Roleplaying Tips Blog

A Simple Table for Rumours

RPT GM Chad Hooper shares this great approach for NPC roleplay and rumours: I use a News & Events percentile table. I roll every time PCs enter a new area or meet someone who shares rumors. Everything 75 or above on the table is a national or global-impacting event. Some examples are Declaration of War, […]

Campaign’s Pillars: How to Pacing Your Game’s Exciting Moments

Manage pace during sessions instead of scripting it. This lets you react to your game as it unfolds and is one less strict plan you must track. But, leaving pace to encounter-level decisions burden you with yet another thing. Until you’ve made pacing a habit and can spot opportunities to switch energy up mid-session, it […]

Novel Ways to Use Non-Combat Initiative

I asked for ways you use initiative outside combat. Several cool ideas hit my inbox I’d like to share with you today: Social Initiative From: Alexander T Greene In Mythras, I’ve based a non-combat initiative score on CHA rather than DEX. CHA in social initiative means those with high charisma are more likely to lead […]

d6 Ways to Spice Up Next Session

Sometimes things get dull, predictable, and stale. Your players get into the same old rut of “break down the door, kill the monster, take the loot.” Or if your group is more into roleplaying, perhaps it’s “meet the NPC, kill the NPC, Speak With Dead.” lol. Next session, let’s mix it up. Let’s inject a […]

Is Running Two Game Masters a Disaster?

RPT Patron Morgan Joeck asks about having one campaign with two game masters: A friend wants to run a dungeon crawl, and I like the concepts behind Demonplague. I was wondering how you would suggest co-DMing the campaign. How much of the through line is there between the four modules? Would GMing the first one […]

A Great Staging Example from Blades In The Dark

I had a great time again at the spring edition of Intrigue Con. I was hoping to GM but did not get time to pull a game together. However, I enjoyed playing in D&D 5E, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Blades in the Dark games. The Blades game had a wonderful example of two GMing techniques […]

Storymastery: Don’t Make This Mistake with Your Reveals

Reveal something at the wrong time and it could backfire. But have a little patience, and your grand effects will dazzle. I was on an adventure consulting call last week with Adventure Building Workshop member Michael, and something we discussed was the timing of a prophecy in his campaign. In my experience, introduce a prophecy […]

Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #464 — 12 Disasters in Fantasy Campaigns

Contents: This Week’s Tips Summarized A Brief Word From Johnn Reader Tips Requests 12 Disasters in Fantasy Campaigns Game Master Tips & Tricks New GM Advice @ CampaignMastery.com This Week’s Tips Summarized 12 Disasters in Fantasy Campaigns 12 Disasters in Fantasy Campaigns Game Master Tips & Tricks Getting To Know Your Players Atlas Obscura Looking […]

Tips For New GMs Creating Campaign Outlines For The First Time — RPT#680

In RPT#676 I posted this tip request from your fellow reader From: Kristin Hello! I am a newbie GM trying to create a campaign for Pathfinder for the first time. I am completely at a loss for what to do. I have been working on my own world since I was about 16. I’m coming up […]

10 Easy Ways To Think On Your Feet Better

Contents: This Week’s Tips Summarized A Brief Word From Johnn 10 Easy Ways To Think On Your Feet Better Readers’ Tips Of The Week This Week’s Tips Summarized 10 Easy Ways To Think On Your Feet Better Answer Questions With A Question Plan, Scan, Action Make Puns Highlight Your Notes Breathe Build On Ideas, Don’t […]

Spy Missions: Covert Considerations for the Whole Party — RPT#641

Spy missions will challenge you to create a world of espionage, high stakes, and stealth where your spy PCs shine while their less stealthy PC allies ruin everything!

Horde-ing => Creating Factions the Fast and Easy Way — RPT#643

Quick Navigation The WarningWhat A CrocThundertreeThe Order of the DragonWrap UpDecide On The Goal Of The GroupDecide On Resources The Group Has At Their DisposalDetail One Or Two People Who Are The Faces Of The GroupPick An Additional Secret About The GroupDecide On The Competency Level Of The GroupWrapping UpBrief Word From JohnnSession 7: Torm’s […]

67 Questions To Make Your Players Roleplay More

Here’s a great technique to get your players roleplaying more. Have NPCs ask them questions. But not just any questions. Yes/No questions, for example, don’t get players talking or thinking much. Good NPC questions provide another boon: they give you ideas to steal for later use. While the players answer the NPC, you log their […]

Campaign’s Pillars: How To Pacing Your Game’s Exciting Moments

Manage pace during sessions instead of scripting it. This lets you react to your game as it unfolds and is one less strict plan you must track. But, leaving pace to encounter-level decisions burdens you with yet another thing. Until you’ve made pacing a habit and can spot opportunities to switch energy up mid-session, it […]

d6 Ways To Spice Up Next Session

Next session, let’s mix it up. Let’s make things more fun for ourselves and our players using these d6 tables of dangers, goals, and plot twists for ideas.

Should You Run Easy Combats?

I posted something on Reddit and got a great tangential comment from user/ChristopherDornan. He advocates for occasional easy combats, which I agree with. Here’s his excellent comment: Don’t underestimate the value of an easy combat. It does two things, both are incredibly important. It drives home that PCs are heroes, and much stronger than your […]

Get Into Gamespace Faster With A Good Session Warm-Up

Sometimes you have a rough transition between everyone arriving for a game and the game starting. Everyone catching up on news, one player looking everywhere for missing dice, another player bugging you with min/max ploys. It’s raucous. When you do finally catch everyone’s attention, it still takes awhile for players to ease into character and […]

Use This 10 Idea Checklist To Fix Your Pacing

How to manage your Session Pacing better with this cool “midpoint” checklist. Use this tool halfway through sessions to crank up table energy again.

Is Running Two Game Masters A Disaster?

I’ve had mixed success with co-GMing. First, let’s talk perils.

This GM Is Burned Out On The Grid

It is amazing how RPGs can flex to accommodate our GMing preferences and style. A game like Monopoly allows little difference each play. But our beloved RPGs are marvellous in how many ways we can tweak and adapt them to match our individual and changing notions of what’s fun. For example, RPT GM Jorge Gonzalez […]

Drawing Maps Based On Cultures

RPT GM Mike G sent me this tip about treasure, and a comment about building an alien culture: Regarding PCs getting anxious for treasure — if they are far from home, throw a big box of treasure in their lap. It need not be a giant statue — just something they cannot easily pocket. It […]