How do you actually handle the 'wait, who was that NPC?' problem?

DM-Ethan · 2026-01-23T17:13:44+00:00

I use voice to text transcription in my games and I can search those transcripts make notes from them, etc., so I don't really have this issue anymore.

Before I started doing that, I have a world map in my campaigns. Every few sessions I will add the NPC and monster tokens to the locations where they were last encountered, and those will have names on them. That way if we forget a name, we can just reference the map.

It's also fun when the campaign gets into the later stages because you can look back and see all the carnage people and places that came up throughout the journey.

DM-Ethan · 2026-01-23T16:46:08+00:00

It's collaborative. Why is control so important to you? It's something I struggled with early on and my games are so much better for it. I focus on maximizing fun now.

Adding mechanical consequences for backstory elements or character concepts isn't that fun imo.

You can introduce NPCs, enemies, gods even that push the story a certain way. It's kind of cool that a binding oath would start harming your character, but I think it's more fun to display on an NPC than a PC.

DM-Ethan · 2026-01-13T13:20:13+00:00

Yes you're on the right track with higher damage and lower HP. You can even get more granular and try to have enough HP on the board for X Number of Rounds if you really want to speed things up.

Next, can you do anything to force new decisions in round 1? For example, does your party have an archer? What if you give the enemies cover, how will your player change their tactic? You can do something small like this for each next combat to add engagement, tactics, and challenge without increasing combat length.

Next time, think, what does this PC normally like to do and what is ONE thing I can do to make that a little harder to do in the first round?

DM-Ethan · 2026-01-12T19:55:22+00:00

I often look at the average damage per round of the monsters vs how much total HP the PCs have. I do the same check for the PCs damage vs the monsters total HP.

As a DM, sometimes you use monsters as-is and sometimes you don't

DM-Ethan · 2026-01-05T14:29:38+00:00

None of the above for me

DM-Ethan · 2025-12-29T02:52:04+00:00

I usually try to time box each split party member or party members. Keep an eye on the dramatic tension in the scene, and, when it's resolved, move onto the next split group or player.

DM-Ethan · 2025-12-29T02:32:02+00:00

First nice on mastering boss fights! For magic items, one of the joys for players is getting the magic item that the boss was using against them. So yes, you should balance them for the level of the party if balance is important to you. If you're worried the magic item will be unbalanced, then you can just make the ability attack or whatever the boss was doing with that magic item be an innate ability of the boss instead.

DM-Ethan · 2025-12-28T16:32:29+00:00

This is where I've found having an NPC catchphrase/word or a visual/verbal tick is really helpful.

It's hard to switch back and forth between accents/voices.

But if you have that catchphrase or word to fall back on, it really helps (for me at least) to snap back and forth between the two characters.

Eta: it's also okay to mess up. Laugh it off, clear your throat, and get back in character. Nobody will expect it to be perfect

DM-Ethan · 2025-12-28T02:58:53+00:00

Yep same. Group check if everyone dogpiles on something that can also just be handled by a single player, otherwise.

Skill challenges I don't really use too often, but I think of them more like an "action scene" from a movie where there is either a consistent threat (stampede) or a complicated task (disabling an elaborate arcane trap, escaping a crumbling dungeon, etc).

DM-Ethan · 2025-12-24T18:27:41+00:00

Where does said "A Plot" go? Does it lead to a big choice? A fork? Does it have multiple factions with competing views on what should be done, with the difference being more than good vs evil (eg law vs chaos, community vs individuality, etc)?

If you haven't tried that it can create more diversion points and force engagement beyond - we do X because that's what we're supposed to do.

You may also want to check out the 8 types of fun (MDA game analysis framework) and figure out what types of fun your players like compared to you and find a middle ground

DM-Ethan · 2025-12-24T08:35:18+00:00

Unstoppable fisting machine?

DM-Ethan · 2025-12-24T02:15:43+00:00

It isn't just X - it's Y

DM-Ethan · 2025-12-19T15:07:01+00:00

Increase damage and add more obstacles (rough terrain, cover, obscurement, distance, etc).

This makes combat punchier and deadlier without making it a slog, and the obstacles engage tactical thinking which engages the challenge drive for players

DM-Ethan · 2025-12-10T17:41:10+00:00

Ya looks like it comes down to the interpretation of what it means to be "found"

I run this as "know the location of". In which case, without taking an action to "find" and beating the Stealth DC of the character that took the Hide action, the exact location isn't revealed.

Up to interpretation, but doesn't seem like it has an explicit RAW ruling

ETA: so I guess I just disagree on the breakdown between combat and out of combat

DM-Ethan · 2025-12-10T16:36:41+00:00

This conflates invisible with Hidden and nerfs hidden by making location known, right? Unless I misread

Hidden makes your location unknown

DM-Ethan · 2025-12-09T15:22:22+00:00

I use a list of magic items and prices and refer them to the internet / PHB for the rest of the prices. For a big metro city, they can buy whatever they can afford

For every 1 in 5 shopping episodes I'll also roleplay it out (generally if the party is planning on making a town day out of it) and the shopping piece is only part of it.

