Dungeon’s Desk

AD&D Toolkit is a collection of tools for Dungeon Masters that integrates seamlessly with digital Character Sheets. It is not a VTT.  Its a digital assistant for DMs and Players.  It greatly enhances both in-person and online play by speeding up and automating the more interesting, yet cumbersome mechanics of AD&D. Toolkit supports First Edition(1e), Unearthed Arcana(1e), and Second Edition(2e). Community Across multiple platforms, our membership numbers in the thousands.  If you haven't yet, you need to check it out.  The Discord serves as the community hub as well as offering support for the Toolkit.  It serves as a valuable resource for people new to AD&D or Toolkit. Blog The AD&D Toolkit blog serves as a resource to the public for both Toolkit and AD&D in general.

Keep your focus on the Adventure A simple & free browser-based PDF reader, built specifically for running tabletop adventure modules from the book. For those GMs who crave simplicity - Dungeon Reader is a simple PDF reader with just enougn GM-friendly annotation tools to help you stay on the page. https://static.itch.io/images/badge.svg

Obsidian is a free, locally-stored Markdown note-taking application that the TTRPG community has widely adopted as a campaign wiki, session planner, and lore database. Originally designed as a personal knowledge management tool, it stores everything as plain text files on your own machine with no subscription required. Description Unlike purpose-built platforms such as World Anvil, Obsidian was not designed with TTRPGs in mind, which means it arrives without templates, stat block support, or any TTRPG-specific structure out of the box. GMs who want those features need to install and configure community plugins themselves, which carries a steeper setup cost than dedicated alternatives. For those comfortable with that process, however, the result is a highly customizable system with no ongoing fees and no vendor lock-in. A thriving plugin ecosystem has filled most of the gaps, and the tool has become a genuine alternative to subscription-based worldbuilding platforms for technically comfortable Game Masters. The plugin ecosystem extends well beyond what is listed here, with community tools covering everything from database-style note querying and cross-device sync to interactive maps and combat automation. A full directory is available at community plugins.

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (D&D 5E) is a heroic fantasy tabletop roleplaying game published by Wizards of the Coast. Released in 2014, it is the edition that brought D&D from a niche hobby into mainstream pop culture - showing up in TV shows, podcasts, and actual-play streams, and introducing millions of new players to the hobby for the first time. 5E was designed after a massive public playtest ("D&D Next") with the explicit goal of being approachable to newcomers while still satisfying veteran players. The Basic Rules are free, and a game can start with nothing more than those rules, some friends, and a set of dice (or a digital dice roller app). In 2024 the core rules received a significant revision, now commonly referred to as Dungeons & Dragons 5.5E (2024). Both versions are fully compatible and most groups mix material freely. The system it directly evolved from is Dungeons & Dragons 4E (2008) Description In D&D 5E, players create fantasy adventurers (a half-orc barbarian, an elven wizard, a tiefling rogue) and one player takes on the role of the Dungeon Master (DM). The DM builds and describes the world, voices the non-player characters (NPCs), controls the monsters, and acts as both the lead storyteller and the rules referee. There is no board. The game is a conversation: the DM describes a scene, the players say what their characters do, and the dice decide what happens when the outcome is uncertain. A typical session runs three to four hours with a group of three to six players plus the DM. The game describes itself as resting on "Three Pillars": Combat, Exploration, and Social Interaction. A single session might include all three, from tracking a monster through the wilderness and negotiating with a shady merchant to fighting a troll at the entrance to a cave. Combat is the most mechanically detailed of the three and tends to take up the largest share of table time, though groups are free to lean as hard into roleplaying or exploration as they like. The default assumption is a high-fantasy world filled with magic, monsters, and ancient ruins. The flagship published setting is the Forgotten Realms, but Wizards of the Coast has released adventures across a range of worlds, and many DMs create their own. The game does not ship a single canon story. Every table's story is different, shaped by what the players do. 5E is designed to be approachable. The core philosophy is "rulings over rules," meaning that when something comes up that the rules do not explicitly cover, the DM is encouraged to make a quick call and keep the game moving rather than stopping to look things up. The rules reward creativity and improvisation, and the system explicitly expects that no one at the table has memorized the entire rulebook. That said, the DM carries most of the preparation work between sessions: building encounters, preparing maps, and keeping the story moving. Players can show up with nothing but their character sheet and a set of dice.

Dungeon Master's Block is a premier resource podcast dedicated to the most important person at the table: the Dungeon Master. Recognized as a "gym for the mind," the show is designed to inspire, challenge, and equip GMs. From those prepping their very first session to veterans of twenty years to "Keep On Dungeon Mastering."  The podcast moves beyond simple rule explanations, diving deep into the creative philosophy of world-building, monster design, and player management. Through recurring segments like "DM-Nastics" (mental exercises for GMs) and the "Mailbag of Holding," hosts Neal Powell (DM Neal) and Derrick (DM Derrick) provide actionable advice, narrative inspiration, and a supportive community for the "only person at the table capable of playing god." Links spotify.com  - Spotify feed podcasts.apple.com  - Apple Podcasts feed youtube.com  - Youtube channel

I SEDUCE THE DRAGON is a bi-weekly actual play Dungeons & Dragons podcast, brilliantly produced and sound designed with the non-player in mind.  Hosted by a group of high-achieving women across wildly different fields, I SEDUCE THE DRAGON takes on tabletop gaming from a hilariously high femme perspective. About the show I Seduce The Dragon started as five professional women just trying to make friends and not lose our minds. A podcast? Nowhere on the vision board. But apparently, when you mix phenomenal chemistry with a bit of dice rolling, you get something very special.  Our DM, who’s also a professional editor and movie mixer, started chopping up our sessions into bite-sized 10-minute recaps to send to the players, because we’re sentimental nerds who like keepsakes. Then it hit us: these clips were hilarious. Like, painfully so. And what we’ve got—this brand of friendship, ruthless teasing, and charming, colorful storytelling—felt too good to keep to ourselves. No, we’re not actors (cue gasp), but you’ll still get top-tier roleplay because we’ve spent way too much time bringing these characters to life. We’re playing in the world of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, but you might not recognize much beyond a few familiar names and snow-smothered landmarks. We didn’t just toss those plotlines into the snowdrifts—we lit them on fire for warmth.  Prepare yourself for character-driven shenanigans careening through the tundra like a pack of rabid yetis on a sugar high. So pull up a chair and join us in Icewind Dale. Links youtube.com  - Youtube channel istdpod.com  - Official website patreon.com  - Patreon page