Roleplaying Tips Blog

Dang Megadungeons Break My Heart

The problem with megadungeons is I get bored of them and the campaign stalls. But here’s four clever ways to drop them into your games and use them well.

RPT#128 – Different Ways Of Kinging It: A Quick Look At Alternative Traditions Of Monarchy

A Brief Word From Johnn Monarchy Tips For World Building This week we have an awesome world building article for GMs who are serious about their campaigns, or for game masters who just want a cool story idea or two. I personally found it a most interesting read and I hope you enjoy it and […]

Wandering Monsters Make Great Plots – A Three Step Recipe

Wandering monsters chop prep time and prevent railroading. Here’s my three-step system for creating great wandering monster tables and clever plots.

What If?… Plot Seeds Generator

What are seeds? In my lingo, a seed is an idea not fleshed out yet. For example, good drow running from evil kin. It’s an idea but not a plan. And here’s how to…

What Are Seeds And Hooks?

Anon GM wrote in with this request about seeds and hooks: I need your help with something embarrassing. I have been DMing for years now and realized there is something that seems to be foundational to game play and I kind of don’t know anything about it.

I have read your tips and have read in multiple places about seeds and hooks. What are they and how do I use them?

How to Avoid a TPK When GMing Intense Encounters

With the Encounter Intensify Technique you increase the stakes during an encounter to give your players a jolt of adrenaline. Just when you think it can’t get worse or more desperate, it does.

A reader asked me how to avoid wiping the party, because I advised picking a moment when encounter outcome seems dubious. Pick a low moment for the PCs to ramp up that intensity.

It’s just like in the movies. Something bad happens to the hero. As the hero struggles, something even worse happens, putting the audience on the edge of its seat.

Spinning Up The Idea Machine

Take any idea you have and brainstorm 10 ways you can make an encounter or situation out of it. Think of it as an Idea Machine. Here’s how to do this.

The Quarantine

So what do I do with new adventure ideas? I ask a simple question and brainstorm answers for a couple minutes. If I like the answers, then I incorporate the idea into my campaign.

Interview With Philip Athans

I got on Skype and interviewed Philip Athans last week. We chatted about adventure design, monsters, items, and more. Philip is the author of Writing Monsters and The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction. He used to work for Wizards of the Coast and has penned several books over the years and edited dozens.

Orc Generator Creates 20 Orcs In 20 Seconds

Today I show you how I used the new goblin generator in Campaign Logger as an orc generator to create d20 orcs in under half a minute. But first, a quick backstory. Vargulf drank out of a magical pool. It made him forever afraid of orcs. There’s a half-orc in the party. Kriv. That doesn’t […]

Make Your Encounters Intense

Static RPG encounters become predictable. We roll initiative. PCs choose their targets. Grind until the last hit point. However, there’s a concept I’ve penned in my upcoming 5 Room Dungeons book called Intensify. Use this technique to make encounters come alive, surprise the PCs, and keep your players thoroughly entertained.

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 & […]

A campaign reboot view in snowy Salmon Arm, B.C.

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.

RPG Adventure Themes tie the whole room together

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 […]

Campaign Logger game master organization app for RPG

Create Your Own Generator Using Campaign Logger’s Engine

The Campaign Logger RPG app includes a generic engine you can use to create your own generators for the app. It works by defining how the result should look and then providing tables from which to pick elements for the desired result. It’s a bit like making Mad Libs. Here’s a tutorial.

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