Roleplay & D&D

You finish a session feeling pretty good. The battle was tense. The villain finally revealed her plan. Someone pulled off something ridiculous with a rope. Then you realize one player barely spoke all night. Your lore enthusiast loved the revelation. Your fighter came alive during combat. Your rogue wanted to know what was in the locked chest you never reached. And you’re wondering whether everyone actually had fun—or whether some of them spent three hours waiting for their t

Your Adventure Starts Here. Ever wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons but weren't sure where to begin? Maybe you don't have a group. Maybe you've never rolled a die. Maybe you just want a place to share an adventure with some good people. Come find your people at Monkey Llama Games. Our tables are always free to use when you're running your own game. Bring your friends, bring your adventure, and make yourself at home. No purchase necessary. No table fees. And if you're new? We'v

One of the easiest mistakes a Dungeon Master can make is treating pacing like a metronome. Every scene needs to move quickly. Every player needs to stay on task. Every moment needs to push the story forward. But pacing isn't about maintaining a constant speed. It's about knowing when to accelerate, when to slow down, and when to let a moment breathe. A good D&D session doesn't move at one speed. It moves at the speed of the story. Not Every Moment Deserves the Same Attention

The first thing you notice is the smell. Not the smell of the cave itself. That comes later. At the table, it is pizza and cardboard and the faint sweetness of the soda Gabriel has been drinking for the last hour. There are character sheets spread between dice towers and pencils. Someone has left a bag of chips open. A battle mat covers most of the table, crowded with little figures that represent people who, five minutes ago, existed only on paper. Then Corbin speaks. “The p

If you're brand new to Dungeons & Dragons, there are two very different questions hiding inside the seemingly simple question, "Which starter set should I buy?" The first is: "Which one will get my friends sitting around the table and playing D&D quickly?" The second is: "Which one will actually teach me how to be a Dungeon Master?" Those aren't quite the same thing. D&D Essentials Kit and the newer D&D Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands are both designed to welcome new p

There is a moment in a great horror game when the table gets quiet. Not because the DM told everyone to be quiet. Not because something jumped out of the darkness. Because the players are leaning forward. They want to know what happens next. That is the moment you are looking for. Running horror in Dungeons & Dragons isn't about throwing the biggest monster you can find at the party. It isn't about covering everything in blood, killing NPCs indiscriminately, or making every r

There is a particular kind of silence that falls around a table when the Dungeon Master describes the door. The characters have fought their way through the dungeon. They've spent spell slots. They've used potions. The rogue is running low on hit points. The fighter's best abilities are on cooldown. The wizard has been carefully counting what remains. And now they stand before the final door. Something is moving on the other side. The room beyond is enormous. There are claw m

If you've ever walked into a game store and looked at the Dungeons & Dragons section, you may have had the same thought: "Okay... but which of these do I actually need?" There are rulebooks. There are adventure books. There are campaign settings. There are books filled with monsters, character options, magic items, and worlds you could spend years exploring. The good news is that you don't need all of them. Whether you're completely new to D&D, building your first character,

A good fantasy city should feel like a place that existed before the adventurers arrived. It should have businesses that open in the morning, people who have somewhere to be, arguments happening in alleys, children getting into trouble, nobles making questionable decisions, merchants trying to make a living, and at least one tavern where somebody is absolutely certain they know what really happened to the king. But here's the trick: You don't have to build the entire city. Yo

If you're a new Dungeon Master, there's a good chance you've spent some time thinking about monsters. What does the party fight? What does the dungeon look like? What treasure is waiting at the end? Those are important questions. But some of the best Dungeons & Dragons stories aren't really about the monsters at all. They're about people who want different things. That's where factions come in. A faction doesn't have to be a massive organization with matching uniforms, a secr

