Would you have a link?
D&D General Cheats & Shortcuts for DM's
- Thread starter Eubani
- Start date
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
I still use Central Casting Dungeons. Great book, but a bit on the expensive side since it has been out of print for so long. The Central Casting background book is also one that I use.
Looking at Ultimate Toolbox now, thanks muchly.
When designing encounters/monsters, take a moment to jot down any tactics they should use. This is especially important for anyone with spells or spell-like abilities, which can drastically delay combat.
Most people spend a lot of time driving. This is ample time to think about your campaign plans, current/next adventure, and the coming session. With repetitive thoughts, these ideas can solidify and settle in your mind. Any significant inspiration should be written down (as soon as it's safe to do so!).
Most people spend a lot of time driving. This is ample time to think about your campaign plans, current/next adventure, and the coming session. With repetitive thoughts, these ideas can solidify and settle in your mind. Any significant inspiration should be written down (as soon as it's safe to do so!).
Dessert Nomad
Adventurer
I'm terrible at coming up with names on the fly, so I usually have a page or two of quick NPC name/description/quirks to draw from. Once I use an NPC I'll add them to my notes and cross them off the list so PCs can come back to them later. This makes it feel to players like I've detailed every random shopkeeper and barn owner across the land, but doesn't require anything near that level of prep, and especially doesn't require creating NPCs who never get used.
I typically use average damage for everything but the 'big boss' type creatures to save time. Like if there's an undead dragon with a bunch of minor undead filling their lair, the dragon will roll for damage but the minor undead all use average. This saves a bunch of time with the minor creatures, but still gives that 'oh no, that was a bad hit' or 'man I'm glad he rolled a bunch of ones' excitement for the biggest threat.
So's my son. Years ago in our last campaign, he forgot to name the wizard our PCs were hunting for in the town of Ashfall, so when we asked for his name all he could come up with was...Dave. So we started referring to the wizard as "Ashfall Dave." The other week, in a follow-on campaign, we asked for the name of the drow sorcerer who was piloting the spelljamming vessel our PCs were on. He hesitated, desperately trying to come up with something spur of the moment, but we beat him to it, deciding the drow was "Underdark Dh'aeve."
Johnathan
In addition to lists, which for me includes taverns, business names, names of NPCs organized by race and/or theme, I also keep notes.
After every session I write down important things. It's not a blow-by-blow account, but who they talked to, if I used one of the names I had listed and so on. It's just an outline of what really happened but enough to jog my memory. I include the campaign world and real world dates. It helps me remember that NPC from 6 months ago that vowed revenge that everyone else had forgotten about.
After every session I write down important things. It's not a blow-by-blow account, but who they talked to, if I used one of the names I had listed and so on. It's just an outline of what really happened but enough to jog my memory. I include the campaign world and real world dates. It helps me remember that NPC from 6 months ago that vowed revenge that everyone else had forgotten about.
Unless it's a crit, I always use average.
It's also an option for my players, especially for spells that require a lot of dice or for people that have a hard time adding up numbers in their head.
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