World Building Archives - Page 2 of 7

Knocker-Up: The Forgotten Profession of Waking People

What if your alarm clock was a person with a 10 foot pole? Shared by @Exile in Paradise on the RPT Discord server: This could be an interesting world-building detail for towns to go along with town guards and town criers… A knocker-up or knocker-upper was a member of a profession in the Netherlands, Britain, […]

One-Shot Monster Powers

Here’s a idea I think is cool from Points of Inspiration: single use monster powers. There are similar examples out there of this type of mechanics already. We’ve got limited dragon breath uses, D&D 4th edition rechareable dailies, and one-shot magic items. However, upon reading Craig’s article, I wanted to explore the idea further, And […]

d12 Clever Castle Defenses

Could I interest you in some interesting ways to defend a castle? There’s a fantastic article in Dragon #185 (a Dark Sun special, nice!) that lists 20 ways to defend castles in D&D. Below I give you d12 methods: some of my own, and some from the article rewritten in my own words. 1. Get […]

Flesh Out Your Setting With 2-Step Ritual Markings

I was skimming Dragon #340 and tucked in the back is an article about ritual markings. Instead of being ornamental decoration, scars and other marking types had several uses in communication and status in Earth’s history. If you have a copy of Dragon #340, check out pages 92-93. Today, I’m going to curate the article […]

Pickpockets Signed Up. Then the Penny Dropped

Recently I posted some ideas for laws you could apply in one of your nations or cultures to make make your PCs flinch. Some great responses rolled, and today I present you with more thoughts on how to make your PCs’ lives legally interesting: Passports & Licenses From RPT GM Mark I have two favourite […]

10 Tips For Leveraging Influence in Your Campaign

A couple of quick things before we head into today’s tips about using social influence in your campaign. Rio Grande Flood Charity [BUNDLE] My friend Christian is running an RPG charity bundle to raise funds for victims of Brazil’s floods. You can get the details at DriveThruRPG here. The Quarry: A DCC Compatible Adventure Another […]

Mungo’s Crystal Vault

Wizard of Adventure mungo9494 shared this idea on the RPT Discord about a secure vault to thwart his players: I made a bank security system for my players to heist and thought it might serve some use for y’all as well. Outside the city walls is a mine whose location is a well-kept secret. Peculiar […]

5 Laws to Make Your PCs Flinch

My Waterdeep campaign was the first time I applied a law to weapons. I believe this law came from the Waterdeep supplement. No one could enter the city without “peace bonding” or tying their weapons up to prevent quick draws in the heat of a moment. Further, there was a 1 gold piece tax per […]

Can the PCs Earn Your Favour?

Add the notion of Favour to one or more cultures in your world. A Favour means doing something now for someone in exchange for the promise you can request something of them in the future, usually of commensurate effort or value. This makes it a form of currency. And therefore, a fantastic reward option for […]

Poisonous Ideas for Plots, Encounters & World-Building

I was chatting with moderator @ExileInParadise on the Roleplaying Tips Discord about how poison can inspire toxic challenges and venomous adventures. Poison is any substance that causes harm to an organism. It basically attacks a single biological process and takes it out. There’s often a spot in the rule book for how to handle poison […]

Use Secret Language for Clues

Last week, I wondered how you might prove one’s citizenship in a low-tech fantasy setting. Even if this isn’t a factor in your adventures, it’s a cool little detail to help your setting feel real. I received two language-related responses I thought you might find interesting: The first is from RPT GM Maja: Thanks for […]

Are Your Papers in Order, Citizen?

Young Baron Kellan in my Basilica campaign has a problem. He’s just led his country through two years of civil war. Food is scarce. And many citizens have died due to the fighting, from a shortage of clerics to treat the wounded or diseased, or have simply vanished. Decades after the Empire’s collapse, every neighbouring […]

Dogman Monster Design: Leader of the Pack

I got reverse-coached the other day! Last week I asked the group for ideas on Dogmen monsters that I’m currently designing. Dogmen in Basilica are like gnolls in D&D. Part man, part hound. And my core monster design process goes something like this: For my Dogmen, though, I was stuck on #4. I had just […]

What’s Your Bigfoot?

