Loot & Liar

You don’t need to be a cartographer to create your own hand drawn maps. Tolkien’s maps, after all, were far from perfect. That hand-illustrated feel connects your players to the experience of their characters. In less than 30 minutes, you can create a map that will make your players giddy for adventure.

There are many great things about getting back to tabletop play. But we were missing the flashy encounter maps we used on Roll20. So we looked into printing full-colored maps. Here’s what we learned.

Create your own spell scroll in 5 minutes or less. This simple project will get your players longing for more treasure. We also throw in a few tips for taking your scrolls to a higher level.

D&D Beyond is the premier online Dungeons and Dragons tool. From character sheets to source books to campaign management, it has many features. And much to buy. Is it worth the money?

Inventing your own adventure can be one of the most rewarding aspects of DMing. But it can also be time consuming, hard to manage, and frustrating to your players. Here are some tips, pros, and cons for running your own homebrew adventure.

Your players are looting the bodies again… and you hadn’t planned any treasures. Here’s a great hack to keep plenty of (amusing) treasures on hand for those looting moments.

Dice coasters from C4 Labs are a huge winner at our D&D sessions. We keep our flagons and d20s together for a clutter-free tabletop. And we love the stylish design and glowing effect.

As a DM, keeping a list of names at hand is a must. We found an unlikely inspiration for generating that list.

Companion cards are a brilliant player reference that deserve a spot on your table.

The well-organized DM must keep track of a tremendous amount of information. Stats for players. Information on the environment. Descriptions of NPCs. Notes on history, lore, magic. Rules. Prices. Experience points. The list feels endless. And during gameplay, nothing disrupts the magic of the moment like taking a 15 minute detour through a stack of notebooks to locate a piece of relevant information. One tool I’ve found helpful is Microsoft OneNote.

You don’t need to be an artist to paint your own miniature. This guide walks through an easy process for painting a character that is ready for the tabletop. Budget about 3 hours and $30.

Gyld’s Map Pad is an 11x17-inch pad of paper pre-marked with a one-inch grid. Gyld offers four different prints to add variety to your encounter maps: parchment, water, stone, and grass. Grab a pen and sketch out your next battle map!

CC3+ is a great tool for putting together maps for D&D (or other RPGs). With one tool you can create overland, city, and encounter maps. There are many add-ons and symbol sets available. The learning curve is a little steep, but there are plenty of videos to get you going.

Tabletopnotch is a well-balanced Dungeons & Dragons 5e campaign that takes place in the group’s homebrew world of Anti-Suyu. The five characters, Beezaura, Graven, Orba, Safira, and Erland are engaged in a longterm campaign named ‘A Peak Beneath the Veil.’ We love the acting, the story, the high-quality production… and the laughs.

Happy New Year! We’ve been waiting on this day for a while. Today we are happy to officially launch our new website: LootAndLiar.com. We’re kicking off the year with several articles. And we have more in store!

A DM screen says a lot about a DM. So when we set out to build one, we wanted to make it look fancy (even though it was cheap).

Want a load of tabletop minis without having to paint a single thing? Want to store them in a compact binder? Skinny Minis might be the solution for you.

Welcome to Loot and Liar, a site dedicated to practical Dungeons and Dragons. We review cool DnD stuff, give tips for players and DMs alike, and talk about what we think makes DnD fun.