Hook and Chance

D&D Mystery Simplified III: The Details

Make your players feel like masterminds, plan for the spells that threaten to throw a wrench in your mystery, and avoid groans at the final reveal. Also, we chat about the essential traits to help build a great detective character.

D&D Mystery Simplified II: Story Beats

A good D&D game always benefits from rising tension, heightened stakes, and a grand finale. Knowing how a mystery story typically works and having some idea of where the party can go, who they can talk to, and when things are gonna start getting intense is essential. Without these story beats as a starting point, its easy to streamline to the solution, or have things drag out far too long.

D&D Mystery Simplified I: Worldbuilding

Mystery adventures are some of the most complex you can run. This series of three episodes simplifies the process as much as possible while still allowing for mysteries that have the potential to surprise and feel like a great ride. In this first one we look at the essential ingredients you need to create in order to run a grand whodunit.

No Escape from the Shambling Mound

The lumbering hulk of rotting plant matter known as a Shambling Mound can be so very misused. Usually, it is simply used as a large block of hit-points to chip away at, at worst, it is a TPK waiting to happen. So how do we avoid this?

Live to Tell the Tale ft. Keith Ammann

Keith Ammann, author of Live to Tell the Tale and The Monsters Know What They're Doing is here to explain how players can think a bit differently about their characters and their desire to survive. Using new concepts like Ability contours he explains how characters can lean on their strengths, position themselves in combat, and know how to escape deadly situations.

Casting Friends and Influencing People

Friends is an often overlooked and criminally misunderstood spell, and it's easy to make this mistake. It doesn't sling poison or prevent certain death or create illusions in the minds of your foes, but the versatility of this spell deserves a second look. It can make your charming character an ace in the hole for every talky part. As a reminder, Friends gives you advantage on Charisma checks for a bit, then makes your target turn hostile towards you. And it's fun as heck, okay? If it's good ...

Making D&D Dragons Immersive III

Dragons deserve the dramatic and complex fights that keep parties talking about the time they barely escaped alive. How would you go about writing such an encounter? Sounds like art. Could amazing encounters be systematized? Also, the Unbreakable Anthology is awesome... that is all.

Making D&D Dragons Immersive II

Dragons are fearsome, dragons are big but that doesn't inform how they behave. Preparing and knowing the personality traits of your dragon will will inform their portrayal and ultimately insures your grand reveal doesn't fall flat.Taking a look into some of the core traits exhibited by dragons in fiction and breaking down those common behaviors allows us to study how they might behave.

Making D&D Dragons Immersive I

Dragons have an incredibly vast history, mindbogglingly big. But if we look at the fact that dragons are pretty much an amalgam of all the real animals that have scared humans forever, then we've got something to work with, and draw ever more details from.

Puzzle Games Can Make D&D Better

What if we didn't just drop puzzles into D&D, but played it a little more like the great puzzle games? By taking some simple rules from game design, we can improve our encounters, giving players the satisfaction of overcoming some seriously tricky situations.

D&D Puzzles Suck, but...

There's a lot of baggage around puzzles, and many players have some serious beef. In presenting them as a DM, you risk players that get angry, lose interest, or table flip and light a fire in their pure rage. Well, In this episode we address the reasons behind this fury, and provide guidelines that help you put enjoyable puzzles into D&D.

Worldbuilding with Culture Creation

The options seem binary when writing; spend less time and carefully avoid dodgy tropes or sterotypes or write a truly unique piece of fiction and spend more time writing than playing in your unique world. Too bad there is no better options... or is there? Wonder not, we have a solution!

Create Engaging Character Flaws

It's challenging to choose the right flaw for your character. This is because character flaws range from a humorous quirk like hiding weapons around the office to a representation of everything they fight against like being afraid that they can't protect their loved ones. In this episode we cover different types of flaws, what ties them to your characters story, and how to run them through a quick test to see if they're good for D&D.

Fear the Umber Hulk

The Umber Hulk is far more than just a stat block. This humble entry in the massive tome that is the Monster Manual is easy to underestimate. An encounter with this beastie should feel like going mano a mano with the most fearsome people gnasher around and it all comes down to setting the tone and mood.

Plan a Campaign with Story Beats

The choices appear to be only two as a DM, run a game on rails and remove player choice, or run a sandbox game where anything can happen but finding meaning in the story takes some digging. Well taking inspiration again from John Trubys book The Anatomy of Story, we can drop in some simple structure to campaign or even adventure planning.

Create Conflict with Four Corner Opposition

What is four corner opposition? Well, it's a writing method that allow the creation of messy interweaving webs that are fun and interesting to explore. DM's and players everywhere deserve rich worlds that feel dynamic and evolving, and this system provides the best results!

