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Part 2: What To Do If It’s Too Easy?

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 this. I feel it […]

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

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 difficult for my players […]

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. […]

A Simple Trick For Encounter Inspiration

Roleplaying Tips GM Emmanuel from Lyon shares good advice on where to get encounter inspiration.

Kill Boxed Text – Dynamic Descriptions Made Easy

This framework does two things for you.First, it guides what you should include in your descriptions.

5 Ways To Intensify Your Encounters

Awhile ago I ran an Encounter Intensify challenge. I asked RPT GMs to make one of their encounters more intense. Then they shared with me how they did it.

Use This Simple Technique To Improv Tricky Situations With Great Clarity

Here’s a cool tip from RPT GM Jim B about how to handle roleplay and skill challenges.

Facts Versus Meaning

How do you create a great mid-adventure hook?

Two Fun Ways To Add Games To Your Sessions

Here are two fun ways to add games to your sessions, sent in by your fellow RPT GMs.

Story Overlays – A Quick Storytelling Tip For Your Encounters

Here’s a trick the pros use to make stories chaotic, tense, and exciting.

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Wilderness Encounter Ideas For Game Masters

The ton of great wilderness encounters ideas in this article make this one of the best supplemental issues ever. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest — you’ve created an awesome GMing resource. Enough prattle. On with the wilderness encounters! The Magic Pool The PCs are traveling through a deep forest and come upon a […]

Eight Tips For Using Real World Locations In Your Games — RPT#586

From: Jesse C Cohoon You probably know your hometown well. Its streets, landmarks, people. So why not use it as an adventure location? It’s easy drawing from memory and picturing the details to make descriptions vivid and mapping easy. And there’s a lot of inspiration there to draw from based on your experiences and stories […]

Reader Tip Request: Fantasy Chase Scenes

RPT Reader Devon Creamer asks: I was wondering how I could do a chase scene in one of my campaigns. My dilemma is that chase scenes are supposed to be fast and action packed, no dull parts or slow parts. But with Pathfinder’s usual movement rules, it’s too boring and my players lose interest. Thanks […]

5 Effective Combat Tactics For Assassins — RPT#528

From: Johnn Four To give you a taste of Assassin’s Amulet, my upcoming new book for game masters, here is a very brief excerpt from the GM Advice chapter. Many GMs struggle with running killer NPCs. One big goal of the book is to arm you with enough actionable advice that you’ll scare the crap […]

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 […]

Hot Pursuit Tips

From Mark of the Pixie How you GM a pursuit depends a little on what sort of pursuit it is. Hot pursuit The enemy is always within sight, and you need to try every trick you can to get away. This includes cinematic chases with shooting and dodging, but can also include the more subtle […]

Turn Terrain Into A Monster

From Mark of the Pixie Sometimes I will stat up a terrain (i.e. the swamp of nightmare) as a monster to make travel interesting. Over the hours, days or weeks it will harass the PCs with its attacks (swarms of insects, thorns) and use its special abilities against them (bog pits, gas fires, nightmares, paranoia). […]

Scott’s Index Cards

Here’s a tip from a reader that’s been sitting on my hard drive for awhile. Now that I have this shiny blog I can finally post it! Index cards for running encounters From Scott Here are some examples of my index cards. I write them in Word then print them out onto cards. I would […]