I Know Its The Mets, But This Is The Coolest Shit I’ve Ever Seen A Human Being Do

Do your PCs love getting loot? Do you like sowing chaos in your campaign? Well then, Dungeon Masters, look no further than Jay’s Dumb D&D Items! Remastered and tweaked by the incredible @currycurrie, this table provides a random selection of truly stupid and entertaining items well-suited for heroes and villains alike. Happy adventuring!

(PDF) + (Imgur) 

Playing board games can make you a nicer person. 

Because they provide a state of controlled conflict, board games can improve your relationship skills by requiring that you practice taking turns, following rules, being fair, and winning or losing gracefully. 

(Source, Source 2, Source 3)

Music & Memories

I’m always amazed at how songs become attached to moments or people in your life.

I hear Born To Be Wild, and I remember a road trip with a friend so she can check out a job possibility in Massachusetts.  When that song came on we cranked the radio and belted out the chorus at the top of our lungs.

Gimme Three Steps makes me think of the boss who was always amazed that the song was based on a real story.  He would mention it every time the song would come on and excitedly go on and on about it.

I hear Charlie Daniels, or Run DMC, or Mary J Blige and I think of the special women who have been in my life.  If it wasn’t for them I never would’ve given these styles of music a fair chance.

Whenever Dream On plays, I remember trips to Hampton Beach with friends.  We would always end the trips standing on the beach singing that song.

I could go on and on and bore you with songs and the memories associated with them, but I won’t.  But if ever a song comes on, and I get a little smile on my face and maybe even give a snicker, you know why.

I would add in https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com, especially if you’re like me and absolutely suck at naming things.

The New DMs Guide to: Building a Homebrew World

Every creature, class and caricature can be found for free on the internet, with almost no digging. Dungeons and Dragons has never been easier to play. These are the resources I used to build the beginning of my campaign. This one isn’t for building story, this one is for building world. (Story Masterpost coming soon)

What I Use

The Obvious: dndbeyond.com - Character Builders, Rule Guides, Guides to Monsters, Tips, Tricks and everything in between. Does require a little money to access the full scope of the site, but the free version is superb as well.

Create your own world map: Inkarnate.com - awesome map creator with free and Pro versions (at very reasonable prices). Example:

The Best of the Dungeon Builders: http://www.dungeonographer.com (free and paid versions. I use the free one) - dungeon builder, but you can make anything! The best dungeon maker I’ve found, with sheer simplicity of use balanced with scope of opportunity. Example:

How deep do you want to go? Donjon’s Generators - https://donjon.bin.sh Calendars? Loot? Dungeons? Demographics? Inns? Towns? Magic Shops?

Cities are big. Someone else can build it. fantasycities.watabou.ru (free) - City Map Generator. Great for creating big cities or tiny towns, and so much easier than building every single major city of your world, if you want to have those maps.

There are plenty of places to download and print tokens for combat play (if you want to use a map at all) online, but I bought mine from: SidequestTTM

Watch and Learn

The Bare Basics of D&D - Handbook Helper. New too Dungeons and Dragons? The team behind Critical Role have a whole (and continuing) series on the basic rules of D&D 

Matthew Mercer and Satine Phoenix’s GM Tips - Some of the best Game Masters in the world share their tips for Mastering the Game. I’ve watched the whole thing twice and always learn more.

Matt Colville’s Running the Game - An incredible video resource that goes from building the very start of a campaign to how to navigate tough spots, how to plant story hooks and some of the best advice I’ve ever seen.

Other Great Resources

“All You Need” Site, http://autorolltables.github.io/index.html - need an npc? A plot? A settlement? A monster? An encounter? autorolltables will make it.

World Map Making: http://www.hexographer.com - specific style of simplistic map making, very useful though I don’t use it myself. 

Azgaar World Map Generator: has landscape, political boundaries, names and more. If you don’t want to design your own, this one’s a perfectly viable option.

https://sketchbook.com: free drawing software, very intuitive but no map making specifics. 

https://rpgtinker.com:  great for more complex characters.

