How do you bring a 4-year Dungeons & Dragons campaign to a satisfying, epic ending? With an epic, solo boss. Some would say you shouldn’t do that in D&D 5E because the action economy favors a more numerically balanced battle. But with seven level-15 PCs, that’s exactly how we finished off the main quest in DM Thorin’s homebrew, mostly improv, campaign. We realize that reviewing a homebrew campaign is different from Curse of Strahd or Storm King’s Thunder – after all, you can’t go pick up...
Sep 04, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 110
Secrets: Are they powerful character-building tools or TPK time bombs waiting to destroy your RPG campaign? We’ve seen it go both ways, from character background secrets that added depth and immersion for the player to secrets pacts that saw PCs murdered in-game by other PCs. Is that second one a failure? That depends on your group, but it certainly wasn’t what the DM had in mind. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about secrets in the game, how they’ve worked out in their campaigns, an...
Aug 28, 2022•49 min•Ep. 109
Super-powered archmages, alien vampire gods, Tiamat and the devil himself – once your campaign crosses about level 15, it’s all on the table. But the same is true for super-powerful spells, legendary artifacts, and a hundred other things that make the players as tough as your wildest villain creations. This is why epic-tier play just isn’t the same as everything your campaign has been through before. As you hit the endgame of your campaign, a couple things happen. First, your story should be com...
Aug 21, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 108
Do you walk around talking in funny voices? Are you constantly thinking about how game mechanics apply to real-world situations? Have you ever turned a person or thing you know into a Dungeons and Dragons monster? (Did you have your players kill that monster?) … Then you, too, may be a quirky Dungeon Master. DMing certainly isn’t subtle. The little things we do to prep for sessions and keep the game fresh can seem a bit … well … weird. Sometimes they even drive our loved ones a little nuts. But ...
Aug 14, 2022•56 min•Ep. 107
Has SEAL Team 6 rolled up on your D&D 5E dungeon yet? You know the party we mean: Archers, wizards, sorcerers, warlocks, ranged assassins … and not a single melee tank among them. Just hundreds of points of damage pouring into your helpless melee monsters from football fields away. It was near impossible to make the all-ranged party work in earlier editions, but in Dungeons and Dragon 5E, it can work shockingly well. It can even “ruin” the campaign for DMs who don’t know how to handle it. On...
Aug 07, 2022•52 min•Ep. 106
Player character deaths happen in all Dungeons and Dragons games and other TTRPGs … don’t they? Should you be worried about killing PCs, or is it fine to let the dice fall where they may? When is it OK to kill a character and how do you make sure the player is still into the game with their new PC? Is it even the DM’s choice? These questions come to us from a reader, but they’re not as simple as they may first sound. Sure, let the dice fall where they may and if characters die, so be it … But is...
Jul 24, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 105
Every good campaign — whether it’s Dungeons and Dragons 5E, Call of Cthulhu, Marvel FASERIP, or any other system — has multiple factions for PCs to interact with. You may only need to flesh out criminals and guards, or you could build a world with dozens of competing factions all looking to use the PCs to their advantage. Whatever role factions play in your campaign, how do you build them out? In this episode, an old friend of the show brings a new question to Thorin, Tony and Dave: How do you b...
Jul 17, 2022•53 min•Ep. 104
Foreshadowing is a powerful tool for any storyteller, but it can be hard to use effectively at the campaign table. Whether you’re playing D&D or another role-playing game, you’re really DMing against your players’ distractions. And a table full of food, phones and click-clackety math rocks can hide subtle hints more effectively than the rug you put them under. On the other hand, if you hit your players over the head with foreshadowing, it can ruin your surprises and turn the plot into a runn...
Jul 10, 2022•47 min•Ep. 103
One of the best new mechanics in Dungeons and Dragons 5E is the advantage/disadvantage system. It’s simple, elegant and we’ve played several other games that have blatantly stolen it. We think it’s here to stay. But the decision of when to apply discretionary advantage and disadvantage falls on the DM, and the many mechanical ways players have to get advantage themselves sometimes conflict with the DM’s intent when awarding advantage. In this episode, hear how Thorin, Tony and Dave handle advant...
Jun 26, 2022•53 min•Ep. 102
Would you allow a player to bring a pregnant PC into your game? That’s the question listener Joel brings to us for this episode. And while at first, it caught us off-guard, we realized this doesn’t need to be a deal-breaker. In fact, not many PC backstory requests need to be a deal-breaker. It all depends on how you implement them in your fantasy game. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave take a deeper look at how to DM a pregnant character without ruining their game. We also look at the start...
