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Welcome To Adventure Hacking

If you’re like me, you’ve got a bunch of published adventures on your shelf and your computer. More than you could ever GM. However, I love reading adventures. I get so many ideas for my campaigns this way. I also got an unexpected side benefit from reading adventures after awhile. I started to “think adventure.” […]

When Fluff Spawns From Rules, A Great Game Emerges

Guten morgen %FIRSTNAME% I’ve long had a fascination with how game rules affect game settings. Too often in game world products, I see a setting likely created separately as fiction in a word processor or wiki, and then the game patched onto it. What I quest to build is a setting that works within the […]

May – How to Use the Other Kind of Intelligence

Recently I challenged you to place a spy in the party. In response, RPT reader Joshua Barry wrote in with some excellent tips on Tactical vs. Strategic spying with some great fantasy examples I’d like to share with you today. Let’s dive in! I’d like to expand on your definition of a […]

Hide The Monster’s Stats To See The Story

If you’re like me, you sometimes let monster stats limit your thinking. I was reminded of this when I received Fourscore Phantasmagores in the mail for review. It’s a monster book created by Montreal artist Rupert Bottenberg. It’s what I’d call a high concept book. It presents ideas, not stats. Its weird and disturbing entries […]

Get These Two Things Right For Stories To Make Sense

We want to check Congruity first because it’s faster and easier to spot errors at this level. If we get the immediate details right here, it’ll automatically fix those errors at the campaign level.

Adventure Design Tip: How Do You use Chekhov’s Gun in Gaming?

From Ben Scerri The literary principal of Chekhov’s Gun has been around since the late 19th century and has influenced every aspect of storytelling culture. However, in my experience, it has failed to fully affect gaming and the stories game masters tell. This might be due to the reactive essence of good gaming (i.e. the […]

How to Add Conspiracy Theories to Your Game

The most interesting thing about conspiracy theories is they could be true. Supporters will find evidence to support them, while the government will disprove them. The rest of the world doesn’t know or doesn’t care. That’s why many theorists keep ideas within sympathetic groups and only go public when they have enough proof. Create a […]

Free Heists Deck Helps You Run Awesome Heists

In RPT#512, Robert Corrina offered us a tip about using a special heists deck. to add more fun to heist adventures. The idea was to offer additional inspiration for story twists and turns in your game using a deck of cards. Well, Robert now offers us his deck of cards you can use for any […]

How Do You GM Great Droids?

In RPT #512 RND(axe) asked for help on running interesting droids in his Star Wars game. I received the following two great responses: Keep Droids Tools From Mark of the Pixie When I run droids, I stay focused on their purpose. Droids are tools, not characters (helps stop them outshining PCs). It colours their outlook […]