There are two main places used to run table-top roll-playing games- Theater of the Mind and Battle Maps. 

Which one is right for your group depends on what your group is looking for from fights, and what you’re willing to put into preparation. 

Today, random tables pop up all over the place- from the Dungeon Master’s Guide to every player's background you can find lists of randomized options to roll from. They’re also almost always tied to “roll or pick from” notes, hinting at some other ways you can make the most out of these tables. 

This article includes five tips that you can take to optimize your usage of random encounters.

One of the largest gripes I have with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition is Initiative because… well, you read the title. It sucks. It's awful. It's so bad that at my personal tables, I’ve stopped running it- I only run it rules as written as a convention DM where I don’t know who I’m DMing for ahead of time.

So you’ve got a superb character concept down- you’re going to be a circus runaway with a heart of gold who dodged enlistment and sought adventuring to fight back against their cruel government. 
Great start- from there, you’ll still need a “Background” in the mechanical sense, and none of the Player’s Handbook or other expanded options fit exactly how you want. Fear not!

Dungeons & Dragons has a myriad of possibilities to build all kinds of crazy characters with special powers and abilities. Sifting through all of what the game has to offer is daunting- if you’re looking for some quick and easy options to start your experience off right, here are two recommendations per class that give you tools to help contribute to your party’s success, each denoting where you can find these subclasses. 

Adventure Atlas: the Mortuary is a $10 digital-only adventure toolbox produced to go alongside Sigil and the Outlands and the other Planescape products available on D&D Beyond.

Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse is a package produced by Wizards of the Coast starring three books and a DM screen designed to give DMs tools to run campaigns in the Planescape multiversal setting. 

Monstrous Compendium Vol. Four: Eldraine Creatures is a D&D Beyond exclusive monster catalog with a few paragraphs of additional worldbuilding information for playing Dungeons & Dragons in the Magic: the Gathering setting of Eldraine. 

When you’ve spent so much time building a world and a campaign setting it can be really crushing to have the players completely disregard it. How do you salvage the situation? Is it a lost cause?

XP vs Milestone is a common debate that is had among the table for DM’s and players alike. It can be hard to decide what is the best approach, especially given that not every table is combat focused. In games where the expectation is to reach level 20, something extremely rare, it can be even more difficult to navigate the malaise of XP vs Milestone.

Combat is both omnipresent in D&D and onerous to occasionally get through. Between players who are new to the game and expect a video game-like experience and people from all walks of life having to learn how to cooperate and navigate a roleplay-oriented adventure, it can be a headache.

What is that turns a boss fight into an epic legend around the table? How do you make them amazing experiences that players continue to talk about for years? What’s the formula to pull it off? Stay and listen, dear reader, and I shall tell you.

For veteran players and newbies alike, this is often a question that tends to stick on their minds. What does make a good DM, and why does the difference seem so stark between a good DM and a bad one? What makes a DM a bad DM even?

One of the best parts about being a Dungeon Master is sitting down and crafting out the campaign that your players will partake in. From a pre-stock setting like Ravnica to something wholly original in a Homebrew, there’s a lot of flexibility in how a DM approaches worldbuilding.