The Spiral Method of World Building
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #397 The Spiral Method of World Building From Hannah L. One of a GM’s biggest investments in a campaign is world- building, and with all of the advice out there, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. A complete world needs a social structure, a culture, a map, weather, a currency system, an ecology, […]
Continue readingWhy Use Inns, Taverns, and Restaurants?
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #398 Why Use Inns, Taverns, and Restaurants? From John Simcoe and Johnn Four In addition to providing characters with food, shelter, and a place to party, inns, taverns, and restaurants are wonderful player and GM tools. We GMs sometimes fall into the trap of running the same variations over and over. We […]
Continue readingThe Rule To Making Good Rules And Other Useful Tips
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #399 The Rule To Making Good Rules And Other Useful Tips From Tony Reeves Published with permission from Dragonsfoot.org This article originally appeared at: DMTips The following is an article I wrote for new DMs based on my own observations as a player and DM over the last 20 years. As a […]
Continue readingMystery Game Tips
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #400 Mystery Game Tips From Danny East Mystery Games are gaining popularity, as much for the challenge of GMing them as for the challenge of playing. Intrigue, deceit, and evidence were easy enough for Sherlock Holmes, but outside of a good module or the RPG translation of a popular movie or book, […]
Continue readingKeep The Peace Part 1
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #401 Keep The Peace Part 1 From Joel Fox 10 Tips To Bring The Party Back Together and Keep It That Way Characters in the same party often fight each other; it’s sad but true. They disagree on tactics, faith, politics, and an infinite number of other things. The task of keeping […]
Continue readingKeep The Peace, Part 2
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #402 Keep The Peace Part 2 From Joel Fox 10 Tips To Bring The Party Back Together and Keep It That Way Last week, in part 1, we discussed the different expectations and backgrounds of the players sitting down at the gaming table. Conflicts arising from these issues are easiest solved at […]
Continue reading15 Holiday Adventures
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #403 15 Holiday Adventures From JL Hatlen Linnell. You can catch part Part 1 at: http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=344 The Great Eel-Culling Black Harbor is a vibrant trading community built on the mouth of a large river and the open end of a busy harbor. The harbor itself has only a narrow passage to the […]
Continue readingCreating Memorable Enemy Groups
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #404 Creating Memorable Enemy Groups From Danny East Most campaigns have not one single enemy, like a Tekken or Street Fighter video game, but have a boss enemy at the end. Such boss type games are more akin to fighting King Bowser after jumping on all the Goombas. Here are a few […]
Continue readingCampaign Settings: Fantasy Greek and Roman
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #405 Campaign Settings: Fantasy Greek and Roman A New Kind of Classical From Hannah L. If there’s one thing nearly every gamer has in common, it’s that we’ve all fought against evil in one medieval-esque world or another. Be it the Forgotten Realms or some homebrew setting, the average gamer spends about […]
Continue readingEasy GMing With One Sentence NPCs + New Contest
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #406 Easy GMing With One Sentence NPCs From Johnn Four Chatty DM recently wrote on his blog about 10 word adventure synopses, which is a great idea. It forces you to pare plots down to their essence. This makes writing them faster, with practice, and makes GMing easier because you have a […]
Continue readingOne Sentence NPCs, Part 2 + Contest
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #407 One Sentence NPCs, Part 2 Categories of NPC Characteristics From Johnn Four Part one last week mentioned that useful and interesting one sentence NPCs have three characteristics, including one that is at odds with the other two. Fortunately, there are several categories of characteristics, and you can choose from three different […]
Continue readingNear Future Campaign Settings
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #408 Near Future Campaign Settings From Kate Manchester There are many types of campaign worlds, mostly falling into the genres of fantasy, modern and science fiction. Skating the fine line between the modern age and science fiction genres is what can be described as the near future. The near future is a […]
Continue readingHow to Add Atmosphere (Without LARPing or Bank Loans)?
