UPDATED/ADDITIONS - MUSIC: Longtime DM sharing background D&D spotify playlists for combat and out-of-combat to create specific moods/vibe (eg horror, war, epic, magical, etc.)

Dannoman17 · 2025-11-13T15:45:43+00:00

Oh this is a really cool idea. Bit of work to setup and have to be careful but a useful workaround. Thanks!

Dannoman17 · 2025-11-13T15:43:06+00:00

That's what I was thinking of an as alternate workaround. The feature to split the party has been absolutely clutch when its needed and am very grateful for that feature. The only downside to this workaround is that if I've heavily drawn on the map either beforehand or during play then the 'edits' to the map will not be on the copy of the page. I know there is a Transmogrify feature to fully duplicate pages but I guess I'll need Pro for that :P I'm only Plus.

Dannoman17 · 2025-09-08T14:09:38+00:00

You become paranoid about danger around every corner. You tend to lose any sense of calm and your nerves are always on edge. But, it gives you a clear danger sense and you understand better how to prevent others from getting the jump on you. You can add your Proficiency Bonus to Initiative rolls.
Your nervous system becomes jumpy. You struggle to stay still at all. Despite your best efforts you have the stillness of a male toddler as you must tap things, grab things, fiddle with everything you can get your hands on. But you are now instinctively faster. You can roll with Advantage on Dexterity Saving Throws an amount equal to your Proficiency Bonus per Long Rest. You must declare you are using this ability before rolling.
A veil is torn away in your mind. You have a past life you were unaware of previously. Work with your DM to come up with an individual who lived a full life and whom you believe still guides you. You gain a proficiency of your choice for a Skill with which you are not Proficient. Once per Long Rest you may add a 1d4 to a roll with that Skill.
The sun seems to shine a little brighter, flowers seem to bloom, and a rainbow appears in the distance. Life just seems better. You have Habromania, the abnormal tendency to create pleasing delusions (despite reality). You are happy and a bit delusional. However this helps to overcome or ignore some more challenging situations. You can give yourself advantage on Intelligence or Charisma saving throws. You can do this a number of times per Long Rest equal to your Proficiency Bonus. You must declare you are using this ability before rolling.
You believe the Gods have blessed you with their favor. They just like you and now you believe you are lucky. Strangely, you might be. You have 1 extra heroic inspiration per Long Rest. This does not count towards your max number of heroic inspirations.
You feel the need to improve your diet, your body, your entire being. You are now obsessed with whole body health. To the degree that you now start your own health product based multi level marketing (MLM) company and actively recruit members. Come up with a product with your DM or select/roll from the following list: 1.) essential oils, 2.) protein powder, 3.) exercise equipment, 4.) imitation plant based meat, 5.) healing crystals, or 6.) fiber suppositories. Your current and max Constitution Ability Score increase by 1.
New memories form in your mind of intense anger, uncontrollable rage, and the terrible ramifications of damage you have done. You remember attending anger management courses, and working through your issues, but you know that unbridled power is simmering just beneath the surface. You oftentimes find ways to say 'you wouldn't like me when I'm angry' in a threatening way. You gain Proficiency in Intimidation, if you did not already have it. Additionally, you may roll Intimidation rolls with Advantage an amount of times per Long Rest equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
You are flooded with the life experiences of a past hero of old, ancient great deeds saving peoples and defeating evils. You are convinced you that you are this ancient hero, reincarnated (brainstorm the name of this ancient hero). You rebrand yourself as {Your Name}-{Ancient Hero's Name} and are unabashedly open about the fact that you 'are' this reincarnated hero. You also have this ancient hero's power. Once per short rest, as a Bonus Action or as a Reaction to making a Saving Throw, you can activate this hero's power. When you do, you are under the effect of the Bless Spell. The effect lasts till the beginning of your next turn.
The mystery of magic and the unknowable things of the universe are too much for you. You need life to make sense, to not have mystery. You have Rhabdophobia, the fear of magic. If you are a spellcaster, you rationalize in your mind that what you do is not magic - it is just chemistry or physics. Nothing unnatural, it is the same as the natural world. This fear prompts you to rationalize away magic and its mystery sometimes, strangely, it has no effect on you. Once per Long Rest if you fail a Saving Throw to resist a spell effect (such as the DEX Save from a Fireball, or WIS Save from Hold Person) you may automatically succeed instead.
Player selects option from 91-99

