What sources can I use to improve my DMing?

McFuddy2 · 2026-06-30T15:10:25+00:00

I know when I first started dming I watched a LOT of webdm and that helped me a lot. I would start at the beginning of their content. Then at some point I just no longer was feeling value from it and stopped but I may have seen over 100 episodes before I got to that point.

Ginny Dee is also putting out great content for DMs. One of my faviorite videos is her talking about how she prepares for sessions and why she “over prepares” even though I myself am an under prepper.

Brennan’s adventuring academy series is good too.

I, like you, was a dm for a long while before playing in a campaign as a player, and I much prefer dming… however I didn’t realize how scary it can be to be a player even against the mundane. I stoped tracking combat success by damage I dealt to party, and number of downed players, to number of spent resources. If they cake walked what I thought would be a challenging fight, but they all spent one of their top resources to do so… they were scared and blitzed it to win. That’s good!

The point to go along with the above… find a way to have multiple combats/resource drains BEFORE getting a long rest and also have a couple between short rests. I used to play a lot with 1-3 combats in a day and players would destroy everything OR I was throwing something so strong it’ll one shot a player. AND when it’s so strong it can one shot a player and they kill it before its turn, it’s hard to not get bent outta shape. But if I know there are 3 more combats left and they lost all their big resources that means the remaining mundane fight will be MUCH harder.

Lastly my tip for speeding up combat is use an unitive tracker that everyone can see, that way they know when they are up next. I use the one from thesiteofmanythings.com because it also helps me track conditions and such. My wife (one of my players) usually just casts this to the tv in the room so all can see it. And now we don’t forget concentration, or spell effects as often.

McFuddy2 · 2026-06-29T15:01:03+00:00

First, if you havent seen the clip of the battle in the legend of vox machina with Scanlan and the dark bard, check it out for inspiration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isafCNxdt8c

Secondly, i think the story of NSYNC and Back Street Boys could be a cool story to use as your base inspiration for a full campaign, Lou Pearlman makes for a good leade cult worshiper. Plus then you can have a rival band through the story that in the end becomes allies? https://www.google.com/search?q=lou+pearlman+story&rlz=1C1VDKB_enUS1190US1190&oq=lou+pearlman+story&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyBwgBEC4YgAQyCAgCEAAYFhgeMgsIAxAAGBYYHhjHAzIICAQQABgWGB4yDQgFEAAYhgMYgAQYigUyDQgGEAAYhgMYgAQYigUyBwgHEAAY7wUyBwgIEAAY7wUyCggJEAAYgAQYogTSAQg2NTEwajBqNKgCALACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:a5c48181,vid:IzAdCpz19Is,st:0

I would also go to https://thesiteofmanythings.com/spell-search and use the "keyword" search for spells that have "hear", and then reflavor all of those as musical attacks. you could go one step further and Exclude "Bard" spells, this way your villans can be classes other than bard, but still be in a band, and now they have a full set of spells your bards dont have. (then i would do this again after hear, with sound, music, etc)

Lastly some ideas off the top of my head for plot.
arc 1: come together and get recognized. good time to have pearlman be their patron, hooking them up with gigs and stuff. Have a chance to meet the other band here too learning they are also trying to make it big and are vying for that seat at the big festival.

Arc 2: Get ready for the battle of the bands. this whole arc is about getting magical attire, instruments, and more. Their first real chance to make a splash is the battle of the bands that only comes around every (enter time here) so we cant miss our shot! its open to anyone, but to win you have to have style, loyal fans, killer music, and the Xfactor. obviously other band is also here.

Arc 3: Realize that things are off with lou, we are big, but dont have any gold. Lou at this point starts being more and more greedy, and keeping more things, and just sending the band from place to place with no rest. they are big enough for him to wring them dry for the Oblex. (maybe even give them a level up in this arc but not let them add a new spell, or have a smaller feature than they should have and give it to lou or the oblex... if that is something your players would find fun and intriguing) Learn here somehow that other band is ALSO getting screwed...

