Backstory: It’s quite common for a DM to ask their players to come up with the background or backstory of their new character before the start of a new game. I see questions on forums quite often where players are asking for advice on how to do this, or what to include. I am …
Tag: Learn D&D
Jul 26
An example of world building
Hello students, Crunch here with an article from Faculty Member Ryan Porta. In this article, he introduces us to the city of Redfern, describes what makes it unique, and provides some plot hooks to use. The intention of this article is not only to demonstrate how to generate home-brew content, but also to give you …
Jul 19
Creating a complete and satisfying campaign – Part 1: The introduction
Hello students, Crunch here with an article from Faculty Member Jared Smith (@TheOtherJared1) SERIES INTRO Did you ever think of a great campaign concept that you knew would make for an epic story, but never saw it come to fruition because of the fear it wouldn’t play out the way you pictured it in …
Jul 13
14 ways to easily add new PCs to the party.
Hello students, Crunch here with an article from Faculty Member Ryan Porta. Fun Suggestions for Introducing the New Party Member Your gaming group has been together for over a decade. The party was cleaning out caves of kobolds and goblins while you were in grade school. In high school, saving towns and villages from …
Jul 05
Coding the Mundane – guest article by Red Rabbit
Hello students, Professor Crunch here. Today, I am happy to bring you an article written by fan of the show Red Rabbit. You can find Red on the Academy forums. I have had the pleasure of discussing all kinds of game theory with Red and believe me, you are in for a treat with this …
Jun 30
Fewer skill checks, please.
Note to readers, this article was inspired by Table Topics # 68 – Setting DC’s in D&D You can listen to that episode here: www.therpgacademy.com/table-topics-episode-68-dcs-in-dnd Fewer skill checks, please. Role Playing Games, by their very nature, are an odd mixture of free-form cooperative storytelling and rigid mechanics. Everyone approaches this mix according to …
Jun 20
Intro to Player Narrative Control
Note to readers, this article was inspired by Table Topics # 88 – The matrix. You can listen to that episode here: www.therpgacademy.com/table-topics/the-matrix Introduction to Player Narrative Control: The idea of Player Narrative Control is that you allow players to create details of the story that then become real in the game world. …
Jun 13
What’s in a Name?
Note to reader: This article was inspired by Dungeon Talk Episode 1 of The RPG Academy Podcast. You can listen to that full episode at : www.theRpgacademy.com/dungeon-talk-episode-1-the-beginning/ What’s in a name? Less than you might think. When I first started running games I was terrified that a player would ask me questions I couldn’t …