My Dungeon Master Style

Having ran campaigns for over 10 years, I have become familiar with a style of DMing that I feel caters to my strengths and provides my players with the best experience I am able to offer. These are always relevant to my longform campaigns, though individual one-shot adventures may call for different approaches.

A Varied Offering. I believe the three pillars of a good D&D experience are roleplay, combat, and shopping - and I cater to all three. Depending on the situation there will be sessions that are entirely RP, Combat, Shopping, Stronghold Management, or a combination of any and all of these.

Heavily Narrative Games. My games lean heavily into roleplay. I present NPCs that are fully-developed characters who exist in and interact with the world independently of the player characters. Social sessions that are entirely conversation and dialogue are common. Lore books are common throughout most of my longform games which flesh out and enrich the world, if perhaps not always providing direct plot progression.

Intelligent Combat. I believe in respecting my players by providing challenging and fair combat that does not condescend to the players. Enemies will not conveniently change target away from weakened enemies to waste attacks against the party tank. Predators will target the small and weak, fleeing when injured in most circumstances. Humanoid enemies will communicate and co-ordinate with each other. Intelligent enemies will continue attacking a downed target to try and kill them. Enemies are not bags of HP to be reduced to 0 in my games - they are other inhabitants of the game world with their own motives.

Immersive Vision. My games are always played in Foundry VTT, which is a system I have a professional experience with. Light, Darkness, and Vision are always factors to be considered in my games, making players (and characters) mindful of torches, illumination, and dark environments.

Table Rules

The following are home table rules that I typically implement in my Dungeons & Dragons games.

  • 0 Hit Points. You are still conscious, aware of your surroundings, and can speak.

  • Falling. You fall 500' at the start of your first midair turn, and 1000' on subsequent turns. You don't land prone after deliberate falls of 20' or less. If forced over an edge, you get a save. You can choose to fall on your turn, but it's willing movement.

  • Assisting. A character can only provide assistance for skills in which they are proficient.

  • Potions. Can be consumed/given as a bonus action. If consumed/given as an action, the dice for healing potions are maximized.

  • Extra Feat. Characters are granted a free half-feat at character creation.

  • Encumbrance. My games typically ignore encumbrance until players attempt to abuse it (“I loot every single longsword in the barracks” is a quick way to have encumbrance arrive in the game!)

  • Darkvision. In most games, I restrict access to Darkvision until higher levels (including Darkvision granted through class features) for immersion purposes.