This month, folks on the Patreon Discord server voted to update the DM's Toolkit instead of hosting a new Discord workshop. As such, I've updated the Toolkit with six new reference sheets on core DMing theory and skills. These reference sheets include information on:
Using Dramatic Questions, October's Patreon-exclusive workshop on using and understanding player psychology, is now live on YouTube! Thank you to everyone who attended. All patrons can now view it at either the Copper or 2022-11-14 02:19:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Fangs For the Memories, a vampire-themed content pack featuring a vampiric NPC, a spooky location stat block, and two bloody random encounters, is now available on the Silver masterpost!
(This content pack was also planned to include...
2022-11-01 01:46:35 +0000 UTC View Post
My new video, How to DM: How to Run a Scene, is now live on YouTube!
This is the first in a series of videos on DMing skills and theory that I plan to publish. I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback o...
2022-10-25 21:18:42 +0000 UTC View PostThis month's Patreon Discord Workshop will be Make Them Care: Using Dramatic Questions to Tell Great Stories, and will be held on Sunday, October 30 at 5 PM Eastern.
Looking forward to seeing y'all then!
Dragna
The Invisible Railroad, September's Patreon-exclusive workshop on using and understanding player psychology, is now live on YouTube! Thank you to everyone who attended. All patrons can now view it at either the Copper or 2022-10-05 02:55:55 +0000 UTC View Post
When the characters find a strange cottage in the woods, can they heal its inhabitant of a terrible curse—or will they fall to the curse's evil instead?
The Accursed Witch is a gothic horror encounter for characters of 7th or 8th level. Silver+ patrons can find it in the 2022-09-25 17:52:03 +0000 UTC View Post
A big thank-you to everyone who filled out my Fall 2022 Patreon Survey! Your feedback is absolutely invaluable to me as I work to make the Patreon the best it can be, and I sincerely appreciate your thoughts and support.
A few quick points following the survey:
The recording of the August 2022 Patreon Discord Workshop, Three-Phase Boss Monsters, is now live on YouTube! As always, you can find it linked in the Copper or 2022-09-10 21:46:32 +0000 UTC View Post
In this adventure, the characters must investigate the mystery of disappearing children in a small, suspicious village, and combat a fearsome annis hag with gruesome designs.
What Granny Says is a folk horror one-shot adventure for four characters of 4th level or lower. Silver+ patrons can down...
2022-09-02 14:20:38 +0000 UTC View PostStarting a new campaign? Organizing a new playgroup? Looking to check in with your players mid-adventure?
It's never too late—or too early—to run a Session Zero for your players. You can find my new comprehensive Session Zero Questionnaire—including a DM Reference Sheet discussing which types of players may strugg...
2022-08-30 15:53:32 +0000 UTC View PostThis pack of six modular gothic horror encounters can be deployed in any spooky campaign. Use them as random encounters on the road, or adapt them as part of a side quest or larger adventure!
Silver+ patrons can find the link to this encounter pack, which includes The Sickly Field, The Crashed C...
2022-08-29 01:36:06 +0000 UTC View PostLast time on the Dragna’s Den newsletter, we started building What Granny Says, a folk horror one-shot adventure featuring an annis hag, a stolen infant, and far too many Wicker Man references.<...
2022-08-18 22:28:02 +0000 UTC View PostCome one, come all to the August 2022 Patreon Discord Workshop!
This month's workshop will be held on the Patreon Discord server this Sunday, August 21 at 1:00 PM Eastern, and will cover Three-Phase Boss Monsters: Why to Use Them & How to Make Them.
Hope to see you th...
2022-08-17 14:07:02 +0000 UTC View Post
I've released a brand-new, revised version of the session plan template in the DM's Toolkit! Rebuilt to focus on the narrative of your session and adventure arc, rather than the nuts-and-bolts of your notes, it includes new sections for adventure concepts, narrative foreshadowing, dramatic questions,...
2022-08-16 16:04:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Last week, I published a new experimental newsletter post that walked through my process for developing wilderness random encounters. This week, I'm excited to share the full writeups for both of the encounters developed in that po...
2022-08-14 18:23:53 +0000 UTC View PostLet’s build a horror one-shot.
But not just any horror one-shot: a folk horror one-shot.
Today, we’re going to start a two-part process, using my three-act ad...
2022-08-10 12:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post
It's time to vote on this month's Discord workshop—head on over to the #announcements channel of the Patreon Discord server and vote now!
This month's topic options are:
This is an experimental exclusive newsletter post for Silver+ patrons. If you like this and want to see more posts like this, let me know in the comments! You can also suggest and vote on potential future topics 2022-08-08 14:11:21 +0000 UTC View Post
When a cozy, yet abandoned inn in the mountains proves to be a lure for unwary travelers, can the player characters escape the clutches of the ever-hungry, reality-warping balhannoth—without falling into the webs of the ravenous phase spiders nearby?
The Shadow's Maw is a homebrew combat enco...
2022-08-02 01:21:20 +0000 UTC View Post
The recording of the July 2022 Patreon Discord Workshop, Narrative Scaffolding: Using Seeds, Sprouts & Stalks to Plot a Long-Term Campaign, is now live on YouTube! As always, you can find it linked in the Copper or 2022-07-29 12:01:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey folks, and I hope you're staying cool this summer!
Things have definitely been hot over here—while I've been enjoying fiddling with Challenge Ratings 2.0 (look out for an announcement next week!), I've also got a few new projects that'll be released here soon. They'll include:
I've added a new template to the DM's Toolkit: the Combat Encounter Planning Template! This template includes:
The recording of the June 2022 Patreon Discord Workshop, Customized Campaigns: How to Tailor Your Combats & Narrative To Your Players, is now live on YouTube! As always, you can find it linked in the Copper or 2022-07-04 12:35:46 +0000 UTC View Post
The beta version of my comprehensive revision to encounter-building in 5e, titled Challenge Ratings 2.0: A Simple System for Building Balanced 5E Encounters, is now available for playtesting!
If you've ever been frustrated or confused by 5e's encounter-building system or challenge ratings—thi...
2022-06-20 03:36:01 +0000 UTC View PostToday (Saturday, June 18) at 1 PM Eastern time, join me on the Patreon Discord for a live workshop on Custom-Made Combats: How to Tailor Your Encounters & Adventures to Your Table!
The first half of the workshop will deal with theory, and the second part will be an in-depth collaborat...
2022-06-18 06:18:21 +0000 UTC View PostSome folks seemed to enjoy the first homebrew campaign session prep video I recorded, so I recorded a second one! As before, Silver+ patrons can find it linked in the Silver Masterpost.
If you'd like to see more of this kind of thing, please ...
2022-06-14 13:01:05 +0000 UTC View Post
In this short adventure for five fifth-level characters, the characters have been invited to a banquet hosted by Lord Darius Pell, a relative of one of the characters. Lord Pell is a well-known scholar and collector, and rumor has it that he recently obtained an ancient and valuable tome.
Yet when the...
2022-06-13 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostI recently started a new homebrew campaign, and figured that it'd be a good opportunity to test-run some of the principles, templates, and reworks I've discussed here and elsewhere.
Given that, I started to wonder—maybe other people would be interested in how I approach this process?
I have no idea if that...
2022-06-03 13:48:11 +0000 UTC View Post
