I like Dungeons & Dragons but I’d be lying if I said I had a firm grasp on its rules. I know about rolling dice and I get that high numbers are good, but beyond that I’m pretty much just winging it whenever I play. What I really like about D&D is how easy it is to build your own games inside of it.
As a rule, I try to avoid positive self-talk, but I have actually done some cool stuff with D&D and I wanted to share a few of my favorites.
Wizard Kart
I was given the opportunity to run a game for Jerry’s C-Team a while back. I used Dungeon Tiles to build tracks and designed some simple rules based on classic karting games.
Wizard Unknowns BattleGrounds
This is probably my most elaborate D&D game as it required the help of Mike Buland, our Technomancer who built the incredible map application. As for the rules, I designed distinct encounters and skill challenges that could be used anywhere on the map since I had no idea where they would go. I also made “loot crates” that players could pay me real money for at the table.
Open World D&D
This was designed for my home campaign which I ran for years at the PA office. There’s no video of it but I put up a very detailed post that breaks down how it worked. I designed a sort of Sandbox game where rather than be guided by me the DM they would choose their path through an open world and I would respond to their actions. It even had a random loot generator!
Combat in SPACE!
This is another game from my home campaign that I showed off in a news post. The party arrived in the Elemental Chaos and I wanted to do something special to help set the scene. I ended up creating big floating planets with grids drawn on them and designed rules that allowed players to jump around and fly through space. Oh and here is Part II.
The Light and Mirror Puzzle
I did a lot of crazy shit in my home campaign. Another of my favorite games was when I built a map using Dwarven Forge tiles and then used a laser pointer and tiny mirrors to remake the classic mirror turning puzzle from video games. You can get all the details in this post.
I’m sure plenty of you have seen these over the years but I’m guessing a few people out there will be seeing these for the first time. I hope that they inspire you to take ideas from all around you and push the rules of your own games! I’m not on social media anymore but I still like chatting with folks about this kind of stuff. These days I hang out in the Club Penny Arcade discord channel available to all members and you can always send any questions to my email at the bottom of this page.
-Gabe Out
