One of the great strengths of Dungeons & Dragons is getting to play with others: going on adventures as a team, interacting in-character, and getting to spend time with geek-minded friends. But this strength can also be a weakness. Many a well-intentioned campaign has fizzled out due to scheduling mishaps, interpersonal conflicts, or difficulty finding a Dungeons Master - and that's if you can get a party together in the first place! This struggle has many D&D enthusiasts asking if it’s possible to play the game alone. With a little bit of creativity, the answer is yes! Here are a few different options if you want to play D&D by yourself.

Did you know homeschooling is the fastest-growing form of education in the U.S.? I didn’t until I saw recent research showing that, even post-pandemic, the number of homeschooled kids continues to climb—up to 2.7 million, according to the Washington Post!

Families from all walks of life are choosing to homeschool for various reasons, so there’s no single “type” of homeschooler. Still, anyone considering it has probably faced the same question: How do homeschooled students socialize?

As a therapist, I can confirm that socialization is crucial to every child’s emotional and cognitive growth, especially for preteens and teens whose development relies on peer relationships. So, whether you’re asking this yourself or fielding questions from curious (or nosy) neighbors, it’s a topic worth exploring.

Socialization can be challenging for all kids, regardless of school setting. Homeschooling families just face different hurdles than their public school counterparts.

In this post, I’ll dive into the importance of socialization, why not all social events are equal, and how parents can intentionally set their kids up for social success. We’ll also look at how online platforms (like our D&D games) can add valuable support to a homeschooler’s social world.

There is no official Dungeons & Dragons holiday (not yet, anyway), but Halloween is the next best thing. It's the perfect celebration for D&D fans: you can dress up as your favorite characters, revel in the spooky vibes, and enjoy all sorts of classic D&D monsters (zombies, ghosts, witches, and more)! Halloween also comes with some of the most iconic spooky characters from pop culture. We’ve taken inspiration from these characters to give you ideas to make your own in the game of D&D!

We are big fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings here at Young Dragonslayers, and we aren't alone. Many of the very first people working on Dungeons & Dragons loved Lord of the Rings, taking inspiration from the books as they crafted the rules and world of the game. So, that got us wondering - what would Tolkein's stories have looked like in D&D? Could we use these classic tales to teach people how the game worked? Let's find out together!

You get to do a lot in Dungeons & Dragons: go on fantastical adventures, fight cool monsters, and embark onmysterious quests. But perhaps the best part is that you get to go on those quests using a character that you made yourself! Using the basic rules of D&D and a little guidance, you can create your own original character that's playable in any D&D game. We've helped tons of players create their own characters, so let us give you a hand!

It’s one of the most searched D&D terms on the internet: “how to make a good dungeon.” And no wonder. The dungeon crawl is a quintessential aspect of the game, else we’d be playing High-Rises and Humans or Shambling Mounds and Shopping Malls.

But what actually makes a dungeon fun? And how can you keep your players engaged, equipped, and emotionally captivated throughout a two-hour, four-hour, or even multi-session crawl?

I’m by no means a master builder, but I’ve crafted more than a few daring delves for my players. Whenever I feel like it’s time to venture beyond the open world and into the clutches of a deep, dark lair, here are a few factors I consider.

This year has been filled with cool Star Wars media, like the live-action series The Acolyte, the animated series Tales of the Empire, and the video game Star Wars: Outlaws. Force users like the ones in The Acolyte are awesome! But don’t forget the outlaws, rebels, droids, and other non-Force-users living on the scrappy edges of the Star Wars universe. Who's Luke Skywalker without Han Solo or Chewbacca? Who’s Rey without BB-8? For that matter, what's Star Wars itself without characters like Boba Fett or Padme Amidala? If you ever looked at the cast of smugglers, droids, mandos, and more and wondered “what if I could play that in D&D?” we’re here to tell you the answer is yes (and share some ideas to bring these kinds of characters into your own games).

This back-to-school season has a lot of students thinking about how to make the most of this school year. Starting a Dungeons & Dragons club at your school could be a great way to play a game you love - and make some friends along the way! We run our own D&D clubs online, so we know a thing or two about getting them together - here's are some steps to take to do the same thing in real life.

