There is a “Blinded” status effect (https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Conditions#content).

I would say whoever is using the pepper spray still needs to make a melee attack roll,unless you’d rather treat it as a cone shaped spell or ranged attack, maybe (that’d probably be pretty OP though and not like real life pepper spray.) then, they’d probably get a Con save or be blinded. Since pepper spray hurts like a bitch, you could also apply some damage to it, maybe a D4 or D6.

• Drain their Resources through taxing encounters
• Have natural events like blizzards and hail storms slow them down
• Have many events unfold at the same time so they have to choose who to help / which quest to take
• dont be afraid of having their inability to be at two places at once have negative repercussion

and as a final fuck you by the BBEG just as your party manages to catch some breath and rest: throw nightmares at them

Try https://roll20.net. You can build a map using uploaded assets and use a fog of war to reveal some at a time. I'm not sure about using it as a dm on Android but viewing it on Android should be no problem. Can be casted to a Chromecast, as well.

If its CoS I'd personally be slow to give them a magic waterskin that can make wine, theres a similar item in the book that you get in a 9th level recommended dungeon, and quite a lot of the world revolves around wine. And infinte water brings up the whole running water and vampires thing, which could make it far more powerful that intended, there are a few examples of similar items in the DMG that make a finite amount of water, the decanter of endless water is one.

I use that same DM Screen!

The default sheets are mostly good, but a couple are pretty rare to use, which is great because it lets me load up that panel with all the poisons and wild magic tables I use! It also packs up flat, so I can take all my DM pages and stuff it in the folds like a file folder and pack it away on a shelf. The extra width is really nice because it fits my extra wide clipboard with a night's worth of DM Notes behind it nicely so I can stay kinda organized back there.

One drawback is that it is a really tall DM Screen. If you use battlemats and minis on the same table the DM screen rests on, you're going to have trouble seeing anything about 2ft in front of the screen, and it can be tough to reach over and move stuff around. You might want to consider using an elevated battlemat or something to help with visibility.

I’m lazy so I like to generate cities with this. https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator

It has a link to a world generator that uses this. https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/

I then take them into photoshop and add my own stuff.

I think what you're looking for is Azgaar's fantasy map generator.

If not, then here's a very large list from /r/DnDBehindthescreen of other map-making resources, both random and designed - look under "Maps and map-making tools".

Best of luck!

https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Magic%20Items#content

This is the closest thing I could find to rules on magical items.

TL;DR - Items that require attunement do so with a short rest, so.. I'd assume that any magical item would do the same. Plus, you are technically messing around with an item for that time frame, so you'd figure it out.

I tried for years to find the best mapmaking tool - Cartographer's Guild, Dudjinni, Inkarnate, etc. etc. Basically everything except photoshop because I wanted mapmaking to be quick and not have to learn a gigantic bloated program just to do it.

Eventually I stumbled onto r/battlemaps, and specifically found this post. It's assuming the use of photoshop/gimp/something like it (I went with Affinity Photo - it's a one time $50 purchase and it's every bit as powerful as photoshop it seems), but it's pretty agnostic as far as which one you're using.

The learning curve is a little steep at the beginning, I will give you that, but after you make a few maps, you start to get faster and faster as far as knowing what works/what doesn't.

In the end, it's really graphic design, and so your best tool is a graphic design tool in my opinion.

Hope that all helps!

You got exactly what I meant! Pick items then build characters yeah! But you’re right, it would be more fun probably to put it in as a fail for some kind of encounter or something. Thanks!

And I did some looking online and found the link to them! Enjoy!

Dungeons & Dragons Spellbook Cards: Magic Items (D&D Accessory) https://www.amazon.com/dp/078696670X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_fabc_0zMbGbXHN4AVR

edit: wow 294 apparently, more than I thought!

