oh hey pom can't you do anything hurl asks with an exasperated tone well miss

hale i'm not exactly suited for what about you you dumb bear hurl yells that

the large bear at the back of the cave you all found this cave a

few week to go while looking for shelter her i'm not exactly sure we can

do something about it or even if something can be done at all he's just

lost his uncle it's not exactly something you get over in a mat minutes have

a little hot leo walks up to him who sat propped up against the large

brown bear she crouches down in front of him let me tell you something little

haling i've had my fair share of losses too and ter all of that i

found my way into the city guard where i could at least do something do

some good i was able to stop beatings and even prevent murder and now i've

been pulled away from that to do what this le a gesture to the front

of the cave where ole sits motionless as snow slowly covers his face lea gets

up and walks over to alvin spins him around and cries your uncle died but

cojariis still alive and he needs our help heck the entire kingdom needs our help

you haven't said a word in weeks what are you waiting for no response from

ov so leo punches him in the mouth suddenly finds himself on a warm rug

surprised by the change of scenery he sits up he's not in the mouth of

a cave he's in a large t p made of animal skins what would you

like to do christmas is coming the goose is getting fat and we are getting

ready for it with this list of dungeon master gift ideas welcome back to how

to be a better d m i'm your host justin lewis and i'm here to

help you craft better stories for yourself and your players as m sessions of d

n d the first announcement today is a big is who won our give away

so without further ado the winner of the give away yes

twisted dot toga yeah yeah i think i have some clapping here

i will reach out to you twisted dot toga and get you your download key

i'll send that over to you thank you for everyone who participated and keep an

eye out for morgan always that we're goin a do in the future this was

really fun and i hope you enjoyed it as well

we'll also have some more announcements at the end of today's show so stick around

for that but without further ado let's get to the main topic and with the

holiday season fast approaching i thought it would be a good idea to create sort

of a christmas list for gifts to give the spiring dungeon master this list can

serve as ideas for you to give a gift to someone else or you can

hand this list over to your significant other to help them with their shopping for

you and i'll be honest this list is pretty long but that is because there

are many things that you can buy for a dungeon master oh

let me let me also let me also say that it's almost all of the

things on the on this list are luxury items and that means you don't actually

need them to play d and d but they are really not i have i

also need to mention that i have exactly no stake in mentioning any of these

products i have not been paid or compensated in any way i just really like

them so with that said let's get into this list and see what i have

in my santa slag of holding number one is the player's handbook this one doesn't

really need explanation but number one on this list is really the only thing that

you should it for your dem if they don't already have it and when i

say that i mean it's kind of a necessity it has the rules of how

to play the game as well as the rules on how to create characters to

be honest though wizards are the coast is actually releasing unearthed arcana in parts for

free meaning that if you wait long enough you'll probably have enough material to use

to play the game for free anyways and in fact you can actually go download

the free rules for free on wizards of the coast or dandy beyond sorry and

actually if you want to know more about unearthed arcana you can go back to

listen to episode sixty eight and sixty six of this show but there are two

options for buying the players handbook you can get the digital copy which is being

sold on d n d beyond for twenty nine ninety nine as of writing this

episode and then there's the physical copy which is being sold on amazon for twenty

nine nine twenty two ninety five at the time of this recording though it does

look that does look like that is a sale and it looks like it usually

sells yeah

and it looks like it usually sells for about forty nine ninety five obviously there

are pros and cons to have both having the book digitally or physically i would

pay attention to what your dungeon master uses normally and then get them that because

you can always go back and get the other one next year number two on

the list is the dungeon master's guide next to the players handbook the dungeon there's

guide makes the perfect gift for the d m or aspiring d m who does

not have it this one is also nice to have both online and in person

so gift givers feel free to give either one because they both have their benefits

right now the dungeon masters guide is selling for twenty seven ninety five on amazon

although that does seem to be a sales price with the original price being around

forty nine ninety five and then the digital copy is being sold for twenty nine

ninety nine on dandy beyond this gift is nice to have gift as it is

more focused on being a dungeon master while having less content that you actually need

and naturally there are case by case situations where you might need one thing within