More Magical Monks

Monks are among our favorite classes, but the question of how to avoid playing a cliche (or hella problematic and groan worthy) monk is always top of mind. The Shaolin monks have an incredible history, one that is worth exploing and paying respect to as the primary inspiration for D&D monks. That or we can reskin a monk into something nobody would expect!

Captivate With Your Character Introductions ft. Beth Ball

Meaningful RPG Choices

Getting everyone invested in the story seems like a challenge sometimes, and as soon as you see them cell phones, you know it's game over. It's tick But as soon as everyone feels like they have a hand in directing the game, they jump right back in. We can get everyone on board a lot easier with a little more crafting of character choices.

Build Villains to Thrill

Presenting an antagonist that your players care about can be maddening. To release your brainchild of a baddie complete with haunting eyes and a tragic tale to your group feels fantastic! Right up until a player asks "Who's this? Are we supposed to kill them? Will this level us up?" Well, we've been there, and that's why we spent time figuring out what we were missing. This episode takes you through our process. 1. Know your heroes 2. Choose your villain archetype 3. Build the Character of ...

Immersive Theatre of the Mind ft. GMTim

Think D&D needs more maps and minis? Theatre of the Mind, or more simply, playing D&D with only a character sheet, can be daunting, especially for such a math and map driven game. So the talented GMTim joins us to teach how to try Theatre of the Mind and all of the benefits it brings with none of the challenge or fuss.

Make Great Characters with Greater Problems

There's so much out there on character creation that makes you think you're creating the ultimate hero. It's creative, fleshed out, nuanced, detailed, and has a killer backstory. We've made our fair share of those, and we usually find that once you try to roleplay those characters, they don't have much to say or do. We lose interest fast. This episode is about fixing that. If you define three problems your character has, their journey becomes effortlessly engaging and playable.

Shifty Doppelgangers

The most satisfying part of using a Doppelganger is that glorious moment where they shapeshift to their true form and everyone at the table gasps, Gary is screaming "Oh, Pelor, Why!?" and Susan slams her first through the table. Well, this only happens when you plant the proper seeds of mystery and intrigue. Join us, and run your next Doppelganger with vigor.

In Defense of the Ranger

Google “5e Ranger” and all you’ll find is a lot of people talking about how underpowered they are. But what if playing them with a few key ideas in mind and a tweak here or there made them tremendous? If you’re considering playing a Ranger, playing with one or DMing for one, this is an episode for you.

The Joy of Vicious Mockery

The spell Vicious Mockery has created some of the funniest moments at our gaming table. That's why we wanted to start this episode with some fun looking at hilarious inspiration for insults. We also take a look at the more dramatic side and talk about how your character can really get inside the head of their enemies with a few words. But it wouldn't be complete without talking about how a DM can respond to these insults in satisfying ways. To top it all off, we create a monster based off of ...

Magic Items and D&D God Mode II

Magic Items and D&D God Mode I

So what is this really all about? Well it's always tough balancing the decision to give your players epic loot. If you do, you may run into balance issues forevermore, if you don't... well we call that a mutiny. So what is a DM to do? Well we wanted to explore what a middle ground looked like in this episode. Supporting Content The Homebrewery The Complete Armorers Handbook A Guide to Crafting Magic Items in 5e Crafting Magic Items: A guide to Artifice

Including Magic Items in the Best Way

Have you ever had sat there brooding because you ended up with a sloppy broken club while your ally has the finest elven blade of shimmering splendor? We feel your pain. That's why we talk about five ways to introduce magic items, including our favorite, which we will dive into during our next episode. This one's also got a new short segment, for our grandma!

Preparing for Epic Failures > TPK

The air is calm. The rush of a dragons wings interrupts as it dives over the edge of a chasm with a halfling in its claws. Moments behind, you rush up to the edge of the chasm, brushing pebbles and dust into its gaping maw. The dragon gets farther away with every heartbeat. Cries of the wounded reach out from behind you, and you can see the distant approach of yet another set of wings. Ally or foe, it is too far to tell. What do you do? We talk about this subject from both sides of the tabl...

Creating NPCs That Your Party Will Love

Ever have issues creating Non Player Characters that people you are playing with really connect with? We propose that there's a few crucial elements to start with. What do they have in common with your party, what do they have in contrast, and how do they fit in to the story? The temptation to spend the first 3 hours focusing on the design and origin of their walking stick is strong, we know, but stick with us here, and have a listen.

Compelling Character Curses

Find The Complete Armorer’s Handbook by Heavyarms.

Increasing RPG Immersion ft. David Adams

David Adams joins us! He laser beams his many amazing thoughts on party immersion into this episode. We talk about drawing yourself into party members characters, using catchphrases, honoring the tone at the table, and, of course, more. David has created lots of great content, so find him on twitter @level2npc, and find links to his work there or at our website.

