Don't underestimate the power of rolling dice.

We've all heard about sessions where "IT WAS GREAT, WE DIDN'T ROLL ANY DICE!"

l love those games. When we're engaged, the rules bleed away and the story shines through.

But for many players, that's not how they want to play D&D At its heart, D&D is a conversation about "what would your character do in this situation?"

But you're not your character. You're not an INT 18 wizard, or a CHA 18 bard. And at its most basic level - you're probably not an actor.

A dice roll allows you to be all those things.

For my section of Rime of the Frostmaiden, I used a simple design technique. Each location had a “challenge” (e.g. combat, social, puzzle, etc), and a “function". Challenge speaks for itself - function ties your encounters together into a more unified experience. Thread: I had five categories of function (there could be more I'm sure). “Obstacles” cannot be bypassed until a certain key is found elsewhere in the dungeon. I like to place obstacles prominently, so my players have a clear goal to aim for as soon as possible.

I'm really enjoying my ongoing 5E Tyranny of Dragons campaign. It's amazing how easily the opening chapters of Tyranny can serve as a launchpad into later campaign books - and how useful those later books are when running Tyranny. Spoilers to follow. Tyranny opens with a Cult of the Dragon raid on the town of Greenest. The players track the raiders to their hideout, infiltrate the camp, and then storm a dungeon below it. I love this opening – it’s action packed and all three pillars shine. It's a heroic setup for your group.

Creating adventures is such an important part of D&D, but it can be daunting for new DMs. This Guild Adept product lets you make your own level 1-20 adventures for the #oracleofwar campaign! Let me tell you more... 1/8
dmsguild.com/product/306028… With this product, we wanted to give DMs the tools to quickly “roll up” a cool adventure, with unique villains, twists, and locations. If you want to tailor your creation further, you have the power. @JamesIntrocaso and his team knocked this chapter out of the park! 2/8

If I was to run Tomb of Annihilation again, I'd make the following three big changes:
1) Start in Cormyr. Introduce the party as members of the Society of Stalwart Adventurers sent to find Artus Cimber (much like Cimber was sent to find Rayburton in Chult). No death curse yet. 2) Meet the Yellow Banner on the ship to Chult, then have Aremag wreck the ship to separate them. The party is scooped up by pirates, escapes Jahaka, then treks overland to Port Nyanzaru with few supplies. Many adventures en route. Arrive around level 5.

Playing and running #dnd at conventions has taught me SO MUCH about my game. Here are the ten most important tips I've picked up for DMing at conventions so far (most apply to home game too!): 1) Ask each player to introduce their character at the start of the game. Not just Class/Race/Level - ask them to describe their character entering the scene. It only takes five minutes, but it's CRAZY how many DMs skip this, leaving players wondering who they're gaming with!

Let's play some D&D! Ranger and rogue stealthily ascend the tower to ambush their quarry...