the d m g but over all i'd say that this book is a luxury

number three is the monster manual last of all there is the monster manual and

this book is exactly what laims to be a manual of monsters compared to the

d m g the dungeon masters a guide i would say that the monster's manual

is a little bit more of a need for dungeon masters simply because every story

needs con flict and there are a lot of conflicts that happened between two living

entities so character and a monster or something like that and actually this manual inspires

you both with entities and it makes it really easy to fill up your games

with battis so right now you can buy the physical copy on amazon for twenty

six ninety though the original price is forty nine ninety five and you can get

the digital copy or twenty nine ninety nine on d and d beyond now if

you want to get the monster manual dungeon masters guide and players handbook you can

actually get that as a bundle which might say save you some money so the

physic bundle right now is available on amazon

is available on amazon for eighty five ninety nine and it comes with a dim

screen and the lost mines of fan delver venture number four is a resin three

d printer usually i stick with the cheaper things when giving tips on this podcast

however i know that there is someone out there looking to give their dungeon map

a very high ticket gift so these next two are actually more expensive and number

four on the list is a resin three d printer a risen three d printer

would allow your dem to print their own mines and even able top terrain in

extremely high detail a quick nitro yeah oh ah a quick note on resin printing

your dem will need to have a computer so if they don't have that this

might not be the best gift also the resin can be toxic so your dam

will need a space where the resin print can be kept away from children and

pets also extreme hot or cold does not produce great prints so an insulated place

where they can do the printing is very important to so let's look at some

prices now this episode is not looking at which printer to buy obviously i just

kind of picked one at random online instead these prices are just to set your

expectations right now on amazon found a reality official

a reality official helot one for one ninety nine and your d m will like

need a washing and curing machine as well in order to make sure the prince

cure correctly if you're looking to do that i found a full bundle with all

three from lego for about three hundred seventy eight nine i remember you also need

to buy the actual resin which i found for about nineteen ninety nine and i

would also recommend having paper towels rubber gloves and mask online on hand ah as

well number five is a tablet again among the expensive items of this list is

a tablet it would allow the dam of your life to access dand beyond without

having to around the laptop and it's simply just a much more convenient tool than

a computer and it can also be used in conjunction with computers so there are

lots of tablets out there but i found an apple i had many on amazon

for four hon sixty eight to set your expectations um also i'm not a tech

person so do not take my recommendation for which tablet you should get or what

not there are diferent people who can answer that question for you number six is

a dice tray having a nice tray is just really nice you know it allows

you to keep your dice in a collected location and and it also allows you

to set your style as a m and i think it helps your players somewhat

get into the mood and there are millions of dice tray creators out there find

one you like and just get it if you're looking for a recommendation i love

what at stirling does on instagram they make these awesome dice trays made out of

really fine wood and they use a c and c machine that makes it look

really nice and they often add res on details and its very quite beautiful so

check them out again that's at stirling makes they don't know i said that so

don't worry about that but die tories come in all shapes and sizes and therefore

all price ranges so fine that fits your d m and then just get it

for him number seven a subscription to d and d beyond dndbeond offers dungeon masters

the ability to craft encounters and campaigns with characters upload it online so you can

play anywhere they have a free account which allows you to select a number of

these encounters and characters but it is a limited number and for a christmas gift

you can get your d m a year long subscription to d n d bond

so they can have unlimited encounters and characters the hero subscription is about forty dollars

for the year and the master subscription is about seventy for the year and the

mass just allows you to share down loaded content with your players which is nice

for d ms who heavily use dan d bond for their character creation process as

well as online dims if they don't do that then a forty dollar hero subscription

would probably do just fine number eight is a d m screen i particularly love

the dungeon master screen because it hides what you're doing and it gives you some

authority and credibility at the table you can kind of think of it as sort

of a dungeon master uniform and it also if it's done right it has some

really nice references as far as conditions and other things go and here you can

also find a screen as expensive as you want or as cheap as you want

for example from a quick google search i saw a range of screens going from

and these are hand made screens going from forty dollars to two hundred forty dollars

