Treasure Rewards & Items Archives

Beyond Gold Pieces: Amp Up Player Engagement With These Rewards

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1225 Amp Up Player Engagement With These Rewards Looking for different ways to reward players and their characters? Gold and gems are great, but you can’t dance to them. The best rewards engage characters and players, keep the Infinite Game going via story progression, open up choices and action possibilities, and create […]

How To Adjust After Handing Out Too Much Loot

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1187 Brief Word From Johnn Today I’ve got some great ideas for when we hand out too much treasure and game balance goes sideways a bit. And in the Reader Tips section at the end, I’ve got a 5 Room Dungeon and Campaign Puzzle tip for you. One thing in the 5 […]

Simple Ways to Enhance Your Magic Items

From Jonathan Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1184 Siema Johnn! In todays’ Roleplaying Tips Newsletter, I’ve got the following GM tips for you: 3 Simple Ways to Enhance Your Magic Items How can we spruce up magic items so they aren’t boring +1 shields? Jonathan Hardin (sojournersawake.com) shows us how via three quick changes we can make […]

Don’t Be A Minnie Haul

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1154 I remember getting caught with my pants down running Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. One player had magic claws that could chew through six feet of rock each round. When the party finally made their way to the villain’s lair, they bypassed an entire page devoted to the magic barriers, traps, and […]

How To Battle Dungeon Design Fatigue

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0978 RPT GM Tom G asks: I would like to know how my fellow GMs battle dungeon fatigue. I have no difficulties making the entry, the story of the dungeon and the first couple of rooms interesting. But after a while it all bogs down to left, right, or straight ahead. Any […]

D13 Magic Item Concepts from My Demonplague Campaign

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0747 I needed some minor mundane and magical treasures for my next DemonPlague game. So I made some and am sharing a few with you today. The party has a wizard, warrior, cleric, druid, and rogue in it. The first thing I did was make a table and a column for each […]

Shout The Name of Your Enemy and He Will Be Punished

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0708 I had a D&D dream last night. I love it when I dream about games, but it happens so rarely. This dream was about a magic tome. It’s a cool enough idea I will be using with modification on the Murder Hobos. As always, the dream was weird and scattered. I’ll […]

Master Your Cursed Items

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0721 Cursed items aren’t working for me. They feel punitive. “When you put the helm on, your eyes go blank, your mouth hangs open, and you start to drool. Your INT is 3 sucka! And try as you might, the helm can’t be taken off. Hahaha.” That’s a whole lot of suck […]

Make Magic Items More Marvelous With Magic Item Sets

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1059 As a world builder, I love having lots of cool magic items. Weapons, wondrous items, and artefacts of legend. These provide instant hooks for quests, dungeons, and missions. As a game designer, I can’t wreck campaign balance. Too many magic items in the PCs’ hands means they can arm wrestle tarrasques, […]

Alternative Forms Of Character Rewards

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0050 A Brief Word From Johnn Marcus, a good friend and an awesome roleplayer, recently taught me about a different kind of reward for roleplaying while we were planning a co-GM session. He explained to me that it’s rewarding for players to have the spotlight at the game table where everyone’s attention […]

How A Reader Creates Player Reward Cards

RPT GM Richard Grilley created some cool player card props to liven up his games. Here’s howhe did it.

Monday Inspiration: The Sawfish Blade & A Holy Quest

A bit of inspiration for you, if you have five minutes.

Special Equipment Tips

From Johnn Four Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0268 A Brief Word From Johnn Gamer Classifieds Are A Go – Contact Me For Details I received dozens of positive responses on the issue of including Gamer Classifieds at the end of the e-zine, and one negative one, so we’ll give them a whirl. In case you missed […]