Recent content by DMSage

Also at http://dmsage.com/2015/10/expediting-exploration/ Expediting ExplorationSince becoming a DM I have run far more home brewed campaign settings than published modules. Over the last few months however, I have been both playing and running a published module for 5e. I have enjoyed DMing...

Good feedback about the article writing. It does indeed need to be edited better. I'll get on that. How does speeding up your game equal me railroading the storyline of my campaign? Of course some time is spent in down time chatting with each other or talking to NPCs or shopping or...

That situation took twenty seconds. And I agree that it can be fun to explore something for a while. But I have played as a player through three hours of crossing bridges in the last two games I have played.... This article is to help those people.

I completely agree. It was Horde of the dragon queen. An official wizards of the coast product. nice pictures too haha. And those are good ideas for creating more interesting dungeons

Thanks. I'm not saying that exploration can't be fun. But I specifically define exploration as the non-fun parts in between encounters. If everyone is having a blast, then there's no need for these tools.

I completely agree. And I did stop calling for dice rolls... but then there was nothing to do. "you walk into a room... OK we search it, OK you find nothing" lets move on. Still boring. And the way the module was designed it asks for those dice rolls, and a DM who was following it would do...

This article and more at DMsage.com Expediting ExplorationSince I became a DM I have run far more of my home brewed campaign settings and adventures than published modules. Over the last few months however, I have been both playing and running a published module for 5e. I have enjoyed DMing...

It's just a tool to consider. I often see things like the barbarian saying, I take off running after him. And the party all yells "NO!" and then they discuss it for ten minutes and the barbarian retracts his idea. More fun and adding to the RP would be. Barbarian "I take off running after him"...

Please stop this horrid line of argument. Move over to a martial arts website to argue it.

I don't have a great answer to that. My initial thought is to look at the question asking portion of the guide. Ask the character how he feels about other characters, why he feels that way. How his character does things different from the other characters, how his race Or background affects his...

While any action you take or thing you say constitutes RP, the things that players and DMs lack the most tends to fall into those categories. No player has trouble saying "I attack"... So I don't really cover how to say "I attack" in the article. If there are other big gaps in RP that you think...

I agree. I don't always use this tactic, but when one player announces they want to do something, I try my best to allow them to do it when the other players yell no. I say you guys all see him start to... And then they can stop them. But there are absolutely times where it is perfectly ok to...

People are confused. Saying that you need to describe how you dissarm a trap is not equivalant to saying how you swing the sword. To make a better comparison. TRAP= I roll a dissarm trap or thieves tools check COMBAT= I roll an end combat check. In a combat, the player does describe what they...

DMSage First, the formatting here kind of stinks so you can also view it here. Ultimate Guide to RPing Second, for this and more articles visit DMsage.com Third, the article isn't perfectly written, and if you already do something, or something isn't applicable to you, then you don't need to...

Let me give a solid example of this. I was playing a game at my local D&D store. We encountered an arrow slit that was clearly a trap. I searched around for a trigger, like a trip wire, and couldn't find one. (i found out later I couldn't find it because the book didn't describe exactly how...