Curse of Strahd: Reloaded is a free guide to running Curse of Strahd that aims to:
It’s been a while since my last developer blog, an issue for which I sincerely apologize. It’s been a busy few weeks, but I should’ve taken the time to write these anyway. As a make-up gift, please enjoy this four-point devblog—one for each post I owe ya :)
A few weeks ago, a few players were missing ...
2023-05-28 23:54:50 +0000 UTC View PostThis month's Patreon Discord Workshop, Common DMing Mistakes / Dragna's Productivity Tips, is now posted on YouTube! In this workshop, we review common mistakes that DMs make in narrative design, game rulings, table management, and more; plus some of my personal productivity tips (in case you're interested in that sort of thing).
As always, you can find it and all other workshops...
2023-05-11 12:16:20 +0000 UTC View PostHey folks! Once again this week, I didn’t have much substantive D&D stuff to work on (I’ve mostly been focusing my time and efforts on recording Dungeon Mentor videos and writing out the history and lore for Re-Reloaded). However, I did watch a new show that left me with some interesting stuff to think about. More on that below!
I didn’t really work on much substantive D&D work this week (though I did publish the first video in the Dungeon Mentor how-to-DM series; check it out here!), so I don’t have any “problems” to talk about this week, per se.
However, I have been doing a lot of thinking regarding the “p...
2023-04-28 19:56:03 +0000 UTC View PostThis month's Patreon Discord Workshop, You're Probably Doing Ability Checks Wrong (& Other Common Mistakes) / Dragna's Productivity Tips & Tricks, will be held in the #Workshops voice channel of the Patreon Discord server tomorrow, on Saturday, April 29th at 4 PM Eastern!
If you're not already in the Patreon Discord, 2023-04-28 13:26:53 +0000 UTC View Post
We’re back on the combat encounter development grind! More stuff about Re-Reloaded coming next week, but for now, let’s take a look at some monster design theory.
Last Saturday, I got a chance to give my three-phase statblo...
2023-04-22 02:22:46 +0000 UTC View PostThis is the longest devblog I’ve written yet, and it deals with exactly one (1) arc in Curse of Strahd: Reloaded.
Why is it so big? Because 2023-04-13 18:12:56 +0000 UTC View Post
This month's Patreon Discord Workshop, You're Probably Doing Ability Checks Wrong (& Other Common Mistakes) / Dragna's Productivity Tips & Tricks, will be held in the #Workshops voice channel of the Patreon Discord server on Saturday, April 29th at 4 PM Eastern!
If you're not already in the Patreon Discord, 2023-04-12 13:15:22 +0000 UTC View Post
We’re slowly catching up on my backlog of DevBlog Topics™! This week, I’d like to talk about some revisions I wound up making to my homebrew campaign. Plus: the problems with Strahd’s charm and how to fix them!
In my homebrew campaign, my players have just arrived at the lair of an evil necromancer, ready and raring to ...
2023-04-06 18:12:25 +0000 UTC View PostThank you to all of you for your patience over these past few weeks—I know it’s been a bit of a dry spell as far as these articles are concerned, but hopefully the stuff I’ve got planned will more than make up for it!
This week, we’ve got some deliberations over Curse of Strahd Re-Reloaded, plus my process for turning long-term journeys into meaningful narrative segments. We’ll ...
2023-04-01 02:36:58 +0000 UTC View PostThis month's Patreon Discord Workshop, Using ChatGPT & Bing Chat for DMing, is now posted on YouTube! In this workshop, we review advanced strategies for using ChatGPT & Bing Chat, as well as specific applications for DMing.
As always, you can find it and all other workshops linked in the Bronze ma...
2023-03-28 13:43:44 +0000 UTC View PostI'm sure some of you have noticed that I've failed to publish any devblogs over the past two weeks. I don't really have a good excuse for this, except that I've been dealing with a lot of IRL issues and stressors over those two weeks, and unfortunately haven't been able to just sit down and make the time to bang out a devblog (let alone assume the right frame of mind).
I want to make sure...
2023-03-22 00:02:22 +0000 UTC View PostThis month's live Discord workshop, How to Use ChatGPT and Bing AI for DMing, will take place in the #Workshops voice channel on the Patreon Discord server tomorrow, this Saturday, March 18 at 1 PM Eastern/5 PM GMT!
We'll:
This week was pretty light, design-wise—the first course of the Dungeon Master series is reaching completion, and so I spent more time editing videos than creating new content. Still, a few interesting topics came up in conversation and/or in-game, so let’s take a look at how I approached them!
The Ghoulish E...
2023-03-06 21:31:37 +0000 UTC View PostClimactic combats with solo, powerful enemies are a staple of fantasy media, inspiring countless Dungeon Masters to emulate them in their own games. However, when it comes to using "legendary monsters" in D&D 5e, those Dungeon Masters are almost invariably disappointed, finding themselves stuck with fragile "glass cannons" that threaten to either TPK the party or crumple like wet tissue pap...
