Villainous Banter: Using Propp’s Reconnaissance Scene
From Phil Nicholls Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #694 In RPT#692 I introduced you to the work of Vladimir Propp and his underlying story structure of 31 Scenes. While his sequence is too linear to use as a campaign framework, you can use several of the individual scenes as encounter design tips. Today I’ll dig into scene […]
Continue readingHow to Roleplay NPC Mannerisms
From James Introcaso Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #693 Memorable non-player characters are distinct. Whether you created an NPC or it came out of a published adventure, it is up to you as game master to make each quest giver, tavern goer, and orc slaver different from the rest. The key to creating a believable, distinct cast […]
Continue readingTriage 101: Five Ways To Get Players Unstuck
From Anson Brehmer Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #692 Getting the PCs to do things is like herding cats. It’s hard to get them all pointed in a single direction, and sometimes they get lost and confused about what it is they should be doing. If you’re trying to give guidance to the group, but don’t want […]
Continue readingSpace Opera Part 3: Making It Personal
From Christopher Sniezak Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #691 I love space opera, laser swords, and ray guns, jet bikes in space swooping around ships bigger than they are and winning. These epic stories in vast galaxies sometimes take place a long time ago, far far away, and sometimes they’re in our own time and space, but […]
Continue readingHow To Fill In The Blanks – Drawing Maps Dungeon World Style
From Phil Nicholls Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #690 Dungeon World by Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel builds upon the ground breaking Apocalypse World by Vincent D Baker. Along with bringing a real OSR feel to indie gaming, Dungeon World includes fantastic advice for the GM. The first Dungeon World principle is to draw maps but leave […]
Continue readingGM Burnout: Tips For Prevention and Recovery
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #689 After awhile you don’t want to get ready for and run games anymore. You get writer’s block. You dread game day and find any reason to postpone. You feel uncreative and stressed out before each looming game day deadline. It’s a tough spot to be in. And I’ve been there. Maybe […]
Continue readingThe Card Grid – The Fastest Way To Map Your Kingdom With Adventure Sites
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #688 What Does Your Kingdom Look Like? From John Large A kingdom map helps you and your players see how your kingdom fits together. Players will use it to decide where they want to travel and what challenges to tackle next. However, a map too detailed and complex harms gameplay. It blocks […]
Continue reading7 Tips for Creating Awesome Legends
From Anson Brehmer Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #687 Back in Issue #599, Johnn presented a method called “Heroes & Legends” in which he outlined a quick method for generating a story that exemplified a hero from a culture. It’s a great method for generating stories that contain nuggets of information you can use to roleplay people […]
Continue readingWrangling Unruly Campaign Outlines: How To Keep Track of Plot Threads
From James Introcaso Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #686 At the end of a long campaign, I want my players and I to feel totally satisfied. I mean the sort of satisfaction one gets when a story wraps up with no question unanswered. The kind of story that ends with every major character’s arc finished and accounted. […]
Continue readingSpace Opera Part 2: Building The Setting Core Elements
From Christopher Sniezak Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #685 What is the standard sci-fi setting? This is debatable, but for this I’m using TV Tropes as my basis, so let’s go with their definition: In the far future, the [faction a] fights a pitched battle against the mighty [faction b] Empire, but deep in the mysterious [region […]
Continue readingKingdom Building Part II: Who Rules the Kingdom?
From John Large Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #684 Knowing who is in power is important in any game where you want locations to serve as more than a simple backdrop, because the character of those in positions of power often reflects that of the kingdom itself. Having your ruler emphasize the themes of your kingdom will […]
Continue readingCountdown to the Apocalypse: Six Ways to Raise the Stakes
From Phil Nicholls Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #683 In RPT#666 I wrote an article explaining how to improvise rising action during the game. This approach adds tension at a tactical level, looking at the story one encounter at a time. However it is also possible to add increasing tension as a fundamental structure to the story. […]
Continue readingWhat Is Space Opera? And How Do You Make It?
