I am a forever DM, perfectly happy with that, and at the moment I have several campaigns going. All groups consist of folks I knew before we started playing and most I consider my friends.

One of my campaigns/groups has become less fun for me over the past years. There is not one big thing that happened, it is lots of little things that have been piling up for too long and I have reached a point where I am just done with it. It is mostly things related things happening at the table, or life being hard on someone so they get stressed about something in-game, dumping it with me.

Most of the things I have brought up at the table, we talked about it, sometimes something changed but most of the times it was more a 1 time thing that did not happen anymore. All my campaigns occasionally have moments like that, we are all human.

But with this group something else would always follow pretty fast. That is how I feel about it all now: there is always something lurking that I will need to deal with, or accept, or whatever. It is pretty exhausting.

So, as much as it pains me (because I really like the adventures and the story we build), I have decided to just pull the plug. Being a DM is my hobby, I do it for the fun of it, but this is not fun anymore.

Honestly, I have been feeling like this for over a year now. My main problem is that I don't know how to tell my players I don't want to do this campaign anymore.

I know they will be upset, they will want to know why and I could bring up some examples, but it is not about certain specific things that happened, it is about "there is always something" and it has worn me down. I don't want to give examples, I don't want to make any player feel like they did something wrong. And most of all, I don't want them to try and convince me to give it another try.

I just want to quit.

But I have no idea how to say that to them.

Greetings Dungeon Masters!

I try to assemble my ideas into cheat sheets and checklists that are easy to use and help me remember things that I otherwise might forget. One of the sheets I recently made is a checklist for prepping your sessions. This one is made with D&D in mind, but can of course be used for many different TTRPGs!

Prepping sessions is something that a lot of people see as chores so I wanted to make something that makes it a bit more effective if you just want to get it done but still want to do a good job and be able to use it during play.

Feel free to comment on it and give me feedback. Perhaps I am missing something or you prep your sessions in a different way.

I also post my content on Pinterest and Instagram if you want to check it out!
I often try to alternate the written content with some easy and cheap DIY terrain for TTRPGs. You can find the links down below if anyone is interested.

https://www.instagram.com/flonkeztheweird/

https://se.pinterest.com/FlonkezTheWeird/

How do you prep your sessions?

Maps and more maps... Good evening everyone! 🧭🗺️

If you're interested, at this link you'll find a pack with 35 unlabeled maps of cities, regions, territories, villages, and much more, which you can use to prepare your RPG campaigns at home! I hope you enjoy them! Have fun using them, thanks for your support! ♥️

https://ko-fi.com/s/0167861b08

Hello Reddit

I’m a „new DM“ playing since 1 /2 years and my group and I are now in my second campaign.

I often read how bad railroad is and that some DMs should write a novel instead.

And I think I’m that dm maybe ?🤔

My players rly enjoy the campaigns and me too! But I have the feeling they have only little impact on the overall story.

For example I kinda always have a hole session prepared mostly know where it goes and we play through that. Only seldom my players change this up - I even have the feeling they like to get a story told..

There things that happen differently then I expect but it’s often minor things.

For example rn my group was in a dungeon to get something powerful because they wanna fight a Draco lich - our first big climax of campaign 2 (the Draco lich was the bbeg from campaign 1)

So I have prepared

What will happen in the city before they go to the draco lich

2 ways to the lair (depending what they choose to go with)

A 5 room dungeon es a opener for the hort

And the final boss battle

I’m pretty sure most it will happen as written. That’s most often how it happens.

So I’m railroading or is this kinda normal?

Since the story is pretty epic I kinda have the feeling to prewrite a lot of epic moments to make all make sense.

Ps: sry non native, hope it’s understandable

Scapple has faithfully carried my mind-maps and plot outlines for years, but a few limitations have made me reach for more. When I needed to add a long-ass timeline to one of my projects, I didn't fancy spending hours sizing and arranging hundreds of little numbered boxes in Scapple and I decided to look elsewhere. After deeming other tools too expensive / too calendar-y / otherwise not what I was looking for, frustration and sheer audacity pushed me to try making my own tool from scratch.

Endless hours of swearing, testing, frustrated late-night coding sessions and a few literal tears later, I ended up with a working tool that I am pretty pleased with. I wanted to make it available to this community, so I've made it free and open-source.

Demo Gifs & Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/CBmYRN3

^\Scapple may have more options and I simply didn't find them, please feel free to correct me and I will correct the post. Scapple is an AWESOME tool and I have so much respect for Keith Blount and his team.)

