Recently, I posted a request from a GM who needed help putting the fear of death and consequences into his players. Thanks to everyone who responded with tips and advice! Below is the original request. Following that are all the responses sent in. The original request from mrmike65: I’d like to pose a problem I […]
Continue readingI posted a request from a GM who needed help putting the fear of death and consequences into his players. Last week, you heard from several readers with advice and suggestions. This week, we wrap up on this topic with the remaining half of responses received. Thanks again to everyone who wrote in. Original request […]
Continue readingFrom: Jack Butler 1. Read Superhero Comics Now, I’m not saying go out and spend your life’s savings on comic books, but you should get yourself a nice selection of titles and read them over. Find a series with characters you recognize from other media (like Batman, Superman or Spider-Man) and buy five or six […]
Continue readingFrom: Eric FitzMedrud Game Master Feature Article There is a lot of material out there about managing gaming groups, helping players get what they want, helping the players have fun, and fulfilling players’ wishes. However, I only know of just one article that tells players how to meet the GM’s needs or how to increase […]
Continue readingGame Master Feature Article Thanks to everyone who responded to the Reader Tip Request in Issue #471. Roleplaying Tips asked: How do you use ROLL-playing to add to the fun of the ROLE-playing aspect of your game? Let players describe critical hits in detail? Ask players to explain why their character failed when they botch […]
Continue readingFrom: Mark L. Chance 1. Research You can’t run a superhero game and not read comic books. Better yet, read comic books that feature superhero teams. The best one to start with is DC’s Justice Society of America. This series features consistently good characterization, interesting plots, great villains, and has decades of history behind it. […]
Continue readingFrom: James Edward Raggi IV Success and Failure The most important thing to remember when constructing an adventure is to not assume that the PCs will succeed at any point during the adventure. As a referee, your job is to be completely impartial during game play. You have absolute power at the game table and […]
Continue readingWelcome to the final part of the superheroes tips series. This week features a number of individual tips from readers who write in response to a request made in Issue #472. Prepare NPCs and Locations, Not Encounter Sequences From: Jolle Lont In a superhero campaign, the players have absurdly strong powers. They will use them […]
Continue readingFrom: Scott J. Compton I’d like to talk to you about a touchy subject, which I’m going to call, “the cheating player.” Have you ever stopped to think about why some players will go to great lengths to cheat in a role-playing game? They use older or weighted dice, forget to remove hit points, play […]
Continue readingFrom: Johnn Four Law enforcement in fantasy games presents GMs with a dilemma. a) Do you let the guards do their jobs, which means most PCs will soon get into trouble and must duck and cover or fight the guard at every turn? b) Do you let the PCs run rampant, causing murder and mayhem, […]
Continue readingFrom: Ria Kennedy 1. Create Events and Timeline Designing a campaign can be so overwhelming that GMs prefer to make it up as they go and hope they can somehow hold it all together. I have found simple tricks to make a light, simple campaign that is elegantly flexible but fleshed out just enough to […]
Continue readingFrom: Kate Manchester PC Histories are one of the most ignored parts of a character sheet, but for a GM, it can prove to be one of the most vital. Here are some ways to get the most value from a PC’s biography. 1. Require A Background Require all characters to have a background story. […]
Continue readingFrom: Hannah Lipsky There are tons of tips for how to be a better DM. Most of them involve a lot of time: carefully planning out encounters, documenting plot threads, tracking down the perfect NPC portrait. But even the least prepared DM has still invested a fair amount of time into the game. Many suggestions […]
Continue readingFrom: Johnn Four 1. Give City Encounters a Backstory To make an encounter compelling it needs a backstory. Create a layer behind what the players see, which they can peel back and discover if they so choose. This adds depth, exploration and player control to your urban games, while keeping things manageable behind the screen. […]
Continue readingFrom: Hannah Lipsky You might have noticed that I haven’t been around for the past couple months. That’s because I’ve been in the process of uprooting my entire life and moving it from one edge of the continent to the other. I did this in the most relaxing way possible, by which I mean taking […]
Continue readingFrom: Johnn Four A long time ago, reader Casey Dare asked for tips on romance in games. Romance adds another dimension to your games with new plots and character possibilities. The topic gets tricky in RPGs though, because of the interactive nature of the game. Hopefully the tips in this week’s issue will be of […]
Continue readingFrom: Johnn Four The idea of making the maximum use of character history was covered recently in the newsletter by Kate Manchester. Thanks Kate! http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=494 The topic has also been touched upon in issues before that. However, as I was editing Kate’s article, several more tips came to mind, and I present these below. Backgrounds, […]
Continue readingOver 720 entries were submitted to the City Encounters contest. That smashes my goal of 500 to celebrate that many issues – thanks to everyone who entered! Winners have been contacted and prizes distributed. All entries will be available for download soon. In the meantime, I have sifted through and picked 100 entries that I […]
Continue readingThe final batch of my top 100 contest entries. View the first batch at the website: http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=500 To inspire your ongoing, check out these files and tools: Random City Encounter Generator. This takes all the entries and randomly picks them for you. A great way to cure GM block or find inspiration in the middle […]
Continue readingThis week’s feature article is inspired by three things. First is a couple of reader requests that I’ve been neglecting about getting PCs together for the first time and kicking off campaigns. Apologies to James S., Patrick R. and Matthew I. for the delay in these tips. Second, last issue I rambled on about encouraging […]
Continue readingFrom: Mark Moncrieff When a new player joins my group and we are beginning a campaign I’ll say, “Okay, let’s start designing the party.” I can see the new guy looking at the other players as if I’m mad. Much of what I’m about to write will seem like heresy. But it works and has […]
Continue readingFrom: Joel Fox The heist is a classic scenario in fiction that, while prevalent in film media, is rarely found in pen-and paper games. The reasons for this are many, but the most important one to me is most people just don’t know where to start. Everyone knows what a heist is – most people […]
Continue readingWe finish the series, at least for the moment, about kicking off your campaign in interesting ways, with examples from RPT readers and GMMastery Yahoo! Group members. There is a nice mix here of action and roleplaying starts, so there should be something for every GM. 1. Last campaign I played in had an interesting […]
Continue readingFrom: Curn Bounder Amongst tabletop roleplayers, it is often said that nothing brings a halt to a suspenseful narrative better than “Roll for initiative.” However, there is little that can be done about it. Most games people play, including the controlled chaos of a football field (or pitch depending on how you just read football), […]
Continue readingBy way of introduction, my name is John, I’m in my thirties, I live in Germany and I’ve been a thankful reader of this newsletter for quite some time now. I started role-playing at the age of 14, and my preferred system is the Palladium Fantasy Role Playing Game. As with probably some of you, […]
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