So I’m a cheap bastard. That’s number ten on The Gamemaster’s Hall Of Shame: Monty Haul’s Top Ten Cousins all the way back to Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #3: 10 Minnie Haul Players in previous campaigns joke about it. I like to pretend there’s no treasure chapter at all. Mice must’ve eaten those pages. But the […]

The post The Minnie Haul GM appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

Happy Canada Day! While swatting mosquitoes and sipping cool bevvies, let’s look at a dilemma that community member Sir Tainley poses about explaining the strength of commoners in certain game systems: I’m designing a world for a D&D 5e clone. I want magic to be reasonably common, and taught in the universities. But, powerful enough spells […]

The post Balancing Magic, Bears & Hit Points appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

On the Roleplaying Tips Discord, @Kodia Tomekeeper reminded me about the fantastic template Pixar used for story spines. It works well for our own adventure, campaign, and even world seeds: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___. Let’s […]

The post Try This Fantastic Adventure Mad Lib appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

Here’s a tip for new GMs or those new to point crawls. What’s a point crawl? I don’t know the official definition, but mine is an adventure you make based on story gates characters must get through. When the final obstacle’s been beaten and that gate traversed, the party’s won. Creating a point crawl confused […]

The post What’s the Point (Crawl)? appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

GM’s Log #7 went out to CampaignCraft members yesterday, and it teaches my 5 Actions Framework that anticipates 90% of encounter derailments and broken adventures. After you complete the tutorial’s six steps, players can still surprise you, but they’re much less likely to break your encounters. One of my favourite examples of players ruining my […]

The post When Players Derail Our Prep appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

Happy Monday, Game Master! Friday’s tip about using flashbacks for backstories garnered a great response from the community. You sent in several fantastic ideas on how to take this mechanic even further. Today, let’s look at a great breakdown from GM Allen (pictured here with his Magic 8 Ball USB button) on how to use […]

The post Retroactive Clues appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

The first time I encountered a flashback mechanic was at Intrigue Con here in town in a Night’s Black Agents game. The second time was the following morning playing Blades in the Dark. The cool thing about flashbacks is you can add them to any game system. I’m doing it right now for my Lost […]

The post Try Flashbacks For Backstories appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

A Brief Word From Johnn Hola Game Master! First, a quick note to say that yesterday I fixed the broken video links in the 7-Day GM Organization Challenge. To get the fresh links, you can re-join the challenge or feel free to email me and I will send you the link list directly. Today’s tip […]

The post How to Create Non-Combat Encounters appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

A quick trick to make melees more exciting from this week’s GM’s Log. Ankhegs are one of my favourite monsters. Looking at their stat block, they’re a one-trick pony. Just a brute that deals damage. But their strategy involves verticality, making the critter agile, reusable, and always a challenge. Ankhegs burrow, but most characters cannot. […]

The post Make Your Battlemap Worth Fighting Over appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

Instinct vs. Prep. A GM in our community recently shared a struggle many of us face: “I generate NPC actions by zen and instinct, but eventually there are too many pieces to track. My notes become random, unactionable noise, and the prep becomes an exponential amount of work. How do I stop my campaign from […]

The post How To Cure GM Overwhelm When Your Brain Runs Out Of RAM appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

Read Time: 3 Minutes What’s one thing I do to make every encounter better? This morning I was drafting up a document explaining my CampaignCraft membership program, and I got to writing about my core GMing philosophy of encounters being the atomic unit of gameplay. Players judge our campaigns by how they feel last session […]

The post What’s The Heart Of An Encounter? appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

A 1-Minute Read My game on Sunday proved to me again why a bit of combat prep matters. One encounter featured a collapsing bridge, tricky terrain with barnacles and kelp, and a channel with strong tidal water. The other encounter offered only minimal terrain and lacked interesting routes, positions, and discoveries. Guess which one turned […]

The post Today’s GM Tip: How To Create Dynamic Battle Maps appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.