Episode 77
5 Tips to Make Your Dungeons and Dragons Game Christmas Themed
The entire tribe sat around the feast. They’d managed to down a mammoth and this was cause for celebration. The shaman claims the downing of the beast coincides with the yearly Midwinter celebration Hogash. All the children have been making gifts for each other and the adults have been creating altars for their ancestors. Now the tribe is sat all around the fire pit, feasting on delicious meat.
Ulv stands up. The entire tribe hushes and the shaman waves for Ulv to speak.
“I wish to attempt the trials. I will lead this tribe.”
Suddenly the men of the tribe start beating the ground with their weapons and chanting.
The shaman stands up. “Dnuk has accepted the call to the trial. Truly this is a celebration!”
We being the preparations at dawn!”
Intro
Warrick’s Problem.
Main Topic: Tips on How to Make D&D Christmas Themed
Justin
- Add in a Random Celebration in the setting where your players are.
- This will give the feeling of the holidays even if the celebration is set in the middle of a desert.
- Change the “skins” of NPC’s
- Your players don’t actually have to fight Santa Clause. They could fight a giant that looks like Santa Clause but has all the same stats as a giant. D&D is half narrative and half mechanics. Instead of homebrewing your own Santa, just take the mechanics of something else and say it looks like Santa.
- Give your Players a Gift
- Every player loves getting new loot. Have a random patron show up and gift the adventurers some sort of interesting item. If you don't want to break your game have them give some sort of consumable item that is interesting. If you don’t know what sort of consumable, just choose the form (potion, food or other time) and then pick your favorite ability and give it a one-time use.
- Change the weather.
- For most people, Christmas is synonymous with winter. Make it obvious that the weather is changing. Make it snow and give them consequences for the snow. Either have someone open up their home during a snowstorm (spread Christmas cheer) or have the characters have to avoid getting stuck in a blizzard.
- Go all out with Christmas Homebrew Monsters
You can subscribe to people like GamingBrew from Episode 63. He for example has loads of themed monsters that are custom created for the right feeling and setting. Subscribing to him saves time because you don’t have to do anything other than plug and play.
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Transcript
yeah the entire tribe sat around the feast they managed to down a mammoth and
producer]:this was caused for celebration and the shaman even claims that the downing of the
producer]:beast coincides with the yearly midwinter celebration ho gosh all the children have been making
producer]:gifts for each other and the adults have been creating altars for their ancestors now
producer]:the tribe is sat all around the fire pit feasting on a delicious meal in
producer]:a general state of joy and celebration of stands up the entire tribe hushes and
producer]:the shaman waves for ove to speak i wish to attempt the trials i will
producer]:lead this tribe suddenly the men of the tribe start beating the ground with their
producer]:weapons and chanting and the shaman stands up the nook has accepted the call to
producer]:the trial truly this is a celebration we begin the preparations at dawn welcome back
producer]:to you how to be a better d m i'm your host justin louis with
producer]:welcome back to how to be a better d m i'm your host today justin
producer]:lewis and we are here to help you create better stories for yourself and your
producer]:players as the d m sessions of dungeons and dragons
producer]:today we are talking about making your game christmas or holiday theme and before we
producer]:get into this a quick shout out as it were so you all know we've
producer]:been pushing for feedback so you can go to better dungeon master dot com slash
producer]:feedback and give us information on how we're doing as a show and problems you're
producer]:facing and someone put in a problem they're facing and i feel like i just
producer]:need to you know reach out and talk about this but i didn't ask for
producer]:emails or anything so the only way i know how to do this is over
producer]:the podcast so this goes out to warwick thank you for filling out the feedback
producer]:survey and this is what he wrote or she wrote i don't actually know if
producer]:they're male or female i'm seventeen and my friends and i decided to start playing
producer]:d and d this summer and i volunteered to be the d m i started
producer]:learning as much as i could i'm so glad to find this podcast and what
producer]:makes it better is that it's local to utah county i've created a world got
producer]:my players adventure started and i have an idea of where the adventure could go
producer]:but my players are no nearly high enough level for what i have in mind
producer]:i don't want to send my players on missions just to level them up if
producer]:it doesn't progress the story if you could somehow help with this issue that would
producer]:awesome and again thanks for sending that in warwick and if you guys want to
producer]:send in your problems just go to better dungeon master dot com slash feedback and
producer]:i'd be happy to talk about them the show but work i actually had a
producer]:similar situation with my current campaign so my wife is a rogue and i started
producer]:giving her pieces of basically she's a rogue and i started giving her ah my
producer]:wife is a rogue and i surprised her by having her find a chanted bow
producer]:magic item that turned out to be sentient all right and at the beginning i
producer]:found that yeah yeah turned out to be sentient and the big plan was to
producer]:have her and the rest of the players find other pieces of the sentient uh
producer]:weapon essentially and the weapon is called a taker and over time they found these
producer]:weapons and the point was to once they get enough weapons dream take peters as
producer]:a being and is essentially the big bad at the end the game right and
producer]:so they're at that point now my wife's character has been possessed by dream taker
producer]:and disappeared and dream taker is designed be the n l b l of the
producer]:campaign so now i have this issue of how do i get my players there
producer]:right and even before when they were finding the different pieces how do i get
producer]:my players through the campaign enough to find the different pieces but also have a
producer]:good story along wait and i find the best way to do this is to
producer]:bring in the different aspects of each person's back story so for example and this
producer]:is a spoiler sorry if you're in my campaign you should stop and right now
producer]:for example bore uh one of the characters is a lizard folk and it's actually
producer]:the character of the p c that i've introduced and they are searching for some