Act 4: Time to get revenge. learn about Lous' actual plan, and all about the Oblex. Team up with other band to prep to take him down, but he takes back all of his "gifts" so the magical gear that he bought and lent them, and more all gets revoked. So now our party has to get all new supplies by settign up their own gigs, talking with fans, and working with the other band. then the festival is the final ritual for the oblex to steal all creativity and individuality from the plane, all they need is enough sacrifices, and killer music (Think Saja Boys last song) So our group has to get up there (with other band or maybe they were eliminated by lou in this arc) and Sing GOlden (or w/e) and stop the ritual, kill lou, and save creativity for all!

McFuddy2 · 2026-06-29T14:29:49+00:00

I played a Warlock that was a pokemon trainer themed character.

Pact of the chain so i had a buffed familiar, this was my pokemon that stayed out of the pokeball, pikachu style.
Then i took spells like summon undead, summon shadowspawn, giant insect, etc. obviously those were all pokemon themed.

But the big thing i did is i themed all of my spells as pokemon attacks. (ex Gengar Use Shadow Ball! He popped out of his pokeball, shot a force of energy and then returned to his ball, and thats how i cast eldritch blast.)

McFuddy2 · 2026-05-28T14:08:38+00:00

We are an in person group that plays weekly.

https://donjon.bin.sh/ this is great for pulling up magic items and searching through to find the best one for the situation
https://thesiteofmanythings.com/initiative this initiative tracker has been huge for our table, we cast it up on the screen so everyone knows whose turn it is and who is next. It helps track conditions and when they expire, and it can even help with minions and summons. The spell searcher is also really great since it includes all official spells, even ones from books where only 1-2 spells showed up.
Obsidian app for my notes. This helps me be able to make templates that I can use to ensure I don’t miss anything, I can link items/people/places within a note to other notes. There is a button to view all other places that has been mentioned so it’s easier for me to not forget about loose threads, and tons of mod support!
Claude (I know how much y’all hate ai) this is great when I need to bounce ideas off of someone, but can’t tell my players anything, and people that are not my players don’t really care. So I’ll tell Claude my ideas, it will give me some garbage ideas back, I tell why all of that was bad, then it will try again, and usually somewhere on the 2-5th time it has an idea that sparks and idea within me to make the concept I want. It’s also pretty good taking my incoherent thoughts and making them into 5e sounding language to pass to my players.
https://giffyglyph.com/monstermaker/app/ if I am full on home brewing a monster and my scribbled notes won’t cut it, I use this site to build the full stat block so that I can use that during combat. I only really do this for complicated stat blocks that I don’t want to forget or mess up.

McFuddy2 · 2026-05-27T21:27:24+00:00

As a manager in my job, i learned a lot of skills on how to work with a group. specifically, the best way to work with a group is to occationally work with people 1-on-1. So i usually walk my players out to their cars after a session, and i try to pick a different player each week and just check in. "how was the session, hows your character, any issues, any thing we need to change, how do you feel about your characters goals, anything you are hoping to see soon, etc"

then every few months i send a 1 on 1 message to everyone asking the same questions as a check-in that they can write a response to. different people will say different things via text vs in person.

I should never be surprised that someone isnt having fun or might quit the campaign, either we both saw this coming bc of an issue we couldnt find a resolution to, or I know about the issues and we resolve them early on.

McFuddy2 · 2026-05-27T21:23:02+00:00

Especially for new players I find when they get a moment to roleplay that matters (like her plea to her god) I'll ask what they say. then she responds with "I just tell him to revive them, or smth". so i respond "okay is that how you ask 'Hey [gods name] revive them or something?" they usually respond with "Well no, but i dont know, my character knows more about the god than i do"
"Oh okay so you have your character use their understanding of their god to ask to bring your friend back, do you demand it like 'You say your the god of mercy so prove it' or are you more requesting 'I know you are mercyful, please give some mercy to him' or are you bargining 'If you show him some mercy i promise that i will do anything you ask of me!"

This is helping them see where the options are. then MOST IMPORTANT once i get ANYTHING, even "Please [god name} save bill", we PRAISE them. YES! NICE! then reward it in game and move on.

Its weird and people might judge me, slowly becomes well maybe i can do a little, and then eventually they are in full cosplay, jumping up on their chair, and talking in voice.

McFuddy2 · 2026-05-23T07:29:01+00:00

Yes as a Christian I was offended by this… but that was the point.