2023-03-01 19:57:51 +0000 UTC View PostThis week, I kept up my efforts to create backstory hooks for players in Curse of Strahd: Reloaded, plus finalized my plans for the upcoming necromancer’s dungeon adventure in my homebrew campaign. Let’s take a look!
This week, I did a bit of work on my homebrew campaign, made some tweaks to Re-Reloaded, and had a minor mental breakdown over Curse of Strahd adventure hooks. Let’s take a look!
Last week, I mentioned that I was working on a 2023-02-20 16:40:05 +0000 UTC View Post
We’re back on the DevBlog, albeit a bit belatedly—apologies for the delay! I’ve been both a bit busy and a bit sick, but thankfully, it looks like most of the clouds have now cleared from the horizon. In the past week, I’ve worked a bit on Re-Reloaded but I’ve also spent a bunch of time on my own IRL homebrew campaign (the one with the ten players), which gave me a good opportunity to...
2023-02-15 15:14:21 +0000 UTC View PostThe infamous DevBlog returns! This week’s projects included Curse of Strahd: Re-Reloaded, Dungeon Mentor, and the final Patreon homebrew content pack—plus some minor commentaries. Let’s dive in!
Ah, the introductory Strahd encounter of Re-Reloaded<...
2023-02-05 18:24:58 +0000 UTC View PostBoo!, a ghost-themed content pack featuring a haunted house location stat block, a bookish ghost hunter, two spooky random encounters, and a ghost-hunting mystery with a gruesome twist, is now available on the Silver masterpost!
This will be the last homebrew content pack that I publish for the foresee...
2023-02-04 20:58:34 +0000 UTC View PostAs per evident popular interest, I've updated the existing session plan template and reference sheet in the DM's Toolkit, and also added a new adventure plan template and reference sheet to help you build your campaign arcs and chapters.
You can find the new materials in the Bronze Masterpost. ...
2023-02-02 02:03:10 +0000 UTC View PostWelcome back to the DevBlog! This week, I kept working on Curse of Strahd: Reloaded, Dungeon Mentor, and this month’s DM’s Toolkit/homebrew content pack updates. Let’s talk shop.
Problem 1: How do I fix Strahd’s introductory encounter (again)?
You might remember that l...
2023-01-30 02:02:42 +0000 UTC View PostHey folks! Due to an apparent bug with the Patreon Discord bot, I had to delete and recreate all of the patron-exclusive server roles to make sure that everything got assigned correctly and everyone could see the right channels.
Everything should be working properly now, but there are always bugs with any update. Feel free to DM me here or on Discord if there are any linger...
2023-01-27 20:32:15 +0000 UTC View PostHey folks, and hope your week is going well!
You may have heard by this point that I've been experimenting with a series of weekly developer blogs sharing and analyzing my TTRPG creative and design process.
Throughout this process, I've been taking patron feedback regarding which per...
2023-01-25 15:26:58 +0000 UTC View PostThis is an experimental Patreon-exclusive developer blog, intended to potentially replace the Silver-tier homebrew content packs as a perk.
If you would prefer to keep the monthly homebrew content packs as a perk, or if you would prefer to see a weekly developer blog series replace those homebrew content pa...
2023-01-21 19:29:03 +0000 UTC View PostThis is an experimental Patreon-exclusive developer blog, intended to potentially replace the Silver-tier homebrew content packs as a perk.
If you would prefer to keep the monthly homebrew content packs as a perk, or if you would prefer to see a weekly developer blog series replace those homebrew content pa...
2023-01-15 02:50:44 +0000 UTC View PostI'm excited to share that I've just made two new additions to the DM's Toolkit!
The first is a Building an Adventure Chapter reference sheet, which should help you design dungeons and location-based adventures, as well as one-shots!
The second is the Challenge Ratings 2.0 Adventuring Day & Encounter Builder, a simple automated spreadsheet that l...
2023-01-08 19:11:22 +0000 UTC View PostThe Frozen Wastes, an arctic fantasy-themed content pack featuring a frozen cave location stat block, a gruff arctic ranger, two chilly random encounters, and a mountain-escape adventure, is now available on the Silver masterpost!
Let me know what you think, and stay tuned for this month's next content...
2023-01-07 18:30:34 +0000 UTC View PostFrom the Deep, a coastal horror-themed content pack featuring a ship graveyard stat block, an inquisitive monk, two briny random encounters, and an aboleth-themed adventure, is now available on the Silver masterpost!
Let me know what you think, and stay tuned for this month's next content pack!
C...
2022-12-04 20:28:57 +0000 UTC View Post