Dungeon Building: https://deepnight.net/tools/tabletop-rpg-map-editor/ - a fantastic but very simple map maker, works best in Chrome and requires flash.

Extras

Make your homebrew content look official

Need a Monster? - roll20 

The Reading Pile Pt. 4

Lazarus: The Complete Hardcover Collection Volumes 1, 2 & 3 In the not too distant future, the 18 richest families of the world get together and divide up the world. Governments soon fall, and these families become the leaders of the world. People are broken down into three classes. Family (those who rule), Serf (those who have been chosen by the family to serve the family) and Waste (those who have no association with the family). As you can guess, most belong to the 3rd class. Along with their fighting units, each family has a Lazarus; a warrior specifically designed to be the ultimate fighter. They are strong, cunning and hard to kill. For the family Carlyle, this is Forever, the youngest daughter of the family and the series protagonist. This series is, quite easily, my favorite book of the past 15 years. Writer Greg Rucka and artist Michael Lark really put their heart and soul into this series, which is evident if you get the hardcover collections with all the bonus "how we did it" material. Tons of research and discussion go into each issue. Rucka even went so far as to film himself and buddy for a fight scene that Lark could use for reference. Rucka originally said the story would take 125-150 issue to tell. Unfortunately, it looks like the series has died. The final volume (four) is due out in May, collecting the last 9 issues of the series to have come out, which finishes off the first major arc of the series. The last issue came out in 2022, literally one year after the previous issue, and that issue came out 8 months after the one before that. It's a shame, because it was a great book. Image Comics - 3 HC volumes (with the 4th due out in May) - Vol 1 $34.99, Vols 2 & 3 $39.99, Vol 4 $49.99. All still available. Also available in SC trades (with no behind the scenes items).

TIME OUT! I called time out!

MTV ran a contest where unsigned bands could make a video and send it in to the contest. If they won, they would get signed by some label (I don't remember who) for at least the one single, which included having a more professional video done. MTV then picked the best and had the audience pick their favorite (via call in voting) in a bracket style competition. The final came down to Dog Police and some other band I don't remember. Dog Police lost in a close vote. So close that many suspected they actually won but MTV and/or the record company chose yo go with the other band.

“Dog Police,” the band responsible for the 1982 single, “Dog Police.” It was championed by “Weird Al” Yankovic and early MTV. 

Wrestlemania 41 Night One Predictions

√ World Heavyweight Championship match: Jay Uso defeats (c) Gunther.

Jay is hot right now and Gunther needs to lose the title so he can lose to Goldberg in his retirement match. I don't think Jay will hold it for long though.

√ Jade Cargill defeats Naomi.

Naomi's promos have been awesome, but of all the matches on this card, this one's a no brainer.

√ World Tag Team Title Match: New Day defeat (c) War Raiders.

I love the idea of Big E coming along and costing the New Day the match. But honestly, New Day needs this win. Plus, they will be quite entertaining as the champs. Maybe Big E can cost them the titles at SummerSlam.

√ United States Championship: Jacob Fatu defeats (c) L.A. Knight.

Pretty much the other given on this card. It's Fatu's time.

X Rey Mysterio Rey Fenix defeats El Grande Americano.

WWE announced about an hour ago that they've bought the AAA promotion. Yeah... There's no way El Grande is winning.

√ WWE Women's Championship: (c)Tiffany Straton defeats Charlotte Flair.

This is the hardest one for me. I mean, it's Charlotte Flair at Wrestlemania LOL. But I just have a feeling that WWE (Paul in particular) is just sick of her s**t. Plus, Tiffany is much more entertaining. So IMO, "It's Tiffy Time!"

X CM Punk defeats Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins.

You need to send the crowd home happy tonight (cuz SPOILERS it won't happen tomorrow), and of the 3, Punk is the one to pick. Hayman will slide a chair into the ring and it'll end up between Punk & Reigns and that will factor into the victory.

In the spirit of the holidays, we have a gift for the best fans in the world: more Death & Dream.

This deleted scene from The Sandman episode "The Sound of Her Wings" gives us a little more insight into why Death is the way she is. We hope you enjoy it.

- Neil, Allan & David