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The Finished Book @tomedunn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

New post analyzing how monsters are used in official D&D 5e adventures. Turns out the average monster the PCs face is weaker than you'd think. tomedunn.github.io/the-finished...

tomedunn.github.io

Adventure Encounter Monsters

An analysis of how monsters are used in encounters in official 5e adventures.

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Mastering Dungeons @masteringdnd.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

News: Dan Ayoub on Leading D&D, 5 New Underdark Species, D&D Encounters Unboxing, Are VTTs Changing Design, and more! Listen or watch: masteringdungeons.podbean.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=chC7... #DnD #TTRPG #PAX

Teos holds up a translucent blue die included in the Season of Magic's D&D Encounters kit, while Shawn discusses the adventure. The cover for the Red Wizard's Gambit is superimposed between them.

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The Finished Book @tomedunn.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I'm almost done with a new post analyzing combat encounters from 5e adventures, but Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall derailed me a bit. These two graphs will help explain why. Under the 2014 rules Deadfall is off the charts Deadly, and for the 2024 rules its solidly High while every other book is Low.

Median normalized encounter XP for official 5e adventures calculated using the 2014 rules. Most books hover around Medium difficulty but Deadfall is off-the-charts Deadly!

Median normalized encounter XP for official 5e adventures calculated using the 2024 rules. Most all books fall into the Low difficulty range, except Deadfall which is solidly in the High difficulty range!

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The Finished Book @tomedunn.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

New post from The Finished Book analyzing combat encounter difficulties from official D&D 5e adventures. tomedunn.github.io/the-finished...

tomedunn.github.io

Adventure Encounter Difficulties

An analysis of encounter difficulties from official 5e adventures.

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The Finished Book @tomedunn.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

New post looking at how DnD 5e's adventuring day rules evolved through the DnD Next playtest, and why the final version in the 2014 DMG likely contains an important typo. tomedunn.github.io/the-finished...

tomedunn.github.io

Adventuring Day History

A look at how D&D encounter building and adventuring day evolved during the development of 5th edition.

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Tabletop Journeys @ttjourneys.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Whether you're a GM, player, or aspiring creator, there's something here that'll level up your game. Join us with Teos Abadía! 🚀 #TTRPG #DungeonMaster #GameMaster #DrawSteel #TabletopJourneys spotifycreators-web....

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SlyFlourish.com @slyflourish.com · 06/07/2026

The Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster Kickstarter is live! Back it now at: www.kickstarter.com/projects/sly... - Eight Steps Expanded - Building and running Lazy Campaign - Ten adventure types - Lazy GM's Toolkit with 60 tools - System agnostic - Stands alone and complements other Lazy GM books #ttrpg

kickstarter.com

Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster

Run great tabletop RPGs by preparing less.

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Alphastream @alphastream.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Ravenloft: The Horrors Within - What Bites Just 3 years after Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft came out, Wizards began work on D&D's latest book, Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. Is what we want to see from future D&D releases? www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvIn... #DnD #TTRPG #Ravenloft

The cover of the Ravenloft Horrors Within book depicts Strahd on his throne after a night of debauchery, bodies strewn about the room. The title, What Really Bites, is superimposed in a bright purple text.

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Alphastream @alphastream.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Ravenloft: The Horrors Within - What I Really Liked! My favorite of the new player options, new domains, and other design not found in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEWh... #DnD #Ravenloft #TTRPG

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Jonathan Tweet @jonathantweet.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Sure glad that I studied algebra in school. Here are notes for balancing spells in 13th Age 2nd Ed. I was in my element. #13thAge #TTRPG

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The Finished Book @tomedunn.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

I love coming across other people exploring the math of D&D and rolling dice. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrgb...

youtube.com

Modelling D&D Spells with Maths

YouTube video by GorillaOfDestiny

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The Finished Book @tomedunn.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Just finished compiling encounter data from Curse of Strahd. When following the level suggestions laid out in the introduction the campaign is pretty average in terms of its difficulty. I image its open world nature is what makes it feel like one of the deadlier campaigns.

Shows the distribution of encounter difficulties in Curse of Strahd for each level, following the suggested levels in the adventure's introduction. Trivial encounters are the most common, but the rest of the difficulties are represented in roughly equal numbers overall. Levels 3 and 6 stand out as the most difficult overall.

