Reader Tips: Game World Management
We pick up where we left off in RPT#526, with more tips from readers about how to develop and manage game world details. A reader named Beleaguered in South Africa asked for help managing the details of his extensive game world. Here’s how GMs responded: From Blair Giles I recently started a new 4e D&D […]
Continue readingHow To Lie And Get Caught At It
From Mark of the Pixie Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0527 A Brief Word from Johnn Backup Your Game Data RPT reader Mark of the Pixie lost all his game info last week. He sent out a note to the GMMastery list reminding everybody to back up their data. That’s a bummer, Mark. And thanks for the […]
Continue reading8 Ways to Make Game World Management Easy
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0526 A Brief Word from Johnn Welcome to Fall Gaming I’m in two campaigns now. One I GM, one I play a magus. That should get me gaming two weeks out of four. Booya! I hope you can fit gaming into your fall schedule. As I’ve said before, life is too short […]
Continue readingFree 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 […]
Continue readingHot 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 […]
Continue readingSpeeding Up Combat
From Len Henderson One of the most enjoyable parts of roleplaying for many gamers is combat. However, especially in large groups, players can wait for a considerable amount of time between turns. This sort of wait leads to boredom and cross chatter, annoying the GM and the player whose turn it is. Here are things […]
Continue readingA Trick For Easier In-Game Communication
From Joseph Rapoport Johnn, In regards to creating simple communications in games, I play in two campaigns and DM one in which we have all arrived at the same solution for communication. The solution is an item, a small hollow metal tube, which acts like a Message spell. The item comes in two forms: An […]
Continue readingWhen You Need To Cast In Secret
From Morgan Joeck One thing that bothered me when I first started gaming was identifying the spell I was casting when those around me would not have known what it was. My solution to that was to print out colorful fractals or other designs on index cards and fold them into little envelopes containing the […]
Continue readingThree Ways To Game With Casual Players
From Mark of the Pixie Johnn, I agree with your epiphany that we should play more. One way I am looking at to help facilitate this (as work, children, and other responsibilities reduce our time) is the logistics of how we play. Most of my games are fortnightly three hour face-to-face table top sessions in […]
Continue readingOrganize Your Information With Evernote
From Jared Hunt http://www.jaredhunt.ca Evernote is a free service that I’ve used on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. There are versions for other mobiles and for Windows as well. It is a simple word processing program that incorporates online storage so you can share your notes across any number of your computers and devices. http://www.evernote.com One […]
Continue readingTips For Naval Battles
From Mark of the Pixie Age of Sail Battles My general rule is to go with whatever the players suggest. The description is however they want to describe it, but the mechanics stay as normal. So, if they declare they are going to “cross the T of the other ship and broadside its mainsail,” I […]
Continue readingSpy Tips: Blind Communication
From Logan Horsford Blind communication protects the identity of the message sender. This offers the perfect tool for villains in your campaigns. Here are a few blind communication methods: Dead letter drop I make a chalk mark on a building that you go by on the way to work. That means, “you have a package […]
Continue readingDemonstrate Character Heights
From Loren Lassiter Use a blank wall, preferably in sight of the table, to mark the characters’ relative heights. It’s a great way for everyone to truly picture how tall their characters are – and how they size up next to their co-adventurers. We use the wall behind the DM to affix signs that include […]
Continue readingUse Google Documents For Campaign Organization
From Bob Nolan Hi Johnn, I like to use Google Documents to upload character sheets and to track notes with during my RPG session. In addition to providing to a great way to store information, Google Documents allows you to send information back and forth to specific characters using the discussion pane on the right […]
Continue readingTurn 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). […]
Continue readingThree Quick Equipment Tips
From Mark of the Pixie Equipment I don’t sweat the little stuff. Characters have signature items (gear they have paid XP for), wealth (a bonus they can use to get little stuff as needed, see below) and possibly a few personal items (which may give a +1 or +2 bonus to one thing). Otherwise, I […]
Continue readingUse These Mechanics To Roleplay More
By Mark of the Pixie “How do you use ROLL-playing to add to the fun of the ROLE-playing aspect of your game?” Passions Biggest aid I have for this is Passions. I let each player pick a single Passion, such as “protect the innocent.” When that passion is in play, such as when the PCs […]
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