When PCs adventure together they spend most of their time as a group, and you might go out of your way to avoid splitting them up. But imagine a game that actually encourages splits and spotlights one PC at a time. Each character is involved in his own personal story, has his own network of […]
Continue readingRoleplaying is tough. And sometimes players don’t separate themselves from their characters. This causes problems. RPT Patron Richard Grilley asks: Johnn, How do you help a game table to distinguish players from characters? It is great when the brawny footballer can do a high pitch voice with a twist of Scottish accent for his female […]
Continue readingHere’s an email exchange I had with RPT GM Edward Sawlaw about how he outlines and runs his campaigns. It’s a bit of a long convo, but I thought you might find bits of it interesting. Edward: Hi Johnn. I loved the “How to Get Your Players to Care” RP Tips email. I think a […]
Continue readingSmashing until one side runs out of hit points gets tired fast. In Faster Combat I teach you to add story to the fight. When melee gains greater meaning, players get more engaged. While adding story, be sure to make the stakes known before the battle starts. Now players will think about the stakes and […]
Continue readingRPT GM Krys sent me this article on The GM’s Ten Commandments. While an old article from 1987, it still has some good advice. The first of Volny’s commandments made me stop and reflect: Do not consider the players as adversaries “If the players quickly neutralize or bypass these clever entrapments, the GM often has […]
Continue readingI was working on a new Faster Combat lesson about the Action Economy last weekend and a lightbulb went off. I know exactly what I want to deliver each time you and I describe something to our players. This applies to descriptions for encounters, NPCs, items, monsters, and locations. This applies to boxed text, bullet […]
Continue readingRPT GM Ed Marley asks: I was wondering if you had any tips on how to take notes during a session. Not what tool to use, but the logistics of taking notes mid-session. I find the give-and-take between the players and I during the action is fast and fun and I don’t want to disrupt […]
Continue readingStarting From Scratch From: Mike Kohler Building a world is one of the most difficult things you can do. It is complicated, time consuming and exhausting. It is also one of the most rewarding things you’ll do in your DM career. Here are a few things I’ve learned about building worlds. 1. Start Small And […]
Continue readingFrom: Mark Knights Sometimes games take you out of your comfort zone. You feel pressure to perform for your group. You get nervous. This commonly afflicts new GMs, but can happen to you even after years of gaming. Here are 10 tips to help you overcome pre-game nerves. 1. Know What You Are Covering Be […]
Continue readingFrom: Johnn Four The Pathfinder Character Workbooks Berin Kinsman created are selling like hotcakes (whatever that means :). And while grabbing them for my own campaign, Chaos Keep, I thought of a few different cool ways to get even more use out of them. I also have a few tips to share on levelling up […]
Continue readingFrom: Jesse C. Cohoon Horror games are difficult to run because players know they’re in a horror game and they often deal with well-known monsters. Here are some ways to challenge your players and keep them on their toes. 1. Be Secretive With Monsters In the best horror movies you only see the aftereffects of […]
Continue readingReader Mailbag Old GM Picks Up Screen Again Hi Johnn, My name is Fred, a 32 year old acupuncturist from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I’m also a long term follower and subscriber of RPTips (since 2006, I guess) and had been playing RPG since AD&D 90’s era. I’m gonna run a Pathfinder campaign, but it’s […]
Continue readingWhen is Treasure not Treasure? From: Rick Stump For the last two game years the main party of my campaign has been building a joint stronghold. The fighter is creating a large castle that will contain a cathedral for the cleric and two towers for the magic users. The thief will have a hidden fastness […]
Continue readingHelp Players Work Together With Teamwork Bonuses From: Johnn Four One of my players, Dwayne, also GMs his own group. He and I were chatting before last session of my game and he had an awesome tip. For his new group, which is a mix of new and experienced players, he gave each PC a […]
Continue readingFrom: Johnn Four Hola game master! This week I launch my newest product, 200 Story-Exploding Character Hooks. Don’t buy it from any stores – I’ll be sending you an email with a discount link soon as a thank you for being a Roleplaying Tips subscriber. Meantime, I have some tips for you today on how […]
Continue reading(Challenging Players Who Have Optimized Characters) From: Johnn Four, with tips from Telas, Al Beddow, Garry Stahl and Mark of the Pixie Don’t you love players who scour the rules looking for every angle to make their characters’ stats better? I once had a player like this. Let’s call him Mad Max. Mad Max foregoes […]
Continue readingVenger’s Best Adventure Writing Tips From: Venger Satanis 1. Tap Into Shadow Creation Write in stages. Leave blocks of time between creative spurts. Those non-writing periods allow the subconscious mind to influence the creation in unexpected ways. I call this period shadow creation because it happens in a sneaky, crafty way under cover of darkness. […]
Continue readingFrom: Johnn Four A reader asked for tips on how to help players who overlook clues, which then causes your adventure to grind to a halt. One form of this problem is pixel bitching, which Urban Dictionary defines as: “Originating with the point and click adventure games that the computer gaming market was overflowing with […]
Continue readingFrom: Jesse C. Cohoon, We live in a world of three dimensions: height and depth, left and right, forwards and backward. But we forget time is also a factor in how things happen. Here are eight ways you can add the time dimension to your games. 1. Before The Game Travel Whether you visit some […]
Continue readingFrom: Brian A.C. Most games are played with a balanced group of character types. It’s uncommon to find games where the entire group plays characters of the same type. An entire party of casters or thieves, for example. Such games offer a whole new set of challenges. What happens when a group of stealthy characters […]
Continue readingFrom: Johnn Four 1. The Question-Dangle Technique Great stories have mystery. They create a question and leave you dangling for the answer until the end. Use this same sequence to create story tension in every part of your game. For example, you could say that Black Razor is an evil sword that steals souls. But […]
Continue readingFrom: Bob Fedick (ask) Hi Johnn! You are doing a great job with the tips. I struggle with being consistently descriptive in my DMing. I try to fight the “now roll a 20, ok, you hit for 5 damages” type of droning, but sometimes the game gets slow (totally my fault). I have taped a […]
Continue readingFrom: Joel Stottlemire An over-abundance of powerful toys in your campaigns takes the creativity and spark out of your players. You get an overpowered party that blasts, shoots and hacks through situations without doing any real role playing. That’s boring and frustrating. It’s kind of hard to advance the story line when your party is […]
Continue readingFrom: Matthew Ipock Legend deals with the struggle between good and evil. The young hero strikes out with the help of a small band of misfit fairies to fight the red-skinned, black-horned stand-in for the Devil, hoping to rid the world of Darkness and usher in an era of Light and Happiness for all. While […]
Continue readingFrom: Johnn Four It ran for about two years and is one of my few campaigns that took PCs from first level to a stunning and epic conclusion. Riddleport is my favourite campaign so far in my GMing career. A reader wrote in asking for tips on how to run a similar campaign. Here are […]
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