My party locked SOOO many things.
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Want to piss the party off? Have someone knock them out and steal their shit. The mugger can be found at a local tavern run by the Thieves' Guild...
Whole session right there!
This post, like all of my work, is brought to you by the patrons of the Lorelock! Become a patron at patreon.com/lorelock or subscribe to the Lorelock Newsletter for a free 5e adventure, weekly DM tools, and much more!
One of the things I love the most about TTRPGs is the community of people who make tools to help us run our games. If you’re like me, you have a folder in your bookmarks bar with a LOT of tools. Maybe some of those are treasure generators, encounter calculators, combat trackers, random lists, and a bunch of rollable tables for damage descriptions…
If you were nodding your head, then I know that you are also always on the lookout for more.
Look no further! In this post, I am going to go over some of my favorite tools for session prep. My list is ever-growing, so I will try to come back and update every now and then. Bookmark this page and check back; you might stumble onto a few gems!
Disclaimer: None of these are affiliate links, I am not getting paid by anyone. I just genuinely like and use these tools.
Sly Flourish’s Lazy Dungeon Master Adventure Prep Template
I do A LOT of writing - adventures, monsters, magic items, compendiums, blog posts, etc. It adds up, so the last thing I want to do before running my weekly game is more writing. That's where Mike Shea's brilliant Lazy DM Prep template comes in. It's a super simple way to prep for the important bits of a session, and it only takes about 30 minutes. Mike has tons of resources built around this (and I recommend checking them out), but I just use a Google Docs template. Feel free to make a copy and use it as well. You can copy my template here.
Open5e Monsters List
I make no secret of my love for Open5e. I think it's absolutely brilliant! When I'm prepping my sessions with monsters, the Open5e Monster List is my go-to tool (if I'm not using my own monsters, of course) because not only does it have all of the WotC SRD Monsters, it also has TONS of monsters from Kobold Press' books and Level-Up Advanced 5e. You can sort by CR, Type, Size, and HP. What's not to love?
Kastark’s Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Encounter Calculator
I really like this encounter calculator. It's simple, effective, and provides you with a lot of information quickly. That being said (and this is my issue with ALL calculators, not just this one), I think it tends to underestimate the amount of hurt a smart party can lay down on an enemy. I only ever use encounter calculators as a baseline. Make sure you are tuning things with your players in mind.
The Monsters Know What They’re Doing
If you haven't heard of The Monsters Know What They're Doing, oh boy am I about to change your whole game. Keith Ammann is a genius. I steal ideas from Keith all the time, and I cannot recommend their books enough. I try to glance over the entry on the monsters I am running before every session. I don't always succeed in playing as tactically as I would like, but I think it has made me a better GM.
LootGen by 5eTools 5e Tools is great in general, but I really like their Loot Generator. You can generate by encounter CR, choose specific loot tables to add to the generation, generate magical item loot using the rules from Xanathar's, set filters, generate a dragon horde by age of the dragon, and so much more. It takes a few minutes of playing with the settings to learn, and there are prettier tools out there, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be creating hordes worthy of Smaug.
This list is by no means exhaustive and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of amazing tools out there, with more being released every day. Our community is also growing and as more and more people join, they will add their ideas and skillsets. The future is bright for TTRPGs!
Have a tool that you think I should add and start using? Maybe a better option than one of the above? Let me know what it is on Discord.
This post, like all of my work, is brought to you by the patrons of the Lorelock! Become a patron at patreon.com/lorelock or subscribe to the Lorelock Newsletter for a free 5e adventure, weekly GM tools, and much more!