producer]:magic items that can help protect their tribe and i'm going to introduce a story
producer]:arch that takes them under the sea literally and if the group follows this it
producer]:will have nothing to do with take er but it will evolve the story forward
producer]:as well as give the players a chance to level up another one of my
producer]:players is looking for their old adventuring group with are actually stranded in the astral
producer]:ca that's another adventuring arc that should have nothing to do with dream taker but
producer]:will advance the players enough so that way when they do fight dream taker they
producer]:are up to it so what i would commend to you is find ways to
producer]:tie in story arcs from the individual character back stories and that way you don't
producer]:need to worry about the main plot all you need to do is either hint
producer]:that it is moving forward while they're doing other stuff or they don't know what's
producer]:going on
producer]:or they don't know what's going on while they are doing other stuff and that
producer]:way it kind of gives this sense of mystery like oh what his dream taker
producer]:up to we haven't seen him in a while anyway i hope this answers your
producer]:question work if it doesn't please reach out to me on instagram at how to
producer]:be a better d m and i'd be happy to talk more about it now
producer]:let's get to the rest of today's show which is how to make d n
producer]:d christmas theme i have five tips for you today it's probably going to be
producer]:a quicker one because naturally you should be spending time with family and friends because
producer]:this is the holidays but let's get into it so first one is add in
producer]:random cell libration in the setting where your players are so this kind of ties
producer]:back to the inshore that i had at the beginning of today's show but essentially
producer]:if your if your group is in a city just have a bunch of banners
producer]:set up and ribbons and and have your players discovered that wow this city is
producer]:celebrating something special that will give the impression or the feeling that this is a
producer]:time of celebration because naturally in the real world it is a time of celebration
producer]:and it'll give the feeling of the holidays even if you know even if you're
producer]:in the the desert you can still feel like they're celebrating something number two is
producer]:change the skins quote unquote of n p c's your players don't actually need to
producer]:fight santa claus they could fight a giant that just looks like santa claus and
producer]:has all the same stats of a giant dandy you see is half narrative and
producer]:half mechanics so instead of home brewing your own santa just take the mechanics of
producer]:something else and and say it looks like so that's one of the best things
producer]:about dandy is you can really use the mechanics of anything and just call it
producer]:anything else you can use the mechanics of a black dragon and say they're fighting
producer]:you know belch nickel or what not number three is give your players a gift
producer]:every player loves getting new lout so have a random paton show up and just
producer]:give the adventurers something interesting and if you don't want to break your game by
producer]:give them an all powerful item you can give them some sort of consumable item
producer]:that is still interesting and if you don't really know how to make a consumable
producer]:item all you do is just choose the form so whether it's a potion or
producer]:some food they eat or even you know a consuming trinket then you pick your
producer]:favorite ability or spell and then you attach it to that item as a one
producer]:time and this is very very useful because say someone wants to use fireball without
producer]:using a spell lot well give them kind of cinder from a fireplace and sprinkle
producer]:some fairy dust on and well they have a one time use fireball that does
producer]:not take a spell slot number four is change the weather for most people christmas
producer]:is synonymous with winter so make it obvious that the winter is coming make it
producer]:snow and also it's also fun to give them consequences for the snow so either
producer]:have them be stuck in a big blizzard and have some random person open up
producer]:their home and bring them in and and there you have kind of spreading the
producer]:christmas car moment or have the players trying to figure out how to avoid getting
producer]:stuck in the blid and that's still immerses your players in it because well it's
producer]:snowing outside for a lot of us so they'll feel they'll naturally feel that in
producer]:the game number five is go out go all out with christmas home brew monsters
producer]:naturally this step this this tip will take the most amount of time or you
producer]:can subscribe to people like gaming brew from episode sixty three of the podcast and
producer]:i'll put the link in the show notes he for example has loads of theme
producer]:monsters that you can get from him if you just subscribe to his patron these
producer]:are custom created and they have the right feeling you need for setting so like
producer]:christmas or even halloween subscribing to people like him saves time because you don't have
producer]:to do anything other than plug and play or you can spend the time to
producer]:home monsters and make sure that they do fit the setting and they do have
producer]:the right skills talents and abilities the issue there is you do have to play
producer]:test just to make sure they don't break your game so there haven't five tips
producer]:to help them your d n d to be more christmas or holiday theme i
producer]:know that this is kind of the end of the year and i want to
producer]:say a big thank you to everyone out there listening being a podcasthosts is interesting
producer]:because so often i'm doing this all alone you know i have my co host
producer]:tanner and we often bring guests but often ten and i both you know were
producer]:recording this on our computers and i just want to say thank you for everyone
producer]:who reaches out joins our one shots or fills out our feedback survey because it
producer]:it connects me to you and honestly that's what this time of year is about
producer]:so uh next next week we'll have another episode it's going to be about what
producer]:next year holds for the podcast um so if you're interest in that tune in
producer]:but if you're not spend some time with family and friends and spread the christmas
producer]:cheer around because tis the season when the saints can employ us as they say
producer]:and you know go out and try and make someone else's life better but like
producer]:i said we'll be here next week with another episode mostly about what's going on
producer]:next year in the world of how to be a better dam but until then
producer]:my friends marry christmas happy holidays and let's go ahead and roll initiative oh oh
