I recently sent out my #1 tip on how to beat GM burnout. Many replies came back advising to play for awhile to get a fresh perspective on the game. This is excellent advice! In fact, I did just that. Twice. It’s been a tricky year for me with a broken foot, several bouts of […]

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Here’s a great adventure-building tip from @CasualOnesRay on the RPT Discord: Check the Beat Chart from Cyberpunk Red (well, all the Cyberpunks, really). Essentially, an adventure should have: You can typically reorganize those categories and add extra instances of Developments and Cliffhangers. They also tend to map nicely onto 5 Room Dungeons. To add to […]

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A Wizard of Adventure sent me this note about their current GMing burnout: I’ve totally lost the passion for it. Not sure why. Folks say take a break, and I’m doing that but I see no end to the draught. Burnout has been discussed several times in the newsletter as it’s a common affliction. GMs […]

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Looking for a way to captivate your players right from session start? Last game of The Dark Eye, my knight got a chance to clobber some nasty creatures infesting a mine as we quest to rescue a kidnapped witch. Jochen, the GM, had a very strong start to the session, which is one of my […]

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When should dice get rolled? (Although, if you are Chuck Norris, you don’t roll — the dice arrange themselves into the number you want.) Wizard of Adventure Gedece offers us this excellent advice: I’ll explain a little what the concept of dice rolls are for me now that I GM’d Fate and PBTA, though they […]

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I’m homebrewing a setting called Duskfall, and I’ve reached the creation step I call The Powers That Be. With this technique, I ask: What powerful NPCs can control or influence the setting, and more specifically, can affect my plotlines and the party’s actions? By NPCs, I mean gods, powerful monsters, villains, factions, and any other […]

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In our August Wizard of Adventure Q&A Zoom, the topic of plotting came up. Afterwards, fellow GM Loren sent me this note about different ways of plotting a book: Quick note on “pantsers and planners”: I’m sure I’ve seen it elsewhere, but James Scott Bell starts his “Write You Novel from the Middle” with discussion […]

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What if the way people in your setting mourn the dead could spawn new adventures? In response to this world-building detail about knocker-uppers, I received a nice tip from RPT GM Cheryl the Shadow: Hi Johnn, When someone died, it was considered respectful to keep it quiet around their home, so straw or hay was […]

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I don’t recall the exact date I made the decision to start the Roleplaying Tips newsletter. I bought the domain on August 13, 1999. And, in the first week of November 1999, newsletter #0001 went out to three email subscribers: I’m not great at planning and enjoying milestones like this. I don’t do much on […]

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What if your alarm clock was a person with a 10 foot pole? Shared by @Exile in Paradise on the RPT Discord server: This could be an interesting world-building detail for towns to go along with town guards and town criers… A knocker-up or knocker-upper was a member of a profession in the Netherlands, Britain, […]

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A friend and I have started doing something that’s turning out to be a lot of fun. This could be something you do with your players for campaign inspiration. My friend and I each put together a Top 10 Movies list. Actually, I said when handing my list over, “These are 10 great movies. I […]

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I recently traded emails with a GM where we were talking about rolling dice, and this reminded me about a time in high school when I stole a fellow player’s d20. High crime indeed! We were playing C3 The Lost Island of Castanamir. A guy named Jamie was GMing. And I quite liked another player’s […]

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