Designing a D&D Campaign for Middle Schoolers – The Tutorial Section

Running a D&D Campaign for Middle Schoolers – the Tutorial and Learning to Play


As I mentioned in an earlier article, I’ve been running a D&D club for middle schoolers at a local school. I had more interest than slots, and decided to run the club just one day a week to maintain my sanity. Let’s quickly review what I said I would do…

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Kohtumine Focus: The Silk Cluster


Silk? I have silk. Every color of the rainbow. Stripes? Yes, of course, whatever you prefer. Solid colors are my favorite as well, and that green is a particularly bright and…uh…charming, that’s the word. As you know, we only procure our products from the most organic plantations in the west. The color you’ve chosen comes from a dye made by the illusive Tumril Lion Beetle. Thousands of them are crushed up to get that color. You want a discount? How much are you willing to buy? Free pillow with every 200 feet of material!

Olivia Tu Mereia, Junith Proi Traders & Co., Company Ship Flibberjabber

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Kohtumine Focus: The Nails

Is your ship in need of repair? Head to the Nails, the best, and only, repair cluster in the Kohtumine (and on the high seas). We can fix anything, as long as you have the coin!


Now Cap’n, you don’t want to be anchoring in the Nails. We’re trim fixed up and as seaworthy as possible. We’ll get no rest there, sir, and believe me when I say the headaches will stay for months. That is, if we wake up and still have the boat around us, instead of being scrapped for parts while we sleep. And don’t be eyeing those magical catapults either. They’ll quote you two thousand, and mean two thousand platinum, not gold. Damned tinkerers.

Purser’s Mate Roxxy the Goblin, Tradeship Veritas Equus

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Kohtumine Focus: The Lord’s Cluster

Continue the tour of the Kohtumine with me as we learn a bit more about the Lord’s Cluster!


It’s always an honor to guard the Lord’s Cluster. It’s nice and quiet, just a lot of line control. You know, keeping people in line as they’re ready to vote, making sure they don’t touch the voting jars themselves, reminding the observers they can’t talk. The most tiring part is dealing with those damned idiots who think we’ve never dealt with people trying to cheat before. Honestly, what do they think this is? A monarchy?

Reggie W. Queiroz III, Keelhelm Officer, 114th Kohtumine

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Kohtumine Focus: Peregrine Cay

Check out the second stop on our tour of the Kohtumine – our only bit of solid land – Peregrine Cay!


I swear, if the Kohtumine wasn’t required to be here, there wouldn’t be a ‘here’ at all. Not for very long. The priests alone don’t bring in that much money, and fishing doesn’t pay that well hundred of miles from any major nation. But now that they’ve decided this is part of the Lord of the Ocean’s domain, so every pitiful slop pays for passage here to read the Codes and enjoy the tropical weather. Of course, it could be nicer if the beaches weren’t covered in jagged rocks and the beds weren’t 10 gold – a night!

Percival La Glang, First Lieutenant, His Rhodavian Majesty’s Ship, The Weeping Wisp (Now Deceased)

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Creating an “antique” looking prop for Dungeons and Dragons

A brief overview of how I created an antique looking book prop for my campaign!


Author’s Note: While I had been working on this for my large hybrid in person/virtual party, the group essentially broke up several months later due to commitments and, well, life. But this is a great resource so I wanted to make sure I finished it. At the time, the party had reached a monastery and was in need of some research on a particular topic. So I decided to make them a book!

The unbound final project

New D&D Maps – Town of Burle & Carnival Games


Town of Burle

Today’s post is a quick one – I’ve built my awesome map of Burle using the free Inkarnate tools (Honestly, it’s just the fortified town map with some textures and a few other pieces of writing added.

A few fun parts of this map – the Burle Pond is a saltwater pond. According to local legend, a captive ocean elemental was captured by a traveling wizard, who made his home within the town. When the wizard died, the ocean elemental was freed, but couldn’t find his way home. He took the small pond as his home, and it has been salty ever since.

The town holds an annual festival to celebrate the signing of the Wildflame Pact. My party just arrived in town after delivering some wagons to Olion’s stables (connected to Ingo the Drover in Saltmarsh), and spent today enjoying the many games and foods/drinks/sites and sounds of the town carnival.

Games included…

  • Climb the tree – Two Dexterity Checks (DC15) Followed by a DC 15 Strength Check to make your way up a tall pole while wearing two heavy metal bracers. Every failure drags them down, every success brings them up.
  • Slay the Dragon – Arm wrestling with a full-blooded Orc Gladiator with slithering dragon tatoos on his arms. (Direct Strength vs Strength Checks – Two wins in a row from starting to get an arm down – Nat 20 does ‘two positions’)
  • Catch the Queen – Shell Game with perception checks to follow it (three times in a row  – DC 15)
  • Lift the Stone – The stone that the Wildflame Pact was on is a heavy piece – pick it up and hold it over the red painted – Requires a DC 22 Strength Check to lift successfully.
  • Archery Competition – Archers may not use their own bows – must use one the town provides. Three bows – two are poor and cause disadvantage on shots. One is good and allows normal usage. A DC 12 perception check allows a player to check the bows for defects and find the right one. “Magic number” is 23 to hit.
  • Ring Toss – Get a heavy metal ring over the blue goblet and win a prize! Naturally it’s in the middle of a bunch of red goblets. First, players must make a perception check to spot the blue goblet (DC 14). If a nat 20, they get advantage on their throw. Nat 1 = disadvantage. DC 18 Dexterity check to get it in the right place.

Other Vendors include – A fortune teller, turkey leg seller, tapestry designer, flower braid makers, fruit and candy sellers, and a hardboiled egg chef.

All games require between 10 cp and 10 sp to enter. Prizes include half a ‘pot’ of money, medallions with the Wildflame token on them, small flags or pieces of pottery, or a ‘doubling’ of their money.

Other random events that may occur.

  • Pickpocketing
  • Speech by local bigwigs
  • Procession of Elves from Silverstrand to the Wildflame.
  • If nighttime, the lighting of the annual ‘Wildflame bonfire” and a brief magical fireworks display.

Hope these come in useful!


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Using Kumu to Organize Characters In D&D or a Novel


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Got a complicated novel to plan? Or perhaps you want to help your Players keep track of all the people they’ve met and who they’re connected to? Well, put away the journal (for this reason at least) and use Kumu instead!

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