A lot of us DMs are tinkerers.

We love to fiddle and tweak and come up with ideas for everything from adventures to towns to new mechanics.

And in that love we let ourselves get overwhelmed.

There’s a temptation, for me at least, to feel like everything I put in front of my players has to be either A) published, Official Wizards of the Coast content and presented as such, or B) 100% home brew pulled from somewhere between my noggin and my butt. There is, of course, no option C.

But that’s silly. Of course there’s an option C. And it’s to not reinvent the wheel when you don’t have to or don’t want to or don’t feel like it.

two carriage wheel beside wall — Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

For example, I’m running a homebrew campaign right now. There’ll be an opportunity coming up for my characters to escort a wagon to a lumber camp. I could come up with a whole adventure from scratch or I could just lift the one from the Essentials Kit’s Dragon of Icespire Peak adventure.

In my hubris, I tend to think I can do better than Wizards’ designers and usually prefer to invent things myself. But if I’m short on time or have other ideas I want to focus on instead, I might well tweak that published adventure to fit my needs, or even steal it whole cloth.

Want your characters to be able to harvest stuff from monsters or gather herbs to create poultices and minor remedies?

You could spend a boatload of time to create a system from scratch, or you can grab the wheel from folks who have already put in the time and effort.

I suppose the point here is: If you find yourself wanting to do something for your players, whether it’s create a crafting system, escort a wagon, or something else, check to see if that particular wheel has already been created.

Worst case scenario, it’s not to your satisfaction and you have to do the work you were going to do anyway. Best case scenario, you get to use an awesome thing at your table and your players love you for it.

Monstrous Crits: One Better, part 5 - Kobold Press

Maps in my Mind - weaver.skepti.ch (Neat in-character way of thinking about maps)

The Terrain Is An Adversary - The GM Is Always Right

d12 Monthly – Issue 18 – Swamp Issue - YUM/DM (Lots of awesome ideas & tables if you’re running in a swamp!)

Release the Kraken on The Dungeon of Holding! - Dyson’s Dodecahedron

Campaign Status Module: Restocking Checklists - The Alexandrian

Now get out there and tell a story!

Peace,

Maximilian

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Don't Reinvent the Wheel