Guild of Imagination

Happy Father's Day to all you Dungeon Dads out there.

Happy Saturday Everyone! Wish me luck, I got family visiting this weekend.

Inspiration comes from everywhere. Never back down from it. Use that Ogre Fighter with the Talking Donkey. Introduce those 4 Monk Tortles, play that gadget toting rogue with the tragic backstory!

Does anyone else want to them to make second D&D movie with the exact same cast but playing different roles?... Me too!

We've reached the halfway way point of this week's adventure. Time for a little short rest. Make sure to roll those hit dice if you need it and double check your class abilities to see if you regain the use of any special features after a short rest.

Typically a short rest is an hour or so, but I like to give my players an option when going into a short rest. You can take the full hour to regain class abilities and roll hit dice, but if the party is in a race against the clock, you can just roll hit dice where 1 hit die = 10 minutes, to quickly get back into the adventure.

As a Dungeon Master I always try to encourage my party to make friends along the path of heroism. Be friendly to the shopkeeper, the potion maker the other adventurers you may come across. I'll let it be know that any given npc has some sort of talent and down the road something related to that may come up. Now if the party was nice to a certain npc they could always ask for assistance or seek insight from them, if they may have been rude to them, then they may not get the help they need or have to seek it elsewhere.

The golden rule of life is the same in the realms of high fantasy. Be kind.

What npcs have you been able to call upon for help in your adventures? How do you treat the common innkeeper when arriving in a new place?

Adventuring Tip #1 Never split the party.

A cautionary tale as old as time. In every plane of existence and realm across the astral sea you'll hear this advice passed from one retired adventurer to the next generation. Never split the party, dividing your strength creates weak points that monsters can take advantage of.

It's really hard for someone to have your back when there's nobody there to begin with.

Stay safe, stay diligent, stay together!

Have you ever split the party? How'd it turn out? Tell us your tale.

Dungeons & Dragons. Sword fights! Monsters! Deadly Traps and Puzzles! Heroes Battling the forces of Evil! Fantasy Errand Simulator?

Sometimes fun happens deep in a necromancers crypt. Sometimes fun takes place in a settlement, trying to get a discount on a mule. A Shopping episode or session where the party just needs to run some mundane errands can be a blast. With NPCs, bargaining, tons of role-playing and a flood of social interactions D&D takes on a whole new light.

When was your last downtime session, where the party just hung out in a tavern or walked the streets of a settlement running errands?

Happy Saturday. Rest up and good luck on those domestic quests you may have planned.

Happy Friday guys. May Paton Oswald bless your adventures

The end of a campaign can be bitter sweet. It means the end of the story. The conclusion and saying g good bye to characters you've come to care about for possible years. It can lead to some real life emotions coming to the surface.

Have you ever played a campaign to it's end? How did it make you feel?

Finding a voice for your character or npc can be a challenge. Here's a little table I found that could help. Give it a try and tell us how it goes!

Traps come in all shapes and sizes. From the pressure plate that opens the ceiling tile above the unsuspecting player and drops a gelatinous cube on them, the trip wire that sets off the flaming arrows that shoot down the hallway or the intricate spring loaded poisoned needle that stabs into would be thieves.

What's your favorite or least favorite trap to use or run into?

This is my favorite game series of all time! Anyone else?? I'm so excited to revisit Riven after all of this time but in VR!!

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Adventuring Tip! A stealthy adventurer is a safe adventurer. Sometimes the best way to win an encounter is to not start one. Stealthily around enemies is a good way to get to your objective unscathed. Spells such as Pass Without Trace, Invisibility and Silence can help, or for you Paladins and Clerics out there, having a set of leather armor or a breastplate to switch to pre-dungeon dive can make the difference.

Teamwork makes the dream work. Here's a friendly reminder that above all else in a D&D campaign. Care about the characters in your party and the others around the table. We're all here to have a good time.

Happy Saturday Everyone!

With great power comes great responsibility. As a Dungeon Master you set the tone of the campaign and there may be a particular story you'd like to have the players be a part of.

A session zero is a collaborative and planning-focused meeting where players create their characters, discuss the campaign's setting, tone, and themes, and set expectations for the game. This meeting takes place before the game ever starts and is intended to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

Essentially it's to make sure that everyone involved has the same idea of fun.

There's numerous checklists and questions to ask your players and discuss that can be found online or in the Dungeons and Dragons books themselves. But what are some of the main focuses you bring to your session zero?

So many times a player will ask to play a homebrew race or class that is just... well. Terrible. Not the idea they have, but the third party material they'll find and want to use. No granted, some homebrew stuff is amazing and so very very well made, but some are horribly Balanced or waaaaaay to over powered.

9 times out of ten there's a race or class that's already in the book that will work with just a different flavor on it. Make that druid into a scientist that made a miscalculation with a strange material. Have them turn into a green rage monster instead of wildshaping into a bear. Flavor is free. You can utilize the same mechanics that are proven to be balanced and just reskin it for the niche you want.

Have you flavored or reskinned something official to give it that personal touch?

Mid week short rest guys. Here's a little bardic inspiration to get you through the rest of your adventure.

Sidequests are small objectives given to the party that don't really have any bearing on the main story. They can be a nice breather during a campaign and a chance for characters to try new tactics or just create bonds with eachother or the npcs they meet.

What's a sidequest you've given your party or have done as a player that sticks out among the rest?

Happy Memorial Day.

Happy Sunday all. Don't forget to resupply before next week's big adventure.

My characters name is Fofa Bett. He's an Armorer Artificer / Hunter Ranger... He's a Nandolorian

When a new character is introduced its fun to have a scene planned out. A little moment where player and dm work together (either in advance or an on the spot improv) for the player to describe their character and the dm can have them do something interesting.

Have you ever had an epic introduction or worked with your dm to come into the game in a certain way?

Magic items are awesome, but can have a weird impact on the game, especially for young players. Being new to D&D there's a lot to take into account. Various rules and mechanics and also the abilities of your chosen class. Giving out a magic item too soon can put blinders on a player and cause them to forget or overlook their class abilities.

I (DM Cory) like to wait til at least level 3 or 4 before a make any major magic items available. Before that point I'll hand out a few magic trinkets or consumables but make a point to have players learn what their characters are capable of without relying on magic items.

How do you feel about this? When do you think is a good level to start rewarding magic items to the party?

D&D teaches kids social-emotional skills, which are the kinds of “soft skills” that aren't usually taught directly in school, but have a huge impact on friendships, work, and general enjoyment of life.

These soft skills include things like Social Awareness, Emotional Intelligence, Empathy, Active Listening, Growth Mindset and Integrity to name a few.

I (DM Cory) definitely saw some improvements in my sons social emotional development when he started playing D&D. Have any of you parents noticed some of these skills blossom after playing D&D for a time? Tell us about it.

With how many different party compositions there can be it's not unlikely to have a party with no healing magic. As a DM if you notice non of the party has healing spells, put a local healer into some of your settlements that the party can go to and pay some gold for healing.

Healing spells can be priced depending on the level of spell slot used plus material components used for the spell with variations depending on the location. Small settlements may be cheaper but have a smaller selection and vice versa for big city healers.

Consumables in D&D are potions, spell scrolls or any one time use magic item. They are awesome and a great way to reward your party without throwing off the balance of the game with magic items that might be a little too strong.

Great for early game loot, when you'd like your party to learn their abilities and rely on those more than a magic item they find. Occasionally giving a magic item too soon can give the character blinders and they'll rely solely on the magic item instead of the abilities granted by their class.

How do you feel about coming across Consumables in your game? Do you hoard them or use them freely?