If you're around the D&D sections of the internet, whether that's subreddits, YouTube channels, or even your TikTok FYP, you've probably at least heard about the upcoming release of a new version of D&D. This news raises a lot of questions, especially for new players. What is a new version exactly? What will happen to the old version? What changed? And, most importantly, how can my D&D group deal handle this? D&D is our bread and butter here at Young Dragonslayers™, so let us guide you through what this means for D&D and how you can expect the game to change (or not).

Summer is one of the best times of the year; freedom from school means lots of time for activities like sports, reading, games, and hanging out with friends and family. Playing D&D.0 rolls these all into one, and summer is the perfect time to roll your dice and go on epic adventures with your friends. If you’re thinking of running or joining a campaign this summer, you could adventure the high seas, explore the coastline, or dive deep below the surface of the ocean to find whole underwater societies. There are tons of cool water items, environments, and creatures in the world of D&D; here are a few of our favorites for your summer campaign.

I could see it in my player’s eyes. Sure, we were on video, but he was not happy. The BBEG had succeeded in throwing the queen off the balcony, and unfortunately, after a full round of combat, there was little to be done to rescue her.

“But it’s only six seconds,” he argued. “That’s not how falling works.”

My engineering background begged to differ according to the free fall formula s = v₀t + ½gt². I did a quick search of falling rules (only damage is specified in The Player’s Handbook), but official rule arbitrator Chris Perkins had my back. A creature would fall 580 feet in one round, 1160 feet in two. Of course, there would be a bit of wind resistance, but the queen’s dress certainly wasn’t a parachute.

I could feel the player’s frustration through the screen. He didn’t agree with me, even though the rest of the table did. But, as a DM, it was up to me to make a decision, and that decision just so happened to put the players and the poor queen in a horrific situation.

For a full three seconds, the group was completely silent. You could have cut the air with a cheese grater.

When you play Dungeons and Dragons long enough, tension will happen. Tempers will flare. In a roleplaying game like D&D, you sometimes can’t help but get drawn into the drama. If you’re acting, strategizing, and thinking like a character, why shouldn’t you feel like them, too?

Many Dungeon Masters use official materials to find elements like magic items, terrible monsters, or even entire stories to run for their parties. These elements can be found in books like the Dungeon Master’s Guide, the Monster Manual, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, or Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. But sometimes people want to create their own elements for their games to realize their own vision for a character, story, or battle. These unofficial elements are called homebrew; some materials are made by individual players to share with their friends or on sites like Tumblr, Reddit, DMs Guild, or D&D wikis, and some by professional companies like Kobold Press, Green Ronin, and MCDM Productions. These materials can breathe new life into your Dungeons & Dragons games…but they could potentially ruin an already-great game. Here’s what you need to know if you’d like to incorporate homebrewed elements as a Dungeon Master.

June is Pride Month, where the LGBTQ+ community celebrates who they are and remembers where they came from. Many of the Dungeon Masters here at Young Dragonslayers (myself included) are a part of this community, which informs the way we play the game.

If you think about it, it makes sense; the roleplaying and fictional aspects of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) are a great way to explore, express, and learn more about all kinds of identities - and do so in a safe place that doesn’t carry the pressure of “real life.” So it’s no surprise that D&D has a rich history of LGBTQ+ creators and players bringing their own ideas to the game. But, especially for those outside the community, trying to portray an LGBTQ+ character accurately and respectfully can feel like a lot of pressure. Here is some advice on how to create an LGBTQ+ character that is imagined with sensitivity, interesting to learn about, and, of course, fun to play!

Dungeons & Dragons has so many different elements to incorporate into your games: swordplay masters, magical fireballs, or eyestalked monsters. These work great for the high-fantasy world of many D&D games and have given players hours of fun for years and years. But sometimes people want to create their own elements for games. This is called homebrew! Individual D&D players make homebrew materials for their games, sharing it with their friends or on sites like Tumblr, Reddit, DMs Guild, or D&D wikis. So do professional companies like Kobold Press, Green Ronin, and MCDM Productions. With so many homebrew options, it seems like you could play anything you want! But randomly shoving in new elements could potentially muck up an already-good game. Here’s what you need if you’d like to incorporate homebrewed elements as a Dungeons & Dragons player.

