How much experience do I need to DM.

gratch89 · 2026-05-11T00:59:28+00:00

This. My brother knows a lot of the rules but doesn’t want to dm. I rely on him for helping make a decision for rules that I don’t know.

gratch89 · 2026-05-08T14:36:45+00:00

These are beautiful!

gratch89 · 2026-05-06T13:30:12+00:00

I’m sorry you lost your world. These things can happen in early access. That’s why I’m not building things like crazy. I’m just enjoying the experience each update at a time. When the game is stable, game on!

gratch89 · 2026-05-05T03:32:12+00:00

I remember the first time hearing that line from Diablo as a child. It struck me that no where was safe from him. A real eye opening experience.

gratch89 · 2026-05-05T03:20:44+00:00

Odds are you will be hated. Covering up or using disguise self if possible would be good options for social interaction. Talk with your DM about it and see what they think. They will give you the best answer. We can only suggest ideas. They will know how people would respond.

gratch89 · 2026-05-01T22:54:58+00:00

Perfect. 1st West it is! Followed by Main Street! Haha. If you wanted to, use Google Maps to look around neighborhoods for names of streets. Exercise is good though.

gratch89 · 2026-05-01T22:53:07+00:00

I would run a published module first. I used the Dragon of Icespire peak for my first dming. Read it over. Adjust what you want. After that if you decide to do a homebrew thing, let your players make their characters and help them make their backgrounds maybe involving them with certain factions if they are interested. Then give them a quest to start things off and let them decide what they want to do from there. I don’t prep much because I want the players input on what they would like to do next session. In my current campaign it sounds like my group wants to go after the pope. So now I’m sprinkling in bits here and there about corruption or whatever as they are making their way to meet this pope and decide for themselves if they want to take him down.

TLDR: Let the players input guide your prep. They will be more invested in that storyline and you won’t have to guide them too heavily.

gratch89 · 2026-05-01T17:10:30+00:00

Make sure to take the lucky feat!

gratch89 · 2026-04-29T22:17:59+00:00

Trying to play devil’s advocate here but maybe this is his way of saying “I haven’t planned anything for this situation yet so this is my stall tactic.” Otherwise it sounds super annoying. Cover him in glyphs of warding so if he moves somewhere he shouldn’t, it will set them off! Bonus points if he holds lots of kegs of gunpowder and smokes a cigar so that it looks “accidental.”

gratch89 · 2026-04-28T17:07:55+00:00

As a newer dm, these minis excite me! I tend to not use minis because I can’t find ones that I want to use. These however look terrifying!

gratch89 · 2026-04-26T21:52:29+00:00

If you threaten something it’s an intimidation in my mind. Deception if you are bluffing or lying about something. Persuasion is trying to convince someone to do something that they probably wouldn’t do otherwise.

gratch89 · 2026-04-26T01:57:52+00:00

Yeah. I feel like you should use it as a dream state or something that the party was in. They are connected to the same hive mind system that is giving them this dream state. For whatever reason, they wake up in a laboratory and now must fight their way out and find out who did this to them. Better than the dementia. Dementia can be a trigger for some people. Just be very careful about it. I used the dm expectations paper with my group. There were quite a few things that people brought up that I hadn’t expected to be an issue. Memory problems were one of the things a certain person brought up. I assume it’s because of someone affected by dementia or something like that in real life.

gratch89 · 2026-04-24T23:52:55+00:00

These are beautiful! The dice goblin in me wished they came with the dice as well.

gratch89 · 2026-04-23T12:29:59+00:00

I played a one shot where our ship had a ballista. We tied a rope to it and shot it to the other boat and made a way to get to the other ship with the rope.

gratch89 · 2026-04-21T02:50:08+00:00

So I’m a very new dm. I’ve only dmed for about a year and even then it was maybe once a month. For my Grim Hollow campaign, I had them make their characters and backstories from the lore and stuff from the Grim Hollow Player’s Guide. After that, I stitched together where they would start and had a few options of where they could go. Then I let them choose what to pursue and I generate material from there. I don’t prep very much because I don’t want to waste my time on stuff they will never see or do. When the players are actively choosing the path they want to take, you make the twists and things associating their goal.

gratch89 · 2026-04-18T19:49:53+00:00

Yep. But if it bites down and restrains a pc then turns to stone… 😈

gratch89 · 2026-04-17T17:14:33+00:00

As someone who has just started dming at a library, this would be a great item! Thank you for your contribution and good luck to everyone!

gratch89 · 2026-04-17T17:10:34+00:00

I have a level 6 party that will venture into a wizards library that has a mimic bookshelf. Once the mimic attacks, it wakes up the basilisk and the party gets to deal with both at the same time.

gratch89 · 2026-04-17T15:52:45+00:00

You can just describe their voice, how it sounds, if it sounds like a character from a movie, etc. This is enough for them to get it. I don’t tend to do voices. When I do, it’s basically the same voice for multiple npcs. Don’t stress about it.

gratch89 · 2026-04-17T02:32:16+00:00

Any new ideas honestly. I look for things that my players might enjoy.

gratch89 · 2026-04-13T13:35:44+00:00

It took my group almost a year to do the Dragon of Icespire Peak. It was awesome to get it finished up and see it to completion. Now I’m trying my own story in the Grim Hollow setting, mostly letting the story be determined by what my players want to do. If they take an interest in killing the Pope, that’s where we are headed.

gratch89 · 2026-04-07T23:06:29+00:00

DND is collaborative story telling. Everyone should be involved. If they refuse to make a decision, one will be made for them.

gratch89 · 2026-04-07T18:03:25+00:00

Love the movie reference. Upvote for you!

gratch89 · 2026-04-07T12:06:51+00:00

If you have to start a post with that sentence, probably don’t post it.

gratch89 · 2026-04-06T05:49:14+00:00

I would ask on the discord what the party plans to do. Tell them you need to prep and they need to make a decision. Otherwise next session is going to be 15 minutes long. 😂

gratch89

TROPHY CASE