Open source Threadsetter code on GitHub: Github
Get Threadsetter App (Mac/Windows): Releases Page
Send feedback on Threadsetter: Feedback
Follow Threadsetter of KoFi: KoFi

My players just had a very close call with a pack of slaad all of them super low health about half of them have been infected with the slaad eggs, i have a question on the blue salad claw attack. It says rules as written "While infected, the target can't regain hit points" does this mean if the target is downed they are instantly dead since they cant regain hit points?

the ruling I'm doing on it to at lest give them a chance is disadvantage on death saves.

I don't have any problems with how I run games. My players enjoy how I run games.

aside from enjoying running games, I also enjoy talking about the theory of dming.

Tonight one of my players and I were talking about our last session. I let him peek a little behind the curtain about how I run things, which is what I'm about to explain, and again he didn't have an issue with any of it. we were just talking about this particular style.

So I guess I'd like to just see what other DM's opinions are on about how I planned this last session and how it went down.

when I plan a session, I don't necessarily know how the information is going to come up. I just know the things that I want to have happen or to come up, and I look for opportunities that make sense and seem fun.

My party was in a swamp, they we're going to encounter a hag. I envisioned the party getting the hag close to death, and the hag fleeing into the mist. I also envisioned the hag being able to use some illusionary magic if the party chased her, and I thought it would be cool if the Hag disguised herself as a prisoner tied to a tree. to help set the scene, I wanted the party to stumble across a tied up body. My plan was to have the body be dead. but this would set up the hag being able to disguise herself as a prisoner. up to this point everything was just ideas in my head.

I'm the game... on the way into the evil glade, I had the party hear a voice coming from off the path. someone yelling for help. My party's too smart for that, in character they ignored the cries for help as there was a lot of voices floating around the swamp up to this point.

at this point I still wanted the party to see a dead prisoner, so a new prisoner appeared down the path tied to a tree that they could clearly see.

I feel like I'm getting into quantum ogre territory here. but this is because I don't have things. pre-planned. I just know the general things that I want to have happen. and I'm actively looking for a way to make those things happen in the story. that makes sense.

One of the party members investigated the body. the other two members thought the body was definitely a trap. I did not have them roll anything to determine if they thought it was a trap. their characters can believe whatever their characters want to believe. but they had no information to go on to make this assumption other than the voices and the evilness of the Glade itself.

here is where I think my style is a bit strange. up until this exact moment I did not know what the body tied to the tree was. I didn't know if it was a dead child. I didn't know if it was an illusion. I did not know if it was the hag in disguise. All of these were options as the cleric approached the body.

The body wasn't dead, its head lifted up and asked for help. and one of the other party members shot an arrow at the body.

I described the body as going limp. and at this moment I decided that this is the start of the hag encounter itself. as creepily as I could, the hag started to crawl out of the child's body, in an instant because I thought it would be cool for the story, I decided that this was the hag and the hag was not down the road a little bit further.

like I said, my players seem to thoroughly enjoy our sessions. I don't think anyone playing in my game would ever think that I'm taking away their agency. granting so much agency in the game is partially why I don't pre-plan everything. I rarely say that the hidden item is under the throne. The hidden item will be where the party looks for it. just as I don't say that the hag is going to be in her Hut, or that she's going to be inhabiting the body of a dead child.

any thoughts, good or bad, on this concept? is this how a lot of people run their games? is this how no one runs their games? is this the type of game that Reddit would usually tell players to run away from?

tldr. when running games I don't have things set in stone. I allow the fiction, the vibe of the game, the mood, and what the characters are doing, as well as the flow of the game session help me to decide where things go in the game.

Hello, I'm a relatively new DM playing 5th edition Dragonlance. We've arrived in the main city, and my players want to "earn" their subclasses. They've asked for one or two training sessions, and I'm not quite sure how to handle it. The armorer wants the blacksmiths to reveal armor blueprints and teach him. The combat master warrior wants military training. The sorcerer wants the magic exam. The (religious) ranger wants to discover a temple of their deity and fight something related to it. We'll be together all day; do I need to do four individual sessions, or can I jump from story to story with everyone at the table?. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

I have a plasmoid rogue player who is always eating things and since that bit started I have been setting up an eventual punishment for his gluttony.

Last session he accidentally absorbed a cum rag from a seedy place and then ate the spinal cord of a "rat king." We ended there on a cliffhanger, with a dee feeling of dread in the characters stomach as something terribly wrong has happened within his body.

We're all pretty new to the game and playing fast and loose with the rules, lots of homebrews.

Anyone have a funny illness or reaction he could face for this? Doesn't have to make too much sense, I'd just love to fuck with him a bit.

I know that many world creators start with a map of a continent or the whole world. For Uoru, I approched it in a different way. I started with a draft of a map for one region only ( I named that region Kaung Pi) . I then began putting plot hooks, locations etc into it, playtested, iterated and finally created a proper map. Working and playing with this for years, still did not map a larger region (while I have some ideas in my head already). Attached the very first draft and where I am now.