Long day of cleaning ahead? Dog itching for an epic walk? The inevitable bore of a long road trip looming into your future? Fear not—an epic lineup of fun, engaging, and intriguing Dungeons and Dragons podcasts are here!

D&D podcasts (and podcasts in general) have seen a major renaissance since the pandemic, and there’s an endless backlog of worlds and settings when it comes to choosing your next adventure. Well-produced, theatrical D&D podcasts can be a great way to pass the time as an individual or as a family, and they can also be an engaging, practical way to familiarize yourself with the rules and mechanics of the game. So whether you’re an iTunes or Spotify fanatic, it’s time to find your next epic quest!

Star Wars is filled with heroes fighting to save the day in a wide world of mystery and wonder - sounds a lot like Dungeons & Dragons to us! One of the coolest parts of Star Wars is the lineup of awesome Force users whose mastery of the Force lets them wield a lightsaber, summon Force Lightning, or lift an X-Wing with their minds. There are a ton of different ways to create a character with Force-like abilities in Dungeons & Dragons. Here are some places we recommend for you to start when creating your own Force user in D&D!

Dungeons & Dragons is known for its high-fantasy setting, with elements like elves, mages, dwarves, and clerics. This setting can be a ton of fun to play in (we often do!), but with the power of third-party content or good old-fashioned reskinning, you can play D&D in other settings: cyberpunk action, space exploration, or superhero adventures. If you’d like to play a superhero-style character in D&D, there are plenty of options in the core game resembling the powers and abilities of iconic superhero characters like Batman or Wonder Woman. Whether you’re going for a full-on superhero tale or you just want a little inspiration from your favorite heroes, here are our recommendations to get you started.

Many of us are familiar with the sensation of being invested in a story while reading books, watching movies, or playing games. The connection can be even more intense with games like Dungeons & Dragons, where you’re playing a character inside the story itself!

But sometimes, being too “into it” is inconvenient (like having to try not to cry while watching anime on the bus) or even painful (like being unable to step away from grief over a work of fiction). On the other hand, trying to “cut off” this emotional investment can lessen the experience and disconnect you from the story. Here are some ways to harness the healthy aspects of gaming-adjacent emotions while looking out for the ways it can veer into being unhealthy.

Hang out with a Dungeons and Dragons group long enough, and you’ll probably pick up on some tabletop tropes—maybe even the legendary struggle between so-called “Rules Lawyers” and believers of the “Rule of Cool.” Rules Lawyers are often depicted as insufferable, know-it-all nerds with an encyclopedic knowledge of the game, always gleefully ready to pull out some obscure regulation that’s sure to spoil everyone’s fun. On the other hand, those who play by the proverbial Rule of Cool—that is, bending or even trashing certain rules in order to make things more fun, interesting, and/or triumphant—can be seen as sloppy, disorganized, or even just plain cringe.

These two caricatures are often portrayed as opposing forces engaged in an epic battle that has raged since time immemorial, but in my humble, bardic opinion, I’ve found the topic to be much more complicated than a 1v1 showdown. The debate between Rules Lawyers and the Rule of Cool isn’t an “either/or” or even an “us-versus-them” discussion, and for both players and DMs, either style can have both pros and cons.

Above all, D&D should be a fun, engaging, safe, and inclusive space for everyone at the table. So instead of throwing ourselves into one camp or another, let’s explore why both sides have their merits—and when we might want to use one philosophy over the other.

D&D (owned by Wizards of the Coast, owned by Hasbro) is more than just a game—it’s also a brand and a business. There are endless tools, accessories, and add-ons available for purchase, and you can spend quite a pretty penny when it comes to buying books, constructing intricately scaled landscapes in the middle of your living room, and/or developing a crippling dice addiction.

However, one of the best things about Dungeons and Dragons (in my humble bardic opinion) is that you can absolutely play for free. Whether you’re a first-time player or the forever DM, there are countless official and fan-made resources that won’t put you out a single copper piece.

This list could very well be endless, but here are a few of my personal favorites.