DM's secret place

The DM's Secret Place, a D&D 3.5 dedicated blog. ________________ Every original content uploaded here free to use for non commercial purposes Please credit the author ______________________ ZentaHnZ _ 2016

[someemochick]

[monsters-and-more]

Increase the chance of stepping on d4 by using them more often.

[creativityobsessed]

My players:

Me as DM, listening:

[samswritingtips-deactivated2016]

A breakdown of medieval armor, since a lot of pieces are required to create a full suit.

[kuropii]

Ref

[punkbread]

just had a flashback to me in 3rd grade absolutely blissed out just staring at this pic

[hombredeflorida]

[cherries-with-sweets]

@probablybadrpgideas

Using this Map for a campaign.

[probablybadrpgideas]

(ID: first image a map from a geography textbook showing a wide variety of geographical features. second image similar but drawn by XKCD, captioned “if i could live anywhere, I would choose the example map from geography books that explains what everything is called. end) You can tell these aren’t UK ones because there’s no oxbow lakes - Paper

[creativerogues]

20+ Shopkeeper Greetings For When Your Players Go Shopping!

The shopkeeper greets you with a nervous but friendly “Finest wares for the finest prices. I promise.”

The shopkeeper greets you with a warm “Welcome, how may I be of service to you today?”

The shopkeeper greets you with an apathetic “What is it? Need something?”

Before you begin to peruse, the shopkeeper greets you with a passive aggressive “All store prices are final and non-negotiable, understand?”

The shopkeeper greets you while pushing away another customer with a crude “Next!”

The shopkeeper greets you with a rather pushy “What do you need?”

The shopkeeper greets you with a gentle bow.

The shopkeeper greets you with a boastful “I have the best goods for miles around.”

The shopkeeper is reading something and completely ignores you.

The shopkeeper welcomes you with a friendly smile but no words.

The shopkeeper is talking with somebody and pays no attention to you.

The shopkeeper greets you with a rather aggressive “You break it, you buy it.”

The shopkeeper is busy arguing with another client and is unable to welcome you.

The shopkeeper is busy with another client, but a quick glance your way shows you’ve been noticed.

The shopkeeper welcomes you with a friendly, but odd glance.

The shopkeeper stares at you as you enter the store.

The shopkeeper greets you with a rude “Be quick about your business.”

The shopkeeper is busy with another client, but still manages to welcome you.

The shopkeeper is clearly pretending to be too busy to welcome you.

The shopkeeper greets you with a hearty “Welcome. If you need any help, all you have to do is ask.”

The shopkeeper seems to be sleeping on the desk.

The shopkeeper welcomes you with a courteous bow and a friendly “Welcome to my humble store, it is my pleasure to be in your presence.”

The shopkeeper greets you with a rehearsed “I got the best deals anywhere.”

The shopkeeper greets you with an impatient “Time is money, friend.”

[susiephone]

less “chosen one” heroes, more heroes that chose THEMSELVES. give me heroes that see a problem, look around, and think, “WELP, clearly no one ELSE is gonna fix it, so APPARENTLY it has to be me” and goes to their friends and is like “Y’ALL, GET YOUR SHIT, WE’RE GOING ON A QUEST”

“what wait why”

“the world is broken and the people in charge aren’t doing anything, so we’re gonna do something for them”

“didn’t the prophecy say a wise and noble mage would choose someone to conquer the evil?”

“yeah well, i can do magic, and i’m pretty fucking wise and noble, right?”

“…..”

“……………….RIGHT?!”

*hasty statements of agreement*

“exactly. so, i’ve come to the conclusion that i’m the mage of the prophecy. and guess what. i choose myself. now let’s go.”

[alexiswikyd]

If you have this player at your table, you are blessed.

[thecollectibles]

Raven Claw by Fahmi Fauzi

[heedra]

people seem to forget a lot that the dm is ALSO one of the players whenever you sit down for a session, and that their comfort, enjoyment, and limitations matter just as much as everyone else’s. i think sometimes people get really used to treating the dm like they’re a game engine that can and will have to produce entertaining results for anything you do as a player without realizing that while improvisation is a valued and important skill for a dm, its also probably a sign of a bad player to take too much pride in burning your dm’s campaign to the ground. imagine if another player got smug about constantly pushing your pc off of cliffs. you wouldn’t be having a very good time if that happened.

[neshtasplace]

OMG this!!!!

[gloom-ranger]

⚔⚔⚔

[tabletopresources]

Weapons by satanasov

Check out Tabletop Gaming Resources for more art, tips and tools for your game!

[fuckyoubaker]

[the-vaudevillain-deactivated202]

Let's talk about mynoise.net

Have you ever been listening to Rainymood and thought, “Yeah, this is good … but it would be nice if I could customize the sound more, or if there was a little more choice.

Let me introduce you to MyNoise.

MyNoise is a customizable sounscape looper with so many options, even within each soundscape.  So say, for instance, you really love rain sounds when you write or study or relax.  Anything.  I know I’m a big fan of rain sounds.  They have a page for that.

