Homebrew your 5th Edition setting - Dungeon Master Tools

Looks pretty darn magical out there.

 In an earlier post, I talked about knowing what type of game Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition was and how understanding that can lead to better games at the table. I gave some example on preparing your sessions using that information.

But what if you want to build a campaign world for a 5th edition home-brew campaign? How do you apply those points?

Here are the points again.

• The player characters are powerful and will only get more powerful.
• The game expects a setting where magic is everywhere and well known and used often.
• Anything can happen and it often does.
• Most of the rules in the game revolve around combat with monsters and how to resolve it.

While you often see the default setting for Dungeons and Dragons as medieval European inspired. That familiar trope can clash with the way the game is currently played. For me the disconnect is very strong. It can be difficult to reconcile medieval castles and knights dealing with flying player characters that look like cat people who can shoot lances of fire from their fingertips while strumming a lute. It gets comical and silly really damn quick. And if you are going for a comical game, then it works great. But if you are more interested in running a serious game, then it can be a challenge.

If you look beyond the classic Forgotten Realms setting and at some of the other campaign settings for 5th Edition from Wizards of the Coast you see some appealing alternatives. A lot of folks love the Eberonn setting, with its pulp noire aesthetic and fusion of magic and technology. 

Had a blast in this setting!

I ran a year long campaign in the Ravnica setting, based on a high magic super-city from the Magic: The Gathering card game. This was a blast, and the high magic/high power of 5th edition fit easily into the setting. It also allows for lots of intrigues and crazy combat situations. 

Spelljammer with its interplanetary travel, Planescape with its dimensional hopping and Theros with its divine powered characters and destinies can all work with the bigger scope that fits 5th edition. I haven't had a chance to take a look at it, but the setting of the Radiant Citadel, from the adventure anthology Journeys through the Radiant Citadel looks like a good fit and with an all new setting created specifically for this edition. 

So look at these settings for inspiration for your home-brew. For me, a lot of the powers and spells could also easily fit in fantasy worlds found in anime and Japanese role playing games like Final Fantasy. In my mind, the further you pull away from a grounded historical setting and open up an imaginative large scale world, the better the fit for this edition of the game.

So let's ask a couple of world building questions that will help you create a world for your 5th edition campaign.

• Why is your setting so magical - what caused it to be that way?
• What kind of threat are you presenting that will take super heroes to resolve?
• If magic is everywhere and nearly everyone can access it, what keeps everyone from being a super hero?

Coming to grips with those three questions will help you create a campaign that can build up to higher levels of play. If there is one thing that Dungeons and Dragons players love - it is leveling up. It also answers some basic questions about the world that your players may find useful during character creation and backstory development.

Worldbuilding can be a lot of fun, and a whole rabbit hole of work if you aren't careful. So remember, that you are creating a setting for your players to explore and interact with. Keeping that player focus helps you stay on target and only create what you need for your game first. And then, if you have time, you can flesh out more just for fun.

A violent argument broke out over whose day was more magical.

Know your system - Dungeon Master Tools

The player's handbook compels you!

 I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition for several years now.  I've came to the realization that this game has a very specific style it is going for. Understanding that helps me prep and run my games in a way that works for me and the players.

This seems like obvious advice, but I can't tell you how much I've struggled against what 5th edition is, and what I wanted it to be. It created an odd disconnect that ended up frustrating me, and in one case ended a campaign way too early.

So what is D&D 5th edition at its core? It is a game about super heroic characters in a high fantasy-high magic setting fighting monsters and performing impressive heroic acts.

The game works best when you embrace these key elements:

• The player characters are powerful and will only get more powerful.
• The game expects a setting where magic is everywhere and well known and used often.
• Anything can happen and it often does.
• Most of the rules in the game revolve around combat with monsters and how to resolve it.

Keeping these points in mind while prepping for your next session or building your campaign can lead to more fun at the table and a better experience overall.

Let's look at some examples for making this work.

• Know your player characters - review the spells, abilities, feats, and magic gear they have as part of your prep session. Then build encounters (monsters, traps, NPCs) that allow them to use these cool features. If using a published adventure, modify encounters to highlight these elements. 
• After hitting level three, and certainly by level five, most players characters are very powerful. You can toss a lot at them, and they will survive. Embrace this instead of fighting against it. The bigger threats and overcoming them are part of the fun.
• Most 5th edition settings are full of magic and magical mayhem. This means that you can play around with all kinds of storylines and elements including time travel, dimension hopping, encountering gods (or god like beings) and more. The scope for a 5th edition campaign can be HUGE, and leaning into that gives the players a sense of achieving important and amazing tasks.
• Combat is a big part of the game. As much fun as roleplaying and exploring are, combat is where the characters shine. So spend a bit of time giving your combat encounters a bit of flavor, with memorable monsters, or an interesting environment, or an element of added tension. Don't go overboard with combat, but keep in mind it is a key element of the game.

