Sean Does Games

One of the D&D campaigns I'm running is a called Skyfell. We meet once a month and this past weekend was the big day!  I enjoy being a dungeon master. It's not just because it's an outlet for my tendency to indulge in world building. I enjoy developing a challenge and partaking in the cooperative storytelling that emerges as a group of people work together to overcome that challenge. When everything works out, it feels as though all is right in the universe. A blind spot of mine as a DM, however, is not giving enough clues regarding the mysteries the PCs must solve. I provide plenty of NPCs to interact with but when the players start interrogating them I usually fail to disclose the important bits even if the players are asking the right questions. I think part of it is that I forget to drop the info; I'm caught up in the moment. Part of it is lack of prep; I have failed to work out exactly what each of the NPCs knows. Part of it is that I have a tendency t...

 I do love creating characters. On computer  and video games I can sink hours into fussing over the clothing. In tabletop RPGs, my character notes are more like origin stories.  That's why when I first started playing Dungeons and Dragons 5e I was tickled...that's right, tickled...to find a whole section of the Players Handbook devoted to backgrounds. It's also why one of my first Dungeon Masters Guild publications was a collection of backgrounds called Great House Servants and why I included a Backgrounds section in my Epic Gnomish Inventing guide. While backgrounds are valuable, especially given the additional game benefits they provide, I find them lacking as a source for a complete character concept. So I hit upon an idea for new content that I could publish to the DMs Guild. I'm tentatively calling it Character Concept Packages. Each package will include:  at least one background New feats  New equipment/weapons/magical items Suggested downt...

Hello. My name is Sean. I started playing RPGs back in the 80s with the Dungeons and Dragons red box set. I played some AD&D as well. But then I was away from it for a while. I played a handful of other pen and paper RPGs, such as Shadowrun, GURPS, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, Vampire, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Deadlands, and a few others. I got back into D&D because my daughter showed an interest in 5e a few years ago. I'm currently running a couple of D&D home-brew campaigns; one for my daughter and friends, a second for a local meetup ( https://www.meetup.com/dndnrpgs/ ) that takes place at a local game store. I'm also playing Theophraxis (a gnome gunslinger) in the "Infinity Tower," a Time2Tabletop live-stream on Twitch (come watch us every Tuesday at 6:30PM PST ...   https://www.twitch.tv/time2tabletop ). We're on YouTube too. I also create Dungeons and Dragons content for the Dungeon Masters Guild ( http://www.dmsguild.com/ ). I...