Where does your villain stash their cash? That’s the topic of a brand new weekly mapping challenge starting today on the Roleplaying Tips Discord called 5 Minute Map Fridays. Because villains need money to support their operation, lifestyle, and goals. And many settings only operate with physical currency, be it coins, bank notes, or other […]

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Caller You’re on the Air Have you ever tried using a Caller? The topic came up in Saturday’s Wizard of Adventure Zoom session, and the role has several great uses. Gygax used this method a lot. Here are Mentzer’s instructions on using a Caller from the 1983 D&D Red Box (bolding is mine): The caller […]

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Quarrel at the Quarry: Bottom-Up Encounter Prep Here’s how I’m building certain types of encounters in my Basilica campaign using world logic. By world logic, I mean starting with a map based on terrain and environment details, and then having plot and gameplay wrap around that. Using biome, hex, and other relevant details from my […]

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How do you liven up gameplay when the characters are near max level? Here’s a question posted in the #demonplague channel in the RPT Discord: …the party finally came to the entrance of Xancrown’s Dungeon. I perused the 4th adventure shortly, have to read it in detail, but aren’t the enemies too weak for this […]

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Tired of pausing gameplay to hastily sketch a scene? Front-loading your map prep is one of the best ways to help with session pacing. The #Mapvember2025 map challenge is still going strong on the RPT Discord, and it’s your perfect chance to front-load your prep and save yourself stress later. Thanks to @Auke for facilitating […]

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How can you stall the game for a while to give yourself a chance to recover from a player surprise? Here are three ways. Stall Tactic #1. It Was the Plan All Along This was posted recently on the Roleplaying Tips Discord: Never underestimate the power of saying “yeah, weird huh?”when you slip a massive […]

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Dragon Magazine Collection A quick note to say I finally finished re-reading my print Dragon Magazine collection! But now, alas, I must part with it as I downsize. Postage is brutal. So I would like to first see if anyone near Beaumont, Alberta is interested and willing to pick them up. I am asking $500 […]

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I love maps. They’re my First Move when building an encounter or 5 Room Dungeon. It lets you think things through as you push the pixels or graphite around. I like to tell myself a story as I draw. Here’s the entrance and it leaves much to be desired, making them easy pickings for the […]

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Still downsizing. And this weekend I tackled my classic D&D adventures shelf. In the photo above, from top left, clockwise: What was the purpose of my quest? I have a few goals here. First, I’ve been in an 80s nostalgia phase of late. Just watched Predator again. Fantastic. Now watching Tron. Also killer. So I […]

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I try to keep it simple behind the screen and let players make it complicated. Part of doing that involves me handling The What and players handling The How. For example, I was creating a 3 Line NPC just now. Liorin, the wizard who created a powerful artefact in my Duskfall setting millennia ago: My […]

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I GM like I’m playing a board game now. Wait. Before you hit the delete button and say you don’t want chocolate board games getting mixed with your tabletop RPG peanut butter, hear me out. This might be a boon for your improvisation and encounter-building feats. First off, I’m speaking to GMing mindset and strategy […]

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Do you charge taxes? I got a chuckle from DaveW’s post on the RPT Discord about levying taxes on the characters: My current campaign has a silver per wheel and copper per leg toll for the fortified town the players start in. An ox pulling a four wheeled cart is 4 sp, 4 cp to […]

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