Running Games Archives - Roleplaying Tips

How To Create Engaging Session Recaps To Get Players Ready To Play

From Johnn Four Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1215 Brief Word From Johnn Thank you to everyone who sent along birthday wishes. I had a great day and got to spend extra time working on my campaign, which is always a treat! In Wizard of Adventure news: Watch this video on YouTube where I walk through the […]

The Story So Far

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1213 I mostly run sandboxes these days. That means I wrangle a lot of details. After a few sessions I’ll have dozens of Pages and Log Entries in Campaign Logger. After a year, they’ll be in the hundreds. Here’s an example from Wizard of Adventure ExileInParadise’s Sword Coast campaign: And here’s a […]

How to Deal with Silence at the Table

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1205 Brief Word From Johnn Today Jonathan talks about silence during sessions. There are many kinds of silence, and he shares his thoughts about a couple of the trickiest ones. If you worry about conflict at the table, be sure to check out his advice. One Card Dungeon Changing topics for a […]

How to Write Motivation Into Your Games

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1202 Brief Word From Johnn I played in a Pathfinder 2E one-shot on Saturday using Foundry run by my friend Mark. My guy was a big brute wielding a dwarven scattergun trying to save our town from a zombie horde. I played him like Dolph Lundgren meets vodka. And according to the […]

The Problem With Maps

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1201 Brief Word From Johnn Today I have some tips for when players get distracted by your beautiful maps and don’t pay attention to your encounter details. But before getting into those, I wanted to mention there are additional some Reader Tips this issue at the end you might want to check […]

Simple Ways to Keep Fun in Your Games

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1199 I recently wrote a few tips for running lunch games. Several RPT GMs sent me this link, which is a D&D 5E Practical Guide to One Hour DnD Sessions (you might want to turn on your ad blocker before viewing the site): https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/dungeonmasters/one-hour-sessions/ I’m away halfway through, and it has great […]

What Do You Do When Characters Fail? — 5 Solutions For You

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1196 What do you do when the dice betray your players? When the party seems to meet a dead-end? When your adventure stalls due to bad luck or bad choices? That’s the topic of today’s tips. But before you dig into them, please take the associated poll here: How to Prevent Dead […]

How To Make Every Encounter Interesting

From Johnn Four Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1195 (Join the conversation about today’s tips here.) Here’s an interesting question about encounter building that WorldWibe asks on RPT’s Discord: Is a dungeon-making philosophy that goes: “Every room should have something interesting in it, be it battle, treasure or lore” a good design-methodology? Thanks for the great question! […]

How To Improvise Better With Connect & Shift

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1194 By Jonathan Hardin, sojournersawake.com Discuss these tips on their dedicated thread here at Campaign Community. Improvisation seems scary and sometimes difficult, especially for new GMs. I have learned a few tips from people who think quickly on their feet. And I think the pair of techniques I’m sharing with you today […]

How Can You Take Fast Notes During Sessions?

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1185 * Tips on keeping better campaign notes without slowing down the pace of sessions I’ve been in the same boat. For me, I never want to cause a pause in gameplay. So it feels like I’m always too busy to take notes. However, there are a few things we can do. […]

Highlights and Hopes — How to Get Valuable Feedback From Your Players

From Jonathan Hardin, sojournersawake.com Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1186 If they are having fun, then you’re doing it right. With my Highlights & Hopes technique, I can immediately receive feedback on how my players define fun. I gather these Highlights & Hopes right after the game while they are still fresh in everyone’s mind. Definition Highlights […]

My Simple Sandbox GM Tool – The 5 Actions

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1183 Sandbox games often challenge you to fabricate encounters on the spot. I take a simple approach for this. It’s kind of cheap, when you think about it. lol. But it works. When RPT GM Scott K. emailed me, he said something that made me think about this aspect of sandbox games […]

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! A Simple Way To Improve Gameplay, Engagement & Character Outcomes

