KL Forslund

I’m starting a Forgotten Realms D&D campaign. This article is for my players. Forgotten Realms Summed Up Forty years ago, a Ed Greenwood’s personal D&D campaign setting turned into a major published setting for the Dungeons and Dragons game. All those Baldur’s Gate games are set here. There’s over seventy novels written, many of them are about Drizz’t Do’Urden. You might have heard of him. It’s a realm of many gods, adventures, evil conspiracies and because of all those books

It’s time to make your new character, and while you want to fit them into the world you know little about. So how do we navigate this brave new world of backstory and motivation in uncertain climes? Flexibly. Now this article will be about fleshing out your character rather than rolling stats and picking skills. Whether you do that before or after figuring out who they are is up to you. But I find it’s a back and forth as pieces come together. First Chapters Get Cut As a writ

This week, I ran across a bit of DMing advice to just tell the players the hallway has a trap. Which makes one wonder when searching for traps would ever get used, or worse, how could we ever spear a character who stepped onto a pressure plate? But the crux of the idea got me thinking, why would a character who isn’t actually their player, not pick up on all sorts of details that the game master isn’t fully communicating to a player who also isn’t really there? Much has been

Ever find combat to be a slog? Catch your players drifting off when it’s their turn? Maybe you need faster combats! But seriously, here’s a few things I’ve found that might help with the feeling that combat takes too long. Run Fewer Combat Encounters Read a book. Or watch a movie. How many fight scenes are there In your basic action hero tale? Now how many encounters have you got in your adventure? Fighting could be a cathartic release to dramatic tension. Instead, we’re

How much background or backstory do you really need to play your first D&D session with a new character? I bet it could be none for some...

This is part two of how I “wing” DMing an adventure using a few tricks from my writing toolbelt. I started with showing how to make up an encounter or scene on the fly because a story is a bunch of those with a narrative thread. There’s a lot of ways to run a game, my goal is to provide a fun series of game sessions that in the retelling of it sounds like a cool story. Some gamers just want the DM to simulate a world and let the players do what they will. I’m all for letting

Before the D&D campaign begins, it would help if I knew what the setting looked like. Technically, I have skipped everything but naming...

The world began with an idea, which began with a being. At first, darkness covered the land and stayed that way for a long time. But then...

The party is on its way to the dungeon that sounded appealing. It’s hot. Mosquitos are biting. The trees are just standing there as the players go by. It’s time for something to happen. In Dungeons and Dragons, they call that an encounter. In Writing, it’s a scene. Today, we’re going to apply some tricks I learned to make it easier to make that encounter. First Timer Info There’s a good chance you’re here because you are a Dungeon Master (DM) for a D&D group, or about to beco

After a long hiatus, I am back in the Dungeons and Dragons saddle. I started with 2nd Edition back in 1990. Played tons of 3rd edition, while skipping the alleged miasma of 4th Edition. Alas, when 5th Ed. came out, time became scarce and I played maybe two sessions of it. But now, the stars have aligned, a party has gathered, and it’s time. Time to, um, whip up some house rules. House Rules Any good Dungeon Master has a few things they do differently from the stock rules in t