CampaignCraft GM K. asked me how to signal lethal danger up ahead in a dungeon. Like him, I prefer to stock dungeons with a variety of encounters, some of which are too powerful for the party at its current level or in its current state. Dungeons are tricky though, because we’ve got less space for […]

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Horror is tough to pull off at the table. I don’t run scary games often, but when I do, I rely on one technique that punches through the beer and pretzels and gets players uneasy and scared. Deny Them Meaning When you have lots of clear information you feel confident. And confidence is the last […]

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Arvind’s Maptober Do you like to create maps? Over at the Roleplaying Tips Community, Arvind started a daily mapping challenge for Maptober: Join us in the #maps-terrain-minis channel for a daily quest and to check out others’ creations: https://discord.gg/hqE6gfs5P Any map creation method is welcome! Instant Cyberpunk Gigs, NPCs, and Events My friend Ray, aka […]

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A CampaignCraft member recently asked me how to master the lexicon when running a new genre for the first time. The game mechanics and general narrative were no problem, but technical and insider details stumped her in certain cases. Describing vehicle manoeuvres, piloting controls, gear, and how NPCs interacted with their environment were a big […]

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The Quarry Pit Trap In a Basilica campaign session, combat in a quarry almost stalled out like an airplane losing speed and starting to drop like dead weight. I could tell the pace was slowing down, but when a player asked after a few moments of table silence, “Whose turn is it?” I knew the […]

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I’m prepping for a Dragonbane game, using the campaign from the great boxed set. I love the campaign seed, which involves the game’s iconic powers, dragons and demons. The goal is to explore a valley and stop an evil plot centuries in the making. Dragonbane is based on the 1980s Swedish RPG, Drakar och Demoner […]

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Years ago in my Riddleport campaign I said this: “There’s a large shark circling in the harbour.” The characters went down to the docks for a closer look. The shark attacked. And on its turn it launched into the air, sailed right over the party, and splashed down on the other side. The shark jumped […]

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I got a chance to play Mythic Bastionland on Sunday. Thanks to Mike for GMing. The game is quite different, especially from D&D-esque systems, and for that reason I recommend trying it out. As knights, we wander the realm, seek out myths, and earn glory. With enough glory, we get promoted up the knightly ranks […]

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Game Master Arvindh asked today in the Roleplaying Tips Community: Yesterday, I ran my first ever Shadowdark game… and MAN! WHAT A RIDE! So simple, so beautiful, so fast and so deadly! 6 players. 11 deaths. And they didn’t even start the damn adventure. Like not even get to the adventuring site! The hilarious session […]

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A while back, community member Sir Tainley brought up a great world-building quandary: In a D&D type system, and a magic-rich setting where spells are taught academically, professional spellcasters inevitably gain high levels and unrealistically large hit point pools. Are there existing guides or workarounds to balance NPC levels so a typical scholar isn’t physically […]

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Over in our community, Game Master Bart shared a fantastic campaign report and premise: Had my first session of the campaign yesterday, it was a blast! We all agreed in session 0 to start in a prison. Players didn’t know what to expect beforehand, some thought it was just the escape to get going. But […]

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“How do I get these 13 things I dropped into the game because I thought they’d be fun to now integrate and make sense?” That question came up in July’s GM Q&A call. Gameplay takes us in a direction where we start improvising, and afterwards we’re left with square pegs that need to fit the […]

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