From Christopher Sniezak Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #682 Hello RPT readers. My name is Chris Sniezak and with the approach of Star Wars: The Force Awakens I think I’m gonna write about space opera for a few months. After a few discussions with Johnn “RPT” Four – insert Johnn’s head on a giant blue genie in […]
Continue readingHow To Create Your Kingdom’s History
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #681 The Importance of History How your kingdom plays in the present is influenced by events that have occurred in the past. For example, if a kingdom has been invaded numerous times over the course of its history, then it may have built up a large army or border wall to repel […]
Continue readingCombat Missions for War + Animated Objects + One Unique Thing for NPCs
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #648 How to Send the Party on Decisive Missions that Turn the Tide of War From Tony Medeiros Ever struggle with how your PCs can make a difference in war campaigns while the battle rages on all around them? I have the solution for you today: make them war heroes. Send your […]
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Online RPG With VTT: How To Engage Players Better
An RPT GM asked how he could help his player engage more and roleplay better after switching to online Virtual Tabletop (VTT) games. Several GMs wrote in with fantastic tips. Thank you! Here’s what they said.
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Quick Plot Design: How To Create A Villain Plan First Draft
Been working on my campaigns and thinking a lot about villain plans. I like to craft a roadmap for how the villain can win their goal. I call this Villain Win-State. And that road map becomes my adventure outline for villain type adventures. So what are the first couple of steps for making an awesome […]
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Adventure Building Tip: Must All Encounters Advance The Plot?
RPT GM Joshua asks: “Do all encounters need to advance the plot?” My answer is yes. But with a twist I’ll explain in today’s article. A session is made up of encounters. Encounters make up adventures. Adventures make campaigns. To speak about encounters I first need to speak about adventures. That’s one level up. We […]
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How To Detail An Encounter In Less Than A Minute: Dangers, Discoveries, Impressions
Here’s an encounter tip for you today, pulled out of my Adventure Building Master Game Plan, which launches later this year. Once I get to the encounter building phase, I start digging into the details. I’ve got a Campaign Game Plan created, and an Adventure Game Plan built, by the time I reach this stage. […]
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How Do You Make Encounters More Interesting? — Introducing The Chorus Line
What to do with NPCs in the background to make encounters more interesting? That thought came to me as I bumped into a random blog post on writing, and this snippet jumped out at me: One of the things to watch out for when choreographing a scene is the chorus line – any people who […]
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Monster Design Tip: Take Away The Sun
Do you know how the eyeball works? It’s fascinating. Think about a camera for a moment. You point your camera at what you want to photograph. The shutter opens and closes to control the amount of light. A slow shutter action lets in more light. Great for dim conditions but poor for motion. Fast shutter […]
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8 Ideas For Your Next Adventure
RPT GM and Adventure Building Workshop alumni Jesse Cohoon reached out and asked if he could help with the newsletter. Thanks Jesse! I asked him to come up with some adventure seeds, as game masters often get stuck for ideas. Here’s what he came up with for us: Fey Games A group of fey has […]
Continue readingCustomizing Common Races – Part 2
From Mike Bourke Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #291 Continuing on from last week, here are the final categories for you to consider fleshing out as you craft a racial profile that differs from official sources for your rules system. The monster race customization processes described in the following tips and those in last week’s article rely […]
Continue reading6 More Monstrous Tips
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #292 In July, Roleplaying Tips Weekly ran a contest for monster related tips of all kinds. Subscribers responded with nearly 100 entries, and many prizes were handed out. Below are a handful of entries from the contest. May your critters live long and prosper! Filling A Niche From Sparrow You might want […]
Continue readingTips for Setting Up Pbems & Pbps
From Leslie Holm Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #293 Online Roleplaying is a huge animal, encompassing MUSHs, MUDDs, SIMs, PBeMs, PBPs…the list goes on. In this article, I focus on PBeMs (Play By e-mail) and PBPs (Play By Post, or forum based games). Roleplaying online is no longer just for people who don’t live near a gaming […]
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