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Posted: Thu, 29 Jan 03:10:41
Category: Adventure Building & Campaigns, Adventure & Campaign Building, Agile Gming
5-Minute Megadungeon Maps. You have a great idea for a massive complex. But the thought of drawing every 10ft. corridor before you even know what goes where is so daunting that you never actually start. I’m faced with this proposition right now as I need to map the megadungeon for my Obsidian Invictus campaign. I […]
The post Design First, Draw Second appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.
Posted: Tue, 27 Jan 03:00:14
Category: Adventure Building & Campaigns, Adventure & Campaign Building, Design
Running “dungeons” in any genre or setting. Roleplaying Tips GM Richmond grabbed my current deal on Logical Dungeon Design: Tactical Cartography and sent me this note: Johnn, I have read the first chapter and part of the second. I don’t know how useful it will be for the game I am currently running, but I […]
The post Dungeons in Modern Games appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.
Posted: Sat, 24 Jan 03:20:50
Category: News, Adventure & Campaign Building, Design
Have you ever been running a dungeon crawl, feeling good, when suddenly a player asks a question that stops your dice cold? “Wait, why is there an ice room right next to a lava chamber?” “What do these monsters actually eat?” “Why are the ceilings only ten feet high if giants live here?” I call […]
The post Create Dynamic Dungeon Maps & Levels That Make Sense appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.
Posted: Fri, 23 Jan 05:55:13
Category: Running Games, Descriptions, Improvising
Today’s word of the day is indite, which is also today’s tip. So, here is how I indite better descriptions. Earlier this month I shared my 3-step description trick in a Tuesday Tutorial with Platinum Wizards of Adventure. I call these descriptions Lore Drops. They give us a robust mental framework we can apply to […]
The post My Heuristic For Better Descriptions appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.
Posted: Thu, 22 Jan 02:44:27
Category: Running Games, Running the Game, Self-Improvement
Ack Ack Johnn! Before I give you today’s tip, I have exciting news. First draft of my new book on dungeon design is done! It’s called Logical Dungeon Design: Tactical Cartography. Here’s the cover: It’s about how to design dungeon maps and levels that respond to the players. Living Dungeons. This book is also about […]
The post Solo RPGs – How To Ask The Right Questions appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.
Posted: Tue, 20 Jan 13:42:18
Category: Running Games, Gming - Beginner, Johnn's Games
To screen or not to screen, that is the question from Roleplaying Tips GM Eli: Johnn! Thank you for these wonderful articles. I was wondering, could you tell me why you do or do not use a DM screen? I’m interested to hear what you think! Thanks Eli. I stopped using a GM screen in […]
The post In A TPK They Can’t Hear You Screen appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.
Posted: Fri, 16 Jan 04:13:05
Category: Adventure Building & Campaigns, 5 Room Dungeons, Adventure & Campaign Building
How to make logical dungeon maps. Nonsensical maps were a major theme in the fantastic feedback I received from Monday’s request about your biggest pain point with dungeons: How to make dungeons make sense and believable? Most GMs think they need to design a dungeon for the adventure they are running right now. You sit […]
The post Why Dungeon Maps Feel Fake – The Dungeon Timeline Method appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.
Posted: Mon, 12 Jan 03:14:40
Category: Running Games, Descriptions, GMing - Advance
What do you do when the party becomes the eight-pointed chaos symbol and splits up in every direction? RPT GM Lessa asks: If you can manage to keep your players together, tell me how. First thing my players do is split the party… Now, Lessa is a very experienced GM and actually has this under […]
The post When They Always Split Up appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.
Posted: Fri, 09 Jan 04:12:15
Category: World Building, Agile Gming, GMing - Advance
During Tiny Prep this morning I added factions to my setting, and that inspired three ideas. I’m finding the bottom-up approach great for inspiration in this way. For each campaign I have in Campaign Logger I create an Ideas Log. And today I added these: However, I feel like I could squeeze more value juice […]
The post Bottoms Up! appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.
Posted: Wed, 07 Jan 02:34:51
Category: Running Games, Johnn's Games, Running the Game
Hei Game Master. And happy New Year. On Sunday I got to play in a Daggerheart one-shot run by @mungo9494. Great session. Fun system too, though I need to lean more into the Hope mechanics next time. The GM did something at the end that I liked a lot. And I’m now noodling on how […]
The post Daggerheart + World Ripples appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.
Posted: Sat, 03 Jan 01:25:05
Category: World Building, Factions, Magic Items & Magic
Hello Game Master and happy Super Wolf Moon! In these parts, it’s the first full moon of the year (wolf) and Luna is at perigee (super). Snowing here in the morning darkness, so I can’t see it. But the clouds sure are bright. It’s great getting mooned on a Friday. This week I started prepping […]
The post Three New Layers for My Shadowdark World Building appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.
Posted: Wed, 17 Dec 2025 01:33:30
Category: Running Games, Combat & Action, GMing - Advance
The Rule of Cool.Yes, And.Be a fan of the characters. These tenets push us to let players try clever, chaotic, and unexpected PC actions. For example, saket asked this on the Roleplaying Tips Discord: In the middle of combat, one of my players wanted to create an opaque, black orb around my main villain’s head, […]
The post Handling Clever Actions appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.