Jun 19, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 101
What are the most important things every dungeon master (or game master) needs to know? In the 100th episode of 3 Wise DMs, Thorin, Tony and Dave run down the biggest things they’ve learned about running RPGs from Dungeons and Dragons to Marvel to Call of Cthulhu over two years of intensive gaming and discussion on this podcast. This has been like a 2-year DMing workshop for all of us, and we hope you’ve learned as much from it as we have. How do you make sure your game gets off on the right foo...
Jun 12, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 100
Wizards of the Coast – and just about every other RPG company – puts out a lot of pre-made, boxed settings, and even more are made by third-party publishers. But in a game where you can play anywhere your imagination can create and customize the rules exactly how you want them, why use pre-made settings at all? That’s the question posed to us by a listener this week who’s gotten the itch to play a campaign in Dark Sun but is wondering why it has a hold on him. There are a lot of pros and cons fo...
Jun 05, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 99
Ending a long-running Dungeons & Dragons campaign (or any TTRPG) can be one of the most intimidating moments for a DM. You’ve managed to carry the momentum, tension, and player interest for dozens of sessions over perhaps years. How do you wrap all that up into a few final sessions that leave you and your players feeling like it all paid off? In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave answer a reader question all about taking your campaign past the point of no return, to the end-game, and beyond...
May 22, 2022•50 min•Ep. 98
We’ve talked about DMPCs before, but now Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything has added a new way for DMs to have an avatar in the game to help PCs out, cover any weak spots, or just have a view across the table: The sidekick. The sidekick mechanics work a little differently than a straight DMPC (which is essentially a leveling PC that DM runs in the party). Which one is right for your campaign? That’s the question Minnesota DM brings us this week: “When making a party-companion NPC to fill the healin...
May 15, 2022•53 min•Ep. 97
DM prep: It can be the most important thing to putting on a good game or the biggest obstacle keeping you from getting back behind the screen. Some DMs say the most important thing to remember is to not over-prepare, but YouTube DM guru Ginny Di recently called this The Worst advice new DMs hear, and that it actually hurt her development as a young DM. Is “don’t over-prepare” bad DMing advice? There’s a lot to dig into there. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave take a close look at Ginny Di’s...
May 08, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 96
Rich, vivid descriptions bring your fantasy world to life. Unfortunately, they can also lead your players to think that the intricately carved and decorated elven bridge they’re crossing has to be an important clue or secret! If it weren’t, why would the DM have given it such a cool description? This is the curse of the red herring: When you’re casually monologuing details to give the world depth, and the players lock onto something that you meant to be insignificant. Next thing you know, they’r...
May 01, 2022•50 min•Ep. 95
What’s some of the tedious stuff you have to do as a DM that you really wish had an easy button? Why does WotC make some essential DMing info hard to find (or at least hard to find while you’re trying to run a game)? This idea comes from Kaila Evans on Twitter, DM of the Comedy of Terrors podcast, who posted, “I've been waiting for some OG Dungeon Master to show up and starting giving us all some wicked obscure advice on the craft nobody ever heard of yet. Like maybe there's a hidden page in the...
Apr 24, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 94
The oldest Dungeons & Dragons books said the game was for 4 to 50 players, and we know people who DMed white box D&D campaigns with groups in the 20s. But that was then, and D&D 5th Edition runs into a lot of issues once you pass a certain number of players. So, what do you do when your game is already at 6 players and 3 more want to join? That’s the question posed by one of our listeners in this week’s episode of 3 Wise DMs. How many players can you comfortably DM at one time in D&a...
Apr 17, 2022•56 min•Ep. 93
Many RPG campaigns end with the players taking over kingdoms, wizard colleges, crime syndicates or other powerful organizations in the world as a sort of epilogue. But what about when they want to take these titles during the campaign and actively run their new empires? How do you handle putting your player characters in charge of powerful organizations in your world as an active part of the game? In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave take on a listener question about how to let PCs take on the...
Apr 10, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 92
Not every player is OK playing RPGs by the rules as they’re written. Some can’t even get through character creation without asking the DM to make some kind of mechanical adjustment. This may seem like an easy situation – do it my way or play with someone else – but it’s not always that simple. Sometimes the change may look harmless. Other times it’s a house rule you want to play with. And in rare occasions, it can become a battle of wills between the DM and a player constantly trying to twist ru...
