Cheating as a DM

I realize that there may be some who read the title of this article and skip over it.  Many DMs would feel they hold a sacred position in their games, and if they decided to cheat then the entire system of trust between DM and players would break down, and the game itself would fall …

Using 4e Skill Challenges in 5e

I think as the years go by, the overall opinion of D&D 4th Edition has become much better.  In its day, 4e was so controversial that a whole new RPG system was born (Pathfinder) for those who hated the system and preferred 3.5 edition.  However, I was out of D&D for many years and never …

D&D 5e – Narrating Group Checks

Greetings everyone! Unfortunately, my little school group for Curse of Strahd seems to have fizzled out.  One of my three players backed out, and the last time I was prepared to run the game for the remaining two players, one of them said, "I just don't really feel like it today."  I told them to …

D&D at School – Episode 1: Into the Mists

In my last post, I wrote that I would be starting a game with three of my students at school.  I introduced the characters and told a bit about their stories.  We are only playing for about 45 minutes to an hour for each session, because that's how long the final period of the day …

D&D at School – A Curse of Strahd Campaign

I have not posted here in a long time.  I had planned to do the write-up for my Storm King's Thunder games, but that got derailed.  I have been running two games and playing in a third, in addition to my two jobs, so finding time and desire to write on the blog has not …

Storm King’s Thunder: Catching Up #1

I have not written about the main SKT campaign for a while.  We did a side journey with alternate characters, which I detailed in my last blog entry.  This post is to give a brief summary of what the main characters have been up to since my last post.  It has been several months and …

Storm King’s Thunder: An “Evil Party” Side Plot

First of all, I apologize for the long lapse between posts.  As I have mentioned before, I am a full time school teacher and also a pastor, so during the school year things are busy.  Between classes, church congregation, planning for my D&D game, and still trying to be a good husband, I had to …

Using Story Cubes to Create Characters

Hello everyone!  I have not posted in a while.  I guess you could say life has been busy, between my two jobs and now running two D&D games.  I have also not had as much of a desire to write lately, but I want to get back to posting my summaries of the Storm King’s …

SKT Sessions 21-22: Frost Giant’s Thunder

Last time on Storm King's Thunder... The heroes had discovered that one of their mentors, Delaan Winterhound, had indeed been captured by Frost Giants.  They fought a coven of hags, which seemed to have an interest in Eclipse, and their proximity caused him to have... reactions.  Alnryn found a sentient bow, the weapon of Delaan …

SKT Sessions 19-20: We’re on a boat!

I'm trying to help my players come up with a good name for their adventuring party, but so far we haven't found one.  If anyone has suggestions I'm open to them.  Also, Alnryn's player is an amazing artist, both in graphic art and most other media.  I will be posting some examples of her work …