One of my favourite movies is Le Pacte des loups, or Brotherhood of the Wolf. It’s based on a series of killings that took place in 18th century France. A knight and his Iroquois friend quest to find what’s been slaughtering hundreds of villagers. I was reminded about this flick while listening to the Joe […]

7 Steps to Create Your World’s Lore & Integrate It

Building and sharing world lore is a bit like a river. The details must flow, sometimes through slow and windy areas, and sometimes through fast and dangerous rapids. But cut your river into disjoined pieces, and nothing flows at all. In the seven tips below, Jeremy Brown shares how to create a river of lore […]

This Diagram Offers A Simple World-Building Trick

Here’s a cool biome diagram sourced by @Jear77 on the Roleplaying Tips Discord: I hear you saying: Johnn, this isn’t a simple diagram, dude. How’s this a simple world-building trick? Roger that. But bear with me for a sec. I researched a bit to figure out what’s happening in this triangle graph. It uses something […]

Mastering the Depths: Enhancing RPG Mines

Mastering the Depths: Enhancing RPG Mines Sometimes, a couple of extra details makes all the difference in helping players imagine our encounters and take interesting actions. RPT GM Chris N. sent me some great insights into the complexities of running a medieval or fantasy RPG mine. We can use these fantastic details to flesh out […]

The Swamp Is Calling: d12 Swampy Tips

The Swamp Is Calling: d12 Swampy Tips Do you have any upcoming swamp encounters or adventures? To celebrate my newest GM Cheat Sheet for swamps that I released on the weekend ($3 on DTRPG, free to Wizards of Adventure), here are a dozen swampy tips to enhance your campaign. Play Up the Atmosphere Swamps are […]

Save Your Village From Murder Hobos – 5 Quick Tips

Save Your Village From Murder Hobos – 5 Quick Tips How do we protect villagers from Murder Hobos? We planned some great roleplay in town, but then the party decides they don’t like being sassed and suddenly we’re rolling for initiative. Here are a 1d4+1 ideas, inspired by Dragon Magazine #109, on how we can […]

Simple Sandbox Economics – 4 Tips

A GM had this tip request: Any ideas of emulating/tracking a robust economy in osr style sandboxes? Good question. Here are a few tips and then I’ll end with some resources. Create a Treasure Budget I call this Treasure Crawl in my sandbox creation checklist. Forecast at each level or tier, to the projected end […]

Create Extreme Environments In 3 Steps

Create Extreme Environments In 3 Steps It’s pretty chilly here right now. But good news: it’s warmer than it was yesterday! Haha. So I took the screenshot above on my phone while thinking we should add extreme environmental conditions into our adventures more often to take gameplay to 11. Creating extreme conditions is not difficult […]

A Quick Trick To Generate Details For Your World

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1209 I have a short tip for you today. Quick enough not to earn a newsletter number. And it’s about world building. One struggle we have when crafting settings is detail. It’s easy enough to generate a map, such as with Azgar’s. But we need more detail to make our stage interesting […]

My Secret Ingredient For Making Great Puzzles

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1204 A Brief Word From Johnn Think too small and think too big. We’ve got a critter making a nest under our deck. We can’t see it because it’s found a good crack to inhabit. But we can hear it. It’s chewing something. Leaves maybe. Paper perhaps. The bones of some poor […]

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A Divine Way to Manage Your Meddling Gods – a 3 Part Framework

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1150 This is a guest post by Jonathan Hardin, sojournersawake.com based on his original article at Sojourners Awake. How can you have gods walk your realm without whacking campaign balance? How can you turn deities into Plot Factories? And how can you roleplay divine beings in interesting ways that do not spell […]

What’s Your World’s “Only Factor”?

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1003 What facet of your world affects gameplay in a way no other setting does? Two key pieces here. First piece: your world needs at least one unique factor or you might as well save yourself the time and use a published setting. Why bother putting all that creation work in? What’s […]

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