From JohnnFour Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1181 Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú Johnn? Here’s a refreshed tip from Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #5, going way back to 1999 right before the world was going to end with Y2K. Too often we become trapped in our heads thinking three moves ahead, doing math, or coming up with names […]

5 Ways To Warn Players Of A Deadly Challenge

From Jonathan Hardin, sojournersawake.com Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1180 Many times the threat that presents itself to characters surpasses their abilities to defeat it. The encounter is not easy or even difficult, it’s deadly. Without a warning label, your players may be unfairly surprised that you designed a deadly encounter for them. To avoid that frustration, […]

3 Quick Horror Tips For Your Halloween Game

From Johnn Four Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1177 Two quick links for you before digging into some scary tips. First is a free worldbuilding tips PDF being offered by Ed Larmore who developed the Scabard app. If you want some tips to get you started homebrewing a world, you can get his 7-page guide here. Second […]

How To Start Every Session With A Bang!

From JohnnFour Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1176 I was excited to play but bored within minutes. It became difficult to focus. I noticed other players starting to zone out too. We were on Zoom, making it even harder. Ideas and collaboration stopped. It became GM => Player => Repeat. No flow between players. No flow between […]

9 Ways to Prep For Sessions Faster

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1172 Brief Word From Johnn A couple of quick notes before we dive into today’s tips on how to prepare for game sessions faster. I was a guest recently on the Geezers of the Game podcast. We talk about my crazy origin story with RPGs amongst many other things. You can listen […]

Would You Allow This In Your Game?

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1171 RPT GM JS asked me this question about allowing a certain player action: Hey Johnn, If you have a player cast charm monster and then speak with animals. Would you let them communicate with a Worg? I know by the letter of the rules it is a NO. But I wanted […]

Troubles With Green Box Text

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1169 RPT Platinum Patron Lee asks: I still struggle with “green box text” vs. map building. Do I spend my time providing 3 sentences of description, or do I spend an hour drawing a great map? I find writing those 3 sentences very intimidating for some reason, like I am not giving […]

Do This To Drastically Improve Communication With Players

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1168 When there’s good communication, it’s invisible. When there’s bad communication, everyone feels it. As an anti-social, only child introvert, I’ve always considered myself as having a low emotional quotient. I’m much more polite in writing. 🙂 At work I’ve been called direct due to my questions. Being direct is effective, in […]

Fast 5 Room Dungeons, Clue Tip, Instant Idea Generator, Different Combats – Mail Bag Edition

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1162 Ahn-nyong-ha-se-yo Johnn, It’s a Mail Bag issue and today I’ve got four helpful GMing tips for you. First is about alternative combat outcomes. Second is how to instantly generate ideas. Third is about adding clues. Fourth is a fantastic 5 question formula for fast 5 Room Dungeon ideation. Before we dive […]

How To Handle Hack & Slash and Plot-Breaking Character Powers

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1157 Dia Dhuit Johnn, How can you make travel and exploration more interesting? And what can we do about players who like to kill everything and ignore roleplay? I’ll share a couple of tips on these topics, triggered by recent emails, with you today. Too Hack & Slash Focused Roleplaying Tips GM […]

3-Step GM PiXiE Kaizen

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1155 There’s a myth about game master time management. Or even about time management in general. Folks think it’s about time. But in my experience that’s not true. It’s about energy. Doing campaign prep for 15 minutes a day will get more prep done over the long haul than doing it once […]

3 Things To Do When You Get Bored With Your Campaign

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1146 Are you bored with GMing? RPT GM Michael asks: I’m a beginning DM that has DMed two dozen sessions of a campaign in the setting of Mystara (Known World) using the B.E.C.M.I. version of Dungeons and Dragons. I’ve taken the group through one and a half of the 1980s’ B series […]

7 Ways to Improve Virtual and Online Game Sessions

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1144 With the amount of online games I’ve been playing and running, I’ve learned a few things that help make virtual sessions better. Be Clear on Mission & Focus It’s more difficult herding cats in online games. With numerous distractions via computer, software, and home environment, we must work strategically to keep […]

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