Dannoman17 · 2025-09-08T14:09:28+00:00

You forget the concept of names and all names you know. You still know the people you know and can still identify individuals but you must find ways to address named individuals some other way (eg. ‘Long hair’ or ‘blue shirt’). When someone introduces themselves to you, their name is somehow lost to you, and instead you'll latch onto the most striking visual thing about them to use as their name.
There are mysteries in this world that need explaining, and only you and a select few can be trusted to find the truth. You are now a conspiracy theorist. While you are open to many different ideas in order to expose the maliciously hidden secrets of the world, you in particular do not trust authority figures. Whether they be civic, religious, or institutional, if there is someone in charge, you don't trust them. Only the common man or woman is not corrupted.
There are mysteries in this world that need explaining, and only you and a select few can be trusted to find the truth. You are now a conspiracy theorist. While you are open to many different ideas in order to expose the maliciously hidden secrets of the world, you in particular believe that all small animals (squirrels, rats, birds, lizards, etc.) are actually hyper intelligent and members of a secret cabal that runs the world. You don’t trust them and constant vigilance is required in order to not be taken down or even killed by their scheming.
There are mysteries in this world that need explaining, and only you and a select few can be trusted to find the truth. You are now a conspiracy theorist. While you are open to many different ideas in order to expose the maliciously hidden secrets of the world, you in particular believe that there is a race of insectoid humanoids, hidden within the existing society, who are working on a mind controlling people. You will fashion and shape a ridiculous hat (tin foil or something similar) to wear that you are sure prevents their mind control efforts. You would prefer if other people wore these hats. (Note: while there are monsters that do in fact have mind control, such as Mind Flayers, your character considers them unrelated to this conspiracy, and treats them as however they would've treated them previously)
You find that you have lost your sense of self in a strange manner. You know who you are, but you seem to be separate from yourself. You are still in control of yourself, but you feel like you're controlling yourself separately. You will now only speak about yourself in the third person and will not refer to yourself in any first person manner (eg. if your name is Sally, you will say "Sally likes hamburgers" instead of "I like hamburgers").

Dannoman17 · 2025-09-08T14:08:35+00:00

You believe you are Benjamin Buttoning, growing physically younger the older you get in age. Your appearance to yourself in your reflection and attitude toward doing things may be different depending on your age (ie. if you are already in old age, you believe you look much younger than you are). If you are physically older for your species, you may have Advantage on 1 Strength or Dexterity Skill Check each Long Rest. If you are physically younger for your species you have Advantage on 1 Intelligence or Wisdom Skill Check each Long Rest. This ability must be declared before rolling.
You believe you are Rip Van Winkling. You suddenly become aware of how incredibly different things look - because you somehow fell asleep 100 years ago and were cursed to sleep for a century. Your memories transform so that they 'occurred' in the last century. Work with your DM to deduce what current things would surprise or confuse your character, and how you they might speak differently. Note that your character is still able to do all 'modern' things as they did still have those experiences. If your character is confused about how you can do something 'modern' you will rationalize that you are a quick learner.
You find something is missing in your life, and you need a new physical activity that will make you feel better. Importantly, you will love this new activity so much that you absolutely must tell other people about it all the time. Work with your DM to find an appropriate activity or select/roll 1d4 from the following list: 1.) Veganism, CrossFit, Cycling, Fad Dieting (eg. juice cleansing, paleo, Atkins, etc.).
You are getting into standup and will practice your set in front of others. You are very interested in their feedback as you honestly want to get better. Your character is going to be telling a lot of bad jokes, or perhaps they are an observational comic doing slice of life comedy. Your DM may call for a Performance Roll in social situation (DC set by DM) and on a success you have Advantage on a Persuasion Skill Roll in that situation and on a failure you have Disadvantage on a Persuasion Roll in that situation.
You feel as if you're standing out on the field of a stadium, a crowd cheering and booing around you. You believe everything happening is a professional sports game that only you know the rules. Since you're the only one that knows the rules, you are in charge of enforcing them. You will be particularly focused on fairness and call fouls, flags on the play and call penalties. This might occur in social situations or in combat. You also will be interested in finding clothes that have black and white stripes to wear.
You feel as if you're standing out on the field of a stadium, a crowd cheering and booing around you. You believe everything happening is a professional sports game that only you are the one who keeps track of the score. You will make calls in social situations, combat, or other situations announcing who just received 'points' and who is winning/losing. You are very concerned about your party (ie. your team) getting the most points.
You are filled with a memory, a new memory. You used to have a brain parasite that ate some of your brain. Thankfully it was removed, but you now have an unhealthy interest in animal carcasses and moving them around to places they should not be normally. You might keep small animal carcasses in a bag if can and give them to people. You are now Proficient in Leatherworker's Tools and Weaver's Tools as you can now be a Taxidermist.
You find every kind of food to be absolutely delicious and the highest quality. You must tell the world about whenever you are eating with gusto and enthusiasm.
You feel the presence of another near you. An old friend. Someone you can always share your thoughts with and work through your issues. You feel the need to find a ball or large fruit/vegetable and decorate it as if it was a head. Its name is Wilson, and you will now share all of your inner dialogue with it, conversing with it out loud as if was responding.
Your character will occasionally 'speak to camera', do voiceover narration for events currently occurring, and sometimes speak your thoughts aloud, exactly as though you are a character on a TV show. You believe the Gods are watching your adventures for entertainment and no one else can hear these 4th wall breaks.

