Master Of Dungeons: Saturday Grab Bag

Saturday Grab Bag, the post we use each week to post whatever doesn't really fit into any of the other series. Coming soon we might should have some review items coming on Saturday's, I've purchased physical and digital copies of some classic Dungeons and Dragons books from previous editions (mostly 2nd Edition). I've kept my eye out mostly for books with very little in the way of stats and rules, and more of a focus on fluff. Two books I'm very excited for are Dungeons and Dragons: The Book of Wondrous Invention, and The Planeswalker's Handbook.

The Book of Wondrous Invention I hope to use for inspiration for future Non-Combat Magical Item entries, whiel the Planeswalker's Handbook will come in handy because my players seem to be getting interested in planar travel. Both books place a heavy emphasis on lore and ideas, over rules and stat blocks from what I've seen so far, which is exactly what I'm looking for.

Plenty to come in the future, but for today I'm going to talk about three online tools that will make you a better DM. If you aren't using these tools already you need to start.

Goblinist 5th Edition Random Encounter Generator

First up is Goblinist RPG Tools. This tool does a great job when you need an encounter for a specific setting and difficulty level, and you need it now. Simply fill in some simple data, and tap away on that "Generate Encounter" button until you see something you like. One nice feature is the Seed Monster dropdown. This allows you to select a monster on which to base the encounter.

Recently I was trying to whip together a quick adventure involving trolls, I didn't want to spend much time creating encounters, so I played around with this tool, with troll as the seed monster, and was able to get level-appropriate encounters involving trolls, and other related monsters like goblins as well.

Kobold Fight Club

Did you like the previous entry, but wish you had a little more control? Then Kobold Fight Club is for you! This nifty tool lets you search through all fifth edition monsters, and generate or manually create encounters. This tool is great for when I want to create an encounter, but I don't want to add up all of the XP values, multiply by the relevant multiplier in the Dungeon Master's Guide based on the number of enemies, and then compare to the level-specific XP budgets. This tool takes care of all of that for you.

donjon; RPG Tools

I saved the best for last. This isn't one specific tool, but a collection of amazing tools that will definitely help you with your games. Not only that, but this tool, unlike the previous two, isn't just for fifth edition, but has tools for many different editions, as well as more system-agnostic tools. Donjon is simply the best place to go for random generators.

Treasure, encounters, NPCs, weather, magic items, shops, even dungeons. These can all be generated by this amazing website. Fun bonus: many of the lines can be swapped without re-rolling the whole generator by clicking on the line.