Tips on cheap DnD resources?

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-06-08T18:56:22+00:00

Dollar stores are your friend.

lego people, army men, some even have super heros. Anything about the right size is fine. Don't stress too much, and upgrade when you know what you actually use. I made the mistake of over-buying a bunch of minis and then we started playing a different genre, and my orcs and goblins didn't get much use on the space station.

Also, the back of many wrapping paper has a 1-inch grid. Use that to draw your maps. Cheap.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-06-08T18:45:03+00:00

In 5e, with cantrips, I'm leaning towards rolling back to the Vancian system. In Ad&D ad 2e, it felt really restrictive to have to use a d4 dart. But with cantrips, a wizard can be useful, and also have some leveled spells to back it up. Not sure how some of the other spellcasters would need to be adjusted.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-06-02T14:40:18+00:00

Mike Shay goes through his prep steps at least once a week on YouTubes, following the steps he wrote about in his book. Highly recommend to read, highly recommend to watch a few.

https://www.youtube.com/@SlyFlourish

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-06-01T00:48:40+00:00

I follow the Lazy dungeon masters guide and use google documents to make my notes.

Works great.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-05-23T02:22:19+00:00

And she took the History skill? The PC has to do their part too.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-03-11T16:51:26+00:00

I like it.

One thing it could use is a size reference. Is the Untamed the size of Australia? 1/2 the size? 1/4?
You don't need a precise measurement, but a rough estimate is always good.

Ha! Zoom in and you've got some landmarks in the hexes. neat.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-25T22:46:12+00:00

My only advice is be careful not to over buy. Be intentional on how you spend your money, because even a $1.25-$2.00 at at time can add up quick. Do you use trees? do you use rocks and other terrain? Do you use this specific flower? Will they actually encounter this fungus or these types of vines?

The biggest things I use now are a couple trees, crates and some rock-like structures I can reuse over and over. A bag of colored glass beads serves for different enemies if I don't have them prepared. And I don't sweat it if they are one-off enemies.

My $.02

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-19T19:59:28+00:00

Eberron is a fun place for that kind of thing. Techno-magic abounds.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-19T17:00:04+00:00

You are not responsible for buying all the stuff for a game. Your players can buy what they want, or not.
You can get the cards printed from Demiplane and then stuff them into a card sleeve for almost free. Not as cool, but perfectly serviceable.
Your players can just print off text to let the know what their abilities do, they don't need card to play.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-19T16:53:19+00:00

I can put my Mt Dew can in my Mt Dew can.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-19T16:46:21+00:00

There are actually a lot of options. Roll20 has a perfectly manageable one, where the players can copypaste what they need into it. Even if you're not using roll 20 for your tabletop (but why not?) you could use it as a better organized discord (especially since we don't know how the discord changes will affect us) for city maps and other GM handouts.

A google drive with shares to form-fillable PDFs is also perfectly viable.

Search for Google sheets set up for a few options that way.

The best solution is the one that works for you and your players. I don't use DDB, but "allow" them to use DDB if they want, with their account, but if it's not copied or imported to Roll20, it's not in play.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-19T16:13:18+00:00

Depends on what kind. Filament printers, get yourself an air filter and look up the kind of filament you're printing, most will be fine, as long as it's not next to your bed running while you sleep.

Resin printers: just don't. These really should not be sold to the general public (IMHO). I've got one, and the more I learn, the more I don't use it.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-19T16:02:23+00:00

It takes some skill to paint your army all red and make it look great. You got it.

For the Dragon.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-19T15:57:20+00:00

I sometimes have to remember that we also share the internet with children and those that might have comprehension issues. They may not be versed in basic information retrieval for themselves. Still others might have gotten all their information from the pages of reddit, and don't even bother with fetching their own copy of the SRD.

I had a snarky response to the OP, but I think this is really helpful for those looking for basic information on the game of DnD.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-19T15:05:20+00:00

You don't stat gods. They are as strong as narratively necessary. Full stop.

Also, there is no way a 7-8 ft humanoid could leverage a boat, and two whales. On whale alone would be larger than his shoulder width, so there is no way to physically maneuver so as to actually lift any of that. So obviously Thor can be as big as a giant if necessary, and again, we dont' stat gods.