If they are level 7, they've got this.

The Timer - Dungeon Master Tools

Looks harmless, right?

 So I've seen a few recommendations about using a timer during a session before, but I've never tried it. Professor Dungeon Master over at Dungeoncraft swears by them. I recently had a chance to use one while running the adventure Salvage Operation from the Ghost of Saltmarsh adventure book. Guess what, it worked great. It drove up the tension of the finale sequence to impressive levels. I'm certainly going to look to add this to future set piece encounters.

Now you could use an actual timer counting down seconds until something happens. But the timer in Salvage Operation is built right into the encounter. So lets set the scene here. The characters enter a ship floating abandoned on the high seas. They are looking for a heavy box that requires two characters to move. It is at the bottom of the ship. So the characters search the ship, encounter traps and monsters along the way. When the reach the bottom, the hold is partially flooded, but the box is there. 

The moment one of the characters touches the box, all hell breaks loose. A giant octopus attacks the ship and tries to tear it apart. The adventure then breaks down what occurs in the environment round by round. First, tentacles explode into the hull hitting some characters. Next round the ship shifts throwing some of them around. Next round the ship starts to sink. The whole time more tentacles are smashing throughs he hull. The characters are trying to escape and two of them are lugging that heavy box around with them (need to keep it in hand if they want to get paid). Any monsters left on board are trying to escape. And the rowboats out in the water attempt to get closer to save the characters. Each round things get worse as the ship continues to sink and level by level gets flooded with sea water. 

"There are going to be two dead people in here!"

Now this set up is pretty complicated with lots of moving parts (literally and figuratively). But you can keep it simple. There is that scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where Indy and Short Round are trapped in the room with the ceiling and spikes closing in on them. Round by round it gets more frantic as they try different things to get out. Meanwhile Willy is outside of the trap attempting to help. You could easily capture this moment in D&D, with plenty of different elements to keep all the characters engaged in the danger.

Now I wouldn't abuse these timers. I would keep them for key moments in an adventure where it is important to drive up tension or increase the sense of danger. Using these constantly can take away some of the fun they add. 

Dungeons are the obvious place to use them, since you control so much of the environment, and the creatures. But as you can see in Salvage Operation you can do this just about anywhere. 

So the first thing you need to consider is how many rounds you want this to take. The fewer rounds, the more intense the situation. Professor Dungeon Master often rolls a four sided dice and the result is how many rounds will pass before something happens. I used this in a different adventure. A dragon was heading toward the characters and I rolled a D4 to determine how far away he was. I rolled a 4 and the characters scrambled to get off the roof of the shrine and inside before the dragon arrived. That was a blast.

"I did not sign up for this!"

But you can be a bit more structured like Salvage Operation was with each round describing how the stakes got higher and higher with each round. And that can be important, you want each round to get more and more intense. So you can stretch out the danger. You may even want to put a single round where nothing new happens just to give the players a moment to catch up. Salvage Operation has the octopus constantly bombarding the ship, but if the characters attack the tentacles and do enough damage, the octopus stops for a round.

 Last you want to make sure you don't remove choices from your players. You can use the round by round structure as a guide, but if you players figure out a clever way to get around some of the obstacles, then let them do it. The object is to create tension, not railroad the players.

So using timers is a great way to increase the stakes in an encounter or sequence. Try working one into one of your dungeons or set piece encounters the next time you are prepping for the game.

The Initiative Problem - Dungeon Master Tools

And he's running the old school rules too!
We're doomed!

 "Roll for initiative." It's become a meme. It means that it is time for the characters to throw down with some monsters. It means, everything just got more serious.

It also means the game comes to a screeching halt as everyone at the table rolls dice, adds modifiers and the DM tries to put everyone in turn order, display that turn order, and correct any errors that may come up. After all that, you can start the battle. With a group of new players or large group this can take 5 minutes or more. It feels like an element of the game that could be improved.

Keeping Initiative

So let's work within the rules.