Plots the cumulative distribution of encounter difficulties in terms of their XP ratio. The distribution for Curse of Strahd is quite similar to Tyranny of Dragons and Tomb of Annihilation. Storm King's Thunder skews significantly harder while Princes of the Apocalypse is significantly weaker.

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The Finished Book @tomedunn.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

I recently revisited my 2024 Monster Manual dataset and came across these extra plots on monster saving throw proficiencies.

Shows the average number of saving throw proficiencies monsters have at each challenge rating for the 2014 Monster Manual and the 2024 Monster Manual. For monster from the 2014 MM, the number increases linearly with CR until saturating around 4 at CR 15. And for the 2024 MM the number follows a similar trend until CR 10 where it plateaus around 2.5.

$Show the fraction of monsters from the 2014 Monster Manual and 2024 Monster Manual with different numbers of saving throw proficiencies. In both books the majority of monsters have no saving throw proficiencies. But, for those who do, 2014 monsters are most likely to have 3-4, while 2024 monsters are most likely to have either 2 or 4 with 2 being around twice as common.$

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The Finished Book @tomedunn.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Finished going through the encounters in Tomb of Annihilation. The average difficulty in those first few levels is noticeably higher than it is in the later ones, but that'll probably come down after random encounters are added in. PotA is next.

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Alphastream @alphastream.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

I get crafty and find an excellent way to track initiative in the Draw Steel #ttrpg. I share how I made it, so you can too! alphastream.org/index.php/20... #DrawSteel

alphastream.org

My New Initiative Tracking System for the Draw Steel RPG

I get crafty and find an excellent way to track initiative in Draw Steel. I share how I made it, so you can too!

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The Finished Book @tomedunn.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

New post analyzing the accuracy of D&D 5e's XP values for encounter building. To my surprise, it may also explain why the 2024 encounter rules were able to drop the encounter XP multiplier. tomedunn.github.io/the-finished... #dnd #math #ttrpg

tomedunn.github.io

XP Approximations

Approximations simplify XP calculations but that comes at the cost of accuracy. How much are we paying?

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Mastering Dungeons @masteringdnd.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Solo Actual Play with Dragon Delves! Can solo play work? Shawn runs Teos through Dragon Delves. See their antics and what they think about the design! Listen or watch: masteringdungeons.podbean.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1wl... #DnD #TTRPG

Shawn is running Teos through a solo D&D game. Superimposed between them is a green ogre type creature holding two gingerbread cookes. Art is from the Dragon Delves adventure they are playing.

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Evil Hat @evilhat.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Delve into the early history of the hobby. Designers & Dragons: Origins examines the inspiration, design, lore, and stumbles behind *each and every product* TSR published for OD&D, Basic D&D, and AD&D 1E. Pledge today to access the expanded 140 page backer-only PDF! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/e...

A mockup of the four thick Designers & Dragons: Origins books adorned with colorful illustrations in gold and purple depicting dragons of various ages stalking and frolicking. In the background, a mosaic of product covers from TSR's early years.

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Scott Fitzgerald Gray @scottfgray.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

The #CORE20RPG is a new approach to d20 fantasy, built on a foundation of freeform characters with no classes and no levels. It turns the aging “pass/fail” core d20 mechanic into fuel for shared storytelling — and you can play for free right now! core20rpg.blogspot.com/p/the-core20... 1/

The covers of the CORE20 playtest PDFs, with art with Xavier Beaudlet. The “Playtest Player’s Guide” features an adventurer and their white tiger companion looking out at a haunted tower. The “Playtest Magic Grimoire” features an adventurer stepping into a glowing portal in a dark forest. The “Playtest GM Guidelines” features a shadowy archway opening up into a jungle ruin. And the “Playtest Creature Package” features a red dragon awaiting an adventurer standing in the entrance to their cavern lair.

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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 02/11/2025

The conference software selected the wrong mike, so I sound like I'm yelling into a landline telephone, but otherwise I had a terrific conversation with @superdan.net and @paulsgameblog.bsky.social of Wandering DMs.

youtube.com

Making Enemies in D&D | With Keith Ammann | Wandering DMs S07 E36

YouTube video by Wandering DMs

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The Finished Book @tomedunn.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

I just got my physical copy of Adventures in Faerûn and I couldn't be happier with it. It's filled with short adventure outlines and key location descriptions, making it perfect for kitbashing. It's like it was written with my DMing style in mind!

