Players & Characters Archives

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Try Back Pocket Events In Your Campaigns

Did you know there is a Fantasy Grounds version of my complete 1-20th level D&D 5E campaign, The Demonplague, co-written by James Introcaso? I don’t advertise this on The Demonplague’s information page, but will fix that soon. Meantime, if you are a Fantasy Grounds GM, you can purchase the campaign here. Unfortunately, due to Fantasy […]

Death, Where Is Thy Sting?

Ahoi! Before my vacation I released GM Cheat Sheet #08 that I don’t think I announced to you. Check out the Forests 5 Room Dungeon Generator at DriveThruRPG. Have your dice ready to quickly create interesting forest-based 5 Room Dungeons, adventures, and encounters. You can also watch a video walkthrough of the GM Cheat Sheet […]

From Tasty Bait to Terrifying Consequences: Tricking Players With Instant Gratification

It’s great to be back from vacation! Thank you for your patience as I took a couple of weeks off from the newsletter. We went camping near a place called Rocky Mountain House where it’s not rocky and there are no mountains. The picture below was each glorious morning for me. This might leave you […]

Beyond Gold Pieces: Amp Up Player Engagement With These Rewards

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1225 Amp Up Player Engagement With These Rewards Looking for different ways to reward players and their characters? Gold and gems are great, but you can’t dance to them. The best rewards engage characters and players, keep the Infinite Game going via story progression, open up choices and action possibilities, and create […]

Streamline Your Gameplay With This Cool House Rule

Streamline Your Gameplay With This Cool House Rule On a podcast with Dr. Keith McNally, Jonathan from Sojourner’s Awake shared his three table rules. And one of them I wanted to forward along to you because it is very good. Here’s a link to the 29 minute podcast on YouTube. Watch My Face Jonathan’s third […]

How To Keep Story Arcs Alive

How To Keep Story Arcs Alive How do you keep campaign arcs alive? That’s how I’d summarize this tip request I received from Wizard of Adventure Sharon: Our party meets every two or three weeks for a four hour session. With family and life taking center stage between sessions and memories fade, it makes remembering […]

Why Players Get Bored With Our GMing (But Might Be Afraid To Tell Us)

Why Players Get Bored With Our GMing (But Might Be Afraid To Tell Us) As a player who gets bored easily (thus I am a forever-GM :), here are three reasons based on my experiences why a GM can lose player attention and participation in a game. Hopefully these tips help keep your table engaged. […]

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 […]

Prep This Instead Of Plans

RPT GM Steffen asks: Maybe you have a tip for a problem I’m having with prep. In my group, we sometimes play fairly open RPGs. Open in the sense of an open world. At the end of a game session, I don’t know how the players are going to approach a problem, and then I […]

d12 Ways To Surprise And Delight Your Players And Their Characters

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1221 d12 Ways To Surprise And Delight Your Players And Their Characters Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were great. I spent mine eating way too much delicious baking. I wish I’d asked Santa for a bigger belt. The New Year always feels like a fresh start. So I am curious […]

How To Create Engaging Session Recaps To Get Players Ready To Play

From Johnn Four Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1215 Brief Word From Johnn Thank you to everyone who sent along birthday wishes. I had a great day and got to spend extra time working on my campaign, which is always a treat! In Wizard of Adventure news: Watch this video on YouTube where I walk through the […]

How To Keep Players of Unconscious & Dying Characters Engaged

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1214 How To Keep Players of Unconscious & Dying Characters Engaged When a character drops in combat, the fun stops for that player. While they can cheer their friends on, they can no longer join the fun. Different systems have different rules around death and dying. Regardless of ruling, here are some […]

How To Welcome The New Player

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1208 A Brief Word From Johnn Ahoj Johnn! I read an interesting article last night that asked the question: What’s more important, the player or the character? In the real world, it’s the player, of course. Because the characters aren’t going to drive themselves home, right? Joking! But in the game, it’s […]

How to Motivate Your Players – Part II

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1207 By Jonathan Hardin, sojournersawake.com [Comment from Johnn: this is part two of a series Jonathan started here with How to Hook Players Easily Into Your Adventures.] The Power of a Motive Begin your game by highlighting why the player characters choose to adventure. Is it for glory and fame? Wealth and […]

d6 Tips For a Player’s First Session

By Johnn Four Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1206 Doing something new is scary. Add in strangers, characters, someone called a game master, roleplaying, and weird dice, and stress levels rise. To help give you more confidence going into your first few games as a player, here are a few specific things you can do ahead of […]

How to Deal with Silence at the Table

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1205 Brief Word From Johnn Today Jonathan talks about silence during sessions. There are many kinds of silence, and he shares his thoughts about a couple of the trickiest ones. If you worry about conflict at the table, be sure to check out his advice. One Card Dungeon Changing topics for a […]

The Problem With Maps

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1201 Brief Word From Johnn Today I have some tips for when players get distracted by your beautiful maps and don’t pay attention to your encounter details. But before getting into those, I wanted to mention there are additional some Reader Tips this issue at the end you might want to check […]

When Players Go Feral — How to Clarify Actions of Misunderstood Players

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1200 Brief Word From Johnn Today’s tips from Jonathan cover a problem I’ve experienced many times, especially at conventions. What do you do when one player goes off the rails? I especially like the example of the ranger who seemingly isn’t on the same page as the party and wants to ask […]

Simple Ways to Keep Fun in Your Games

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1199 I recently wrote a few tips for running lunch games. Several RPT GMs sent me this link, which is a D&D 5E Practical Guide to One Hour DnD Sessions (you might want to turn on your ad blocker before viewing the site): https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/dungeonmasters/one-hour-sessions/ I’m away halfway through, and it has great […]

3 Ways Your Players Can Help You Out Next Session

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1197 A Brief Word From Johnn Do you allow players to change their characters during level-up or between games? I received a nice tip on the weekend about this from RPT GM Paul M: I offered to modify the ability scores of the barbarian in my friends and family game to more […]

What To Do When Players Miss The Clues?

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1193 Brief Word From Johnn A false spring sprang here in Beaumont last week. It got warm (only -4), sunny, and melty. I’m trying to warn folks new to town that it’s just Room III: Trick and Setback. Because the groundhog doesn’t lie and more winter’s coming. But methinks inevitable frozen tears […]

New Players – New Group – New Campaign

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1190 RPT GM RF emailed me this question: Johnn, I’m about to start a brand new group in my AD&D 1e campaign I call ‘In a Handbasket’. All players have Dungeons and Dragons experience, but most have never played 1st Ed. I have run this campaign twice before. Once for my kids […]

d10 Things You Can Do With a Dead Character

By Johnn Four, patreon.com/johnnfour Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1191 It sucks when a character dies. To avoid discomfort or upset players, many GMs end up supporting Mary Sue PCs. Or we provide plot armour so thick we earn no drama from combat, traps, and hazards. I support character death as a result of fair gameplay. This […]

How To Adjust After Handing Out Too Much Loot

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1187 Brief Word From Johnn Today I’ve got some great ideas for when we hand out too much treasure and game balance goes sideways a bit. And in the Reader Tips section at the end, I’ve got a 5 Room Dungeon and Campaign Puzzle tip for you. One thing in the 5 […]

Highlights and Hopes — How to Get Valuable Feedback From Your Players

From Jonathan Hardin, sojournersawake.com Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1186 If they are having fun, then you’re doing it right. With my Highlights & Hopes technique, I can immediately receive feedback on how my players define fun. I gather these Highlights & Hopes right after the game while they are still fresh in everyone’s mind. Definition Highlights […]

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