The Box You Put Them In Is A Trap

I had an interesting email chat with a Roleplaying Tips GM about a cheating player.

Player Challenge #07: RPG Bingo

I played RPG Bingo at IntrigueCon.We were given bingo cards listing common convention and gaming clichés.

Challenge High Level PCs With A Quick Reskin

How do we challenge powerful player characters?Roleplaying Tips GM Scott has a tip for us on reskinning monsters and their context to give tough PCs a good run for their gold pieces.

Players: Opportunity Or Obstacle?

“I pull my trained hunting monkey out of my trench coat and it attacks the ghost.”

Roleplaying Tip: Create Ties That Bind

DM David has five quick tips for encouraging players to roleplay (the comments are good too).

Player Challenge #05 Cypher Texts

Remember those cipher games where all the letters are scrambled and you have to decode the message?

Touched By The Gods

Here’s some good stuff RPT GM Dan Barrow wrote me about powerful PCs.

Player Challenge #04 Think Sideways

Krug, Sala, Dunin, and Kailua all live in the same home. Krug and Sala head to the tavern. When they return, Dunin is lying dead on the floor in a puddle of water and glass.

Player Challenge #03 Detections

Grab all the character sheets.Scan each and note special sense and detection abilities.

Player Challenge #02 Hidden Objects

I love hidden object games. Challenge your players with them too. Here are some ideas.

Player Challenge #01 Keep ‘Em Separated

Here’s a fun way to challenge your players.Have one character perform the actions. Have another describe what actions to take.

What To Do When Your Players Aren’t Taking It Seriously

Players who don’t take your game seriously can kill a campaign. You’re struggling to create a vibe, atmosphere, and theme. But when the table ignores that and cracks jokes during horror adventures or breaks immersion with real world chatter, you get frustrated.

I asked RPT readers for advice on what to do when players don’t take your efforts and game seriously. Here’s their advice for you.

The Mother Of All Character Questionnaires

Use this list of questions to construct or add to your own character questionnaire. Character depth comes from player introspection. Prod your players to put a little thought into their PCs. This will pay you a lot of dividends as your campaigns progresses. You can use answers to design around character drives, roleplay off character details, and engage players beyond mere numbers.

The Mother Of All Character Questionnaires

Dozens of questions to build your own deep character questionnaire. All in handy list format covering many genres and life details. View the questions….

Rewarding The Game Master – A Simple Framework

The games we play and the people who play them are complex. We cannot simply write a script and have the audience passively follow along, clapping when the applause sign lights up. We play an interactive game in a social environment. Everyone wants a role to play and the ability to affect outcomes. Player agency might come easy to you or not. For me, it’s on the difficult side….

The Elvis Hook For PCs

A cool idea from a friend: the GM has prepared a music festival in a town the PCs will travel to. And the festival is a gathering of cover bands who perform the famous PC bard’s best songs….