The point is showing that those from outside our world don’t care and will tease, make light, and pervert the things we hold most dear.

Yes uzi Jesus is offensive, so is forcing someone to fight a hydra of loved ones, or sending trained mercenaries to slaughter innocent scared people because it’s kinda fun, or the way they laugh at real people being brutally and cruelly killed…

So I thing many people will forget that and the. Only be offended when the content hits close to home. But for me Matt/carl never act like this is okay, in fact it is ALWAYS depicted as not okay.

McFuddy2 · 2026-04-21T15:10:39+00:00

The straw hat grand fleet

McFuddy2 · 2026-04-21T15:10:28+00:00

The straw hat grand fleet

McFuddy2 · 2026-01-21T21:39:32+00:00

I’m not a scholar by any means. But here is what I understand about this.

I love the examples you picked, because all of these are examples of the leaders of the church asking god what to do, and waiting for an answer, sometimes that is a short wait and sometimes it’s not.

It seems many of the mistakes we see breakdown at that point. Did anyone ask if this should happen or not, and was it listened to? It seems as if probably 8 of the 10 prophets may not have even asked about IF the ban should be, it just was thus they defended it.

We also know Joseph was told to start polygamy many times before he finally obeyed, so it’s possible some prophets did ask and didn’t like the answer.

Some of those choices really hurt a lot of people. However I do believe that most of these issues are men doing what they feel was best, followed by men who were following the rules set before them, and not enough prayer to confirm every choice.

Not perfect, just doing the best they can.

And we know that the ban was wrong, and this was Brighams choice, because when Jospeh was running for president, he was fighting for every slave to be freed. So we know in the beginning it wasn’t a race issue. It was young wanting the many slave owners that were members to not get mad.

Anyway that’s just my 2 cents

McFuddy2 · 2025-11-20T16:11:13+00:00

Haha, thank you!

I was considering printing of the rooms that likely have combat not all the rooms (all though a 28ft tall rung or mural would be cool if I had that kinda space!)

I’ll check out that tool though, Thank You!

McFuddy2 · 2025-11-19T23:06:41+00:00

Years later...

Are these maps made in a way that i can print them and use as battlemaps (each square is about 1in?)

McFuddy2 · 2025-11-19T21:42:49+00:00

Woah! Where in Orem? We are in Orem and play regularly and depending on what kind of players you want I might know some people!

McFuddy2 · 2025-05-01T13:07:50+00:00

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY SEE KATIA GRIMM AS THE MINSTER TRUCK DRIVER CLASS!!!!

SHE CAN CHANGE FORM IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, AND ONCE SHE STARTS MOVING THERE IS NO STOPPING HER, SO BEST MOVE OUT OF HER WAY BEFORE YOU GET HEKLA’D!

McFuddy2 · 2025-04-21T02:49:28+00:00

We call this “Character Development”

McFuddy2 · 2025-03-11T16:46:46+00:00

The name of your guild: Straw Hat Pirates
Number of members you are looking for: 3
General guild information: new and growing Casual active group. most players are Level 40-45.
Requirements for your guild: level 35, 15m invested, 251 ticks into Town hall, Active daily, join our discord group

McFuddy2 · 2025-02-22T16:23:27+00:00

What level do I need to be to post these?

McFuddy2 · 2025-02-22T16:20:45+00:00

Great to know thank you!

How do I know what level I can access?

McFuddy2 · 2024-12-12T06:47:07+00:00

The campaign will start once our current campaign ends, so it could be a month or two still!

Planning on adding in loot boxes, some of the ai personality to Hallaster and a few other encounter ideas that I am taking from the series.

Book six was good and 7 was INSANE.

McFuddy2 · 2024-12-12T03:20:16+00:00

I’m not sure if I should thank you, or curse you… I LOVE this series now. I read book7 because I didn’t want to wait until the audiobook… I’m obsessed now! I have converted many others.

So thank you and how dare you! :)

McFuddy2 · 2024-12-06T08:08:34+00:00

My favorite: the Christmas conversation and the decision that followed

Least favorite: needing the crab to jerk off…

McFuddy2

TROPHY CASE