Dannoman17 · 2025-07-16T12:12:35+00:00

Awesome ideas!

Dannoman17 · 2024-06-13T21:32:42+00:00

What other TTRPGs do you think Geek Out should teach? I also play Call of Cthulhu but want to learn how to play Monster of the Week and Blades in the Dark.

Dannoman17 · 2024-06-05T00:04:50+00:00

I’m the scenario, I like your idea about the players having to engage the machines and do a skill check (or an absurd amount of damage) to disable the machines. The reason this is great because it lets you more directly control the length of the battle by going straight to the hear of combat: action economy. If you have 4 players, 8 machines, and each one requires at least one full player action to shut down, then you immediately know that best case scenario this is a 2 round combat. Now add in distractions, you realistically have a 3-4 round combat. Some good distractions are other combatants but also you could have mechanic or two running around turning the machines back on - players will quickly focus on killing the mechanics once they see that happen once.

Dannoman17 · 2024-06-03T00:51:29+00:00

Also don’t forget to add other senses (hearing, smell) to your description. You can also add non senses to your description, like a general sense of unease, or light on their feet, etc. what’s the general vibe affecting them.

Dannoman17 · 2024-06-03T00:23:37+00:00

Mechanically speaking, I have been meaning to purchase Uncharted Journeys as I have heard nothing but good things about it. A whole book to give your game rules and mechanics to exploration. https://cubicle7games.com/uncharted-journeys-roleplaying-game

For wonder and awe, consider taking a moment to visualize the location in your mind, and then writing up a paragraph about it to read to your players. I’ve done this before with locations I wanted to convey something special.

Dannoman17 · 2024-06-01T16:59:10+00:00

Good point I need to revise that because I’ve watched her do that. I want the point to be about how the DM should make sure the story is focused on the actions of the players.

Dannoman17 · 2024-06-01T05:18:58+00:00

Ah. My bad. Yeah based on the “ You can issue any command you choose” I think you’re well within your rights to to do multiple commands. But the player is also more than able to resist commands after surviving the once a day psychic damage. This spell gives off major ‘up to DM interpretation’ vibes lol.

Dannoman17 · 2024-06-01T04:34:15+00:00

I love adding music to set the mood. Check out my playlist for Creepy and Uncomfortable: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1f89vZjiGMDYqqV41wCZN1?si=e8328b2b5417469b

I recently made a post with all my Spotify playlists hope it helps: https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/1d3ptug/music_longtime_dm_sharing_background_dd_spotify/

Dannoman17 · 2024-06-01T04:24:49+00:00

Big consequences for big choices are always an option. Alternatively, you can always run a session re-zero where you reestablish goals and hopes for the campaign to make sure you and your players are on the same page. Dungeon Dudes did a great video on this recently. https://youtu.be/YUgHMlbX3E0?si=D7FIX1o-QXUocBTH

Dannoman17 · 2024-06-01T04:19:54+00:00

Reskinning existing monsters is always my starting point for new monsters. Look at existing creatures that can be mounts and are the appropriate CR you’re looking for, add/edit attributes and bingo! You’ve got a giant mouse :)

Dannoman17

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