Only roll once for each creature type. So if the group is being attacked by 4 mephitis, 2 giant centipedes and a water weird, you are only making three rolls instead of seven. It will be MUCH easier for you to track, especially if you run theater of the mind style. 

Here is one of my biggest time saver suggestions. Take some time during session prep to roll initiative for all the monsters and NPCs that may be involved in the battle. I will include Sidekicks, Retainers, and Henchmen if we are using them. Then when it comes time for the game, no one has to wait for me to roll for all these other characters.

I also use a spreadsheet with the character's names in one column. I plug in their initiative rolls in the column next to it. If I pre-rolled for the monsters, I'll add them in the same way, and then I'll sort the rolls highest to lowest. This is also a great way to track monster armor class, passive perception and hit points, so I have that key information at a glance.

Alternative Initiative

Still love saying "Roll for initiative" but hate all the book keeping and organizing? You can still have the players roll, but keep it simple. Have all of them roll a single 20 sided die, and the highest roll is what the group takes. Or they take turns throughout the session, and just keep track of who last rolled. This can lead to them planning a group what they want to do (don't give them too much time, they are under attack), and lead to some interesting cooperative combats.

Or use the dexterity score as the initiative score for the characters and monsters. This way the players know who is going in what order, and the only question is what the monsters will do. This allows for some planning by the party ahead of time. "We know the monk is going to move first, so let her get into position behind the orc and do some damage. Then the rogue goes next, attacking the same target and getting sweet Sneak Attack damage, oh and we are using flanking rules too, so the Rogue attacks at Advantage!" 

Conclusion

While I enjoy the variety that rolling initiative creates during combat, I'm coming around more and more to something faster and gets us into combat with minimum fiddling. My spreadsheet is super helpful in my online games, but I also like the simplicity of just letting the fastest character move first. It will be something to try out in a one-shot for sure.

What tricks do you use to speed up the initiative process, or do you have an alternate style you use that works great at your table? 

Schools of Magic - Dungeon Master Tools

 

Quick, guess the school!

Here is a Dungeon Master tool that you'll want if you have a wizard in the party... or anyone with the spell Detect Magic on them. This spell allows the caster to detect if an item is magical or has a spell cast upon it. But it also allows the user to determine the school of magic (if any). 

Yeah, the school of magic. Now, typing "school of magic" into D&D beyond will yield all kinds of results, but none of them are actual lists of the school of magic. And for some reason this information is not included on the DM screens. Instead this information can be found in the Player's Handbook in the Spellcasting chapter in a callout box in the Attack Rolls section. I still have no idea why.

There are eight schools of magic in Dungeons and Dragons (but a DM can create their own to add or replace if they wish). Most players who use spell casters do have a knowledge of the eight schools, because that can impact their spell selection depending on what class they are.  Your players will probably expect to hear the names of one of these schools when they cast this spell.

So you need a copy of that list somewhere behind your DM Screen. I use One Note to run my games, and I have a tab for rules and reminders - this list is in there and I can access it easily. If you are running a physical game without electronics, then maybe just print it out and post it on the screen somewhere.

This information isn't just handy for the Detect Magic spell, but also if you need to describe something magical in game, or have a theme for spell types - like enchantment spells always glow blue when cast. In time (like a lot of these helpful reminders) you may end up with these schools memorized, but it doesn't hurt to have the list in a handy place, when the occasion arises.

Schools of Magic

• Abjuration - spells of a protective nature 
• Conjuration - spells move objects and creatures from one location to another
• Divination - spells that reveal information
• Enchantment - spells that impact the minds of others
• Evocation - manipulation of magical energy aka damage dealers aka fireball
• Illusion - spells to deceive the minds and senses of others
• Necromancy - manipulates the energies of life and death
• Transmutation - change the properties of a creature, object or environment

Evocation for the WIN!

Dungeon Master Tools

 I'm going plunk down my articles about Dungeon Master Tools, so they are all in place and can be accessed easily by anyone that is looking for some advice on running the game. Hopefully you find these worthwhile.

• Low Level Elemental Enemies -Tired of goblins and kobolds at 1st level?
• Name List - For when the players ask that random NPC a question
• 5 Things I Learned Running the Game - Lessons for the DM
• Athletics or Acrobatics - When to roll for each of these physical skills
• Perception or Investigation - When to roll for each of these mental skills
• Schools of Magic - Have these handy for player questions
• Initiative and Improving It - Is rolling for initiative slowing down the game? Try these tips.
• The Timer - Driving up the stakes with a time limit to complete an encounter
• Know Your System - What is D&D 5th Edition good at
• Homebrew Your 5th Edition Setting - Hints for 5th edition campaign setting creation

Perception or Investigation - Dungeon Master Tools

Why open a "trapped" door yourself when a friend can
open it?