made from wood and other things you can also just find one pretty cheap for

paper and you can make one yourself even but you need to find one that

fits you and your table the nice thing about buying special or custom screens is

that they are a little bit taller which is nice because the screen that comes

in the normal d and kid that i mentioned before is somewhat short it's about

as tall as a piece of paper is and that's the one that i used

so it's good though because i use it and you know suits me and gets

the job done so don't let the shortness of it stop you number nine is

a nice simple sound system ambiance can be a great tool for the burgening dungeon

master and giving them the opportunity to add ambiance is full giving them the opportunity

to add ambiance in full surround sound is a great gift some things to note

here though before getting the d m surround sound you might want to check with

them about hooking things up to walls or what their plans are in this area

like if they're planning on moving that might not be the right thing because usually

people end up hooking up surround sound on walls and such and you don't want

to get them a gift that they are unwilling to use or hang up or

things that next often surround sound systems require cabling so make sure you get that

as well it's annoying to get a gift that you can't use but with that

said surround sound systems are not actually as expensive as you might think just looking

up on amazon i found one that is just forty nine ninety seven and it

comes with one large sub woofer with five smaller speakers and it is blue tooth

capable you can get speaker cable for twelve ninety nine and well you have a

passable speaker system in your d and d room again i am not the tech

guys so for quality of speakers do not talk to me but that's just to

set your xpectations for pricing number ten a microphone this gift is for the online

d m or the intrepid streamer or even the prospective podcastor microphones are pivotal for

excellent game play over the digital air waves and here you want to think of

a few things so there are two different types of mice generally there's a dynamic

microphone which is designed to pick really everything and give you the best sound quality

this sort of microphone is best used in a very sterile environment like a recording

booth where not extra sounded not much extra sounds enter the environment even computers or

air vents not going to be there and it's going to give you a great

audio but it might need some extra engineering on the background if you are on

the back end if you do end up catching some of that extra stuff

the other type of microphone is a compressed microphone which is designed only to pick

up the voice of the speaker and you can use this microphone in a lot

more of a noisy location though you'll i want to get your audio as clean

as you can when you record and for most people i would actually recommend a

compressed microphone because it's just easier you don't have to worry about making your own

vionment as noiseless as possible and for most people i recommend the samson q two

u microphone which is the one i'm using right now you can get the recording

anpodcasting pack for seventy dollars on amazon it has excellent sound quality it comes with

the ability to hook up via us b or x l r connection so if

you're going a little bit more advanced you have that connection and you can even

hook up your headphones to the microphone to hear how you sound as you use

it honestly in my opinion it is the best plug in play microphone i can

find and it pretty cheap so that's also a big plus number seven number eleven

is a very fancy notebook depending on your d m a fancy note book might

be just the thing them you'll definitely want to pay attention to them to make

sure that it's something that they would actually use but you can definitely find something

great that would fit them in fact i have an amazing notebook made one of

the listeners of this podcast anna if you're listening anna i want to say thank

you so much for this note book i use it every day and i don't

use it just for my campaigns actually use it to record my goals thoughts and

insights and it's just a really awesome thing and actually if you're looking for something

on amazon there are lots of other cool options there i found some right now

that around twenty five books and they would the perfect gift so number twelve is

a fancy medieval mug it's a small touch but supplying interesting mugs for players can

help them to immerse themselves into the game a little bit more and it can

actually do the same thing for your dem so as your d m as you

dungeon master you talk a lot naturally so you're going to want to drink some

water or other beverage to keep your throat moist and what can be cooler than

drinking from your very own d and d stye mug there are lots of options

on amazon and actually you can even get a viking horn you can even get

a viking horn mug for around fifty dollars so that's a mug made out the

horn of an animal but there are endless options with endless styles i just pick

that out to give you an example with a price range so you kind of

know what to expect number thirteen is a gift card to hero forge if you

haven't heard of her for it is an online site that allows you to create

custom miniatures to match the character you're playing right now and they have lots of

options and you can actually choose to buy the many or or have them print

and paint the money and buy that or you can buy the s t l

file to print them in yourself it's it's great and you can also create a

character and then import them into softwar like dungeon alchemists to play online in a

