How to Be a Better DM: Dungeon Master Tips for the DM Newbie, the Hobbyist and the Forever DM 5 Places to Get D&D Resources Other Than Sourcebooks
The grand city of Tornlock boasts a population of 100,000 citizens. From the port district to the affluent Crown district, many call this city their home. In a city like this though, many find themselves in less than fortunate circumstances.
You and your companions find yourselves in an Inn, sleeping when a loud knocking on your doors awakens you. It’s a member of the guard. He informs you that Lawmaster Sotan requires your immediate presence. After you and your companions prepare yourselves for the day, you follow the guard out the inn and into a slightly overcast day.
The guard leads you down main streets, side roads, and eventually leads you to an alleyway in a darker part of town. He leads you toward a small huddle of guardsmen in the center of the alley way. As you approach, a head raises from the group and signals to you all a basic, if not taciturn greeting. It’s Lawmaster Sotan. You and your companions had worked with the Aasimar on a few occasions and your dealings had always been cordial and productive.
“Good morning adventurers. I apologize for the inconvenience at having to wake you at such an early hour, but it could not be helped. Please inspect the grisly scene before us and tell me what insights you can glean. We will talk more after you’ve had a chance to examine the corpse,” Sotan says as he beckons you and your companions forward.
The group of guards part and you encounter one of the most grisly scenes of your life. A pastel purple tiefling lies on the ground, eyes wide open starting silently into the gray sky. The body lies with arms and legs akimbo, tied to four posts stuck in the ground. A look of deep fear and consternation adorns the face, frozen in time forever. You also notice the tieflings chest and
belly are flayed open revealing the internal organs of the once living tiefling. Blood has splattered all over the alley way and footprints of blood leave down the opposite side of the alley.
You turn to talk to Lawmaster Sotan, but not before he says, “This is the third victim exactly like this in 15 days. We need your help.”
What would you like to do?
Welcome back to the 16th episode of How to Be a Better DM. I’m here to help you create better stories for yourself and your friends while you play Dungeons and Dragons 5e.
Thanks for coming back for yet another episode. I really appreciate your patronage and your support.
So let’s get into today’s episode.
As you build out your stories, one-shots and campaigns, you’ll indubitably need resources. Whether you need maps, monsters, or motivation there are many places to find what you need. Here are my top places I go for resources.
- Google search
Almost without exception, a simple search on the internet will give me a quick path to what I need. Now, obviously this will take you to the place you need to go, but never underestimate the power of a Google search. For example, I built out a one-shot recently and I needed a very specific type of monster. So I just searched on Google and it took me to what I need. The only caveat here is that if you are streaming or putting your content out commercially, you need to make sure that whatever stuff you pull from the internet is ok to use in that way.
This is more of passive method for finding cool things, but as I scroll and I find cool things, I just save them in different saved collections. I have a collection for Monsters, Items, simple hacks, Story Hooks and more. Specifically with monsters, items and story hooks there are many Instagram profiles out there that constantly put out new monsters, items and story hooks. I would share them but I have not gotten the ok to so if you want to check them out go to my Instagram @geronimolevis and go to the list of profiles I follow and give it a look.
- D&D Beyond
I know I talk a lot about D&D Beyond but specifically for monsters, it’s very useful (specifically the encounter builder) but finding monsters, spells or items is really easy because you can just search (just like on Google) and generally it comes up. You can also find other peoples’ homebrew content which is nice when you want to supplement what you already got.
With my earlier Google Search my internet safari eventually took me to the wilds of Pinterest where I indeed found the monsters that I was looking for. I simply copied and pasted the images of the monsters and their stats into the doc in which I was preparing my one-shot and boom, I was good to go. Again, here you have to get the go ahead before you use the content in a commercial way but for home games, Pinterest is great.
- Other People
A great resource that many people never tap into is other people. I know in a personal way, I recently had a few moments of collaboration with a friend creating a murder mystery dinner party. Now obviously that’s not D&D but the principle still applies. If you need help, just reach out to a fellow Dungeon Master and ask a simple question of, “What would you do if you were planning this type of session?” Works wonders and you become better friends.
There you have it. 5 non-sourcebook places to go to get the content you need to Dungeon Master an epic session of D&D.
I’d love to continue the conversation so reach out to me on Instagram @geronimolevis and let’s continue the fun.
We’ll be back next week for another fun episode.
Until then, let’s roll initiative.
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