D&D - What you need to DM!

Dungeon Mastering is definitely more of an art than a science, but we have compiled our list of those essential items that will take your game to the next level. Not only have we included some epic stuff to bring to your session, we have some awesome suggestions of online resources that you can use to prep the perfect session!

Physical Resources

Dice You can never have too many dice, right!? After you grab your first basic set, you'll find that you crave some more Shiny Math Rocks to use at the table! d20s and d6s in all sizes and colours! Metal dice and Plastic Dice! The possibilities are endless and we recommend you have an ample selection to choose from to circumvent any bad dice luck! Dice are especially important when you're running the game. You need a lot to challenge your players, so more dice equals more of a challenge, right!?

Roleplaying - Doing the Voices Although it is not a necessity, a DM can add a massive amount of depth and immersion to a session by giving their key NPCs a distinct and unique voice and mannerisms! This can turn a one-dimensional NPC into a living breathing character that your players will always remember!

Miniatures and Tokens A great aid for your imagination are a good supply of miniatures and tokens. Make sure that your players have an awesome battlefield representative on the field and that your enemies and monsters have a frightful presence and you can turn an ordinary combat encounter into an epic struggle for survival! You don't even have to use miniatures specifically designed for D&D! There are a ton of options out there, including great choices from Games Workshop!

Maps, Terrain and Set Pieces Another extra way to amp up an RPG session is having a cool array of Maps and Terrain to take a combat encounter from a flat 2D affair into a 3-dimensional immersive experience!

Props & Hand Outs Giving your players something to hold in their hands and see with their own two eyes will always have a massive impact! Using Props and hand-outs even sparingly can have a massive effect!

Online Resources

5e SRD The Fifth Edition System Reference Document is a basic and uncomplicated compilation of the core rules of the latest edition of Dungeon's and Dragons. Although you won't find yourself using it every time your prep, it is a useful tool to have when you need a ruling that you are unfamiliar with (we're looking at you underwater combat rules).

Kobold Fight Club Kobold Fight Club is an incredible useful site for those looking to create more balanced encounters. It gives you the ability to compare your player's party (inserting the number of party members and their levels) and a group of monsters (based on their CR, or challenge rating). The calculator gives you a rating of the difficulty of the encounter, ranging from Trivial to Easy to Medium to Hard to Deadly. We definitely recommend DMs use this in their adventure prep to avoid overwhelming or underwhelming their party.

5e Tools - CR Calculator If you are homebrewing your own monsters for a session and want to make them an appropriate challenge for your party, then you'll make good use of a CR calculator. This lets you know the exact challenge of any monster, rules as written. Of course this is to be taken with a grain of salt, especially at higher levels when Player Characters are very powerful. This is super useful when used in conjunction with Kobold Fight Club.

DnD Beyond The D&D Beyond app is the go-to for any player in the modern era of TTRPGs, but the site has all of the same epic information. Their selection of spells, monster and magic items can be a real time saver, when you can't dedicate the effort to searching through the physical books.

Official D&D Website The official D&D website on WOTC is our last suggestion. The site has a ton of advice, a great podcast (make sure to check out Dragon Talk) and a reservoir of resources to draw upon. A perfect tool for one-shots is their selection of pre-generated available at a variety of levels and classes.

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