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Author Archives: Johnn Four

10 Easy Ways To Think On Your Feet Better

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #388 10 Easy Ways To Think On Your Feet Better A reader recently told me this: “I never feel very proficient at running sessions – I am better at prepping them. I don’t think well on my feet – I tend to need time to consider things.” I don’t believe there is […]

The Art of Propaganda: 7 Tactics to Influence Character Behavior

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #389 The Art of Propaganda: 7 Tactics to Influence Character Behavior From Johnn Four A favourite marketing blog, Dosh Dosh, recently posted about how bloggers can use propaganda in their promotional campaigns to emotionally engage readers. Blog author Maki notes these methods aren’t for deceiving people with false or misleading information, but […]

Players, Meet Your Characters

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #390 Players, Meet Your Characters From Johnn Four A reader sent in the following request about new players getting to know each other and their characters: Hi Johnn, I hate introducing a new group of players (and more importantly, their characters). When they come out to game for the first time, it’s […]

Motivating Yourself As A GM

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #391 Motivating Yourself As A GM From Kit Reshawn This was written in response to the cry from help from the GM who is finding it hard to find motivation. Below is a list of tips that help keep me motivated and avoid GM Burnout. Keep A Designated GM Planning Time Get […]

Assembling The Party – Reconciling Diverse Backgrounds

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #392 Assembling The Party – Reconciling Diverse Backgrounds From Johnn Four There are a few challenges when assembling a new party for a campaign, and one of them is reconciling diverse backgrounds. How do you explain a group of strangers sticking together, especially if they are a bizarre zoo party, which some […]

Have Fun With Factions

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #393 Have Fun With Factions From Loz Newman Here’s a bit of help for GMs who get bogged down in campaign creation: don’t sweat the small stuff. Economise your creative energies to avoid nasty pitfalls. An example of this is factions. When I create a campaign world, I know a big part […]

Court Etiquette: Do’s and Don’ts

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #394 Court Etiquette: Do’s and Don’ts From Stephie How many plot lines or quests has a DM or player dealt with that were nobility-driven? When dealing with nobility and court settings, players sometimes skip the roleplay aspect and jump straight to behavior such as, “I bow, greet all in the court, and […]

Mapping Tips For Inns, Taverns, And Restaurants

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #395 Mapping Tips For Inns, Taverns, And Restaurants From John Simcoe and Johnn Four The following mapping tips are from my recently released book, GM Mastery: Inns, Taverns, and Restaurants. For more information about this book, see the end of this e-zine. http://roleplayingtips.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=51416 Basic Layout Features Restaurants, taverns, and inns require simple […]

Start Campaigns With Unrelated One-Shot Adventures

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #396 Start Campaigns With Unrelated One-Shot Adventures From Hannah L. My first D&D character was a mage who didn’t know the spell Magic Missile. As laughable as that sounds, I’m sure most gamers have been in a similar situation: you’re building a PC for a brand new campaign, and, not wholly clear […]

The Spiral Method of World Building

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #397 The Spiral Method of World Building From Hannah L. One of a GM’s biggest investments in a campaign is world- building, and with all of the advice out there, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. A complete world needs a social structure, a culture, a map, weather, a currency system, an ecology, […]

Why Use Inns, Taverns, and Restaurants?

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #398 Why Use Inns, Taverns, and Restaurants? From John Simcoe and Johnn Four In addition to providing characters with food, shelter, and a place to party, inns, taverns, and restaurants are wonderful player and GM tools. We GMs sometimes fall into the trap of running the same variations over and over. We […]

The Rule To Making Good Rules And Other Useful Tips

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #399 The Rule To Making Good Rules And Other Useful Tips From Tony Reeves Published with permission from Dragonsfoot.org This article originally appeared at: DMTips The following is an article I wrote for new DMs based on my own observations as a player and DM over the last 20 years. As a […]

7 Ways To Roleplay Factions Better

How do you run and portray factions in your campaign? Are your factions full of life and rich gameplay? Or are they vague mentions in your world? You can tell how well a faction gets roleplayed by how much interest your players show in interacting with the group. For example, three signs players don’t care […]

Who’s Fault Is It? Yours?

