One of my favorite things to do as a DM is create a magical item for one of our main characters, either my PC or one of Jonathan’s DMPCs. Since he’s the primary DM for our two-person game, I try to avoid pulling anything from the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and I also steer away from […]
For DMs
Avoiding Combat-Induced Conflict
Combat can be both a time of high excitement and high stress, especially during a boss fight or new challenge. This post examines why combat can sometimes incite out-of-game conflict between the two people playing. We also work through some strategies for avoiding it if possible and dealing with it if it occurs. At the end of the day, avoiding combat-induced conflict comes down to trust and communication between the player and DM.
Announcing Grove Guardian Press!
We are so excited to let you know that our parent project of sorts for this blog, Grove Guardian Press, is now live! Grove Guardian has evolved out of our project here, seeing a wider interest in the community for worldbuilding, writing homebrew campaigns, and publishing on DMsGuild. We wanted to be able to speak to those areas without distracting away from what we’re doing on D&D Duet.
Forging Relationships with Allies in Your Duet
To continue our discussion about different types of characters to incorporate into your games, this post covers allies! We’ll talk more in depth about allies in general first, but then we’ll look more specifically at high-level allies and what they can do in and for your campaign. At the end, we’ll spend a bit of time with low-to-mid-level allies and what they can bring to your worldbuilding.
Creating a Vibrant World with Character Types
One of the best ways to make our RPG worlds feel real and vibrant is to fill them with well-rounded characters who are integrated into the game world at all levels of play. This post covers seven basic character categories: the primary character, central party, allies, important NPCs, secondary PCs, villains, as well as regular NPCs, creatures, and monsters.
Adding Secondary PCs to Your Duet
This post discusses what secondary PCs are, how you can incorporate them into your game, and why you might want to. Secondary PCs are a great way to develop DMPCs and sub-plots in your duet. They can also give you some breathing room if you need more time to prep a setting or major event.
Second Glance: A Duet Adventure
The sequel to First Blush is here! In this second-level adventure for a player and their DM, the PC wakes up in a druid colony and embarks on a quest for trust and truth with plenty of political intrigue, hidden plots, and exciting combat along the way!
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
For our final post in the series on personality types and character development, I dig into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator which evaluates personal preference in four areas: favorite world, information, decisions, and structure. Then, I further break down what those personalities look like and how they fit into our D&D worlds.
