It is a glorious time to be a Dungeons & Dragons player. Not only is the game experiencing an upswing in popularity, but the Internet has made it easier than ever to get excited about the game. Resources like Dungeon Master’s Guild, roll20, the Basic D&D PDF and our very own Critical Role make the game so much more accessible than ever before. The online assistance doesn’t stop there. Check out the free resources below to help players and Dungeon Master make their games legendary.
The Homebrewery
Half the fun of running D&D is writing up rules, races, and magic items that fit every table’s unique story. Sometimes these home-brewed rules are ridiculous. Sometimes they are awesome. Often, they are both at the same time. So why not give those rules the same look and feel as the official D&D products that can be bought at a friendly local game store? The Homebrewery offers the ability to create PDFs using the same style guide that the pros use with a web-friendly interface that also offers a decent web tutorial in how to use Markdown script. The Homebrewery is free, but the creator, Scott Tolksdorf, has a Patreon for grateful users looking to buy him a beer or two (or keep the servers running).
Who The Fuck Is My D&D Character?
It happens to the best of us; we look down at that character sheet, pen and dice in hand and draw a complete blank. What character should we make today? This website offers a slightly profane but completely useful three part character concept every time the page gets refreshed. Even if the current concept doesn’t appeal, a fresh one is just a click away. A few other games have fans that have customized the idea for their favorite RPGs, too. Check out this one built for Shadowrun.
Kobold Fight Club
Encounters in D&D are fun, but sometimes the math is not. Kobold Fight Club is here to help. This free, web-based tool calculates the XP costs of encounters for a variety of group sizes and also includes page reference information from third party products. The website also helps run encounters too, for those Dungeon Masters that run with a laptop or other Internet capable device at the table.
Donjon
There’s always a bit of a thrill when the time comes to roll on a random table. Donjon has all the random tables a Dungeon Master could ever need, from treasure tables to name generators. It even can randomly create dungeon maps based on parameters set like size, shape and motif. Donjon also caters to editions and games beyond Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition.
Monster A Day
Players crave new monsters to outwit and defeat. Dungeon Masters crave new monsters to challenge their players. The Monster Manual does its job admirably and has some excellent third-party support, but shiny new monsters can be just the thing to inspire a neat twist or clever puzzle. This Monster A Day page on Reddit offers a new monster every day, complete with pictures and, with a little bit of digging, PDF compilations of the best creatures.
Do you have a favorite website that’s invaluable to your game? Let us know in the comments!
Image credit: Wizards of the Coast