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #409 How to Add Atmosphere (Without LARPing or Bank Loans)? From Danny East Remember in “The Never-Ending Story” when the store owner Mr. Koreander asked young Bastion, “Listen. Have you ever been Captain Nemo, trapped inside your submarine while the giant squid is attacking you?” and then “Weren’t you afraid you couldn’t […]
Continue readingManaging Your Group
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #410 Group Management From Danny East Group management is a tedious and daunting GMing task. When can everyone meet? Who’s driving whom? Are we going to play at Mark’s? Jamie’s apartment? My neighbor’s basement? If everyone plays at Gary’s, then Josh can’t go because he’s allergic to cats. We’ll play at Bill’s, […]
Continue readingHow To Host The Perfect Game
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #411 How To Host The Perfect Game Here is a collection of tips from readers on how to create the perfect environment for gaming. Some offer advice to the age-old problems of eliminating distractions and establishing atmosphere, while others describe unique and inspiring gaming setups. Gaming Garage From Sean H. Hey Johnn, […]
Continue reading6 Quick Game Master Organization Tips
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #412 6 Quick Game Master Organization Tips From Johnn Four and Hannah Lipsky While players battle orcs and goblins, GMs face a far more fearsome foe: disorganization. Here are a few quick tips on keeping your game and your gaming stuff organized. Laminate Your Maps I mentioned this tip in Issue #358. […]
Continue readingFight Environments
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #413 Fight Environments From Danny East An exciting and addictive way to add spice to your game is throwing environmental danger into fight scenes. The following are a few examples to get your party started. Remember to have a lot of dice on hand when you try these. Tissues, too, because the […]
Continue readingWordplay as Character Inspiration
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #414 Wordplay as Character Inspiration From Hannah L. I recently roped a friend into running a Wushu game for me. Wushu characters have a small handful of Traits, and also a Weakness, which can be anything you can think of, from Angel of Death to Charismatic to Kung-Fu to Queen of England […]
Continue readingSimple Acting Tips
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #415 Simple Acting Tips From Danny East Unless you’re Stephen Hawking, there is no reason to avoid acting in your role playing. There is a huge difference between acting in a Vampyre LARP vs. acting in a Warhammer game, but the acting is still there. It’s part of the magic. The following […]
Continue readingThe Power Of The Dark Side
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #416 The Power Of The Dark Side From Mike Bourke There has been a hot debate raging in certain circles about the pros and cons of an evil campaign. Both sides have scored points against the other, but ultimately there has not been a victory, one way or the other. The debate […]
Continue reading10 Easy Tips for Player Involvement
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #417 10 Easy Tips for Player Involvement From Danny East “You crest the hill, and there you see the Goblin Bandits. There are seven of them, three with bows, and the other four are charging your location. What does each of you do?” “I’ll prepare a fireball spell!” “I’m setting my spear […]
Continue reading4 City Building Tips Give Cities Flavor with Districts
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #418 4 City Building Tips Give cities flavor with districts From Johnn Four Divide Your City into Chunks Cities are large beasts that can intimidate GMs trying to plan and design them. There are so many people, locations, and things to think about it makes a GM cry in his battlemat. However, […]
Continue readingHow To Use Props In Your Games – 8 Tips
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #419 How To Use Props In Your Games – 8 Tips From Johnn Four Use Me-Props Avoid the trap of using props that are all about you the game master, and that have little to do with your players and their characters. It’s easy to get wrapped up in handouts, charts, and […]
Continue reading27 Great Prop Ideas To Enhance Your Games
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #420 27 Great Prop Ideas To Enhance Your Games From cra2 Disentanglement Puzzles Example: Old Shackels I have several of these of varying difficulty, and I’ll use them to represent some puzzling situation the PCs are trying to get out of. More specifically, I’ve used them in two ways: The first was […]
Continue readingDark & Gritty Gaming Tips
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #421 Dark & Gritty Gaming Tips From Hannah L. A while back, I asked for advice on my upcoming D&D 4E game, which I was hoping to run with a dark and gritty tone. The game has been a great success so far, thanks in no small part to all of the […]
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