D&D Initiative Tracker Acrylic Laser Cut Sword in Magic Circle Base with 12 PCS Erasable Taken Flags Perfect for Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder and Other Tabletop RPG https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VRYCFCS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_fabc_hsf1Fb9PDQBXT

Idk if you’re wanting to do this for free or willing to spend a little bit you can buy some cool looking ones online

Do you need books? Don't just buy em all willy nilly unless you're gonna run a specific module or setting.

That said, I highly recommend Mordenkainens Tome of Foes and Volo's Guide to Monsters. A lot of great stat blocks in there. Amazon has good prices for D&D books, and they are often on sale for 20~ dollars.

This is perfect if you like to hand-draw maps for your table. Its 200 sheets, will last forever. I bought this like 2 years ago and I'm barely through the 2nd pad. Course 65 bucks for just paper is a hard ask for some. You can certainly find cheaper easel paper, but this is my fave.

You could always use more minis of course, just search around.

Hi. We made an app for this. I should give a disclaimer though: Initiative Tracking and most things are free. There are however extra features like adding random encounters etc. that are behind a pay wall.

​

If you'd like to give it a try here's the link.

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Finally, if you have a feature you don't see but you want to then simply tell us and we'll consider adding it.

​

Cheers!

Tunc

This is a great concept for a series of adventures and super creative. I tend to be a bit more subtle in my storytelling, so take it for what it's worth. I'm parsing the events as being focused on your player characters, so this will focus on your characters going through the metaphor.

1. Denial - This involves the players denying the death of Droop. The players will be confronted by replicas of Droop. Either ghosts or doppelgangers take his form and begin feeding on the sorrow of the players. If you have a conjuror in your party, maybe have them summon the creatures in his sleep, waking up with fewer spells.
2. Anger - This is a straight up revenge quest. This should likely wind up with them having severely negative consequences. They find the person who resulted in his death and kill them. Basically, make them suffer the effects of Gaes/Quest until it's completed, occasionally throwing them in to random confusion / rage.
3. Bargaining - Your party should be approached by some devil willing to give back something of Droop. Ideally, this should lead to several unsuccessful bargains. For example, one bargain to return the 'soul' which will just be a fragment of one in a phylactory that can't be revived. Another could be returning his body without the soul, which they watch quickly disintegrate, returning the body to life, but finding that Droop is a zombie, etc.
4. Depression - Your players could suffer from a curse or fatigued / exhausted, likely while fighting a ghost or spirit of some kind. Once they defeat the spirit, the effects are lifted and they finally hit....
5. Acceptance

Those look really cool. I ended up going with the numbered rings from CZYY on amazon. With these I can hang them on the larger monsters. https://www.amazon.com/Numbered-Creature-Condition-Pathfinder-Miniatures/dp/B085G162TW/ref=sr\_1\_1?keywords=czyy+number+rings&qid=1668914997&sr=8-1

From a block that costs me £3 I can make around 14 tiles or walls. I use strip magnets, its like a magnetic tape that has both sides. This sort of thing: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magnetic-Adhesive-Magnet-Magnets-Anisotropic/dp/B09WNK9SYR/ref=asc\_df\_B09WNK9SYR/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=588076632935&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17901977220664218993&hvpone=&hvptwo=...

https://www.amazon.com/Chessex-Role-Playing-Play-Mat/dp/B0015IUAAG/ref=asc_df_B0015IUAAG/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=241960275266&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2863482725875743056&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&...

I rather enjoy The Hero’s Feast cookbook.

https://www.amazon.com/Heroes-Feast-Official-Dungeons-Cookbook/dp/1984858904/ref=asc_df_1984858904_nodl?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459706669091&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4851189580884271474&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt...

I rather enjoy The Hero’s Feast cookbook.

https://www.amazon.com/Heroes-Feast-Official-Dungeons-Cookbook/dp/1984858904/ref=asc_df_1984858904_nodl?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459706669091&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4851189580884271474&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt...

