By RJ on 19 January 2024. Artificial intelligence is all the buzz as of late. In every community, from the sprawling and ever-growing tabletop roleplaying game community to the business world, more and more people are wielding AI in new, interesting, and potentially problematic ways. Yes, I'm using the word. It's true. It's problematic. Right? Well, it depends, I suppose. It's all a matter of perspective. Obviously, this is the future. With no laws inhibiting its growth, all AI is going to do is spread and grow, surmounting other methods and tools used in countless communities across the glo ..read more

By RJ on 9 June 2023. I’m focusing on a new space. Since 2018, I’ve consistently posted new articles and blog posts on RJD20.com about Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop roleplaying games. While it was surely a passionate pursuit, the opportunity to transform it into something more always flipped around in the back of my mind: waiting, lurking, festering. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it work. Last month, though, I discovered a new opportunity in a new medium: YouTube. My channel, Talkative Tri, kind of blew up. Focused around the action roleplaying game Path of Exile (think Di ..read more

By RJ on 5 May 2023. I imagine I'm not alone. Without fail, D&D night excites me. Oftentimes I'll think about the upcoming session days beforehand, meandering through my mind about the possibilities, but never putting pen to paper until the night before or the day of. In these winding paths in my head, I'll explore where the party might go, what might excite the players, and why their characters will be challenged and tested. Ideas flow freely. The demon the party released and partially defeated? It ravaged a nearby city, creating its lair in the temple of a lawful, good, but absent deit ..read more

By RJ on 23 April 2023. Plenty of the tips and tricks I write about Dungeons & Dragons on RJD20 can be interpreted as loose rules to follow. Most of the time, you stick by them and they'll likely improve your game. However, there are times when you must break your own guidelines. The alternative is the complete standstill of your game or the possibility of a game-ending argument. In order to avoid either or I have a new tip: break the rules you've established beforehand. This exact situation occurred in my last D&D session. I hate needing to interfere in the decisions of my players ..read more

 By RJ on 16 April 2023. This far into the life of Dungeons & Dragons, many people understand the player characters are important to the game. Without them and their antics, the game dies. However, they're not the most important characters. They are not even the main characters. The player characters may be the protagonists, but they are reacting to someone else's plots; they are the antagonists in someone else's story: the big bad. Shocking, right? I may have just scorched the outlooks of a few people. Give it a ponder, though. It's true. The big bad is the center of the plot. The ..read more

By RJ on 19 March 2023. For years, I was the forever Dungeon Master. I ran numerous games, multiple campaigns, and introduced plenty of inquisitive folks to Dungeons & Dragons and the greater tabletop roleplaying game scene. However, I was not a consistent player. Sure, I hopped onto the other side of the screen every once in a while, but it was never week after week. I may have been a veteran in crafting worlds and portraying villains, but I was a novice player of the game. That all changed when my daughter was born. I went on a Dungeon Mastering hiatus and became a consistent player of ..read more

By Ian on 12 March 2023. Whether it’s a stick-wielding goblin or a raging pit fiend from the depths of Nessus, the monsters of D&D come in all shapes and sizes. Oftentimes this makes it easy for a DM to find the perfect beasty fit for almost any encounter. However, there are some cases where it’s best to look beyond the Monster Manual. Perhaps you’re DMing for experienced players and are looking to challenge them with an abomination none of them have faced before, or maybe you have been wanting to use a creature that is not found in your campaign’s environment. It’s times like these I en ..read more

By Ian on 26 February 2023. It’s a Dungeon Master’s role to create and populate the many different strongholds, lairs, and other villainous locales that player characters delve within. This means when combat starts it’s also the DM who rolls for the dastardly villains that work against the players. This puts the DM in a rather powerful position as their role is hidden behind the screen.  They are also the one who determines the difficulty of any saving throws a player character must make. Given these factors, the DM has the power to control the flow of combat while never truly revealing ..read more

By RJ on 19 February 2023.  Many Dungeon Masters fret and worry about the balance of their combat encounters. I'm here to tell you there is no need to lose sleep or overprepare battles in Dungeons & Dragons, at least when it comes to ensuring they are mechanically sound and balanced. Simply balance your combat encounters and any encounter really on what makes sense in the context of the campaign. However, suddenly swapping to this style of play isn't right. If you are the type of DM or GM who looks at challenge rating, experience budgets, average damage, and the exact action economy ..read more

By RJ on 12 February 2023. No one expects a rogue as a monster, do they? Well, if you play your cards right, they shouldn't! Do note: I'm not speaking for all the conniving bandit lords Dungeons & Dragons groups battle, the goblins who are quite thieving, or the hill giants who pillage every pantry in sight. I mean legitimate monsters who use actions inspired by the archetypal rogue class present in nearly every fantasy roleplaying game imaginable. In this article, we are crafting a formidable foe inspired by rogues and providing plenty of inspiration for more monsters in the same v ..read more