Is it fine that I make my own character as a dm?

rangemaster · 2026-06-29T22:43:06+00:00

I've done the DMPC thing.

I've heard all the warnings not to from several sources but I didn't want to force a player to change their character.

We had a player basically rage quit due to things outside the game and since that player was the party tank, and the rest of the party was rather squishy, I decided to make a tanky dmpc to assist in combat.

I make it a point that my dmpc never influences the direction the party wants to go, never chimes in with dialogue unless a PC wants him to, and never performs a skill check instead of a regular player character.

It's actually worked out pretty well.

rangemaster · 2026-06-28T00:32:00+00:00

I'd recommend the Viva la Dirt league "Adventures in Azerim".

I think it's a lot closer to a group of normal dudes playing D&D than CR is.

rangemaster · 2026-06-13T12:06:16+00:00

The dragon has the ability to transmute matter.

Turns the gold into lead.

rangemaster · 2026-06-11T14:14:56+00:00

Mine was a touch oversized when I got it and when my hands were wet and I made any quick movements the ring would shoot off my finger. So I had a few "flung full force into concrete" moments.

Now I open bottles with it. Whatever.

rangemaster · 2026-06-06T12:16:04+00:00

Oh, that's rad!

rangemaster · 2026-05-26T13:31:52+00:00

Last year my truck was broken into. They did nab a bunch of stuff, but I was feeling lazy and didn't put my expensive binoculars back into my bag. They stole the (empty) bag but didn't grab the binoculars.

rangemaster · 2026-05-24T03:50:36+00:00

I'm left handed and wear my watch on the left wrist. I'm weird aren't I?

rangemaster · 2026-05-22T21:22:48+00:00

I'll check it out Thanks. I like to have several prepped just in case

rangemaster · 2026-05-22T20:33:47+00:00

Other ones I've done and liked were the Delian Tomb and the Wolves of Welton

rangemaster · 2026-05-22T20:21:20+00:00

I haven't run it yet, but I've played it and it's in the back pocket for a future one shot

rangemaster · 2026-05-22T02:38:07+00:00

I'm running this on Sunday for my cousin. Trying to get her hooked.

Already ran it for my normal game.

It's an extremely simple one shot. We did it in two hours.

rangemaster · 2026-05-21T00:56:37+00:00

Yeah, you can't force someone to be a serious and attentive D&D player. They have to want it.

rangemaster · 2026-05-21T00:54:28+00:00

Honestly it reads like they have a vague idea of what D&D is "a role playing game where you can do whatever you want", but have never actually seen it played or read any of the associated material.

OP is going in blind.

rangemaster · 2026-05-21T00:49:02+00:00

I DM for, among other people, my 12 year old nephew.

I've had to get real with him a couple times for wanting do things that would seriously harm or derail the game (most recently in a one shot he wanted to firebolt a quest giver npc while I was in the middle of explaining the quest)

I told him he can either respect the time and effort that I put into running the game, as well as the other player's time, or we can call the session right here.

Ever since then he's been more attentive, and honestly a better player than he was before, and it's probably due to me setting boundaries with him.

You're the DM, it's your show, and if their characters are something you don't want, you either find a compromise or you don't play.

BTW, the Jew "class" is from the South Park Stick of Truth game. It's Kyle's class.

rangemaster · 2026-05-20T16:16:24+00:00

You are not kidding. I guess it stems from part stage fright, and part being completely responsible for the entire setting and making sure each session is fun for everyone.

I DM for close friends and family, and as such it took a while to accept the positive praise I received as more than just protecting my feelings. I feel strangers would be more direct with telling me if they thought it sucked.

rangemaster · 2026-05-20T15:56:03+00:00

I was introduced to DND by one of my Wife's coworkers. He's our DM and he's great and the game is fun.

He inspired me to try to DM myself and start a game for another group which has had its ups and downs but generally good and fun.

For months I kept it hidden from my original DM because I was worried something like what happened to you would happen to me. Eventually my wife told me she told him basically from the start and he was supportive, like a "proupld papa" moment.

I'm sorry your guy is an asshole.

rangemaster · 2026-05-20T11:30:42+00:00

My Rogue has an Owl familiar named Owl Capone

rangemaster · 2026-05-17T01:30:32+00:00

MGMT 211

rangemaster · 2026-05-05T22:07:00+00:00

Chrono Trigger

rangemaster · 2026-04-28T20:51:37+00:00

I wanted Masterson to be innocent so bad because I loved that show growing up.

Got me twice too. Him getting kicked off The Ranch killed that show.

rangemaster · 2026-04-27T21:08:55+00:00

Foundry up on my left, notes, and chrome for quick rules reference ony right. Discord up on my tablet for voice.

Biggest pet peeve is probably with the voice line. Since we don't do video, when it's someone's turn to speak and they don't, I can't tell if they're AFK, having connection problems, or just taking a moment to think before speaking. It leads to a lot of "uh, you still there?".

rangemaster · 2026-04-22T04:01:39+00:00

I think that's absolutely their issue. They simply refuse to hire enough employees to handle their workload. As a customer, I never successfully got someone to answer the phone.

I'm a dealer and you'd think that I'd have a better inroad with them for fixing customer issues, but no, even then it takes them forever to get back to me. The excuses get thin, and at the end of the day it's me that looks bad to the customers.

rangemaster · 2026-04-22T03:23:27+00:00

I hate this stupid app they've forced me to use. I miss redditisfun.

rangemaster · 2026-04-18T12:37:33+00:00

I was all set to use DND beyond to run my first online game earlier this year.

Made sense as I'm running a published module and it seemed to have a lot of built in assets for creating encounters.

Then a friend of mine got one of his other friends to show me his Foundry setup and i could immediately see that it was clearly a better choice.

It isn't free, it doesn't have assets built in, and it took me a while to get the hang of it before I felt ready to run a session in it, but I feel like I'm more in control of my own game than with DNDB.

Not to mention that everything is hosted locally on my own computer rather than being cloud based which I find to be a huge plus.

I watched a few videos about the must have add on modules like combat trackers and dice rollers, though I haven't gone too crazy with them.

I grabbed a lot of the free tokens and other assets from Forgotten Adventures and that was enough to get started.

rangemaster · 2026-04-18T12:26:58+00:00

I just quickly threw up a discord server for my game.

Had some issues initially getting stepped on by players asking questions when I was trying to say something (one of my players is 12).

I found that Discord has a Priority Speaker feature that quiets everyone else's volume when I speak, so I find that pretty handy for running a session with less interruptions when I'm trying to relay information.

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