Ya..the great thing about AACs(alternatives and assistive communication devices) is that the thing that used to take 100s of dollars(the professional soundboard) can be set up on a 7 inch kindle tablet for 40$(the tablet cost) and a little bit of time/work https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.unicef.cboard

I realise you're probably not looking for budget solutions here, but I was recently in the same position as yourself. After much searching, chin stroking, and indecision, I ended up trying something a lot like these: Plastic Binder Rings on Amazon.com.

Turns out, the 28mm rings are sized perfectly for standard 5E minis. They slip smoothly over the top of most 'medium' figures, and settle neatly around the base with a neglibile gap. Easy to clip/unclip if need be, more than durable enough for tabletop use, and a great quantity of rings in each packet for the price.

Elephant in the room: There are no condition labels. That said, the five different colours I received (should have been six, but whatever), have been more than enough so far: one colour per unique condition. As yet, I haven't run a session where more than five (or six) unique conditions are being applied simultaneously, but YMMV of course. I jhust repurpose the colours for each encounter, as required.

The quiet advantage of having unlabelled rings however, means no hunting around in bags or containers of accessories for the 'right' condition each time. The colours are what makes it easy to see anyhow, in the most hectic encounters I've run.

Probably not exactly what you have in mind right now, but felt it was more than worthy of mention. Hoep this helps!

By way of introduction, my name is Stavros.

I am the creator of the website The Fateful Force, which provides FREE D&D/TTRPG resources to fans including high-quality fantasy art, over 40 free battle maps, and an online VTT RPG token maker.

As a DM, I know firsthand that time management is tricky.

Prepping for sessions, and building content is time-consuming. Having a bunch of good-quality maps close at hand always helps. Also, the token maker is a life saver for building monsters and other NPCs 🙂

I am also the author of "The Tome of Syyx", a D&D Style Epic Adventure .

I don't have a Patreon/Paywall for most of my content, so if you like my free resources, please consider supporting me by purchasing my fantasy book, but in the meantime, please feel free to download any and all my free content for your D&D/RPG games.

Here are my notes for a Genesys game, but they are pretty system agnostic outside of specifics of encounters/challenges.

You'll have to import them into Joplin

I've found this on Amazon from the Netherlands, i also found some different options on other sites. Let me know if this is something you're looking for and maybe where you're from https://www.amazon.nl/DND-munten-fantasy-munten-bordspellen-spelpionnen-rollenspelmunten/dp/B09FGJ991W/?_encoding=UTF8&pf_rd_p=89d1c481-7655-4096-aafc-407d93a6043e&pd_rd_wg=dANR8&pf_rd_r=706FETK6ST5M20PGTY7R&pd_rd_w=oORNm&pd_rd...

Thieves World collection, Robert Lynn Asprin I use these collections of short stories to populate the towns and cities in my sandbox home brew campaigns.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0441805914/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_A2WRRN7P8D5TT5S7KWJ5

https://tabletopaudio.com/

That's my go-to for a lot of stuff. It covers a ton of different themes, ambiences, etc. I'll sometimes find stuff in YouTube to play as well. It all depends on what I need for that particular session.

If it wasn't RPG-specific, it sounds like Obsidian. People do use it for organizing RPG games, but it has many other applications.

Help. I'm a new DM-

1. Where do I start???

Check out /r/NewDM for answers to many frequently asked questions.

I always recommend The Starter Set from Wizards of the Coast. This has easy to read rules, pregenerated characters so you can start right away and a complete campaign which is really fun and has lots of side quests and hooks to keep the game going for years.

Good luck!

Don't be afraid for their first magic item to be something a little homebrew to help them stay alive!

Take this for example, but replace Magic Missiles with Cure Wounds and you're all set- a little healing can really make it easier to not accidentally TPK your party, and still make them feel the hurt a bit.

Help. I'm a new DM-

1. Where do I start???

Check out /r/NewDM for answers to many frequently asked questions.

I always recommend The Starter Set from Wizards of the Coast. This has easy to read rules, pregenerated characters so you can start right away and a complete campaign which is really fun and has lots of side quests and hooks to keep the game going for years.

