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Author Archives: Johnn Four

Player Reward Cards

A bit of inspiration for you. RPT GM Richard Grilley created some cool player card props to reward his players with. Here's how he did it.

Campaign Logger game master organization app for RPG

Campaign Logger Gets Images, List & More

We just posted a couple of updates to the Campaign Logger Web App. Images in Log Entries You can now embed external images into Log Entries.This is a huge feature you've been asking for.Host your images on a cloud drive, or reference any image on the internet. The notation to add an image into a […]

September Blog Carnival: Adventure Favourites

Thanks to of Dice & Dragons for hosting last month's carnival on Celebrations. This month the theme is Adventure Favourites. I don't know about you, but some adventures stick clearly in my mind years after GMing or playing them. Crazy moments, crushing defeats, and epic finales. I've even got a bucket list going of adventures […]

How To Think Like An Alien

To keep your adventures wondrous have players encounter strange communities who think completely different. This makes roleplay novel and interesting. It also creates a cool puzzle. As characters parley, your players will try to understand the behaviours of the NPCs, what they want, and why. That's the key to the puzzle. GM the NPC behaviours […]

Ideas For Handling Experience Points

In a recent newsletter, I mused about using gold pieces from treasure as experience points. My inbox exploded. Dozens of you wrote in. Some of you were upset. I mean, ALL CAPS UPSET. And some of you were over the moon and loved the idea. First off, thank you so much for reading this newsletter! […]

How To Level Up Players With Reward Systems

We've mused how motivating yourself to be a better GM makes you happier. Those who pursue intrinsic goals are happier because they control more of their destiny. Now let's talk about our players, who are probably a mixed bag of intrinsic and extrinsic interests.

Rewarding The Game Master - A Simple Framework

The games we play and the people who play them are complex. We cannot simply write a script and have the audience passively follow along, clapping when the applause sign lights up. We play an interactive game in a social environment. Everyone wants a role to play and the ability to affect outcomes. Player agency might come easy to you or not. For me, it's on the difficult side....

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic: The Cause of Your Gaming Woes?

Here's something key to understand about yourself and your players. People are motivated by some combination and degree of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Learn what these are for each person in your group to better tailor your game rewards. Rewards that fit, like the right key to the right lock, help your game become a satisfying campaign.

How To Stop Campaigns From Fizzling Out

An approach to creating stories with compelling hooks and logical arcs. Avoid campaigns fizzling because you can't keep the players or yourself sufficiently engaged in the story.

How To Use Plotto For Plot Conflicts

The core of Plotto, as far as I'm concerned, is the list of 1,462 plot conflicts. However, I don't use Plotto as it was originally intended for constructing a plot. Instead, I use a stripped-down approach that I find easier to adapt for RPG adventure creation.

The Elvis Hook For PCs

A cool idea from a friend: the GM has prepared a music festival in a town the PCs will travel to. And the festival is a gathering of cover bands who perform the famous PC bard's best songs....

How to Create Cool Magic Item Backgrounds in 60 Seconds

Give your magic item a quick history. Then use the history to tie a whole bunch of things together that will make you look like a genius. To flesh out your item’s lore fast, follow these four simple steps.

RPT#213 - Paranoia: Shattering The Trust Part III: Minor In-Game Events

Paranoia: Shattering The Trust Part III: Minor In-Game Events By Ross Shingledecker (~Acolyte) Click here to read the Paranoia: Shattering The Trust Part I Click here to read the Paranoia: Shattering The Trust Part II This group of tips refers to small things that will unnerve your players without radically altering your plot or campaign […]

Kill GM Procrastination With Your First Move

When game master procrastination hits, I do what I call my First Move. Nail your first move, and prep instantly gets a lot easier.

Sandbox Adventures - 5 Essential Ingredients

I got my first taste of sandbox adventure play in B2: Keep on the Borderlands. The PCs based themselves in The Keep and forayed into the Wild. A crazy hermit shared the location of several caves nearby, confirmed dangerous, rumoured with riches.As the party crested a hill, a horseshoe valley stretched before them, rings of caves […]

Millions of Colours Now in Campaign Logger

We've added a couple new features to the Campaign Logger web app. First, though, Jochen and I are considering making an important change to Campaign Logger. Should We Open CL Up For Add-On Development? We're thinking of opening the app up even more so developers can build and share their own add-ons and features in javascript.For example, […]

RPG Blog Carnival - Short Dungeons & Adventures

This month's RPG Blog Carnival is about Short Dungeons & Adventures.

Campaign Logger New Features and Updates

Jochen and I have had a fairly productive summer working on Campaign Logger. We hope you've had a chance to use the app in the past couple of months because that means you're either gaming or prepping to game!Here's a bit of a laundry list of what's changed for the web app. Here's a bit of […]

A Secret Society Of Character-Hunters For Your Campaign

This month's RPG Blog Carnival is about Occult Mysteries and Magic. To celebrate that theme, here is a quick and adversarial secret society idea for your campaign. The Masters of Destiny These guys hunt adventurers. They believe an ancient evil will soon awake, but the world is doomed because there are no heroes powerful enough […]

8 Ways To Use Riddles

I have rivers without water, Forests without trees, Mountains without rocks Towns without houses. I love riddles. You've probably got a book of riddles on your shelf, too. But when your campaign or adventure theme does not support classic dungeon riddle play, how do you put riddles in your campaign? Here are a few ideas. […]

How to Use the Other Kind of Intelligence

Recently I challenged you to place a spy in the party. In response, RPT reader Joshua Barry wrote in with some excellent tips on Tactical vs. Strategic spying with some great fantasy examples I'd like to share with you today. Let's dive in! [graphic-divider] I'd like to expand on your definition of a spy and look […]

The King's Man

I watched a crime show last night. Turns out the thug who was busted on suspicion of capping the victim is an undercover federal agent. A King's Man. Today I want you to add a spy in your game.

Campaign Logger Now on the Apple Store

Big news for Campaign Logger, my campaign organisation and sleek session logging app: Campaign Logger for iPad is now available! For iPad folks, this means the tool now runs natively on your favourite device, and you can access all your data and run it offline. You can get the iPad version of Campaign Logger directly […]

Import Your Hero Lab Characters Into Campaign Logger

How to Import Characters from Hero Lab You can now export character portfolios from Hero Lab and import them as tagged NPCs in Campaign Logger. Note that this is a beta feature. We've only tested this with D&D 5E portfolios. If you encounter any bugs, please let us know and send over your Hero Lab portfolio […]

Megadungeons: Drama Works Best When There Are Contrasting Moods

Today's Musing is part of this month's RPG Blog Carnvial about megadungeons is brought to you by RPT reader Ydars who wrote in response to my recent piece about how Dang Megadungeons Break My Heart. He's got some great ideas I want to share with you: Dear Johnn, Megadungeons are difficult beasts to run because […]

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