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What Are Three Round Combat Plans?

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1137 RPT GM Iron-D&D asks what 3 Round Combat Plans are, which I mentioned in a recent email titled My Secret For Effectively Building Epic Adventures. 3 Round Combat Plans were introduced in my course Faster Combat. It’s been mentioned by others online, and I do not think I invented it. But […]

Three Strategies That Take Advantage Of The Damage Economy

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1039 Several great articles I’ve found lately talk about D&D’s Action Economy. An Action Economy is a measure of how many moves the PCs can make versus their foes. In D&D 5E it’s clear that the game favours the party. PCs often get two or three additional actions versus foes. If for […]

Use Initiative To Keep Players Engaged

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0873 Here’s a great tip for speeding up combats from RPT GM Gary Martin: I’ve found one of the huge culprits at our table is the player zoning out while waiting for their turn. Even if turns are slow, it makes them five times slower when you have re-explain what’s going on. […]

Monster Lore With A Twist

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1102 Here’s a radical idea, but hear me out. I’ve done this before, and when done right it works well. When a character makes a fantastic monster lore check, hand them the monster manual and let them read the monster entry out to the group. There are pros and cons here. Cons […]

d6 Arena Combat Ideas From Your Fellow RPT GMs

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1090 I recently posted ideas to help a reader about to GM a combat with a hydra in an arena setting. You emailed me back with great additional ideas and tips. Thank you! Here’s what I received that might help any combat you run in the future: Effective Crowd Control From Jack […]

Making An Arena Fight With A Hydra Memorable (5E

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1085 Gold Patron Jack S. asked me how to make an arena fight with a hydra memorable: I’m running D&D 5e for my players. I am planning a big arena fight with a Hydra while they’re in the big city for some downtime. (It’s part of a big end-of-year adventurers showcase that […]

New Trick Makes Combat A Nail Biter

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1079 Last summer I watched a video with a great tip on how to add more story and drama to my melees. I’ve been using this tip for several sessions now, and it’s made a big difference. However, this narrative tactic was tricky for me at first, especially because it’s all improv. […]

What To Do When Retreat Is The Kiss Of Death

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1076 Have foes negotiate, retreat, or flee to end fights early. This new article by Daniel J. Mello offers great ideas about adding morale to make skirmishes faster and grittier, as well. However, while some games make retreats easy, in systems like D&D extricating oneself from combat is the kiss of death. […]

Part 2: What To Do If It’s Too Easy?

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1074 I received an interesting tip request from RPT GM Kristen: What do you think about things like adding 50 HP because the baddies go down too quickly? One of my players actually said I should have done that rather than letting the encounter flop. A tricky situation. I refrain from doing […]

Part 1: What To Do If You Made It Too Difficult

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1073 RPT GM Kristen emailed me this worry: Hi Johnn, I used to fudge dice rolls. I’ve definitely changed my perspective on that from stuff you’ve said and other DMs that talk about this. I think what made me want to fudge things is that I’m afraid what I’ve made is too […]

Morale: the Missing Encounter Piece From D&D and Pathfinder

From Daniel J. Mello (danscififan) Morale — the esprit de corps, the willingness of the unit to continue to fight. This is an old wargame trait assigned to various armies. Infantry are well trained and usually have a high Morale, where partisans and rebels are not as well trained and often have a lower Morale. […]

Boring Combats: Putting Weight On The Wrong Foot

Combat without purpose becomes a grind.

One awesome solution you can use: Combat Missions.

But it’s more than that.

Toastmasters taught me to start with the audience and ask one key question:

How do I want the audience to feel during and after my speech?

So too it is with combats.

How To Add Story To Any Combat

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1040 Smashing until one side runs out of hit points gets tired fast. In Faster Combat I teach you to add story to the fight. When melee gains greater meaning, players get more engaged. While adding story, be sure to make the stakes known before the battle starts. Now players will think […]

Should You Run Easy Combats?

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1026 I posted something on Reddit and got a great tangential comment from user/ChristopherDornan. He advocates for occasional easy combats, which I agree with. Here’s his excellent comment: Don’t underestimate the value of an easy combat. It does two things, both are incredibly important. It drives home that PCs are heroes, and […]

This GM Is Burned Out On The Grid

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1021 It is amazing how RPGs can flex to accommodate our GMing preferences and style. A game like Monopoly allows little difference each play. But our beloved RPGs are marvellous in how many ways we can tweak and adapt them to match our individual and changing notions of what’s fun. For example, […]

How Long Does Forever Take? A GM Pit Trap To Avoid

That’s how it might feel waiting for the player on your left to finally wrap up their turn. “Whew. Whose initiative is it now?”

A Simple And Fun Way To Run Army Battles

Today, RPT game master Scott Brown shares with us a cool and simple system for running epic army battles as stories in your campaigns.

How Can I Switch To Gridless Combat?

Today I’m looking for your tips and advice and experiences.My next campaign I’m toying with theatre of the mind combat. No minis or battlemat or grid.

Think Three Steps Ahead (But It’s Not Just About Doing Things Faster)

One thing I know I can improve from my side of the table is to play more tactically with the monsters

Easy Peasy Wound Tracking In Combat

RPT GM Scott Barrie asked me about how I use knitting row counters to finish fights faster

How To Create Your Own Combat Missions

Want to design your own combat missions, fully tailored to the people, places, and things of your campaign? Today you’ll learn how to do this, including what design questions to ask and answer along the way. Let total annihilation scenarios take a back seat while you light a fire under your combat creativity.

Combat Missions: Adding Glorious Stories to Gruesome Struggles

From Tony Medeiros and Johnn Four Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0631 A Brief Word From Johnn Dungeon Crawl Classics Is A Classic I had a blast this past weekend playing the DCC RPG for the first time. We adventured through the character funnel, 67: Sailors on the Starless Sea. The flavour of the game is great. […]

Mapless Combat + Making Class Matter

From John Large Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0651 A Brief Word From Johnn Murder Hobos Session 12 The plan was to go to Cragmaw Castle and finally deal with the villain, the Black Spider. Everyone agreed. It was how the session began. But then the past caught up with the wizard, and everything went sideways…. We […]

Get Rid Of The Grid (What I Learned From The Strategic Miniatures Player)

From Dr. Nik Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0282 Get Rid Of The Grid (What I Learned From The Strategic Miniatures Player) Sure, I started out with the boxed D&D game, but I really got into the original Battletech. We used to have battles that spanned the entire basement and took all night. I’ve never forgotten the […]

Battlefield Design Tips For D&D 3.5

From Jake Robins, Edmonton, Alberta Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0276 A Brief Word From Johnn Battlefield Design Is A Game Within The Game “Dread Pirate” Jake Robins’ article, while catering to D&D folks, is a good lesson for all GMs who run combats. The primary take-away tip is to pre-plan your battlefields and to design each […]

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