If you're not sure you want to shell out $12.59 USD, then you can try out the Basic Rules as a FREE download from the Wizards of the Coast website. It has the rules for character creating so you can make your own. Download them, read them, and feel free to ask questions. 🙂

But to answer your questions;

1. Not too ambitious if you want a long campaign that gets the characters up to level 20.

2. Illegal magic is fine, but still allow your characters to have some. They just have to keep it secret and find allies/factions they can trust.

3. CMI can be literally anything you like; an amulet/phylactery like a lich, a ring, a helmet, but to give the players a bit of help it should probably be something big and stationary.

4. Most players don’t catch subtle hints so just give a couple subtle hints at each session. Don’t be obvious, especially in the beginning. Maybe don’t even give hints. Let the character play and see if they give up any hints themself.

5. The point of the campaign is the BBEG. You can’t focus too much on him.

Good luck!

Honestly I just use Adobe Illustrator with a grid layer, but I have Adobe through work and that's not a realistic expectation of others. Then I just share my screen in Skype.

Inkscape is the free alternative. The nice thing about vector drawing apps is that your drawn art won't get blurry no matter your zoom level. Pasted photos or artwork, however, is another story.

Also, if you don't have PS (GIMP may have this feature, IDK I bought a couple dungeon makers and project to a TV) you can always use the Rasterbator

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Link is totally SFW, just a great free service that will enlarge any pic and scale it to print out.

I always recommend The Starter Set from Wizards of the Coast. This has easy to read rules, pregenerated characters so you can start right away and a complete campaign which is really fun and has lots of side quests and hooks to keep the game going for years.

/r/NewDM

Good luck!!!

Check out /r/NewDM

But to answer your question, I always recommend The Starter Set from Wizards of the Coast for brand new DMs.

This has easy to read rules, pregenerated characters so you can start right away and a complete campaign which is really fun and has lots of side quests and hooks to keep the game going for years.

Good luck with your Homebrew campaign. Let us know how it goes! 🙂

On Amazon, you can purchase these: https://www.amazon.com/Meetory-Markers-Stands-Plastic-Multi-Color/dp/B083VY5WDR or similar. You can either draw the monsters on the cardboard or I simply printed twenty or so at a time and glued them onto the cardboard. You can buy the cardboard pieces even more cheaply once you have the stands.

https://mapsforsaps.com/

Our group meets in person except for one person who calls in via discord. We use this conference mic (a little over $50) and it works really well. This way, only the person with the mic plugged into their computer needs to be in the call, preventing the echo issue. The audio quality is very clear on both ends and it's a simple plug-and-play solution that doesn't need any setup.

Is that the DM screen they have on Amazon? https://www.amazon.ca/Stratagem-GRPG-002-Masters-Customizable-Screen/dp/B06WLQP1SB/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1546717783&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=dm+screen&dpPl=1&dpID=51QFJL3wJxL&ref=plSrch

I have the reincarnated version which is awesome but, what are your thoughts on the stratagem screen?

I bought a laminating machine for about $20. You could always just stick the sheet in a plastic protecting sleeve, they're about ~$3 for a pack of 25.

These are the pens I use, they don't wipe off as easily as dry erase and they write a very fine line, good for details.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004SZ0YYU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You could always just print a bunch of copies of those sheets, especially if you have your encounters planned in advance. I just like to re-use my materials a lot so I don't have to refresh my gaming kit ever.

I bought one of these for my hand-drawn maps.

I know it's a little overkill maybe, but if you want something really clear, easily portable and easy to operate, something along these lines is a good call. There are probably cheaper ones, but I have used them for recording vocal audio before and it was fantastic. As for editing it once recorded, there are dozens of free programs out there for simple voice audio. If you have a Mac, Garageband is surprisingly good. Otherwise, as Muneglum said, Audacity can do the trick

Edit: Replied to the wrong thing. My bad

On the incredibly rare occasion that I actually use a map for one of my games, I use one of these.

But again, I usually prefer not to use maps unless a game requires it.

Side note: Why is this marked NSFW?