Amazing Characters from Compelling Backstories

Character backgrounds can be long, confusing, random, restrictive, or overly world shattering. Or, they can be clear, badass, and help you play an amazing game! We provide a structure for your glorious character concept that can do just that. It covers story beats, personality, wants and needs, and how to quickly get your vision across to your party.

Backstories from Backgrounds

Backstories are a troublesome foe. What is too much, what's to little? Character backstories done well inform about everything that means anything to the character themselves. At the worst they can be a boat anchor of lore that is never used and muddy the experience. Also, why do they never seem to match the background that was picked?

Thieves' Cant - or Can They?

In this episode, we discuss the problems with this ability and seek to solve it with a simple system. We do this by providing a system that allows rogue players to use Thieves' Cant in a way that isn't intrusive, doesn't require extensive study and can be done while still speaking secretively at the table.

The Satisfaction of Roguish Tales

We look at three historical figures that embody different visions of what a rogue could be, discussing what the best parts of these tales are that we can portray in an amazing character. Don't put them all in the same character, though, or you'll end up with Max "Mad Dog" Mcpuncher, the master of invisible crime wars.

The Trouble with Roguish Traits

We run through some of the most dangerous and commonly used personality traits of rogues, like "I work alone", and propose ways to mold them into things that work in D&D. What if your job is actually spying on the party? Then you're still working alone, ya sneaky weasel.

Demystifying Dungeon Masters III

Now you may have figured out game preparation, but now you need to actually play it. Now your preparation for your best D&D session will be tested, but you need not do it alone. With the advice of expert Dungeon Master Erik Frankhouse, host of Erik Frankhouse Presents, cartographer and game designer, you can boil down the immensely challenging task of DMing into something not just do-able, but easily doable. You can find Eriks work here: https://erikfrankhousepresents.myportfolio.com/projec...

Demystifying Dungeon Masters III ft. Erik Frankhouse

Now you may have figured out game preparation, but now you need to actually play it. Now your preparation for your best D&D session will be tested, but you need not do it alone. With the advice of expert Dungeon Master Erik Frankhouse, host of Erik Frankhouse Presents, cartographer and game designer, you can boil down the immensely challenging task of DMing into something not just do-able, but easily doable. You can find Eriks work here: https://erikfrankhousepresents.myportfolio.com/projec...

Demystifying Dungeon Masters II

Check out a great idea generator at eigengrausgenerator.com Take a look at our Adventure Template for new dungeon masters at patreon.com/hookandchance.

Demystifying Dungeon Masters I

There are so many more resources than this for new Dungeon Masters, but here’s a direction or two that we’ve enjoyed. DND beyond new player guide Geek and Sundry DM Tips Sly Flourish

Swing and a Miss

Shots going wide is reserved for foul balls and Stormtroopers. Why would we aim for the wild blue yonder and how do we as players and DM’s make our characters act with intent rather than fumble and bumble through an adventure?

Critical Oopsies

You know the feeling… when that dice teeters on a heroic 19 but instead rolls over to a 1. Your hero is now a dingus. What could have been epic is now a slap in the face. What horrible fate has the DM cooked up for your character? Will they lose their pride or are they about to lose a limb? We cover why crit fumbles aren’t a thing and add a homebrew rule to take the sting out of the dreaded 1.

The Bones of Horror III

Wanna play a more human hero when terror strikes? We provide concepts for playing out a fear while you are facing down nasty beasts and twisted foes. It’s tricky to decide on a fear sometimes too, so we talk about how to derive them from character values and ideals. There’s also a simple mechanic for deciding when those fears actually influence a characters mind in the episode. All this and more, because everybody gets the goosebumps sometimes.

The Bones of Horror II

Check out Goblin Punch's False Hydra.

The Bones of Horror I

Check out our Horror Writing Guide at our Patreon.

Party of Two ft. D&D Duet

Jonathan and Beth Ball of D&D Duet take a break from teaching, creating, writing, and having a general blast to join us! First we get to know the magic that makes them them. Then we learn one on one gaming secrets, like how to create a fantastic dynamic between the player and the DM, how to create a cast of DMPC's that highlight the hero, and how this style can make a more engaging player out of everyone. Then we explore the wondrous fantasy versions of themselves, and it gets weird in all th...

Outcast Society III

In this 3rd and final episode focused on Tiefling society, the brothers ponder about how their unique physiology would change the function of their cities. Taller doorways would be a start... yeah, and ice cream vendors, lot's of em, to cool them down because they are muy caliente.

Outcast Society II

Growing up with horns in an intolerant world can be a challenge for Tieflings. How does it this kind of thing affect them? We find out in this episode how a Tiefling named Tivius might develop an affinity for wingless ducks and suffer from performance anxiety. Wait what?

Outcast Society I

What is life like for Tieflings? Some characters aren't as welcome as others, sometimes they need to go underground. In part 1 of the series on Tiefling Government or lack thereof, we look at the structure of how people stay hidden.