Tribute to the Greatest Game In The World: The 3 Wise DMs Share The Lessons Learned From Running A 12 Player D&D Game

3 Wise DMs

12 players. 2 DMs. 6 dragons. Tiamat. 2 birthday cakes… and a whole hell of a lot of fun! As a companion piece to DM Tony’s recent article, the 3 Wise DMs are joined by some special guests to discuss and detail the lessons learned from running our largest endeavor yet – a massive, multiple-campaign ending game that required 2 DMs to pull off. If you’ve ever thought of running a massive Endgame-style game, or toyed with the idea of co-DMing, this is the episode for you!

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2:20 DM Tony’s concept to create our own Avengers: Endgame style 12-person game tying up loose threads from multiple campaigns.

4:10 Our special guest DMs: DM Lenny and the Monster Wrangler himself, Matt!

7:50 The epic, blockbuster, action movie-style terrain builds from multiple crafters and how they can add to encounter building. Check out some great tips in our Terrain episode with Scott at Paper Terrain.

19:08 How we handled newer players as well as characters that weren’t as tied to the campaign-length storylines we were tying up.

21:25 Pro tip: make the adventure hook for a massive game as simple and straightforward as you can: Rescue Baby Walter! Special Add-on - DM Dave finally reveals the mystery of Baby Walter that started in session 1 of our Curse of Strahd campaign!

26:00 How to build an adventure that 2 DMs have to run pieces of… including DM Dave’s BIG blunder.

28:45 The experience of the newest players at the table and how to provide them enough hook that they have reasons to join the adventure.

33:20 Monster Wrangler Matt describes the issues surrounding leveling a character from 7th to 19th, and the adventures missed… as well as a happy accident surrounding Barovia.

36:55 The possible pitfalls to look out for that we learned as we rolled out this prototype.

44:10 A deeper dive into the epic climax… the battle with 1 DM running 12 players and Tiamat.

46:25 DM Dave’s Rant on the defenses of some Legendary builds (“Bullshitium/Unobtainium”), and thoughts to consider when developing the ultimate BBEG.

50:45 The bittersweet nature of high-level play.

52:25 The completely unknown nature of Legendary BBEGs when you unload them on your party.

56:50 Final Thoughts.