How to DM Yourself in D&D and Pathfinder

Endless RPG gives you the feeling of exploring and not knowing exactly what may come next, but when it comes to rolling combat, you will have to DM yourself. After all, you are in charge of both the monsters and your character.

The Battle Map provided with the app can help with tactics, but it can also be fun to use miniatures on a table. Before beginning combat, try to come up with a basic strategy for how the character or party is going to handle the combat. But instead of jumping right into the dice rolls, do the same thing for the other side. How would they fight your party? If it’s a bunch of goblins, they’ll probably just charge right in with the most basic tactics, gnolls might be more clever, demons might be exceedingly clever, etc.

Remember, the threat of death is what makes the game so good, so be fair. Also, don’t be afraid to use the dice for more than just standard dice rolls. If you are fighting a spell caster, come up with a percentage chance of them casting a spell or roll a dice to see which spell they cast. Is that goblin taking a beat down? Roll to see if they decide to flee!

The fun part is coming up with some basic rules, such as cowardly creatures running on a roll of 6 or less on a d10 if they are badly injured while more courageous (or stupid!) creatures only run on a roll of 2 or less.

Also, keep in mind that Endless RPG cannot take into account every situation. If you cast a spell that should have detected a trap that you subsequently stumbled over and failed a perception roll, feel free to alter events to fit that initial spell!

If you are playing using the back of the DM’s Guide to build your dungeon, remember that you can run into the ‘fog of war’ and explore new parts of the dungeon while you try to flee. This can end disastrously, but it can have its own surprises.

How to Play D&D/Pathfinder In A Small Group Without a DM

Games like D&D and Pathfinder shine when you have two or more players. Often, the biggest thing holding a group back is when no one wants to be the DM. (Or when no one wants to be the cleric… but that’s a solution I can’t provide!) .

This is where Endless RPG can really shine. You can create entire stories and use the generator to fill in the details. Because it can roll up a variety of maps, you can explore a tower for clues to the whereabouts of the lost child, then delve into a cave to find him or her.

A great way to deal with combat is to take turns on who is the DM from one encounter to the next. This is a way of keeping everyone fair and spreading out the work. As an alternative, one player can DM most of the monsters in the encounter and another player can DM the monster(s) targeting that player’s character.

Another way of doing it is to choose one player to be the primary dungeon master for combat. Everything said above applies, but this player can do more strategizing for the encounter. The key is to let your character step back and be more of a DM’s NPC — aiding combat, but not leading it. And then see what kind of ass-whooping you can do to the party!

It’s a good idea to use dice to see what party members are targeted by specific creatures in the encounter. This can help curb any arguments about a certain character getting targeted too much. But play within the tactics of the encounter: ogres are dumb, drow elves are smart, etc.

The tips for playing solo also apply. Try using the dice to randomly determine what the enemy does, which spells they use, what skills they employ, etc.

Adding Story to the Adventure

One of the best aspects of tabletop roleplaying is the story. And you don’t need a dedicated DM to have great stories. Random dungeon generators can help augment the game when no one wants to be the full-fledged DM, but someone volunteers to be the story master.

But you don’t need a single story master. The story can also be generated by everyone. This can be done in a continue-the-story fashion where each player in turn comes up with the story of an adventure, hopefully one that moves the story as a whole along. Or you can use some random generators to come up with enemy ideas, plot ideas, etc. Here are a few great generators:

The Random Adventure Generator on Donjon is a good way to kickstart a story and all of the websites have random goodness that can add to the adventure.

How about adventuring in a city? The Dresden Files RPG had a great way of dealing with the city: each player takes a section to control as a DM. This spreads out the hard work and still allows for some impressive roleplaying within a city. Random generators can then fill in some of the holes.

More Resources for Playing Without a DM

How to DM Pathfinder or D&D Without Putting In as Much Work!