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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 01/11/2025

Wish Halloween lasted longer? Don't forget Sunday we'll chat with @themonstersknow.com about his new book, Making Enemies, so you can keep surprising players with new monsters in D&D and any RPG. Pose your questions in the live chat! #dnd #monsters #halloween www.youtube.com/live/X_MndUp...

youtube.com

Making Enemies in D&D | With Keith Ammann | Wandering DMs S07 E36

YouTube video by Wandering DMs

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Plus One Exp @ 🔜 Metatopia @plusoneexp.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Tonight we have @zigorously.bsky.social & @glyphtide.games joining me to talk about each other's games in this episode of Now You've Zine It! A monthly show where we talk two creators explore and ask questions about each other's work. At 7p et we explore ChainXLink & Rillem! twitch.tv/tonyplusone!

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Mastering Dungeons @masteringdnd.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Draw Steel Combat Basics! Teos and Shawn examine how Draw Steel creates tactical, cinematic, and heroic play with its combat system! Listen or watch: masteringdungeons.podbean.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlrI... #DnD #TTRPG #DrawSteel

An image from Draw Steel of a female warrior in red, gold, and black armor is superimposed between Shawn and Teos. The warrior is holding her sword forward and shouting a challenge.

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Mastering Dungeons @masteringdnd.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Inside Heroes of the Borderlands: Justice Arman on creating D&D’s new starter set! The fascinating project to create a new starter set updating the famed module B2, The Keep on the Borderlands! Listen or watch: masteringdungeons.podbean.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKZP... #DnD #TTRPG

Justice Arman, Shawn Merwin, and Teos Abadia are all laughing as they discuss a design topic. An image of the new Heroes of the Borderlands box is superimposed between Justice and Shawn.

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Lou Anders @louanders.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Hey friends, seeking your help. What should Lazy Wolf Studios do next? Share your opinion on the current #TTRPG projects being developed and help choose which one goes next: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

docs.google.com

Seeking Your Input into Our Next Project

Help Lazy Wolf Studios decide from multiple projects in the works.

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Mastering Dungeons @masteringdnd.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Treantmonk joins us for UAs! News: Acq Inc Switches to Daggerheart!! Stranger Things at Target! And more! Listen or watch: masteringdungeons.podbean.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Gv... #DnD #TTRPG #Daggerheart #AcqInc

Teos and Chris Honkala, aka Treantmonk, discuss the Acquisitions Incorporated news. The logos for Acq Inc and Daggerheart are superimposed.

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darjr @darjr.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Acq. Inc. finished at PAX with plunging a dagger into a heart and are switching to Daggerheart with Christopher Perkins running. There isn’t a web post on it yet that I can find. Link below starts at the news item 7:23 in the video #pax #daggerheart #acqinc #ttrpg www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Gv...

youtube.com

D&D News: Treantmonk on UAs! | Acq Inc Switches to Daggerheart | Stranger Things at Target (MD 256)

YouTube video by Mastering Dungeons

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Ethan @glyphtide.games · 26/08/2025

The PREQUEL pre-order store is now open on Backerkit until Sep 19! Get your copy of this tactical storytelling game of historic sacrifice! The digital version of this game is going out to backers this week! Print versions of the game will go out later this year.

prequel-rpg.backerkit.com

Pre-order PREQUEL RPG on BackerKit

A tactical storytelling game of heroic sacrifice. Fight the Evil, recall your Quest, forge your Legacy.

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Mastering Dungeons @masteringdnd.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Draw Steel Negotiations and Montages! We discuss how Draw Steel’s new systems for montages and negotiations felt during our recent game, reviewing the lofty goals and interesting design. Listen or watch: masteringdungeons.podbean.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=80Mw... #DnD #TTRPG

Shawn and Teos discuss Draw Steel! The book cover for Heroes is superimposed, depicting forces of good and evil in battle.

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The Finished Book @tomedunn.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

I've finished compiling encounter data for all seven 5e anthology adventure books, as well as two campaign modules. This shows how much combat the PCs could face at each level for each book (including optional encounters). TftYP, GoS, and QftIS stand out as offering substantially more than the rest!