But say you like really high, pattery rain, and LOTS of low thunder.  Here’s where MyNoise really stands out: you can customize that.  See those sliders with all the cute colors?  That is your equalizer. You can adjust the levels based on what you want to hear more and less of.  Here’s how it looks when you want high, pattery rain and low, rumbly thunder:

But say rain isn’t really your jam.  Say you want something a little more ambient, a little more background noise-y.  Something with people.  Well, they have customizable coffee house chatter that even has the levels listed for things like “kitchen,” “babble,” and “table”:

Or say you miss the ocean.

Or say you miss your cat.

Or say you miss your spaceship.

Or say you miss the dungeon where you and your team of scalawag adventurers used to explore and face off against, say, dragons.  In the dungeon.

This site is seriously so helpful, and those are just a fraction of every kind of sounscape the site has to offer.  The best part is that if you want to layer it with music (for instance, I’ll layer a playlist + rain + coffee shop if the scene I’m writing takes place in a coffee shop), you can adjust the master volume, meaning all of your layers stay at their respective volumes, just louder or quieter.

Enjoy!

[readysetgaikokujin]

OH MY GOD

[kinkykinard]

Y’ALL I JUST STARTED USING THIS TODAY BUT THIS HAS BROKEN THROUGH MY WRITER’S BLOCK LIKE NOTHING ELSE.

TRY IT.  USE IT.  LOVE IT.

[atenebris]

[met-cloisters]

Ring Brooch, The Cloisters

The Cloisters Collection, 2006 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Medium: Gold, spinels, and sapphires

[thetygre]

d8 random fey

1) Don’t step inside the standing stones up on the mound. Those are the teeth of greedy, sleepy old Grandfather Ogre 2) That cabin out by the woods, the man who lives there loves dogs. He has a dozen or more, feeds them from his own hands. He’s raising the pups of the Great Hound deep in the forest, tree-high. He’s not a man at all. 3) You’ll catch her sometimes if she’s quiet, loping along with that awkward gait, watching the birds. When she whistles the men follow her and they never look at her mouth. Her legs alone must be twice their height, but they’ll never speak of it when they come back. If they come back. 4) Always two of them. Man and woman. Husband and wife maybe, but they always wear the same face too. They love to measure - if you stand still by them they’ll measure every part of you, down to the finger-bones. They love smaller things. They’ll make things for you if you let them, from the junk they carry, but they always make them too big. They especially love children. 5) Sometimes you see them flit by at night - bright-winged and butterfly-free. At a distance you can mistake the little ones for fireflies. But when you see the broader glow coming over the curve of the hillside you must remember to look away. 6) The whole bottom of the river is covered in shells and they rattle when you cross the bridge. Shellycoat loves distracting travelers and getting them lost - down her gullet, if she’s hungry. 7) You find them in churches - abandoned ones - torturing themselves. They’ve a fascination with the crucifixion. Sometimes they’ll come close to a village, inching along on those long fingers and toes, and try to lure out a priest to talk to them. 8) You have to understand is it’s not your wife, your husband. The thing gets into the ground and inside of them, makes them move again. It’s not hair - how could hair grow that long? You have to cut it out of the corpse. Get that long strand and follow it back to the beast in the earth.

[thecreaturecodex]

Grendel’s Mother

“Beowulf Battles Grendel’s Mother” © John Howe, accessed at his online portfolio here

[Commissioned by @wannabedemonlord. This isn’t my first go-round with Beowulf et al, as the first published D&D article I wrote for Dragon Magazine was statting up its monsters. In that article, Grendel and Grendel’s mother were both mid-CR opponents, which have been converted @thecreaturechronicle here. Since this commission was to make a match for the PFRPG version of Grendel, who’s a mythic opponent, Grendel’s Mother had to be similarly amped up. Although she’s not terribly magical in the source material, I gave her various hag abilities because a) she’s clearly related to the hag archetype that D&D and PFRPG have taken to mean “witch species” and b) if you wanted to use her in your campaign similarly to her role in the Beowulf movie, where she spent most of the film seducing various Geats as a gilded Angelina Jolie, you can make that happen too.]

Grendel’s Mother This hulking humanoid creature is vaguely feminine, with webbed fingers and toes, a hide that is both hairy and scaly, and a leering, skull-like face.

If Grendel’s mother has any other name, she keeps it well to herself. Some say she is the descendant of the first murderer. Others say she is the oldest of the sea hags. Perhaps these are both correct. Regardless of her origins, she is monstrously powerful and wicked, lurking behind the scenes to manipulate events with her prophecies and pet monsters, of which her son is the most powerful.

Grendel’s mother lives in a submerged cave in a distant fjord. Her lair is guarded by linnorms and sea monsters and filled with the treasures of a dozen dead civilizations. She rarely goes abroad—such is her fame that the world’s wicked things typically come to her for counsel and support. Most leave as her vassals, either through charm magic or simply promises and threats.

In combat, Grendel’s mother is overwhelming. Even in a direct confrontation, her enemies are likely to be weakened and weary before they get to her, having to deal with waves of her guardians and magically manipulated environmental conditions. Her very visage causes horrific wasting, and she typically opens combat with her evil eye. She favors a giant-forged knife as her weapon of choice, combining its piercing blows with her claws and teeth.

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