RPT GM Duane V. asked me this interesting question about the responsibility of the GM: Hi Johnn. I was reading your latest DM Tips and a question that has bugged me for a while popped into my mind. In politics, we blame the leader if things go badly; in sport, we blame the coach; in […]

Add Lost Civilizations To Your World

Been watching a lot of history videos on Youtube lately. I especially like the short ones with time lapse maps of changing settlements and populations. For example, this one on Europe from 400 BC to present. It’s fascinating to see how countries grow, shrink, migrate, and disappear. On a similar note, my civilization schema for […]

Build Your World With This Cool Map

Brief word: Roleplaying Tips Monthly Round-Up — October 2019 Here’s a simple world-building method from Reddit user MordecaiKravits. [OC] Finally developed a world building method that appeals to my love of hexagons and straight lines. This a relationship map he created that illustrates the technique: In his words: I’ve been trying to create a sleek […]

Law Vs. Lore — My Thoughts On Rules and Fudging Rolls

I hear many GMs fudge rolls and regard every rule as changeable on their whim. Here’s my philosophy, which has changed over the years, and is now at a place I think makes for better gaming with my friends. Law vs. Lore First, a couple of RPT definitions. Law Law is the rules. It’s the […]

9 Secret Agents For Your Game

I like this list from Cheka Man in RPT#461. It speaks to me of archetypes and story roles. And I like those because they are reusable containers you can fill again and again. For example, The Idealist. They’d rather be somewhere else. By being someone else. Tough gig. In one plot you can make this […]

How To GM Knowledge (Local)

Today we talk about playing at a different level than your players to make your adventures more challenging. We begin with RPT Platinum Patron Mark Aston asking a great question about players using a local knowledge type skill: Hi Johnn, I have never really got to grips with how to run the skill Knowledge (Local), […]

Mystery Game Tips

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #400 Mystery Game Tips From Danny East Mystery Games are gaining popularity, as much for the challenge of GMing them as for the challenge of playing. Intrigue, deceit, and evidence were easy enough for Sherlock Holmes, but outside of a good module or the RPG translation of a popular movie or book, […]

Keep The Peace Part 1

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #401 Keep The Peace Part 1 From Joel Fox 10 Tips To Bring The Party Back Together and Keep It That Way Characters in the same party often fight each other; it’s sad but true. They disagree on tactics, faith, politics, and an infinite number of other things. The task of keeping […]

Keep The Peace, Part 2

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #402 Keep The Peace Part 2 From Joel Fox 10 Tips To Bring The Party Back Together and Keep It That Way Last week, in part 1, we discussed the different expectations and backgrounds of the players sitting down at the gaming table. Conflicts arising from these issues are easiest solved at […]

Win A Xancrown Mini

To celebrate the Demonplague campaign launching on Amazon, I’m holding a fun giveaway. You could get a 3D printed mini of the campaign’s demonic villain, Xancrown. Here’s a picture of the mini: Imagine your players’ faces when you introduce this guy to the table: How to Enter the Giveaway The giveaway is open to any […]

15 Holiday Adventures

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #403 15 Holiday Adventures From JL Hatlen Linnell. You can catch part Part 1 at: http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=344 The Great Eel-Culling Black Harbor is a vibrant trading community built on the mouth of a large river and the open end of a busy harbor. The harbor itself has only a narrow passage to the […]

Creating Memorable Enemy Groups

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #404 Creating Memorable Enemy Groups From Danny East Most campaigns have not one single enemy, like a Tekken or Street Fighter video game, but have a boss enemy at the end. Such boss type games are more akin to fighting King Bowser after jumping on all the Goombas. Here are a few […]

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