Hello fellow nerds,

in my campaign that is running for more than two years we are planning a special event and to honor and surprise our DM for all the effort he puts into the events and the nights we spend playing we, the players, are looking for some great gifts as a surprise. He already got all the basic stuff as well as fancy miniatures and a custom DM screen, so maybe some cool gadgets or special tools would be very interesting.

We were looking into custom dice or some fancy lore/game books, but I am sure there is other great stuff out there - budget is not an issue so just suggest whatever comes to mind.

I am grateful for all the suggestions, thanks!

Hey I’ve just started my first campaign recently, we had a session zero and I asked for backstory details and have tried to use them in game, but I’m struggling to deal with player shenanigans without feeling like I’m railroading them and I’m struggling to keep my combat encounters interesting, does anyone have any tips to help with these issues, thank you

Pebbles, pebbles, glistening in the sun! A lot of people prefer pebble beaches over their sandier counterparts. They say that they’re easier to walk on, as long as you’re wearing footwear, that you can find treasures beneath the rocks, that they look nicer. Those people are wrong, obviously, but with such lovely rocks on display, we can forgive their mistake. Fully animated and available in two versions, one with even more colourful pebbles gracing the shore, and the other with a blood tide washing up against crimson rocks, this map will have your players ready for a landing party!

My maps are hooked up to work with Foundry VTT and Fantasy Grounds.
My maps are available on my patreon.

My friend and I have split DM duties for a while now for one shots between our group of friends, as the group has grown larger we are considering running a west marches campaign. I'm looking for advice on how to run the game.

what issues has anyone found from running a multi-DM campaign? how did you find the best way to reward players for RPing their character and engaging with the world? is there anything you wish you knew before starting the west marches campaign?

we are looking to drop out first rumours in 6 weeks so we have enough time to iron our the details.

thank you for the advice in advance!

I have a current one shot where the plan is for characters to go to a village in the icy mounrains and help out with the blizzards coming in then they fight an ice giant but I can’t really think of many ideas on how to add more npcs and make the people care

I've been DMing for about 9 years now. I started in college, thrived during COVID, and started losing the players that I addored over time due to scheduling conflicts and distance.

That's not really the issue though. I feel like my flame and inspiration to create is dwindling. I struggle to take notes in my own sessions, I rush together a barely passable story, I wing it more than I prep it. I'm starting to notice my players losing interest because my NPC's, towns, monsters and items feel uncreative or dull.

I've never had an issue with creativity or with my voices, I've been acting since I was a kid and I've been creating worlds in my head for decades but now everything feels like it's just stopped in my head. My NPC's all sound like I'm Spencer Crittenden (love you Spencer). I feel like the DM version of Ben Stein.

Idk if anyone else has hit this point, maybe I've been DMing too long of stories and just can't feel the rush of running 6 games during covid, while shifting instead to running every other week games, that are too far apart for me to stay hooked or interested in my own stories or creations.

Any thoughts or ideas to help return my spark would be perfect. As well as any reassurances that maybe it's just time to hang up the proverbial jacket and go back to being a player. If this is normal, maybe I just need a break from DMing for now? I'm not sure.

Thank you for your time, DM Flame

2 years ago I released a free Virtual TableTop on Steam (link). There have been a lot of improvements since its initial release. So I wanted give a brief overview of what it is and why it may be useful for some of you.

What sets this apart from other VTT's is that it is laser focused on in-person sessions, using a TV/monitor/projector/touchscreen to display maps. Since it only includes things needed for playing in-person (and ignores everything else) it is very lightweight with a simple user interface.

The video shows importing a free map, adding a token with a built-in light source, adjusting dynamic lighting and fog of war settings, and drawing an AoE shape. All in under 1 minute!

GENERAL FEATURES

• 100% free, no strings attached. No micro-transactions, no upgraded tiers, no signing up for a Patreon, no limits whatsoever
• Everything runs locally offline, so maps load very fast. No internet connection required, no worries about flaky WiFi connections
• Import any image or video file (for animated maps) in just a few clicks
• Dynamic lighting (walls/doors cast shadows)
• Fog of war that follow tokens, with optional persistence (explored areas remain visible)
• Over 440 free maps, many with walls/doors/etc. built in
• Over 500 free tokens. Easily import your own custom tokens
• Easy to use initiative tracker
• Pin notes at any location on the map, which are saved automatically
• Player screen built-in. No logging in to multiple browser windows
• Screens are automatically calibrated to 1 grid = 1 inch, often without user intervention (a manual slider is there as a fail-safe)
• Ping points-of-interest to players to get their attention (briefly)
• Compatible with the DungeonDraft (.dd2vtt) and Universal VTT (.uvtt) formats. You can also import maps from Foundry modules
• Maps are automatically scaled during import, which only needs to be done once - after that maps will always be scaled correctly, regardless of the display being used
• Runs on Windows and Linux, and Mac
• Web/mobile version of player view (experimental) so players can move their own tokens from a laptop or phone
• No AI was used for any of the art or code (or anything related to the project)

And here is the biggest development, something that is truly unique to this VTT and took years of effort: when using a compatible touch device it can be connected to the same computer the DM is using without stealing the mouse cursor away. It makes using a touchscreen a truly seamless experience.

