This post walks through some things to consider for making your D&D sessions as enjoyable as possible, focusing on the non-actual-playing parts that go into playing. If you’d like to read our ideas about running a session, please click here. Or, if you’re looking for some of the gameplay basics, we’ve written an introductory adventure for those new to duets or D&D. We also discuss how to keep things balanced during in-session role-playing and how to collaboratively build a world with your duet partner to help get you started.
Outside of DM notes, dice, sourcebooks (or helpful online links), and character sheets, there are a few extra touches that can make your game night special:
- Music
- Food
- Drinks
- Props and other immersive elements
A quick note: This is by no means prescriptive, and we’d like to encourage you as much as possible, especially at first, to use what you have and build from there. The other thing we’d like to emphasize here is that this is another great opportunity for you to express care and thoughtfulness to one another.
Putting together a special playlist for a significant event in your game or grabbing some fun drinks that compliment your characters’ “planning” sessions tells your partner outside of your session that you’ve been thinking about them and have been looking forward to the fun and exciting time you’ll spend with them. It can also be a great creative outlet, or a way for the player to help out the DM!
Music
I have had so much fun over the past several months finding and creating playlists for our game. I volunteered to take on the music after the first few sessions noticing that Jonathan already had enough to prepare and manage as it was. I read a few posts online but wasn’t happy with their suggestions.
Instead, I use gaming, cinema, and classical playlists on Spotify like “This Is: Hans Zimmer,” “Epic Gaming,” and “Focus Now.” Other times, I use the acoustic playlists for social encounters and events or to set the mood in a restaurant or bar scene.
Other Resources
More recently, we’ve been using BattleBards for in-game ambiance. They have a really helpful sound mixer and lots of different effects and setting-specific tracks. Their music is available either through paid downloads or subscription.
If you’re looking for something that’s free but still creates an effective atmosphere that’s setting-flexible, I’ve also recently run across Ambient Mixer. You can make your own tracks or use the extensive catalog of RPG tracks made by others!
Or you can make your own playlists! Here’s how I’ve done that in our game:
A few months into our game, I had the opportunity to take my music prepping to the next level. In what are still some of my very favorite sessions and my (and my character’s) most treasured memories from our narrative, our central trio needed to infiltrate a masquerade ball to conduct a heist.
Jonathan created a gorgeous event for them to attend, fantastical and absolutely beautiful, and had some really unexpected twists prepared for them. We spent some time (in and out of character) in the weeks leading up to the masquerade discussing plans and going over strategies.
My character and I were so excited that I decided to do something special for the music and made a playlist for the ball itself and for the heist after. I watched clips online of dancing scenes from movies, researched great songs for dancing, and saved various classical and pop songs that stood out to me as being particularly fitting.
That time I put in coordinated with Jonathan’s hard work as DM to create one of the most vivid and immersive experiences in our game. I made a painting in commemoration of that evening between our characters, and I still enjoy listening to the soundtrack I made.
I’ve made a few playlists since and will continue developing them, especially as our fourth central party member and Jonathan’s (usually) favorite character is a bard.
Music has even infiltrated the interactions between our main characters. My character and the bard have “a song” from their youth, and so we have an actual song for them that is close to what he would have written for her. Similarly, she and her escort for the ball have a few songs that they turn to when given the opportunity, and those songs remind them, and us, of their time together at the masquerade.
Incorporating music can not only give you more ownership or more equally distribute the tasks between the two of you in the duet, but it also adds to the atmosphere of your duet in and out of the game itself. Music is something we internalize and make part of our own stories, and that carries over into our fantasy and storytelling life/work as well.
Food and Drink
You might also consider theme-ing your snacks and drinks off of what your characters would be consuming. Perhaps you could set up a charcuterie board with cheeses and bread and fruit, like your characters would be consuming at the small mountain inn where they stop to rest.
Or, your characters may be like ours, and they might prefer to have some fun drinks alongside their morning coffee while they plot their next course of action aboard a ship. Of course everyone’s tastes and preferences will be different, but this is a really easy way to add an additional immersive element to your games or to try a new dish.
Props and Other Immersive Elements
Candles and Lighting
Lighting is a great way to add a little something extra to your tabletop game. We’ve incorporated tea lights onto battlemaps a few times—once for a dungeon, once for a boss fight, and once with a multi-day power outage—and the flickering light brought some additional drama to the already intense situation our characters were experiencing.
The lighting or scents you choose might shift depending on your campaign’s genre and particular settings; a sci-fi campaign isn’t going to need quite as many lanterns and torches, for example. There are even companies, like Cantrip Candles, that specialize in scene-specific scents for role-playing games.
Regional and World Maps
Your band of traveling adventures will likely need somewhere to go, and for that to happen, you’ll need an idea of the ecological, cultural, and political spaces around them.
I also make Pinterest boards of regions or estates to help with visualizing the environment. What do people wear there? What type of architecture is prominent? How does it interact with the natural environment?
If you want to make your own maps, one program you can try is Inkarnate. They have a free version and a paid version, so you can try making a few basic maps while you decide if you want the full program.
If you’re looking to start drawing your own maps or to adapt gorgeous maps from other campaigns, Deven Rue has some really beautiful and intricate designs, many of which she has available for free as a service and support to the gaming community. Even better, you can purchase them printed on parchment or leather to use as props for your games. She also has a cartography course available to her supporters on Patreon if you want to learn to create maps yourself.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider supporting the blog by purchasing our adventures and supplements in our shop or sponsoring us on Patreon. We appreciate you so much! Thank you for joining us on this adventure! – Beth and Jonathan
We’d love to hear your thoughts and questions!