Tabletop Atelier

In May, I decided to run a very different sort of session for my weekly D&D campaign. My party had already faced off with ghost pirates, dragons, sandworms, and a giant time-controlling robot. This session, I wanted to give them a very different sort of challenge:  A fluffy, filler-y 'beach episode.' (Avatar the Last Airbender, "The Beach") Anyone who has watched cartoons long enough knows what I'm talking about. Danger and peril are set aside, just for a while, in exchange for sunbathing, watermelon smashing, volley-ball-playing, low stakes character development. In a game like D&D, where character development is often so tied to monster slaying, how can a DM mechanically engage their party with a session like this? Just as importantly, how can we squeeze as many of these tropes that we love to see into a 4 hour session? How do we give this game structure? Previously, I might have just run the session as normal, RP-heavy session, calling for rolls every o...

(Naoni, our cursed wood elf ranger, donning his baseball uniform for the first time. Art by his player, lycanthroopy on twitter ) A while ago I posted a handout on twitter for a new 5th edition campaign I was starting called Dungeons x Dragons . The campaign's premise follows a group of novice adventurers as they enter the dangerous Adventurer's Exam alongside nearly 600 other applicants. At the end of the exam, less than ten applicants will pass and get their "Adventurer's License," a document which certifies them as an elite Pro Adventurer. The whole concept is heavily inspired by Hunter x Hunter, a manga that is a big favorite among myself and most of the players.  Having just survived a grueling week on Bumbo Island, an Australasian remote island where every living organism on the island is at least a Challenge Rating 3, the party of player characters earned their way into the Third Phase of the Adventurer's Exam. It was time for a big change of pace... I...