D&D dad Redwyrm shows off 5-year-old’s homebrew fix for slow planning

A D&D-playing father has shared an adorable idea for an item that will help encourage parties to speed up game planning. The idea is exactly the sort of funny fix to make games interesting.

Dungeons & Dragons is a game of strategy, wit, and clever planning, requiring players to work together closely. When tackling especially difficult puzzles or bosses, a planning session can quickly begin to drag. Thankfully, there are many ways to speed the process along.

It isn’t uncommon for DMs to add homebrewed items or ideas. The concept of homebrewing – adding or changing certain aspects of a D&D campaign – can help achieve the DM’s vision for the story. This can include altering the stats of an enemy, adding an entirely new Race or Class, or sometimes even creating entire worlds different from the Wizards of the Coast canon.

Often, players will use online forums like Reddit and Twitter to share particularly useful homebrew ideas. This is just what one D&D player decided to do when his son came up with a clever homebrewed item of clothing.

How do you speed up a D&D party’s planning process?

According to Twitter user redwyrm‘s five-year-old son, make a monster hat!

In a post uploaded by Redwyrm, the D&D enthusiast shared his “5yo DM’s” plot hook and item.

The description reads: “The players find the hat of quick planning. Every time they take too long to make a plan, random monsters jump out of the hat to attack them.”

This item is funny, but holds a brutal truth most D&D players are well aware of. Sometimes, a plan to cross a simple bridge, or even just look around a room, can suddenly become an hour-long test of patience for both the DM and each of the party members.

While it’s always good to be prepared, sometimes a door is just a door, no matter how often a Perception check has been completed.

While it likely wouldn’t be helpful for players to suddenly have to battle a horde of unfriendly Bugbears that appear from inside a magical hat, the idea of a reducing timer on important decisions could create interesting urgency in a session, and potentially lead to some break-neck choices with unusual consequences the party wouldn’t have achieved thinking things out too carefully.