Factions Archives - Roleplaying Tips

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8 Things Worth Starting a Dungeon War Over

Just picked up Level Up by Courtney Campbell. It’s a small book of tables on random topics. And the first table I started reading spawned an article idea. The table is titled “Top Ten Dungeon Resources” and has this description: Well, you’ve got a dungeon. And you’ve got all these factions. Apparently they all live […]

The Sovereigns of Stink – My Lost Isle Troglodyte Faction

How do we take a standard monster and make it feel alive without writing pages of lore? Today during Tiny Prep I added the first faction to my Lost Isle campaign. I am running troglodytes I call the Sovereigns of Stink, though in-game they’re the Rotscale Clan. To bring them to life and make them […]

Instant Puzzles: Give NPCs Secret Codes

We got to talking about living graffiti on the Discord and @ØCÇÜL? STOÒL shared this great idea: If you can’t see the image above, the message in part reads: I always pictured Druidic hobo signs to be a thing, like most folks that saw branches growing in a strange pattern might notice but someone proficient in Druidic […]

Three New Layers for My Shadowdark World Building

Hello Game Master and happy Super Wolf Moon! In these parts, it’s the first full moon of the year (wolf) and Luna is at perigee (super). Snowing here in the morning darkness, so I can’t see it. But the clouds sure are bright. It’s great getting mooned on a Friday. This week I started prepping […]

Run Your Dungeon Maps Like A Board Game

I GM like I’m playing a board game now. Wait. Before you hit the delete button and say you don’t want chocolate board games getting mixed with your tabletop RPG peanut butter, hear me out. This might be a boon for your improvisation and encounter-building feats. First off, I’m speaking to GMing mindset and strategy […]

3 Ways to Make Domain Play Fun Again

Here’s a query I received a little while ago from Wizard of Adventure JL: How to make conquering/managing/defending a domain FUN (for the players, not just the DM?) I like this question because it gets to the heart of a common GM challenge: making the world matter. Characters with no attachment to your setting will […]

The Meta Characters Method: Factions With Brains, Brawn & Betrayal

ExileInParadise made a great comment to a series I’m writing about villains. The method he calls out creates immediate campaign drama with built-in adventure hooks and tactical inspiration for play. Each role can act independently or together, keeping your faction scenes spicy. Take it away Exile…. I really like Mike Pondsmith’s “Meta Characters” from Cyberpunk […]

16 Things Every Good D&D Adventure Must Have

A Brief Word From Johnn A quick note that Saturday is our monthly Q&A call on Zoom for Wizards of Adventure. Let me help you spruce up an encounter, tweak a plot, or solve a tricky campaign problem. Also, if you cannot make the call, hit reply with your question(s). We’ll address them on the […]

Play 20 Questions With Your World

I love Jeff’s blog post here about how to flesh out your world by asking yourself a few simple questions. It reminds me of the tip about ensuring there’s a gameplay layer to your world building because we have players, not a passive audience. If you haven’t clicked over to Jeff’s post, here are some […]

Ideas For Churches & Cults in Your Setting

A while ago, we chatted about how we can make Noble NPCs special because they receive special privileges and responsibilities most others in our worlds do not. RPT GM Anonymous +1 sent me this great response about potential privileges your priests and clerics might get. Some ideas posibly for your campaign… Hi Johnn, In a […]

Cursed For Divine Transgressions (a d20 Table)

I’m homebrewing a setting called Duskfall, and I’ve reached the creation step I call The Powers That Be. With this technique, I ask: What powerful NPCs can control or influence the setting, and more specifically, can affect my plotlines and the party’s actions? By NPCs, I mean gods, powerful monsters, villains, factions, and any other […]

d20 Noble Obligations

Privilege & Power: Using Nobility in Your World-Building and Plots. Read Part I here. And happy Wednesday. Yesterday, we looked at the rights and privileges nobles may get in your world. This helps flesh out noble PC backgrounds, aids in world-building, and inspires plot and encounter ideas. A fantastic way to balance out some of […]

Privilege & Power: Using Nobility in Your World-Building and Plots

Privilege & Power: Using Nobility in Your World-Building and Plots. Read Part II here. The idea of nobility comes up often in our campaigns. Villains, character backgrounds, NPC classes, settlements, and intrigue and politics, for example, can make nobility important in your milieu. Noble NPCs are special because they have special privileges and responsibilities most […]

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 […]

Wield the Unseen Ripples in Your Campaign

How do you motivate players to seize the story? RPT GM D asks: Thanks for your email and tips. When I read your opening sentence I was expecting a very different tack from you. I read it as ‘GMs being frustrated that players won’t make any decisions or show initiative’ and your response was about […]

How One RPT GM Exploits The Flatulent Feline

If you caught Monday’s announcement, I’ve written a new book with RPG AI expert Danny McKeever about how to use GPT for adventure building. It gives you detailed and specific prompts you can paste into ChatGPT (or Zorgon in Campaign Logger) to help you create adventures, worlds, NPCs, and treasure. In French, it turns out […]

Weaponize Your Villain’s Secret

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1152 RPT GM Dale S asked me for help with his adventure’s bad guy and plot: Hi Johnn, Would you mind wading in with any thoughts on my villain’s objective? The local gnoll clan and their unusual allies are attacking a small walled human frontier settlement. This is a nighttime ‘storming the […]

Factions & Villains – 3 Reader GM Tips

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1143 Hitting too Close to Home Let’s dive in with this observation from RPT GM Maja who brings up an interesting point about favourite villain types that mirrors my own experience. Let’s call it the Seinfeld Effect. Johnn, If you ask me what villain type gets the most attention, it is the […]

Fantastic Factions => 4 Tricks To Get The Most Out Of Your Villain Factions

Why do I use factions so much in my campaigns? You know I love my NPCs. They are our avatars and “Agent Smiths” in the game to influence players and direct the characters. Therefore, we get even more value out of groups of NPCs. But random clusters do not make great storytelling. We need each […]

7 Ways To Roleplay Factions Better

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1068 How do you run and portray factions in your campaign? Are your factions full of life and rich gameplay? Or are they vague mentions in your world? You can tell how well a faction gets roleplayed by how much interest your players show in interacting with the group. For example, three […]

9 Secret Agents For Your Game

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1063 I like this list from Cheka Man in RPT#461. It speaks to me of archetypes and story roles. And I like those because they are reusable containers you can fill again and again. For example, The Idealist. They’d rather be somewhere else. By being someone else. Tough gig. In one plot […]

Deep World Building Using The Estates Method

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1050 A beloved RPG, Ars Magica, splits its setting into three estates: the Church, the Nobles, and the Commonfolk. Wizards are outcasts. Hunted, exiled, or slain for blasphemies and politics. Players run Magi in the Mythic Europe setting. Forced to hide and handle a delicate power balance between the three estates, play […]