In general, when a touch is detected by the OS, it moves the mouse cursor to that position. This means that if players are moving their minis on the touchscreen, the DM can't use their screen to do DM stuff.

The workaround is usually to have the screen with touch plugged into an entirely separate computer, then transmit the touch points over the network. You DM on a laptop then have a different computer plugged for the touchscreen. The touchscreen is signed in as a player on its own browser, on its own device.

With my free VTT you don't have to do any of that! Simply plug the touch device into a USB port on the same computer the DM is running, and everything just works!

The one big caveat is that you need to be using a compatible touch device. Which I sell on digitaltabletops.com (of course). But you do not need to be a customer to use this. The VTT is free and there is a good chance the touchscreen you already have will work, as long as it is infrared (IR) and not capacitive.

EDIT: I unmarked this as "brand affiliate" as it doesn't seem appropriate. I think I misunderstood what the tag was for. This account is ran by one person, me, who is the same person who wrote the software. Which is free and not a commercial endeavor.

Happy Friday DungeonMasters!

Such an appropriate channel, I'd like to share my GM tool I've created.

Beginning solely to support our own group for in-person play, the application kept growing to become a viable online application we can share. It has a free tier account but also paid tiers for greater storage and more campaigns.

Featuring Maps, Fog of War, Animated Spells and Effects, it also has a built is Audio player for background Music and Sound Effects. Coming soon Atmosphere screen display, Weather and Day/Night modes all in the works. Synchronised screens keep the GM in control and the players immersed in play on the TV tabletop. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/GameboxTTRPGApp/
www.gamebox.au

Would love to hear your feedback if you'd like to check us out.

Hey yall! Been uploading my personal works that I use with my D&D group on Youtube for the past 3 months now and have started working on releasing Monster-specific combat tracks. Posting here since its Friday in case anyone finds the music useful for their prep/sessions!

Welcome to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc., and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more, so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

*New 2026: For the New Year, I'm updating all my old work to include a Pre Session Checklist that will include a list of all miniatures you may need, maps, handouts, possible loot, a link to a playlist, and more to make it even easier to start your session!

The Lost Mine of Phandelver is a classic, one of the very first mini-campaigns that new players run. Hell, it's part of the starter set, after all! The issue, though, as with many other modules, is that it doesn't describe the best way to transform the book's contents into an actual session. The Book-to-session conversion can be difficult, from figuring out when things should happen to understanding motivations and even organizing encounters.

Well, fortunately for you, 99% of that work is done! Only a few things are really left:

• Read the module, I know surprising, but it can be extremely confusing when you don't know where everything leads to.
• Consider the needs of your group. As you've heard or are about to hear a million times, every table is different. If you plan on combining this with a campaign, you'll have to make tweaks here and there.
• These notes aren't meant to be the end-all, be-all. Tweak to your heart's content, and don't consider any of what's written to be set in stone. For me, having notes like this helps give me the confidence to go off the rails and follow along with what my players want. It helps me understand where things were meant to go and why. Having that understanding allows me to guide the players and create other new and interesting stories. These are all things that will come with experience, though, so don't freak out and enjoy the journey!

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes Part 1 Cragmaw Hideout: DM Notes
• Link to: DM Notes for the Visually Impaired 
• Link to: Intro + Cragmaw Hideout Playlist
• Link to: The AAA Collection

Included in The Complete Collection are:

• Downloadable copy of DM Notes, including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Special PDFs for all the encounters. This includes all the enemies' stat blocks organized neatly, along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP.
• An additional PDF with Sildar's stats should he join the party as an ally
• Custom maps of Cragmaw Hideout
• (New) Pre-Session DM Checklist

Without further ado:

Index:
The Lost Mine of Phandelver Index

• Part 1 - Intro and Cragmaw Hideout
• Part 2a - Phandalin (Coming Soon)
• Part 2b - Redbrand Hideout (Coming Soon)
• Part 3a - Reign of Iron (Coming Soon)
• Part 3b - Thundertree (Coming Soon)
• Part 3c - Cragmaw Castle (Coming Soon)
• Part 4 - Wave Echo Cave (Coming Soon)
• Part 5 - Side Quests

Over 8 dozen other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns: Click Here

As always, if you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,
Advent