are doing to get there. Maybe they are out to find their sister, but heard a rumor that she was last seen with a black dragonborn, so they are on the hunt for that person. Is your character religious? Much like the real world, religions can be near and dear to a character's heart, or they could be atheist. In D&D, gods have direct contact with the world, so being atheist can be a sign of things to come, an interesting backstory twist, or redemption arc for that character. Is your character merciful? The killer question of them all. I would say most D&D players play their characters as merciless killers. If they fight goblins that attacked them first, they will kill all the goblins. But what if your character doesn't? What if your character, when the goblin begs for mercy, they grant it. They tell the goblin to change their ways? What would your character do in that circumstance? Matt & Talesin talk backstories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT3FR5ujQBw Video Title: Creating AMAZING character backstories! | D&D 5E #dnd #criticalrole #pcbackstories

Today, we adventure into my homebrew world, currently known as Akastria. This is the team's 7th official game, and I estimate this game will go about 14 sessions in length. Our band of heroes are working to solve the murder in the trade town of Adalwulf, a town on the boarder of the country of Akastria, and is the main supply route in the south. The murder takes place about a week prior to the game starting, at night on the night of the full moon. In the recent months prior, there were property damage and the slaying of livestock, also under the full moon. If these are to be connected, how? Who committed these crimes? Lord of Castle Lupinfang, a dutchy in the south which contains Adalwulf, declared that this murder was not done by animal, and insists it was a humanoid. This person will be brought to justice, and is offering 10,000 GP as reward to anyone to bring this person, alive, to the Duke. Lord Lupinfang says that, in one months time under the next full moon, there will be a party thrown for all citizens in the dutchy at the castle in celebration, and to stand defiant against any criminals who try to sully his name. Video Title: Murder in Adalwulf | D&D Homebrew Murder Mystery Ep5 #dnd #5e #murdermystery

Today, we adventure into my homebrew world, currently known as Akastria. This is the team's 6th official game, and I estimate this game will go about 14 sessions in length. Our band of heroes are working to solve the murder in the trade town of Adalwulf, a town on the boarder of the country of Akastria, and is the main supply route in the south. The murder takes place about a week prior to the game starting, at night on the night of the full moon. In the recent months prior, there were property damage and the slaying of livestock, also under the full moon. If these are to be connected, how? Who committed these crimes? Lord of Castle Lupinfang, a dutchy in the south which contains Adalwulf, declared that this murder was not done by animal, and insists it was a humanoid. This person will be brought to justice, and is offering 10,000 GP as reward to anyone to bring this person, alive, to the Duke. Lord Lupinfang says that, in one months time under the next full moon, there will be a party thrown for all citizens in the dutchy at the castle in celebration, and to stand defiant against any criminals who try to sully his name. Video Title: Murder in Adalwulf | D&D Homebrew Murder Mystery Ep4 #dnd #5e #murdermystery

Today, we adventure into my homebrew world, currently known as Akastria. This is the team's 5th official game, and I estimate this game will go about 14 sessions in length. Our band of heroes are working to solve the murder in the trade town of Adalwulf, a town on the boarder of the country of Akastria, and is the main supply route in the south. The murder takes place about a week prior to the game starting, at night on the night of the full moon. In the recent months prior, there were property damage and the slaying of livestock, also under the full moon. If these are to be connected, how? Who committed these crimes? Lord of Castle Lupinfang, a dutchy in the south which contains Adalwulf, declared that this murder was not done by animal, and insists it was a humanoid. This person will be brought to justice, and is offering 10,000 GP as reward to anyone to bring this person, alive, to the Duke. Lord Lupinfang says that, in one months time under the next full moon, there will be a party thrown for all citizens in the dutchy at the castle in celebration, and to stand defiant against any criminals who try to sully his name. Video Title: Murder in Adalwulf | D&D Homebrew Murder Mystery Ep3 #dnd #5e #murdermystery

Today, we adventure into my homebrew world, currently known as Akastria. This is the team's 4th official game, and I estimate this game will go about 14 sessions in length. Our band of heroes are working to solve the murder in the trade town of Adalwulf, a town on the boarder of the country of Akastria, and is the main supply route in the south. The murder takes place about a week prior to the game starting, at night on the night of the full moon. In the recent months prior, there were property damage and the slaying of livestock, also under the full moon. If these are to be connected, how? Who committed these crimes? Lord of Castle Lupinfang, a dutchy in the south which contains Adalwulf, declared that this murder was not done by animal, and insists it was a humanoid. This person will be brought to justice, and is offering 10,000 GP as reward to anyone to bring this person, alive, to the Duke. Lord Lupinfang says that, in one months time under the next full moon, there will be a party thrown for all citizens in the dutchy at the castle in celebration, and to stand defiant against any criminals who try to sully his name. Video Title: Murder in Adalwulf | D&D Homebrew Murder Mystery Ep2 #dnd #5e #murdermystery

Today, we adventure into my homebrew world, currently known as Akastria. This is the team's 3rd official game, and I estimate this game will go about 14 sessions in length. Our band of heroes are working to solve the murder in the trade town of Adalwulf, a town on the boarder of the country of Akastria, and is the main supply route in the south. The murder takes place about a week prior to the game starting, at night on the night of the full moon. In the recent months prior, there were property damage and the slaying of livestock, also under the full moon. If these are to be connected, how? Who committed these crimes? Lord of Castle Lupinfang, a dutchy in the south which contains Adalwulf, declared that this murder was not done by animal, and insists it was a humanoid. This person will be brought to justice, and is offering 10,000 GP as reward to anyone to bring this person, alive, to the Duke. Lord Lupinfang says that, in one months time under the next full moon, there will be a party thrown for all citizens in the dutchy at the castle in celebration, and to stand defiant against any criminals who try to sully his name. Video Title: Murder in Adalwulf | D&D Homebrew Murder Mystery Ep1 #dnd #5e #murdermystery

D&D 5E Firearms: Do Boomsticks belong in DnD? Firearms are not mentioned at all in the Player's Handbook (PHB), and only have a small section in the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG). Today, we talk boomsticks and how to implement and balance them! Firearms, like all weapons in the game, need to be tested and tested against each other. Firearms only have a small section in the Dungeon Master's Guide, mentioned briefly in Ebberon: Rising of the Last War with the Artificer, and there is one feat in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the Gunner feat. Firearms, to say the least, are not widely implemented, and therefore, not very balanced! In my game, I have a simple balance to firearms: drop them down one die, or reduce the number of die by one. Not super elegant and not very "interactive," but it is effective. One thing I've found online that I like, but have yet to try out, is the misfire rules. The short of it is, if you roll a 1, you misfire and roll again to see if your weapon breaks. Besides that, if you miss the enemy's AC by 5 or more, you roll on a misfire table. People seem to like this rule, because it is interactive and seems more random than just straight nerfing weapons. In my world, I do two things currently: adjust the damage, and not implement all the boomsticks. Automatic rifles and pistols do not fit my world's theme, so I don't use them. Same with futuristic weapons. I use flintlock pistol, musket, revolver, hunting rifle and the shotgun. This gives a good variety, keeps the theme consistent, and keeps the adjustments I need to do to a minimum. Video Title: D&D 5E Firearms: Do Boomsticks belong in DnD? #DnD #boomsticks #firearms