"I've always wanted to try Dungeons & Dragons... but I have no idea where to start." If that sounds familiar, you're exactly who Quest & Rest was made for. Every week, people walk into Monkey Llama Games convinced they're "not the D&D type." They don't know the rules. They don't own dice. They've never created a character. Some aren't even sure what Dungeons & Dragons actually is—they've just heard it's fun. Ninety minutes later, they're laughing with strangers who now feel l

How to Get Your RPG Players Talking to Each Other Instead of Taking Turns Talking to You One of my favorite moments as a Dungeon Master isn't delivering a dramatic monologue. It isn't revealing the villain. It isn't even watching the players solve a mystery. It's when I realize I haven't said anything in five minutes. The players are deep in conversation, completely in character. They're arguing over whether to trust the duke. They're teasing each other about last session's d

Every Dungeon Master eventually reaches the same crossroads. The Monster Manual is full of incredible creatures, but your campaign calls for something different. Maybe your players have learned the official monsters by heart. Maybe your setting has its own mythology. Maybe the story you're telling deserves a creature that no one at the table has ever encountered before. So you sit down to create a homebrew monster. Most DMs immediately open a blank stat block. That's understa

Ask almost any player what they hope to find at the end of a dungeon, and you'll probably hear the same answer: "A really cool magic item." There's nothing wrong with that. Finding treasure is one of the most exciting parts of Dungeons & Dragons. Magic items reward exploration, celebrate hard-earned victories, and help characters grow more powerful. But the most memorable rewards aren't remembered because they granted a +2 bonus. They're remembered because they became part of

One of the biggest mistakes new Dungeon Masters make isn't designing weak combat encounters. It's creating villains that only exist for the final battle. A memorable Dungeons & Dragons villain should do much more than threaten the party. They should embody the central conflict of your campaign. Every encounter with them—or with the consequences of their actions—should reinforce the story you're trying to tell. At Monkey Llama Games in Portland, Michigan, this is one of the st

(Or: How Llama Accidentally Eliminated Two Adventuring Parties and What We Learned From It.) At Monkey Llama Games, we've recently managed something that every new Dungeon Master fears and every veteran player secretly laughs about later. We TPK'd two parties. Thankfully, everyone had a fantastic time, plenty of jokes were made, and no friendships were harmed in the making of these unfortunate adventurers. But it does raise an important question for new DMs: How do you make c

There’s a moment every new miniature painter experiences. You finish your first model, set it on the table, and think:“…Why doesn’t mine look like the ones online?” Good news: it’s usually not talent. Most beginner painters struggle with a handful of very fixable problems: Paint going on too thick Details disappearing Colors looking flat Shaky highlights Washes pooling everywhere Paint drying too fast on the palette Feeling overwhelmed by “advanced” tutorials The truth is tha

How to Make Your Players Need to See What Happens Next Every DM has felt it. You describe the tavern. You introduce the mysterious stranger. You unveil the ancient prophecy. You pause dramatically… …and your players stare back at you like you just assigned homework. It’s one of the most discouraging feelings in tabletop gaming. You spent hours preparing maps, NPCs, encounters, lore, maybe even custom music—and the party still decides to ignore the plot and spend forty-five mi

If you’ve ever sat down to run your first tabletop RPG campaign and immediately thought: “Wait… how do I actually make a world map?” You’re not alone. One of the biggest hurdles for new Dungeon Masters and storytellers is figuring out where to begin. Should you draw an entire continent first? Start with one tiny village? Design the dungeon before the map? Or the map before the story? At Monkey Llama Games, we help new and experienced storytellers tackle exactly these question

If you’ve ever wanted to try Dungeons & Dragons but didn’t know where to start, you’re in the right place. Creating your first character in D&D 5.5e (the updated 5th Edition rules) might seem complicated—but it’s actually a fun, creative process where you build your hero from the ground up. At Monkey Llama Games in Portland, MI, we help new players do this every week at our beginner-friendly events like Quest & Rest Monday and Storyforge Saturday. Let’s walk through it step-b