A Fantastic Encounter Building Tool

The Inexhaustive List of Questions is an amazing RPG encounter building tool. Use it combined with the Encounter Pyramid to create awesome encounters.

Monster Challenge

Had a great game of Out of the Abyss on Friday. Lots of funny gameplay stories came out of it. Here’s two, plus a monster challenge for you.

RPT#198 – The Session Checklist: Ingredients To A Successful Game Session, Part I

A Brief Word From Johnn A very brief word this week. Hope you enjoy today’s tips and use the session checklist idea as a quality assurance tool. Sometimes, as real life encroaches on our RPG time, and also during games when things get hectic, we put our heads down and charge straight ahead. A session […]

5 Epic Monster Villains From My Campaigns – What Are Yours?

The other day I read a blog about the GM’s Top 10 mastermind monster villains. I love this idea! It’s great inspiration. So today for fun I’m sharing my favourite monster villains with you. The requirements for my list are I can only list monsters I have GM’d or made adventures for. In some cases I […]

Trick Question For You – All Players Count

Here’s a trick question for you. If you have Bob, Yuan, Amy, Bjorn, and Alejandro in your group, how many players do you need to design for to have more fun at every game? The answer is…

Prophecies & Omens – January 2017 RPG Blog Carnival

A new month is upon us, and it’s time for another RPG Blog Carnival. Sewers & Garbage But first, thanks to 6d6 for hosting December’s carnival, Sewers & Garbage. Here’s the round-up post. Prophecies & Omens Tales of the GM takes us into the New Year with a theme you might have augured: Prophecies & […]

Rebooting My Murder Hobos Campaign (And Yours) in Three Easy Steps

Here’s how I’m rebooting my Murder Hobos campaign in three easy steps, using new GMing techniques I learned in 2016 plus a few of my own design.

RPT#618: How to Get Your Players to Care

I don’t care what my players think about an NPC as long as there is some kind of emotion – funny, sad, irritated, or a good hate. Here’s how to do that.

Use Themes to Tie Your RPG Adventure’s Room Together

RPG adventure themes are the rug that ties the whole room together, man. Get theme right, and you intensify your adventures, players’ experience, and stories. Here’s an example: the hanged man.

Explosive Session Starts, Part II: Stakes and Consequences

Last Musings I spoke of explosive sessions starts. After social time, inject energy right away so the session feeds off that the rest of the night. And, it turns out, the quality of how your session starts depends a lot on how your last session ended. Who knew? If you can’t end on a cliffhanger, […]

Explosive Session Starts, Part I: The Cajun Spice List

Here’s how to take an existing planned encounter and ensure it has spice for an explosive session start.

Why do you love dungeons?

Dungeons: dark holes in the ground. What’s the attraction? Is it the loving community of hungry monsters? The helpful pits, poison needles, and crushing ceiling tiles? Maybe it’s the pleasant aromas of necrotic flesh, well-groomed creatures, and fresh flowers? I urge you to think about the big picture of each dungeon for a moment during […]

My powerfully-human way of getting players off the Kill-For-XP Track

A Roleplaying Tips GM wrote in with this problem: Johnn. My players are all about the XP! “If I can’t get XP for it, there’s no point.” Short of “I’ll give you XP if you can tell me what this quest is about” I haven’t figured out a way to get them off the “XP […]

Encounter Triangles – A New Design Tool For Your Gm Toolbox

What I like now are encounters with more than one interesting aspect. Used to be I was satisfied with a monster and some treasure. But not these days. I want my cheese and pickles too.

So I’ve come up with a draft of a technique I’m calling Encounter Triangles. Here’s the gist of it. Let me know what you think.

You Are What Your Dice Eat

Did you know we lose fat by breathing it out? It’s true. I discovered this on my quest to losing 18 pounds (and counting) this year.

The myth is we “burn” fat, or fat lost through diet and exercise breaks up and gets excreted. But scientists discovered awhile ago that’s not how it works.

The Potion Factory for Fun Faction Finagling

On theme with this month’s RPG Blog Carnival, here’s an idea for arming your next faction without destroying campaign balance: create a Factory.

The Next Action Method – Small Moments of Game Prep

When I have the major elements of my Loopy Plots figured out, I need to dig into certain details to get gameplay going and plug holes.

A tool I use to do this is my Next Action Method.

Campaign Logger New Updates

New Campaign Logger updates and bug fixes are now available for Web app users. Next time you login you should be updated instantly. Updates include new dice roller codes, enter key now does line breaks, and more.

GM Tools Carnival Wrap-Up

September’s RPG Blog Carnival was all about Game Master Tools, Aids, Apps & Hacks.

How can we be better, more efficient, more effective game masters?

Several GMs stepped up to the plate and wrote about their favourite tools and approaches…

Hello, are you listening?

Upon reflection, one of my biggest challenges is listening to the game. I’m not paying enough attention to my players. For example, how many plot hooks did I pick up from my players last session? Zero. The trick to being a happy game master is being present during games. Being in the present. If I’m […]

The pain of GMing a perfectionist player

An RPT Reader asked for tips on how to deal with a perfectionist player. Someone who “enjoys really thinking out moves and plays to make sure they picked the right one.” The player also has the “classic new player fear of doing it wrong.” “The new player part is not what I’m worried about. I […]

My players are crazy! They’re destroying treasure

Last night I could only stand there and shake my head in disbelief.

I saw them destroy not one, but two unique, custom treasures I had made for specific players….

Encounters Seeds formula part II

In a recent Musing I talked about a formula to create encounter seeds fast: What if? + one source of inspiration = one encounter seed. I also provided three example sources of inspiration: The Monster Manual The News Random Page Finally, I offered bonus points if you connect encounter seeds to each other so your plot […]

Panicked Prep For Next Session

Writer’s block. Bleh. You can’t figure out what to craft for next session. No encounter ideas come to mind. Zilch. Panic sets in as you hear the clock tick.

Here’s how I talk myself off the ledge.

New features released for Campaign Logger

The Campaign Logger app for GMs just got titillating new features you’ll find useful for your campaign wranglin’. These features make it easier to stay on top of your campaign details and make your detailed notes easier to find and read, whether it’s during the heat of a session or those creative days leading up […]