The other day I saw that Sly Flourish answered a question on his RPG talk show about running gladiatorial arenas in D&D. Given that I dedicated 1.5 years of my life writing an epic 300-page arena adventure, I figured this is probably a topic I should also address on my own media! Especially since writing […] The post How To Run An Epic Gladiatorial Adventure first appeared on Hipsters & Dragons ..read more

I was thinking about healing potions the other day (as any 40-something responsible adult does), and I believe I came up with a pretty good solution to the two big issues that healing potions suffer from in 5e D&D. The first problem is, famously, that they don’t scale at all, and your humble, standard issue, […] The post Healing Potions That Scale & Are Easy to Remember first appeared on Hipsters & Dragons ..read more

Recently, I have run two big trial scenes in two separate D&D campaigns. The first led to one of the most dramatic sessions I have ever run (or so the players who took part told me!), full of twists, turns, revelations and surprises. The second was full of prevaricating, repetitions, belligerent brow-beating and farcical pretence. […] The post Zone of Tedium… The Truth About ZoT! first appeared on Hipsters & Dragons ..read more

It’s a common lament in 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons that players accrue bags and bags of cash, but have very little to spend it on. Inquisitive players start to wonder why they bother delving into dungeons, or accept life threatening missions, to amass more and more gold, when they can’t even spend the coin […] The post How I Fixed “Too Much Gold And Nothing To Spend It On”… first appeared on Hipsters & Dragons ..read more

If you’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons for any reasonable length of time, you may well have heard the enigmatic phrase ‘West Marches Campaign’ dropped into your D&D discourse. What is a West Marches Campaign? West Marches was the solution of Dungeon Master (and game designer) Ben Robbins to the age-old issue of RPG scheduling […] The post Dirty Jobs: An Urban ‘West Marches’ Campaign first appeared on Hipsters & Dragons ..read more

“Heists don’t work in D&D!” retorted my friend and fellow Dungeon Master, when I announced I was excited to get my hands on Keys from the Golden Vault. It’s a common refrain, usually followed by: “You should try Blades in the Dark!” According to its many detractors Dungeons & Dragons is, in fact, a terrible […] The post Designing & Running Heists in 5e D&D first appeared on Hipsters & Dragons ..read more

Last time I was in the UK, I picked up a 1958 edition yellow-leafed pocket-sized paperback of Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming, which I later read on various beaches of the Costa Brava over summer. I was impressed with Fleming’s punchy, authoritative prose and I enjoyed the gritty, down-to-earth plot of Bond exposing a […] The post Lessons from Bond: Designing & Deploying Lieutenants first appeared on Hipsters & Dragons ..read more

Dust off your crowbar, polish your lock picks and put on your padded slippers, because your expert handler, Hipsters & Dragons, is about to mission debrief you on a series of 13 sensational heists from the D&D multiverse. Yes, a mere 7.5 months after its release (I have a day job you know!) I’ve finally […] The post Keys from the Golden Vault: Reviews of All 13 Heists! first appeared on Hipsters & Dragons ..read more

Earlier this year I bought Keys from the Golden Vault, and I effin loved it… my next Hipsters & Dragons post will be a 10,000 word review of the anthology, complete with rankings, and remixes to make the adventures even better. Naturally, delving into this fun and fast-paced anthology made me want to write my […] The post The Incredible Balloon Bamboozle: A High Jinks Aerial Heist! first appeared on Hipsters & Dragons ..read more

In my last post I complained that 5e spellcasters have too many spell slots. They almost never run out of the buggers. This can cause issues in all kinds of scenarios, and one of them, on my table, is during travel. I’m not one for hand-waving travel, nor do I want to make travel an […] The post Challenge Player Resources with ‘Adventurers Rests’ first appeared on Hipsters & Dragons ..read more