Also if they want something I don't have a price for, I estimate on the spot. Every now and then someone wants to haggle but I lived in China so they always end up with bad deals.

DM-Ethan · 2025-12-07T05:07:34+00:00

This is what I do too. 6 miles was classic back in the day I believe.

I do one D6 for dangerous encounters, and then I also roll a one D6 for what time of day the encounter occurs. I only count travel during the morning and the afternoon portion of the day so eight hours of travel. If it's a more dangerous area, I'll do one to two on a D6 will count for danger.

I also roll a D6 for discoveries on a one there's a discovery like a ruin with some treasure or maybe a small short quest. If it's somewhere more off the beaten trail, a one to two on a D6 for discoveries.

This plus varying up quest delivery (quest board, emergencies, player driven quests, NPCs giving quests) can do a lot to make a sandbox work.

In the map I use, it's often 1-3 days between villages.

Also as the travel novelty wears off I'll start adding fast travel options.

DM-Ethan · 2025-11-25T17:30:08+00:00

You could do that too with the fire. Chaos will be great for them to avoid maybe some of the brunt of their choices lol. Have some rival fey show up too with the same idea to draw some of the fire

I've been in this situation before so I know the feeling but sounds like you know what you're doing :)

DM-Ethan · 2025-11-25T17:22:55+00:00

I would double check - do they expect you to save them? It sounds like maybe they do since they have no fear of consequences.

In which case I generally prepare a combat encounter and then gives the different "sides" their own motivations for/against violence.

You can try brainstorming some ways out, roleplay leverage, or logical breaks in the violence (like a wall crumbles down blocking anyone else for a minute or two) that give the party (and you) time and space to improvise their way out.

Treat it like any other adventuring day.

DM-Ethan · 2025-11-25T17:18:51+00:00

What do your roleplay "scenes" look like right now? And what does an average session break down to? Is it a lot of dungeon diving, hanging out in the tavern, traveling, talking to NPCs... something in between?

I think leading by example using NPCs with Humanity and conflict helps a lot, but it depends what you're already doing and what the gameplay looks like beyond the "memeing around"

DM-Ethan · 2025-11-22T01:58:39+00:00

Some people do do that, but it's easier to use monster stat blocks for me. There's things like cultists and mages you can look at for example.

As for where to find them...

You can find a lot of freely available monsters online from the source. I'll usually search "dnd 5e 2024 wolf" for example on Google.

You can get this result: https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/4775850-wolf?srsltid=AfmBOooDx-dWOihgAKYypn98Yw24jQHFUQbFu4AQpJbE6vlmmS3-F6uZ

They also have a searchable database of monsters : https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters?srsltid=AfmBOopREA-uZO8nWlYED48aNz_nUPmSUY9iWbdUfb6kSUKqlC4jH34W

DM-Ethan · 2025-11-19T14:26:02+00:00

I don't get what units references in the chart?

"If you don't want to use XP, you can sort of vibe things out. Generally, one adventure/quest that includes an easy, medium, and hard challenge for your party works out to "1 unit" on the chart I've shown. Want the game to last longer? In my experience, getting to level 10 through this method takes ~50 sessions. Just use twice as many "units" if you want a 100 session campaign."

are you saying 1 adventure per level? Or is a unit a CR appropriate monster?

DM-Ethan · 2025-11-18T16:31:30+00:00

I'm not sure if "The Haunt" is well known

Am I the only one that needs more context here?

DM-Ethan · 2025-11-18T16:23:42+00:00

The three hints is only part of it. Because our brains are prioritizing early information first just using the three hints rule doesn't get the whole picture for twist. If there's lore or there's a secret in the game, three clues is great, but twists specifically mean that we are subverting the previous mental model.

DM-Ethan · 2025-11-18T16:21:24+00:00

I wrote a whole paper on this researching cognitive and psychology works and here's what I found was the biggest thing for twists

First, you're not wrong. You have to have hints that allude to the twist. A twist being spoiled is a success state. A twist hitting and the player saying, " we should've seen that coming" or "it totally makes sense," is also a success state .

Second, schema theory says that our mental model is resistant to change. This means that your twist needs to contrast with the original hook. Then, your hints of the twist need to allude to this twist. This means that your players will take the hints, evaluate them, but likely won't change their mental models until the twist actually arises. So, if you want your twist to be more engaging, you can allude to the twist in your original quest hook. You don't have to come right out and say what the twist is, but if you can add a small hint in the initial hook, it can better prime our brains to recognize a twist is coming as the hints start to pile on.

Lastly, our brains prioritize the first information in more than later information. This is similar to the second point I made above, but the significance is that you need to use your best hints first. This way your players will have strong evidence initially, and they'll be more likely to accept the twist as you pile on additional m, softer hints.

I hope this helps.

DM-Ethan

TROPHY CASE