Like my previous look at Athletics or Acrobatics, I'm going to examine the difference between Perception and Investigation skill rolls in 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. These two checks come into play a lot during a game, and they are often ones that seems to cause some contention at the table. Usually you have characters with higher wisdom scores, like Clerics or Druids competing with higher intelligence scores like Wizards and Rogues wanting to use the skill that best suits them. Let's take a close look at the situation and see what skill is really called for.

Classic example, the adventuring party is tracking down the orcs who have abducted the village wizard and spirited her away to their overlord. As they pursue the orcs into a dense woodland, the group is staying on alert, knowing that orcs aren't completely stupid. The monsters may anticipate a tail. Sure enough a group of three orcs lie in wait to ambush the party. You ask for a Perception check from a character who is proficient. The Druid says he is and starts to roll, but the Rogue says that she has a higher Investigation skill modifier and wants to roll too. What do you do?

That dragon has one hell of a
stealth score!

In this case you can have both characters roll for their individual skills, because both apply. Let's look at each skill individually. According to the Players Handbook, Perception "lets you spot, hear or otherwise detect the presence of something. It measures your general awareness of your surroundings sand the keenness of your senses." It is directly tied to Wisdom with "reflects how attuned you are to the world around you and represents your perceptiveness and intuition". It would be safe to say that the Druid's experience of living within the woods, knowing the sounds of bird and beasts would allow him to perceive changes in the environment that may be caused by the orc rearguard. A Perception check makes sense.

The Players Handbook describes Investigation as when you "look around for clues and make deductions based on those clues." It is tied to Intelligence score which "measures mental acuity, accuracy of recall and ability to reason." So if the Rogue notices some broken branches on a cluster of shrubbery, the lack of animal sounds in the area and even the slight indentation of a boot print, she may put the pieces together to determine that someone is hiding and waiting to ambush.

You can see right away that there is a grey area here. How can the rogue pick up these clues without perceiving them? How can the Druid deduce from the signs of nature the ambush around the corner? In this case, I have no problem letting both characters make the roll. Perhaps the characters work together to piece the ambush together (if both roll well). Or you can have the Rogue roll with advantage (roll two D20s and use the higher roll) to say that the Druid was assisting her with the Investigation. Or vice versa. Like my previous post explained, the goal is to make sure you let your players do the cool things their characters can do.

Between the two of them, I think they got this mystery
solved.

Let's flip the tables a bit. Suppose the party is looting the office of a corrupt mayor looking for evidence that he is being bribed by the evil wizard. The Druid's high Perception will not help in this case, because what they are looking for is specific documents or a paper trail. The Rogue's Investigation skill will be a big help here as she pieces together the correspondence that proves the mayor is corrupt. Luckily she has the Druid along with her to keep an eye out for trouble. So when the mayor's deadly elf bodyguard tries to sneak up the stairs, the Druid rolls his high Perception skill and detects the assassin.

Another way they can work together is in detecting and disarming traps. The Druid may be able to find the discolored cobblestone on the floor. But he will need the Rogue's keen Investigation skill to put together how the trap works, and then her nimble fingers to disarm the danger.

The main idea is to keep the two skills distinct enough when possible so the players feel like they are specialized and able to use those talents when needed. It keeps the players working together to solve problems. It also lets you as the DM to build encounters that play to their strengths or prey on their weaknesses. Because sometime even heroes have a bad day.

Athletics or Acrobatics - Dungeon Master Tools

Acrobatics or Athletics... never mind, just RUN!

For Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons characters have a variety of skills they can excel in. Some of these get boosts based on race, class, and experience. One of the trickier determination players and DMs run into during the course of the game is determining if a physical action requires an Athletics skill roll or an Acrobatics skill roll.

What I have seen happen is that the player wants to roll the skill they have the higher score in (naturally) and may push back on the DM when the call for the other.

For example, the Rogue is attempting to climb up a castle wall. Like most Rogues, her Dexterity score is high and she gets a bonus to Acrobatics skill roll. She asks to use her Acrobatics skill to see if she succeeds in climbing the wall. But the DM asks for the strength based Athletics skill instead, determining that it takes physical strength to climb the castle wall. The Rogue scoffs. Her Strength ability score is low and she has no proficiency in her Athletics skill. Her attempt at being the cool infiltrator is neutralized.

