The party in my game (8 12th level characters who have a lot of items) stole some items from one of Mammon's vaults in Minauros. Now there are bounty hunters after the party. One is an Arcanaloth, and another is an Ultraloth, but I'm trying to flesh out the rest of the group. I'm trying to think of interesting additions, or maybe gear they might have. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Part 1](https://lemmy.world/post/923104) [Part 2](https://lemmy.world/post/1048175) [Part 3: Gem Dragons](https://lemmy.world/post/1068089) [Part 4: Greatwyrms](https://lemmy.world/post/1125000) [Part 5: Deep Dragons and Sea Serpents](https://lemmy.world/post/1327421)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1422655 > Will be running my players through the Seagrow Caves from Dragons of Stormwreck Isle this weekend. > > The area is mostly Myconid themed and I was thinking of planting a magic item for them as a reward for completing the quest, but what kind of magic item would a colony of Myconids have on hand to give away?

My players have recently become the heads of a mercenary company. I’d like to use this opportunity to involve the players in a bit of world building of sorts that might also be a rewarding minigame. They’ll be responsible for assigning teams of NPC mercenaries to tasks. I’ve yet to decide exactly how this works and would love to pick the brains of you lovely people. My thoughts are it might be fun for the players to be either “interview” NPCs and assign them teams and then assign those teams to tasks. But maybe they want to each bring a few quick-generated characters to the table that night and “interview” each other. My group is *very* RP heavy and love inter-character dialogue. This session is also a bit of a cool down after defeating a major enemy in the last session. Thoughts on how I can make this a fun experience but also lend to building the world? How can I help make the “minion assignment minigame” rewarding and fun as well throughout our campaign? Thanks!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1312322 > I've been DMing a small group of new players. They've been literally "hit or miss" with combat. I know at least one is getting frustrated with combat because he can't roll to save his life. I'm planning on throwing a swarm of small creatures at them next session. goblins, spiders, whatever. just small easily killed, easily hit creatures. Thing is I don't want to do 'initiative' per se as I'm considering having a ton of these things. Anyone have any pointers?

If the name Thuradim Breakbones means anything to you, stop reading now! 🙈 I'm a first time DM running LMoP for a mix of old and new players. We play short sessions every couple of weeks, so I wanted to introduce fun magic items early in the campaign. As such, our level 2 fighter picked up a Berserker Axe at Cragmaw Hideout. However, he hasn't yet discovered that it's cursed: > Whenever a hostile creature damages you while the axe is in your possession, you must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or go berserk. While berserk, you must use your action each round to attack the creature nearest to you with the axe. If you can make extra attacks as part of the Attack action, you use those extra attacks, moving to attack the next nearest creature after you fell your current target. If you have multiple possible targets, you attack one at random. You are berserk until you start your turn with no creatures within 60 feet of you that you can see or hear. What I'm realizing is that he may not take damage and learn about the curse for the first time until they head into Tresendar Manor, where it will be impossible for the party to get 60 feet away from him without splitting into different rooms, or even fleeing the manor. As I've read other posts about this item, there seems to be a consensus that it can be unfun, since it takes away player agency during combat. Between these two issues, I'm wondering if I should introduce some changes to the _berserk_ status. A few ideas I'm toying with: * Once the party realizes the axe is cursed, I'd like for them to be able to get help from Sister Garaele. It could be part of her quest reward that she can either (a) help the fighter unattune the axe, or (b) help the fighter gain some resistance to the axe's curse (lowering the saving throw DC, for example). However, I don't want this to be a blocker for dealing with the Redbrands. * In the meantime, I was thinking about allowing the following: - Once _berserk_, allow fighter to reroll the Wisdom saving throw if he is somehow prevented from using his action to attack on his turn (for example, if the party grapples him). - Allow other party members to use their action to roll Persuasion to snap him out of the _berserk_ status. Any suggestions? Alternatively, if the item is actually fine the way it is, any tips on how to run encounters in a fun way while it's in their possession? Thanks!