Apr 03, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 91
It’s the question forever DMs everywhere ponder at night: How do I get one of my players to jump in and DM their own stuff so I can get some playing time?! (And also, so they can express themselves, expand the hobby, and all that other good stuff.) It’s not always easy. Sometimes the players you think would be the best DMs don’t have the interest. Other times your own presence may be intimidating them out of trying. Perhaps you just don’t make DMing look very fun to them? With those obstacles in...
Mar 27, 2022•52 min•Ep. 90
Rest! In some D&D 5E campaigns, it’s taken for granted. In others, like Tomb of Annihilation, PCs may have to make their HP and long-rest abilities stretch for days. And like in real life, sleep deprivation changes the game! As we’ve started our Tomb campaign, it’s really driven home how Dungeons & Dragons’s rest cadence has a huge impact on how characters play, and it’s not an even handicap. Barbarians, fighters and warlocks barely notice. Clerics, wizards, sorcerers and artificers (poo...
Mar 20, 2022•59 min•Ep. 89
Dungeons & Dragons is a lot more than just dungeons and dragons. The game is full of iconic monsters with unique legends and mystique, some pulled from mythology and others found only in this game. But from D&D, many of these monsters have become pop culture icons with stories and expectations that have taken on a life of their own. There is a fine line between meeting expectations and playing a boring cliché, though. In some ways, the iconic monsters can be the hardest to DM because you...
Mar 13, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 88
Do the magic item attunement rules and limits make D&D 5E a better game or just add a layer of frustration? When we started playing 5E, we actually ignored attunement. Now, we’ve started using it across all of our campaigns to understand how the game is meant to be played. … And we have some concerns. What role do magic items play in your game? Are they rewards? Character development tools? Just items that help optimize PC builds? We’ve found that attunement, while it helps keep PC power in ...
Mar 06, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 87
Sometimes your players want something, or you want to give them something, that would be kind of lame to just leave lying around. After all, The Awesome Staff of Mega Power probably deserves its own quest to find. But how long should that quest be? And how do you keep the other players personally involved so they don’t get bored? In this episode, Thorin, Tony, and Dave talk about a fetch quest they just started in the Curse of Strahd game, how it could play out, and the risks of other players tu...
Feb 27, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 86
Some players are more assertive than others, as every DM quickly learns. Some players sit quietly waiting for their turn to speak, while the “Face,” like his A-Team counterpart, never misses a chance to go to town. Before you know it, the party is down another rabbit hole or skipping through a conversation without anyone else getting a chance to participate. Or, as this week’s listener question asks: “How do you get the “Face” to STFU? To be fair, none of us actually recommends telling a player ...
Feb 20, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 85
Vanilla Dungeons & Dragons 5E is a fine game, but depending on the atmosphere you want to set and the possibilities of your setting, there are a lot of alternate rules that can bring your game to the next level. The D&D 5E Dungeon Masters Guide has some great optional rules you can use to bring different genres of games to life by playing up things like honor and horror. Beyond D&D itself, a lot of other games use mechanics that are worth porting in to create certain effects in your ...
Feb 13, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 84
Why won’t the experienced DM playing in your game back off and let you run it? A backseat DM can be a frustrating experience and force some difficult conversations — but having an experienced DM on the player side of the table to help lookup rulings and encourage the other players can also be a really beneficial asset in your game. How do you leverage that DM player as a good assistant and not let them become your worst critic? At 3 Wise DMS, we’ve played with backseat DMs, been backseat DMs, an...
Feb 06, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 83
Across the games we’re running and playing, we have several campaign worlds, NPCs, and PCs that cross over between DMs. Usually, this is no big deal, but sometimes what one DM does can unbalance what another DM is trying to do. Often this revolves around PC power, with characters in both our Marvel and Woodstock Wanderers game sometimes breaking the curve for the other DMs/GMs. But conflict can also arise over how shared NPCs and campaign worlds are portrayed. If one DM’s giant unfeeling tentacl...
Jan 30, 2022•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 82
Leveling up! It’s synonymous with D&D and one of the game’s biggest contributions to gaming culture. The very idea of gaining a level has become a staple of RPG video games, board games, and even most (but not all, as we’ll discuss) Tabletop Roleplaying Games. But is it the best way to handle character advancement in D&D 5th Edition? Dael Kingsmill of the MonarchsFactory YouTube channel has some different ideas. In a recent video, she even suggested that D&D shouldn’t use levels! Our...
Jan 23, 2022•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 81
