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The Greatest Gift For a Gamer? Your Time

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You can order The Demonplague, my level 1 – 20 fifth edition adventure, right now!

Every year around this time I write a blog post that’s a holiday gift guide for the gamers in your life. This year I want to focus on what I think is the best gift of all for the fellow gamers in your life… your time.

Nothing shows a person you care like taking time out of your own busy life to spend time with them. That’s one reason games are so awesome! They’re an expression of friendship. I’d rather play a game with a friend than get a new book, dice tray, GM screen, or game that I’ll never play with them because they’re too busy. Save your dollars, friends. Give me that other resource that’s more precious than cash.

Gift Ideas that Only Cost Time

Here are some quick holiday gift ideas for the gamers in your life that only cost you time:

  • Run a holiday-themed one-shot game. Taking the time to run the game and bring your friends together is a huge commitment that counts as several presents in my book. This is an especially great gift if you don’t normally run games. Invite your GM friend(s) over and let them take a break as a player while you run things for a bit. Organizing a game can be difficult, but remember virtual tabletops make life easier!
  • Learn the rules to an entirely new RPG and teach them to your friends. Discovering a new game is super awesome, but reading a book full of rules takes a lot of time and mental energy. Taking that burden from your friends by reading it and explaining it to them is a huge gift! Plus you finally get to take that book you Kickstarted three years ago off the shelf and give it a read.
  • Take some of the administrative work off your GM’s plate. Coordinate calendars to find the date for the next game, write an awesome recap of your campaign thus far to share with the group, or finally send that backstory you’ve been meaning to type up. Tasks like this can be fun, relieve your friends’ stress levels, and make a world of difference for the already burdened GM.
  • Got a game designer friend? Read their rough manuscript, playtest their adventure, or invite them over for dinner and a brainstorm. Bouncing ideas off people you trust is an invaluable tool for every game designer.
  • If you’re artistic, draw maps, sketch characters, write a song, make a movie, or do something else to show your group how much you’re enjoying the game. If what you create can be used in the game, that’s even better!

How else can you give the gamers in your life your time this holiday season? Sound off in the comments below!

If you like what you’re reading please follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, check out my podcasts, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

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The James Introcaso Nerdarchy Interview and Last-Minute Holiday Gifts

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Want to hear me wax poetic about game design, the Dungeons & Dragons product rollout strategy, Roll20, the Dungeon Master’s Guild, and the greater Philadelphia area? Of course you do!

Dave from Nerdarchy was kind enough to invite me on his amazing show to talk about all that and more. Our hour-long discussion is below. Thank you so much to Dave and the whole Nerdarchy movement for having me on! It was such a fun conversation.

 

Gift Ideas!

Do you need some last-minute gift ideas for that special player or GM in your life. Check out my suggestions below (and here’s two previous posts on the subject)! It’s always fun to appreciate your friends, especially at this time of year.

  • Offer to host a game night at your place and cook or buy everyone dinner!
  • Give the gift of a gift certificate to a Local Friendly Gaming store! Even if you play remotely, find out where your friends shop, give the shop a call and order the gift over the phone. Ask the owner to give it to your friend the next time they appear in the shop.
  • Give the gift of a OneBookShelf gift certificate (good at DriveThruRPG and DMs Guild among other places)!
  • If you play online, give the gift of Roll20! You can give folks subscription plans, content packs, and game systems through the marketplace! I’m a Roll20 guy, but you can find similar gifts for Fantasy Grounds, d20PRO, and D&D Beyond.
  • If you’re short on cash, not a problem. There’s lots you can do. Run a special game over the holidays for your friends, give them IN game gifts (magic items FTW), or help out your GM by offering to run a game or give them one of many free adventures on this site or from the DMs Guild. There’s lots you can do to show you care.

If you like what you’re reading please follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, check out my podcasts, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

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Your DM Holiday Gift Guide

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It’s Thanksgiving today in the United States, so this is going to be a quick post. On this holiday we think about the people in our lives that we’re grateful to know. For me that includes a ton of gamer friends. With the holidays coming up, I’m giving you a few gift ideas for one of your most important gamer friends: your Dungeon Master.

DMs deserves our love, because not only do they have the mammoth task of running the game, they also spend more hours outside the game preparing it, often serve as the organizers and schedulers of games, and usually drop the most coin on gaming products. Here’s how you can appreciate them.

Gifts that Cost Cash

If you’ve got some change to spare, these goodies will make your DM smile… and possibly overlook the next time your PC takes a critical hit!