## Virtual Tabletops [AboveVTT](https://github.com/cyruzzo/AboveVTT#abovevtt) is an extension for dndbeyond (available for [chrome](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/abovevtt/ipcjcbhpofedihcloggaichibomadlei) and [firefox](https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/abovevtt/)), it uses your dnd beyond owned content to let you easily populate battlemaps with official monsters, recently they also added content from Open5e, more on that later, giving you more options for monsters. [Owlbear Rodeo v1](https://www.owlbear.rodeo/) or [Owlbear Rodeo v2](https://www.owlbear.app/), two versions of the best system neutral VTT im aware of, v2 does have payment options but if you're vigilant about the files you have saved the free 200MB should be plenty. V1 is going to be removed on July 18th 2023, ~~but the developers have promised that V1 will be open-sourced and self-hostable in the future.~~ [the source code is available now ](https://github.com/owlbear-rodeo/owlbear-rodeo-legacy) ## Sounds and Music [Tabletop Audio](https://tabletopaudio.com/) is a massive filterable stockpile of ambience and music for all kinds of vibes and situations, they also have a built in [soundboard](https://tabletopaudio.com/soundpad.html), one of which can be customized. they have a patreon which gives you access to alternate takes of most of their sounds and early access to new ones but whats there is still plentiful. [Tabletop RPG Music](https://www.tabletoprpgmusic.com/) has a narrower selection that Tabletop Audio, and more of it is locked behind patreon but whats there is more purely music focused. [Kenku](https://www.kenku.fm/) is a pay what you want self-hosted discord bot that helps you play music from anywhere on the internet or saved locally on your pc through a discord voice chat. Setting up the bot is easy and the website has a walkthrough on how to do it. ## Monsters, Combat, and Encounters. [Kobold Plus Club](https://koboldplus.club/) is a website made to replace the fantastic kobold fight club, a 5E resource that lets your easily balance and create encounters with randomized or hand-picked monsters, you can also add homebrewed or third-party published monsters using google sheets, json files, or csv files. The KPC discord has a large backlog of sources made for official monster books not on the site and a fair amount on 3pp monster books. [Improved initiative](https://improvedinitiative.app/) is a website that connects with KPC but can be used independently, it's a combat tracker that shows you the relevant monster statblock for that monsters turn and lets you apply damage and healing to monsters. Improved initiative only gets full statblocks for creatures available on open5e by default. [open5e](https://open5e.com/) is a collection of official 5e OGL and Third Party OGL content. there are extra races, subclasses, monsters, and spells available here for free. ## Maps !battlemaps@lemmy.world a community right here on lemmy for sharing battlemaps. [Dungeon Scrawl](https://app.dungeonscrawl.com/) is a webapp that lets you create old-school style maps there's a fair few paid features, the main one being multiple map saves at once, but there's enough there to create and decorate maps quickly and easily. [Dungeon Generator](http://dungeon-generator.fantasy-calendar.com/) is another tool made by the creators of kobold plus club. It randomly generates entire dungeons floor by floor and lets you export the in various formats. you can even cycle the styles of rooms if they're close but not quite what you want. ## Miscellaneous Other Things [Fantasy Name Generators](https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/) has a massive selection of name generators, not only fantasy npcs but also real life names from various cultures, k-pop bands, religious orders, diseases, daycares and just about any other thing you might need. [Chartopia](https://chartopia.d12dev.com/) is a website that lets you easily create and share rollable tables for loot, encounters, names or anything else you can need a random table for.

Welcome to Dungeons and Dragons - Chat, a /c/dnd Networked Community This community is for those that want to learn and share ideas regarding being a Dungeon Master in Dungeons and Dragons. Much of what you learn here can also be applied to being a Game Master in other TTRPGs. There are 3 types of posts here: - **Questions** These can be from beginners asking about the most simple of issues, to masters. It does not matter but be constructive and never discourage those that are new to the hobby. - **Tips/Advice** These are preemptive posts where more experienced DMs can share their advice and tips for running the game. Be sure to emphasize that this is YOUR way of doing things and is not prescriptive on HOW to run the game. - **Tools** These are posts regarding tools, both official and 3rd party that a DM can use to better run their games. BE SURE to adhere to the rules in the side bar regarding piracy. DO NOT link to sites that host pirated content as a "tool" Please read the sidebar and familiarize yourself with our rules, and visit the other communities in our network!