Was the DM correct?

On page 175 of Players Guide you see an explanation of the Strength ability score. It describes it as the measure of... "bodily power, athletic training and the event to which you can exert raw physical force." Page 176 describes Dexterity as the measure of "agility, reflexes and balance." So the skills related to those abilities would correspond.

Specifically, the Athletics skill which is related to the Strength ability "covers difficult situations you encounter while climbing, jumping or swimming. The Acrobatics skill which is related to the Dexterity ability "covers your attempt to stay on your feet in a tricky situation, such as when you're trying to run across a sheet of ice, balance on a tightrope or stay upright on a rocking ship's deck".

Having the right gear at the right time is always good.

I would say that the DM in my example made the right call. Climbing a castle wall would require an athletics skill roll. This doesn't mean the Rogue is neutralized. If she has climbing gear in her equipment pack, she can use that to reduce the difficulty class (DC) of the climb check. Or maybe she has rope and grappling hook prepared. Because she has a high dexterity, she would probably get a nice bonus to throwing the grappling hook (the DM could treat that as a missile weapon attack, something that a high Dexterity score would improve). Once the rope is secured, her climbing DC will either drop or vanish completely (depending on the DM).

Let's try a different example. A Paladin and Rogue are on top of a tower watching a battle between dragons. It is all fun and exciting until the brass dragon hurls the blue dragon directly into the tower they are on. The violent shock causes both characters to loose their footing and start to fall off the tower. The Paladin wants to roll Athletics counting on his high Strength ability to keep his solid stance. The Rogue thinks an Acrobatics roll is needed instead, her high Dexterity would surely come into play in this situation. The DM decides that it will be an Acrobatics check. Sure enough the Rogue keeps her footing, but the Paladin loses his. Crying out in alarm, the Paladin falls over and the weight of his armor and momentum from the tremor sends him hurtling toward the edge!

At this point the Paladin can attempt to grab hold of a piece of masonry to stop from tumbling over the side. As a DM I would ask for a Strength saving throw and if he fails that, maybe let the Rogue roll a Dexterity saving throw to see if she gets her rope out to the Paladin in time for him to grab at it.

"How dare you sir. I would never smash into a tower!"

There are other instances that may be a bit grey, where it seems like either check may apply. In that case, if the players can provide convincing reasoning why they would use one skill check instead of the other, go ahead and let them roll it. Remember that the idea is to create a fun exciting story around these characters. You don't want to stop them from being the cool heroes. As a DM you want them to succeed, but not with out peril.

With new players it is important to remind them that they can use anything in the environment on their person in unique ways. Before they make that check, ask them to look through their gear, review their spell list or give them a hint from the environment description. New players may be more used to video games, where that kind of thinking isn't as frequent.

Hopefully this helps guide you on how to adjudicate which of these two skill rolls to ask for and when. They are ones I see most often confused and argued, but have you seen ones that come up more frequently?

5 Things I Learned Being a Dungeon Master for Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons

I always roll behind the screen!

Since getting back into playing Dungeons and Dragons a few years ago, I have had the pleasure of running games of various sizes. My first couple games in Fifth edition were on the short side, lasting a couple sessions of about four hours a piece. I've run a couple one shots last about four hours, and of course I'm running my Dragon of Icespire Peak campaign.

It's been an interesting experience running those three types of games. I've learned quite a bit from the experience. So in no particular order, here are some of my observations and lessons I picked up from running these games.

1. You are the only one who knows that the players missed that really cool room/treasure/encounter.
• The first adventure I ran was a dungeon crawl that lasted two, four hour sessions. I worked on it for a good couple weeks coming up with traps, cool encounters, interesting non-player characters and a fun boss battle. When we finished the first session it became obvious that I crated too much material. I was actually annoyed that they were going to have to miss some of the fun things I thought up if we were going to end the game the next session. For a while I was disappointed by the experience. But when I talked to the players, they really enjoyed it. I was the only one who felt that it wasn't as good as it could have been, because I was the only one who knew about the stuff they missed. 
2. Nothing is wasted, it just goes into the next adventure.
• That is when I picked up the cool NPCs and plunked them down into the next short session I ran about six months later. I took one of the traps they avoided, and tweaked it for the new setting and used it. Again I made a bit too much material for this second game so some of that stuff got shifted to the one shots I ran almost two years later. Just make sure you keep your notes, because you never know when it will be useful.
3. You control the pace.
• Yeah, learned this the hard way. The second game I ran I set up like an old school

  

  THAC0? We don't need no stinkin' THAC0!

