Summary
Dungeons & Dragonssessions can be funny, terrifying, action-packed and all of that at the same time, since it all depends on how much the players can immerse themselves into the story. While many players can say they have faced off against mighty dragons, what makes the fight memorable isn’t the creature’s stat block, but the scene the DM sets.
But a great DM knows that, sometimes, you need help setting the mood for the players to be invested in what is happening. Fortunately, you don’t have to rely on imagination alone to tell epic tales, and you don’t even have to pay a penny to have fully immersive sessions.
7Use Digital Sheets For The Characters
Pen And Paper Can’t Do Everything
We can’t deny the charm of a physical character sheet, filled out with your own handwriting and including a fancy little drawing of whoever you’re planning on playing. While printed sheets have served their purpose over the years, they have been replaced by something that all players carry in their pockets: smartphones.
Having digital sheets on your phone can help a session go smoothly without much intervention, with even official sources like D&D Beyond letting you keep track of your characters. On top of that, you are less likely to forget your phone than you are to forget a piece of paper you use once a week.
6Alter Your Voice To Act Like Different Characters
No More Raspy Voices After Making The Orc Chieftain Talk
Meeting fantastical characters is part of the charm of D&D, but sadly, they all tend to sound like the DM’s normal voice. If you’re not much of a performer, but you still want your gnomes to sound different from your eldritch horrors, then voice-altering software can help you with that.
The best one to get you started is VoiceMod, letting you access its basic features for free so you can understand how it works. You can alter your voice live during the session, or make a recorded speech for later use, surprising your players withan epic villain speechwith the appropriate villain’s voice.
5Use Tokens To Represent The Players
You Don’t Need Expensive Minis
Streamers might make you believe that, to have an immersive combat experience, you need a detailed map with countless minis. If that sounds incredibly expensive, it is, and you don’t need to do all that, so your players know where they are standing.
Something as simple as drawing on a piece of paper can get the message across, but you don’t want to rely only on that, otherwise players might still lose track of where they were standing. Anything from a crumpled piece of paper, to dice no one is using at the moment, can help identify where everyone is and how far from their enemies.
When using dice to represent players, you can use the number on the top to represent altitude. The ideal dice for this is a D6, since they are easily stacked.
4Use Character Customization Apps To Represent Characters
It Makes Everything Easy To Visualize
Usually, when a monster or evildoer attacks the party, you have an image to use as a reference, either from the monster manual or from somewhere on the internet. Yet, there are times when you have something very specific in mind, and no matter how much you search, nothing does it justice.
Apps like Hero Forge are a great way to get an initial image, and players can use it too. Just saying that your character is missing a leg can be hard to remember for other players, but having something to visualize helps solidify that image in any player’s mind.
3Use Randomizer Apps For Improvisation
The 5e Companion App Is A Standout Here
As a DM, you can’t be expected to instantly react to everything your players might do. No matterhow good you are at improvisation, there are times when you won’t have an immediate answer to what happens, or maybe you didn’t have time to prepare all the combat encounters.
This is where randomizer apps can put the work you didn’t manage to get to, giving players something to hit while you prepare to get everything back on track. The 5e Companion App works wonders here, since you can set the difficulty of an encounter (plus the number of players), and the app will give them an appropriate number of monsters for them to tackle.
2Have Maps Prepared In Digital Form
Ideal For Long Distance Games
When you have time to prepare for a session, there are apps and software that can transport players to the maps you are describing without needing a hefty fee to use them. Web pages like Owlbear.Rodeo let you set a grid onto any map you load in, have portraits for the different players, and even have elements like fog of war and lighting.
This doesn’t completely outclass using tokens, however, since you need everyone to have a screen to see the action, or an extra monitor to stream the image. Still, when you manage to get it working, you get the full benefits of having minis and elaborate maps without any of the expenses.
1Play Music To Set The Mood
The Best Tracks Are Context Sensitive
Something as basic as having background music can improve any mood; it doesn’t really matter if you are playing D&D or not. But, for a roleplaying session, it is extremely important to have the correct mood for both the combat sequences andthe conversational ones, and the Lo Fi Tavern Beats you may find on the internet can only take you so far.
By far, the best app for this role is PocketBard, since it has simple generic music for each scenario your players might encounter. You can also seamlessly change from exploration to combat music, all with the press of a button, or just have ambiance for relaxed moments in nature.
