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Author Archives: Johnn Four

30 Ways To Deliver Clever Clues

You know how you want to give players clues in clever ways in-game without just blurting them out? The opportunity is there. The need is there. But nothing comes to mind. Then the moment passes and you move on, a bit disappointed, sometimes frustrated. “If only I could have thought of a great way to […]

Easier Campaigns With A Storyline Mad Lib

I tweaked my approach to Loopy Planning. I had three problems: I’m GMing three campaigns. I need to keep each plot clear in my mind and not get things mixed up. Because I like factions and side plots, even for dungeon crawls, I have about 12 plots running in each campaign. That’s 36 plots to […]

d6 Arena Combat Ideas From Your Fellow RPT GMs

I recently posted ideas to help a reader about to GM a combat with a hydra in an arena setting. You emailed me back with great additional ideas and tips. Thank you! Here’s what I received that might help any combat you run in the future: Effective Crowd Control From Jack Shandley I love the […]

Gesture, Voice & Salt — Helping Players Roleplay

Got this great question by email last week: Johnn, A lot of people at my table bring some pretty good game. I rarely roll with an accent unless there’s a good reason for it – but I have to admit it’s good for differentiating between when you’re in character vs out. Any ideas for how […]

Beg, Borrow, And Steal

Got this comment in an email the other day: “I feel guilty ripping off other people’s stuff/ideas to use in my campaigns.” I know that feeling. But I suggest you should use any source of inspiration possible to make your campaigns great. Let’s get one possible worry settled first. Is using others’ ideas for your […]

Better Session Kick-Offs — The Warm-Up Trick

Here’s a quick tip about session warm-ups. I don’t know about you, but it takes a good 15 minutes or more for my players to say hi, shed the day’s energy, and get their head into their character. Sometimes it takes longer. I don’t mind because it gives me the chance to get my head […]

Back Pocket Encounter Idea: Planar Rifts

Here’s an idea for your fantasy campaign that’s a great back pocket encounter you can drop into a session for any reason. Open up planar rifts for the characters to encounter. Below is a table pasted straight out of my Demonplague Campaign book to get us started. As part of the hexcrawl portion of the […]

Making An Arena Fight With A Hydra Memorable (5E)

Gold Patron Jack S. asked me how to make an arena fight with a hydra memorable: I’m running D&D 5e for my players. I am planning a big arena fight with a Hydra while they’re in the big city for some downtime. (It’s part of a big end-of-year adventurers showcase that I’m pretty excited for […]

Add Spikes Of Danger To Get Deeper Campaigns

An RPT GM asks about a design technique from my Adventure Building Workshop: Hey Johnn, I was reviewing the links in your 2019 Compilation and saw reference to “Spikes of Danger”. What is that referencing? I googled around and couldn’t find anything. Thanks, Paul I replied to Paul directly, but thought I’d share with you […]

A Simple But Effective Adventure Template

Sometimes all you need is a skeleton. With a few guiding bullet points, you become unblocked and inspired to create next session’s adventure. I’ve featured a couple of adventure design templates in the past, including the Hook, Line & Sinkers Mad Lib (March 2017), the Mad Lib 5 Room Dungeon Idea Generator (July 2017), the […]

3 Tips For Better Sessions

I came across this post on a blog called Semper Initativus Unum and enjoyed some of the points the poster made. Today, I thought I’d share my three favourite ideas from that post along with some commentary, with a focus on what we can do to make our sessions even better. Make a balanced world, […]

3 Common World Building Mistakes

By Danny O’neill and Ivan Sadzakov from Hammerdog Games Mistake #1: Avoiding All Tropes While it seems like everything has been done before, our favourite characters, locations, and world features fit many tropes. It’s less about being original and more about how well you execute and whether you can make these things stick. Through an […]

When A Friend Leaves Your Game

I received an email from RPT GM NK who received news from a friend: I DM a group of 8 players and the one who got the most people involved is leaving in two months across the country. The whole party is very emotional about this. Any ideas on or for the last two sessions? […]

New Trick Makes Combat A Nail Biter

Last summer I watched a video with a great tip on how to add more story and drama to my melees. I’ve been using this tip for several sessions now, and it’s made a big difference. However, this narrative tactic was tricky for me at first, especially because it’s all improv. I’m finally getting up […]

The Secret Ingredient For Great Campaigns

Give everything a secret. Sound advice from Ray Winninger’s “Dungeoncraft” column in Dragon Magazine in the late 1990s. When I read that advice it instantly clicked. Alas, it’s easier said than done. You know I like my plethora of NPCs, plots, and side plots. Ray also advised giving locations, items, and pretty much anything relevant […]

This Fantastic Keyword Puzzle

You stand before a door. Magic seals it tight. Runes begin to glow. They read: Door is closed Beneath this phrase, more runes appear: water – angry – open – window – soft I found this cool puzzle on Reddit. Here’s how it works. Characters can swap closed with a word in the list. For […]

What To Do When Retreat Is The Kiss Of Death

Have foes negotiate, retreat, or flee to end fights early. This new article by Daniel J. Mello offers great ideas about adding morale to make skirmishes faster and grittier, as well. However, while some games make retreats easy, in systems like D&D extricating oneself from combat is the kiss of death. After opportunity attacks, control […]

Make Your NPCs Unreasonable

RPT GM Mark of the Pixie sent me these great NPC tips for better stories: I have the bad habit of making NPCs too reasonable. PCs will put forward a reasonable case and I (as a person) will agree with it, and so the NPC agrees with it. Sometimes, it would make a better story […]

Military Tips

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #318 Military Tips In issue #314 we put out a request for military oriented tips. Following are some great ideas and bits of advice from your fellow Roleplaying Tips readers. Rank And Hierarchy From Max Dodge Private – Private comes from new recruits joining in defense of their land. Otherwise known as […]

How To Build A Large Character Gallery

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #319 How To Build A Large Character Gallery From James Patrick Patterson Using the methods outlined below, you can gain a large collection of non-player characters to use as pre-generated player characters or as NPCs that are just as detailed as normal PCs with little effort. Make A Copy Of All New […]

Making Magic Items Interesting

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #320 Making Magic Items Interesting From Matt Craft Boring Magic A common problem in fantasy games is that magic items, no matter how rare they’re supposed to be, end up becoming boring, commonplace tools as far as the players are concerned. A longsword +1 is just a weapon that deals an extra […]

Making Magic Items Interesting, Part 2

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #321 Making Magic Items Interesting, Part 2 Add Interesting Descriptions From Dave Schaefer You can add flavor through description. Handing out a boring, old, shield +1? Make it a tortoise shell with leather straps. Describe the shell as dark brown with orange highlights along the ridges, notched from many blows, but still […]

Making Magic Items Interesting, Part 3

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #322 Making Magic Items Interesting, Part 3 This is the last part of our scheduled Magic Items series. Stay tuned for a Supplemental Issue for download that will contain all the great tips I received regarding magic items. Thanks again to all the authors and tipsters who’ve patiently waited for their tips […]

How To Get More From Your Monsters – Part 1

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #323 How To Get More From Your Monsters – Part 1 From Andrew H. Many of the following tips have been suggested before, over the years. I hope to give you a practical spin that will enable any game master to turn a single adventure into a whole campaign. I have used […]

How To Get More From Your Monsters – Part 2

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #324 How To Get More From Your Monsters – Part 2 From Andrew H. Many of the following tips have been suggested before over the years, in this column, in gaming magazines, and elsewhere. I hope this will be a practical spin on them that will enable any game master to turn […]

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