Matt Colville is an old-school Dungeon Master from way back. Probably as way back as me (post-dawn of time), and maybe further! The man knows his stuff, is what I’m saying here.

One of the many things I like about Matt is how he draws from previous games to enhance his current campaign. His most recent video is a great tip for players and DM/GM’s alike who want to not just build chemistry between characters, but for players to test their new characters without getting them killed.

Welcome to The Danger Room.

I did something like this a few years back when my players started our Pathfinder campaign, Second Darkness. Everyone sat around the table, I let the players give a brief description of their characters, then I set out a map with some minis and said “Roll for initiative.”

Now they didn’t know that the characters were not in any real danger, so it wasn’t a true Danger Room kind of scenario. But they got to flex their muscles and see how those stats and abilities worked in “real-time”. Afterward, I told them that if they wanted to make any adjustments after what they had seen, now was the time to do it.

I really like the Danger Room concept, and think I’ll use it more often in the future.