Organisation Archives - Roleplaying Tips

How to Prep And Organize A Monthly Campaign

By Dr. Nik My cousin recently got in touch with me because they are starting up a role playing game campaign. Some of the players are new. Others, like my cousin, haven’t played in years. The group will play in a method I’ve used for several campaigns. They will meet and play an extended session […]

Preparation of Material for a Roleplaying Adventure

by Heather Grove When you create your own campaign there’s so much you could spend your time on. Should you write up non-player characters (NPCs) with rich backgrounds? What about scenes you expect will take place in game, and speeches spoken by NPCs? Should you detail the background of a plot, or the things you think […]

How to Create a Bureaucracy

By Gareth Hodges The Aaargh factor Technically, a bureaucracy is designed to help a government or large group deliver services in a timely, efficient and effective manner. Traditionally however, they are viewed as mockeries that frustrate, delay and ultimately fail to produce results. The first step in creating a bureaucratic system for your gaming world […]

Tips from the Trenches

by Rana Loreus How many times has Murphy visited your gaming session and hurls a few Missiles of Murphy or Power Word: Murphy’s Law at you? GMing is a mind-boggling task – there are NPC’s to keep track off, secret dice rolls to make, complex rules to remember and the power-hungry, partially-insane munchkin power-gamer to […]

Starting and Running a Role-Playing Games Club

By Katrina Middelburg-Creswell Part One: The Birth Of A Club And Some Bumps Along The Way I’m a Middle School teacher who is a long-time gamer. So when some of my 7th grade students discovered my hobby “Hey – is that an R.A. Salvatore book on her desk? She plays D&D! No way! Cool!” it […]

Dungeon Master Tools – MyInfo Software

Dungeon Master Tool Review: How To Be On Top Of Your Game Without Breaking A Sweat Track your entire world, your whole campaign, and every adventure with MyInfo Software Update January 2013: Video Course Shows You How to Use MyInfo Hi, this is Johnn. I’ve just setup an online course to show you how to […]

Role-Playing Games and Kids

By Katrina Middelburg-Creswell High school teacher and RPG club organizer in the Netherlands There seem to be two sides to questions about role-playing games and kids. The first one is more about parents – how do you convince them that RPGs are a fun, engaging hobby rather than a life-sucking obsession? The second point is a […]

3 Ways To Make Your Life As GM Easier

By Darren Blair Let’s face it. No matter how hard we try there comes a point where reality bogs us down. Last-minute errands, phone tag, burn-out at work or school, and other issues make it harder for GMs to plan and run the game, and it saps player energy and brainpower. So, what’s a good […]

Guide to PBP / PBEM

By Scott Sylvester With busy schedules these days there seems to be precious little time for the more mature and adult gamers to indulge in their teenage passions of gaming. Once upon a time, there were countless hours in the day that could be carelessly frittered away around the gaming table listening to your favorite […]

GM Tip Request – How Do You Track All the Details of a Living World?

O Wise Sage of the Northern Hemisphere, I come to you with an all-consuming question and have emptied my cup and am eager to learn. There’s a world that’s been created and lovingly populated with all manner of things. There are continents with plate tectonics and zones of subduction and hotspots and rift valleys. There […]

GM Delegation

by Bill Mahmet Below is some advice that ALL GMs can use, though “workaholic” GMs should especially benefit from the contents of this article. The problems the below listed tips are meant to solve often occur for GMs who are not as good at coordinating people as they are at writing and running adventures. Don’t […]

Strategy, Tactics and Logistics for GMs

By Michael Beck (Read the original German version at http://spielleiten.wordpress.com) In the military, one distinguishes between different levels of decisions, called strategy, tactics, and logistics. I don’t want to delve deep into this issue, since I’m no expert in this field. But a short and rough explanation will help understanding the following tip. Logistics are […]

Choosing a Setting

by Delphine T. Lynx Please be aware that, while the article below is relevant to gaming in general, its initial target audience was those interested in MUDs, or Multi-User Domains – text games played via computer. Therefore certain aspects may not be applicable to classic roleplaying games, but the theory behind the essay is. Choosing a […]

Running Adventures with Little Preparation

by Brennan O’Brien Johnn asked me to write on a topic dear to my own heart. Between career, family, and too many hobbies, I often find I don’t have a lot of time to come up with adventures for my characters. When game time comes, I tend to make it up as I go. The […]

Speeding Up Combat

From Len Henderson One of the most enjoyable parts of roleplaying for many gamers is combat. However, especially in large groups, players can wait for a considerable amount of time between turns. This sort of wait leads to boredom and cross chatter, annoying the GM and the player whose turn it is. Here are things […]

Organize Your Information With Evernote

From Jared Hunt http://www.jaredhunt.ca Evernote is a free service that I’ve used on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. There are versions for other mobiles and for Windows as well. It is a simple word processing program that incorporates online storage so you can share your notes across any number of your computers and devices. http://www.evernote.com One […]

Use Google Documents For Campaign Organization

From Bob Nolan Hi Johnn, I like to use Google Documents to upload character sheets and to track notes with during my RPG session. In addition to providing to a great way to store information, Google Documents allows you to send information back and forth to specific characters using the discussion pane on the right […]