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The Spontaneous Dungeon Master's Companion

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What if there were specific tools you could use to help you feel totally comfortable winging it? What if you could be just as surprised as your players about what happens next--and be totally OK with that?

Designed, refined, and playtested over a year-long campaign, this compilation of tables, tools, and checklists give you the starting point to prepare fast and adapt even faster in your adventures. Taken together with the free Spontaneous Dungeon Master video series, you have everything you need to start planning less, improvising more, and adventuring with your players in a whole new way.

This toolbox includes: adventure idea generator, the noun-based preparation method checklist, tips for the three-acts and five-room-dungeon structures, d100 city elements, d100 city items, city encounters and chase complications, guidelines for order of discovery and racial composition of NPCs, appearance/mannerisms and a place to add your own best voices, sayings and catchphrases, jokes, insults, six d100 rollable tables of NPCs by race with names and traits, bonds, secrets, relationships, group ties, tables for all terrain types of overland travel (8 x d100), combat encounter complications, six generic hand-drawn maps, d100 dungeon encounters, d100 dungeon items, d100 treasure and magic items, the trap builder, puzzles, riddles, and most importantly source links so you can create your own great tables and customise the ones presented here.

That's 39 pages of print-optimised content, ready to be comb bound and taken along to enhance your next gaming session. DMs, you may have just found your new best friend and secret weapon.

Combine this with the One-Page One-Shot Toolkit to create fast, fun one-shot adventures with only twenty minutes of prep.


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Reviews (2)
Discussions (3)
Customer avatar
Michael B July 16, 2020 4:14 pm UTC
Hi Robert,
Any chance you have this in a Fantasy Grounds module format? If not, would you like to have it if I can make the time to adapt it?
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Customer avatar
Robert P July 16, 2020 4:27 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hey Michael--you mean like as rollable tables in FG? I used to use roll20 but mostly do theatre-of-mind these days. That said, it sounds like it could be super useful for people. You have my permission to create it as long as you credit me and link back to this DMsGuild page. Or were you thinking I could add it to the files for download? If so, other way around--I'd give you credit for putting it all together. Whatever you think makes sense, thanks for your creative thinking and I hope you enjoy being spontaneous using this kit!
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Customer avatar
Serkan C August 02, 2020 6:03 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hey Michael, Did you put the Fantasy Grounds module together yet? I was interested in that myself as well.
Customer avatar
Bannshe C October 05, 2019 7:51 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I bought The Spontaneous DM’s Companion just as I am about take up the DM mantle myself. Certainly as a new DM I don’t have all the great official and unofficial material out there but this guide combines some very useful tools from different sources for me to run my game. I know I run the risk of over-preparing for a session and so I felt I needed a well-structured guide to help me simulate a living, breathing world and to prompt me to improvise on the spot. This guide is better than anything I could have come up with and I have added tabs as suggested in the video series for quick reference and so I can add my own content.
Thanks for putting this guide together!
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Customer avatar
Robert P October 06, 2019 10:10 am UTC
CREATOR
That's just awesome. I hope you enjoy it!
Customer avatar
Robert P September 29, 2019 3:24 pm UTC
CREATOR
I created a free six-part video series about how I have been using this toolbox over the past year to be able to prepare quickly and be spontaneous in my games. My hope is that watching these videos will make the companion come alive as way more than just a set of tables and checklists, and help you become much more confident winging it in your games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syebrzhUASA&list=PLczqRDYebdXkY36A9nhh-4YH4onsxMn91
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Product Information
Platinum seller
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Pages
40
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File Last Updated:
October 06, 2019
This title was added to our catalog on September 26, 2019.