three d fashion which is pretty cool and naturally in a case like this a

gift card is the best choice because you don't know what your dem would like

to use it for for example last year my older brother got me a twenty

five dollar gift card to hero forge and just recently i used some of it

to create a many that is supposed to look like me so then i bought

the st for that i printed it out and now i'm using it to make

reels on instagram so there's an example of something you can do with this kind

of gift number fourteen is dungeon alchemist if you've been paying attention to the podcas

these last couple weeks and in fact the give away that was today you know

that i am a huge fan of dungeon alchemists they are a software that you

can download on steam that allows you to quickly make maps of dungeons and you

just ply select the type of room you want draw the shape and then click

a check mark and the software designs the room complete with furniture and treasure all

in three d and then you can export this map to use an online forms

like foundry or role twenty and it's incredible and actually just like i mentioned you

can import minnies from hero forge and use them as three d avatars for your

players if you want to know more about dungeon alcom go to better dungeon master

dot com slash dungeon dash alchemist here again i have to say that i'm not

actually being paid to say that however i do have that link specifically so i

can hopefully go dungeon alchemist later and show them that our listeners love their product

so then they will sponsor us just being transparent they're not paying me but i

would like them to pay me eventually so that's why that's there anyway i really

love their soft i use it all the time number fifteen a subscription to world

anville world anvil is a tool that anyone can use to world build their home

brew project or even just use it for their campaign you can create dungeon master

specific pages or let everyone see everything you can even keep notes on your current

campaign as you run it and in fact there's a free account that allows you

to just get started how it goes but that doesn't offer nearly any of the

really cool features like secrets or word count goals and in fact the cheapest account

is actually for fifty dollar fifty four dollars a year and may we beware it

for that dungeon master itching to create their variant world in fact worldendvill is what

i am using right now to create my home brew world of integrity and i

found it fairly useful ah so it might be useful for you or the dam

in your life number sixteen is tabletop touraine we've all seen excellent examples of table

top touraine on shows like critical role or high rollers so why not get your

dim something similar i've preferred my own table top turin that i've sort of spliced

together from things i've found online and then added some of my own some of

my own design aspects that i three de for me it's cheaper but it does

take more time to get everything together i also have to paint it which i'm

not very good at see if your dem doesn't like doing anything that i've just

mentioned than you can actually just opt or sits like dwarf forge they have awesome

creations and options for table top to rain sets that are fully fleshed out fully

painted or if your damn loves to craft and make things themselves may be getting

them some x p s foam and some super glue and paint so that way

they can make their table top to rain themselves either way make sure it's what

the d m wants and will use uh if you do it right you can

really surprise them and astound them delight them really and naturally there are infinite combinations

for gifts you can get for the dungeon master in your life simply pick one

and get it for them the sad truth about gifts is that we rarely get

it right getting someone a great gift is particularly hard so that's why i'd like

to challenge you to really think about your dungeon master and think about what they

were actually like the more you think about them the closer you will get to

the perfect gift now let's get to today's announcements first of all thank you for

everyone who participated in our devoid we had an amazing turn out and i can't

tell you how grateful i am to you for supporting the podcast and helping reach

new listeners we want to give you ever better content and so that's why we're

actually here to ask for your feedback i'm on my knees right now begging and

pleading for you to lend your hand and shaping the show and helping us help

you to be a better dem so if you could go to better dungeon master

dot com slash feedback and answer a couple of questions on what we can do

to improve the show your opinion will be immensely valuable next i'd also like to

extend another invite to join our unc for this november it will be on november

nineteenth

will be on november nineteenth and we still have some spots open so if you'd

like a chance to play d n d with guest host rob from dungeons dragons

and psychology sign up for free even if you've played before the spots are first

come first served so you can still sign up so go to better engen master

dot com slash one dash shot again that's better dungeon master dot com slash one

dash shot as always i want to say thank you for all your support and

we couldn't do this without you every week we come here and it just astounds

me that people are still listening so listener i just got to say thank you

so much from the in my heart for your support will keep doing what we

do and come back next week with another great episode until then let's go ahead