  • Official D&D Books. If your DM does not yet have Volo’s Guide to Monsters, this is a great gift. More baddies and tons of great story ideas. As a bonus there’s even some new PC races in there for players! If you’re nearing the end of a story, consider picking up Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, or Storm King’s Thunder and asking your DM to run it for you.
  • Third-Party Products. There are tons of great third-party products for the DM in your life. Tome of Beasts doubles the size of any bestiary while Sly Flourish’s Fantastic Locations, Book of Lairs, and Prepared! make preparation a snap. You could also grab any number of third party adventures. I personally enjoy Blood Vaults of Sister Aklava and the adventures in the Legendary Planet adventure path. If you want your DM to have a consistent flow of third-party goodness, consider getting them a subscription to EN World’s EN5ider. Want your DM to upgrade your games with sound? Then how about a few Syrinscape sound packs or a kit from Battle Bards?
  • DMs Guild Goodies. Of course the Dungeon Master’s Guild has some great products for the DM in your life. It has adventures galore! I recommend anything by the following authors: Shawn Merwin, Merric Blackman, M.T. Black, Tony Petrecca, Jeff C. Stevens, Cindy Moore, Teos Abadia, James Haeck, Mike Shea, Karl Resch, Michael Robbins, Alan Patrick, Greg Marks, or Robert Adducci. If your DM doesn’t need adventures then checkout some traps from David Gibson or some awesome puzzles and riddles from Patrick E. Pullen.
  • Maps & Minis. Buying tiles, flip mats, 3D terrain, dry-erase boards, and more are great for any DM. If you play online, gift your DM some minis or tokens for your favorite virtual table.
  • A New RPG. There’s a lot to play beyond D&D. Why not get your DM a new game that you want to play as a group? If you like D&D, then odds are your group might like Shadow of the Demon Lord, Night’s Black Agents, Phoenix Dawn Command, and Mutants and Masterminds. It’s very flattering to be handed a game and asked, “Will you run this for us?”
  • Gift Card. Not sure what your DM already owns, but know that they’d love something new on their shelf? Get them a DriveThru RPG gift certificate!

Gifts that Cost Time

Maybe your philosophy is “Spend more time than money on those you love.” It’s a good one! If that’s the case, here’s some gifts that will fill your DM’s heart with cheer.

  • Create A Game Calendar. Get together with your gaming group and plan a year’s worth of sessions. Put it all onto a calendar you buy or create and you’ve got one of the best gifts a DM could ask for! You can even give this gift digitally. Make sure you ask your DM for their schedule before locking down dates.
  • Run A Game. Many DMs rarely get to play. Offer to run a one-shot for you DM so that they get to have fun in a new way. You’ll gain a new appreciate for what they do.
  • Write A Recap. If you’re in the middle of a long campaign, on your own or with the rest of your group, write a recap of the narrative so far and give it to your DM. Each person in the group could take a few “chapters” of the campaign and write it from their character’s perspective for extra fun. You could post the whole thing on Obsidian Portal to really give your DM a special treat.
  • Find Great Free Products. There are tons of free products out there. Print them out and hand them to your DM. Of course, I recommend you start on the Free Game Resources section of this site (why not try my one-shot adventure Happy Holidays), but you can find tons of free and pay what you want goodies on the DMs Guild. Be sure to leave a review of a product and/or shout it out on social media if you’re grabbing it for free, to help spread the designer’s good work.

If you like what you’re reading please follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, check out my podcasts, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

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Merry D&Dmas

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Perfect gift for a naughty PC.

First things first. Here’s my gift to all of you. The Legendary Lineage background and the Cook background. Check them out below. These will always live in the Free Game Resources section of the site. Thanks for the feedback on these!

Legendary Lineage Background

Cook Background

But Wait, There’s More!

My players are awesome. You’ve probably heard a lot of them on The Round Table podcast I host so you know that it’s a group of kind, hilarious, amazing people I am privileged to call my friends. I wanted to send them a little holiday gift so here’s an email I sent to them. This idea is taken from the The Geeky Hostess who was a recent guest on the Dungeons and Dragons podcast where she talked about giving D&D themed gifts. These cost nothing but a little of your time and are usually quite fun for your players. It was a genius idea so I stole it!

Hey People of D&D,

First of all you rock. Thanks for taking time to roll some bones with me once a week or so. I love the stories we tell together. The highlight of my week is sitting down and relaxing with all of you to play some D&D.
I wanted to give you all a little gift this holiday season to show you my appreciation. So, below are a few bullet points that you can each invoke one time during any fifth edition D&D game I DM in the future.
  • Gain advantage on any d20 roll before rolling.
  • Turn any roll of a natural 1 on a d20 into a natural 20.
  • Gain 5 temporary HP.
  • Add one potion of the DM’s choice to any treasure hoard.
  • Automatically stabilize after failing a death saving throw.
Hope you enjoy! Looking forward to seeing all of you soon!
Love,
James

The gifts you give your players are FREE and very easy to scale up or down based on what you want to give your players. Maybe instead of all the idea above you grant them each an uncommon wondrous item. The options are endless and awesome. Let me know what you might give your players in the comments below! My players really loved this gift and have already used some of the benefits bestowed upon them. Just in time for all the D&D you’ll be playing over the holidays! Happy holidays everyone!

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

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