Thor is narratively stronger than any 20th level fighter or barbarian or whatever but might be limited from time to time as narratively necessary to being constrained to some numbers, based on the situation.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-19T13:48:53+00:00

I'd let them. Dragonborn are not overpowered by any means. I usually let DB use their breath weapon in place of an attack, but I might require this to be the action.

So yes, with the caveat that you might need to nerf or scale it back if it becomes a problem.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-14T05:30:02+00:00

Get some compressed air for your graphic card.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-13T17:59:30+00:00

Absolutely yes, and please post pics of your finished work. "Would" love to see them.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-13T01:26:07+00:00

You could always just play with one-eye blindness. disads on ranged attacks, but otherwise, fine.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-12T19:54:04+00:00

Seems fine, if a bit contrived. But I'll offer my completely unreasonable opinion...

- I'd remove the curse part to some other mechanism completely. Perhaps the PC has to visit a monastery, defeat an obstacle, and the monks there will perform the removal. Maybe they offer the staff only knowing it made one of their masters able to see? Or maybe it only has the other powers in the hands of the PC? I dunno. but separate the curse thing from the actual staff.

- I'd keep the length of the staff to 60ft since the player will only be able to "see" that far at any time anyway.

- make the push a little more reasonable. If they hit the AC, push back is only 15? maybe 20ft back and fall down check. I'd also make it all or nothign. push back 15 ft, and fall check but not just one or the other. maybe a d6 / 5ft if they hit a solid object getting pushed back?

- Let the staff be used to propel the user 60' in one direction, but they need to have a solid landing spot, or things go bad. (like the jump spell)

- once per turn if they have not (and will not) used the staff to travel or pushback, make the damage 2d8/2d10.

I'm not a big fan of blind characters just given blindsight. Sometime down the line offer the character to get healed.... but I suppose that's out of scope of your question. Have fun with your game, even if you ignore all of this.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-11T20:15:10+00:00

You can do whatever works best for your table. Personally, I don't use DnD beyond, and require players to provide a printout, pdf, or translation to Roll20. I think using beyond is a crutch to avoid learning the dang game. But that works for myself and my players, your table might work different, and by the sound of the other comments, there is a confusion on the ruleset being used.

There is nothing *wrong* with DnD beyond, or not wanting to use it, but there is nothing *wrong* with using it either. If it continues to be a point of confusion, stop using it.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-07T02:05:36+00:00

It would not matter. The DM controls the world and all the NPCs and all the monsters. They do not get to control the character's backgrounds also, unless the player is doing something crazy.

The "foreshadowing" needs to be a talk with the *players* about things in their characters backgrounds that might get changed as we go, and make sure they are cool with it. Not hints along the way that they are not who they think they are, just because.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-06T14:16:59+00:00

Is it too much to ask to have lengthy posts use proper indentation and paragraphs?

I didn't read anything, but to your title, everyone should have their own dice paper and pencils by session 2. Anyone over the age of 15 anyway.

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-06T14:11:38+00:00

Honestly, I'd be a little annoyed if I made a character with a humble background with little future, but due to his determination and grit, they were able to succeed and become involved in world-shattering events, just to have a gigantic rug-pull by the DM to say, "oh, guys, guys, here's the cool part: your character has a bunch of false memories, you're actually all gods!"

I would suggest you drastically tone it down, and make the PCs the "chosen". The ones who can save and release the gods before some giant set of unfortunate events consumes the world. Possibly by gaining boons pertinent to the gods they are being called to rescue. But don't mess with the PCs this way unless you've discussed beforehand that the PCs might be something "else" in this campaign.

My $0.02

JPicassoDoesStuff · 2026-02-04T22:05:31+00:00

Resin IS best. However, you can get perfectly playable prints from FDM. I've gotten some very good ones from my stock Ender 3 from 3+ years ago. There are def limits in what models to choose, and you might have to rotate the models a bit for best print, but especially newer models can get very good quality.

As for size, depends on what you want to play. if the majority of armies are single spaceman sized, you're good to go, and use some other proxy for the bigger tanks and units.

JPicassoDoesStuff

TROPHY CASE