  Mission: Impossible adventure. It was all about setting up the mission and executing. I tried to create tension, but instead I created long periods of waiting around. It got tedious and boring. The thing is, I didn't have to be. The DM controls the timing, and it is fine to just jump ahead to the good parts. There are ways to build tension in Dungeons and Dragons, but they tend to work better in the immediate situations. I've gotten a lot better at pacing since then, but yeah, that was a rough game.
4. Prep for the next session only.
• World building is a blast, and coming up with all these great schemes and villain plans is a lot of fun. But there are so many times that you never get to those moments, or when you do it is six sessions later and so much has changed that your original plan doesn't even work. Even running a published adventure like Dragon of Icespire Peak doesn't guarantee that you will follow the written path. The players will do their own thing, come up with innovative solutions, and take the story in unusual directions. So the best thing to do is to have a very lose outline of your overarching plan. But really focus on prepping for that next session. Don't get lost in the joys of world building when you never get a chance to get out of the village.
5. Handouts



Oh you think you know it all? Well, you haven't even
begun to learn. (insert evil chuckle)

• Players like to have things they can reference, review and dig into. This can be a simple menu for the tavern, or a letter from an enemy or a treasure map. Playing at the virtual table, it can be a bit tricky, but possible to come up with all kinds of written material for the players to interact with. Remember rule 4 and don't spend an outrageous amount of time of these, but do spend some time. When you are playing at the physical table, having physical spell scrolls to hand out, actual inspiration tokens to manipulate and even magic item cards can add to the game. It is one of things I think The Essentials Kit did so well with their box. I love the two sided map and having those cards for the sidekicks has been a lot of fun (since I ended up using about half of them to people Phandalin). 

So there you go, a few things I've picked up, and I'm still learning and picking up new techniques for being a better Dungeon Master.

Do you have any tips you want to share?

What's in a name? - Name List - Dungeonmaster Tools

When you absolutely must roll a 100...

Dungeons and Dragons can involve a lot of improvisation. You can plan out your adventures, roll up your stats for monsters, and attempt to anticipate your player's every move or reaction. But in the end, the players will do what they please. You may prep for the dungeon delve beneath the mountain, and your characters decide to seek out the floating castle they heard about six sessions ago. You've got nothing prepped for the floating castle, and now your players are obsessed with finding it. Quick thinking is needed.

This kind of thing happens all the time, but you can have some tools ready to make the minor challenges roll a bit smother (yes, a dice pun in a Dungeons and Dragons blog, big shock). One issue that I've run into many times is the characters deciding to talk to a random non-player character (NPC) they pick out of a crowd. All you said was, "you are on a crowded street" and suddenly our players are questioning a washer woman about the dragon they saw flying around the town. Sure you have to improvise her reaction, but the worst part is when they ask you her name.

Here's a tip: you can't name every random NPC "Bob", it is going to break immersion.

Instead you should always have a list of NPC names handy. At the very least have 10 male and 10 female. If you want to go crazy you can narrow it down by race too. So you can have 10 male dwarf names and 10 female dwarf names, and elf names, and halfling names, and dragonborn names and... well you get the idea. However you decide to do it, this little tool will save you a bunch of time head scratching and endless NPCs named "Bob".

It has just a lot of stuff, if not "everything".

One of my favorite supplemental books for 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons is Xanathar's Guide to Everything. It is packed with great stuff for players and dungeonmasters alike. Well worth picking up after you have the core rulebooks. In its Appendix B at the end of the book it contains 17 pages of names that you roll up using a D100. It gives you fantasy names as well as historical names. Plenty of names to pick from when building adventures, characters or just to have handy for those random NPC moments.

There are also plenty of online tools for name generation out there. And these can be very handy to create your lists ahead of time.

When you do assign a name to the random NPC make sure you make some note somewhere with a brief description of the NPC, what name you gave him or her and what they told the party. This is necessary because for some reason your players are going to latch onto that one random NPC instead of the ones you spent hours creating, and they will proceed to bring them when you least expect it. So make sure you have these notes handy so when they ask to speak to Rezena the Dragonborn clerk in the tiny fishing village from session 2, and you are now in session 40 and you just happened to be passing that fishing village and they want to pop in and say "hi" you have an idea of who they are talking about.

So there you go, one of the most valuable DM tools and one that you won't regret having around, even if you are running a published adventure.