Mastering Dungeons The DMs Guild’s Complex History! (MD 271)
Dec 24, 2025
A lively dive into the DMs Guild’s ten-year history and how its licensing reshaped creator careers. Brief coverage of major industry moves like Diamond’s collapse and Cosmere’s RPG plans. Discussion of one-on-one dungeon design, non-combat encounter goals, and challenges of discovery and creator expectations on the platform.
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Playtest Noncombat Designs
- Playtest non-combat encounters and adjust success thresholds and durations before public release.
- Run them yourself or with a table to discover timing and failure modes you missed in design.
Match Pacing To Combat
- Balance non-combat objectives to occupy the same number of rounds as a normal combat to keep pacing coherent.
- Design those tasks to feel as epic and meaningful as fighting to preserve player investment.
Adapt Adventures For Solo Play
- When designing for one-on-one play, rewrite or adapt multi-player adventures to fit a single character's tools and pacing.
- Provide varied scenarios and mechanical supports (like summoned allies) to reduce lethal failure modes.