Plots the amount of combat XP, in terms of full adventuring days, for each level across several official 5e adventure modules. Most of the adventures have around 1 adventuring day worth of encounters at 1st level, with the amount increasing to 4 adventuring days by 20th level. Three adventures stand out as outliers: Tales from the Yawning Portal, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and Quests from the Infinite Staircase. All three of these adapt adventures from previous editions, while the others do not.

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Lou Anders @louanders.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Today on the Lazy Wolf Studios YouTube Channel, I take a deep dive into @koboldpress.com' Game Master's Guide for Tales of the Valiant and talk about why, for me, this is an essential #TTRPG book.

youtu.be

Game Masters Guide Review

YouTube video by Lazy Wolf Studios

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The Finished Book @tomedunn.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

I haven't had much time to write lately, so I've been passing the time with some mindless data entry. Specifically, I'm cataloguing combat encounters in official adventure books. Now, if only I had the time to write about it!

Show the distribution of encounter difficulties for four official D&D anthology adventure books. Books include Tales from the Yawning Portal, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Candlekeep Mysteries, Journeys through the Radiant Citadel, Keys from the Golden Vault, Quests from the Infinite Staircase, and Dragon Delves. Encounter difficulties were calculated using the 2014 rules for building encounters.

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Alphastream @alphastream.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Create Epic Cinematic Boss Battles! Create dependable awesome boss battles you can adjust as battle progresses! www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_vV... #DnD #Deadlands #SavageWorlds #ttrpg

A battle scene with 3-D terrain including a drawbridge made from popsicle sticks and Dwarven Forge mountain terrain. Two minis face off against each other across a river gorge, one on the drawbridge.

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Mastering Dungeons @masteringdnd.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

News: D&D in the Heart of London, D&D at the Ballpark, Starter Set Delays, and more! Listen or watch: masteringdungeons.podbean.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI3O... #DnD #TTRPG

Teos and Shawn smile. An image is superimposed of the Kansas City baseball team's tabletop RPG night.

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Mastering Dungeons @masteringdnd.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Draw Steel RPG at Level 1! Shawn and Teos discuss their recent Draw Steel game on the D20 Play channel. We discuss our Troubadour and Talent at level 1, and how well the game hits its innovative goals. Listen or watch: masteringdungeons.podbean.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZDF... #DnD #TTRPG

Shawn says Draw Steel and Teos appears to be holding two swords, superimposed over his hands as he makes a fighting grimace.

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Shawn Merwin @shawnmerwin.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Can't wait for the upcoming Eberron release? @dmsguild.com and I have your back! Get a free adventure called The Night Land. More about it here or on the DMs Guild by searching for The Night Land. www.reddit.com/r/DnD/commen...

reddit.com

From the DnD community on Reddit

Explore this post and more from the DnD community

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Joey Haeck @jamesjhaeck.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Over 400% funded in the first 12 hours!? You know how to make this sea dog's heart sing <3 www.kickstarter.com/projects/gho...

kickstarter.com

Aetherial Expanse: Dreams of the Drowned God

Embark on a plane-spanning 5E 2024 adventure full of mystery, war, and cosmic catastrophe.

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Alphastream @alphastream.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Happy 25th Birthday to D&D 3E! On August 10th, 2000, the PHB was released, as were character sheets and the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game boxed set. The DMG was released in September.

The cover of the 3E Player’s Handbook, designed to look like a gem and gold covered tome.

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The Finished Book @tomedunn.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

I'm finding the underlying math for #Daggerheart really interesting. I've got a post on action roll probabilities about halfway done. After that, I also want to look at damage thresholds, adversary analysis, and combat initiative order (in no particular order).

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Ethan @glyphtide.games · 25/06/2025

Gamehole Con is hosting a POC Industry Dinner, sponsored by Monte Cook Games! Meet creators, find mentorship, and grow our diverse industry. Seating is limited. If you are attending GHC, are a POC, and create TTRPG content of any size–including self-published–apply! Apply by 7/23: bit.ly/ghcpoc25

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Mastering Dungeons @masteringdnd.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Our Daggerheart Characters! What it is like to create Daggerheart Characters, with real examples of our Rogue and Warrior. Listen or watch: masteringdungeons.podbean.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq8u... #DnD #TTRPG #Daggerheart

Teos holds up the Daggerheart core book, while Shawn prepares to discuss character creation.

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