World Building Archives - Roleplaying Tips

Tag Archive

Tag Archives for " World Building "

Weaponize Encounter Weather With The Beaufort Scale

Use the Beaufort Scale to help make wind and storm rulings easier. I grew up on a street called Beaufort Avenue. When we moved there, it had no curbs or sidewalks. And it dead-ended a few blocks down the road. And we had some fantastic wind storms. The walnut tree became weather’s weapon during gales. […]

Balancing Magic, Bears & Hit Points

Happy Canada Day! While swatting mosquitoes and sipping cool bevvies, let’s look at a dilemma that community member Sir Tainley poses about explaining the strength of commoners in certain game systems: I’m designing a world for a D&D 5e clone. I want magic to be reasonably common, and taught in the universities. But, powerful enough spells […]

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 […]

Sola Dosis Facit Venenum

For my Obsidian Invictus campaign, I’m aiming to make every magic item unique. Potions was a bit of a head scratcher. I don’t want a lot of extra prep. In fact, I want the opposite. But Roleplaying Tips GM Daniel saves the day with some cool ideas on making potions distinct. He sent me this […]

Colony & Outpost Creation Checklist

I’ve got a great checklist for you today. @Exile In Paradise, a fantastic mod helping fellow GMs in my Discord, shared with me a great list of AI generated questions and details for creating colonies, outposts, and settlements in space. This is in response to Orbital Trouble: d12 Space Outpost Hooks. I normally don’t spit […]

Use Moves To Beat Brain Freeze & Deepen Play

How to simplify things at the table and drop dynamic game pieces onto it. In response to a description tutorial I sent out, Wizard of Adventure GM Will asks: I want to know more about the “Moves” section Thanks Will. I first discovered Moves in the Dungeon World RPG. At first, I didn’t understand the […]

How To Fix A Dull Setting (Without Writing More Lore)

A great way to craft and maintain a consistent atmosphere without the heavy prep. I’m experimenting with a Sensory Bible for my Obsidian Invictus campaign to solve a specific problem. How to keep the vibe consistent without writing a tome of lore? One of my first steps was creating a Sensory Bible for the city, […]

Dungeons in Modern Games

Running “dungeons” in any genre or setting. Roleplaying Tips GM Richmond grabbed my book, Logical Dungeon Design: Tactical Cartography, and sent me this note: Johnn, I have read the first chapter and part of the second. I don’t know how useful it will be for the game I am currently running, but I may be […]

Bottoms Up!

During Tiny Prep this morning I added factions to my setting, and that inspired three ideas. I’m finding the bottom-up approach great for inspiration in this way. For each campaign I have in Campaign Logger I create an Ideas Log. And today I added these: However, I feel like I could squeeze more value juice […]

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 […]

4 Steps to Better Maps

Tired of pausing gameplay to hastily sketch a scene? Front-loading your map prep is one of the best ways to help with session pacing. The #Mapvember2025 map challenge is still going strong on the RPT Discord, and it’s your perfect chance to front-load your prep and save yourself stress later. Thanks to @Auke for facilitating […]

The Magic of ‘What If?’ (Johnn’s GM Bookshelf #04)

Dragon Magazine Collection A quick note to say I finally finished re-reading my print Dragon Magazine collection! But now, alas, I must part with it as I downsize. Postage is brutal. So I would like to first see if anyone near Beaumont, Alberta is interested and willing to pick them up. I am asking $500 […]

Join the Mapvember Challenge

I love maps. They’re my First Move when building an encounter or 5 Room Dungeon. It lets you think things through as you push the pixels or graphite around. I like to tell myself a story as I draw. Here’s the entrance and it leaves much to be desired, making them easy pickings for the […]

How to Make Your Players Love Paying Taxes

Do you charge taxes? I got a chuckle from DaveW’s post on the RPT Discord about levying taxes on the characters: My current campaign has a silver per wheel and copper per leg toll for the fortified town the players start in. An ox pulling a four wheeled cart is 4 sp, 4 cp to […]

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 […]

Weeds: What My Garden Taught Me About World Building

Each empty space on our map offers an opportunity. We often focus on the big things like rooms, doors, and treasure, but the real magic is in the clutter. The makeshift gardens, the forgotten tools, and even the weeds. As GMs, our goal is to make our settings feel lived in, and I was recently […]

The One Book That Changed How I Build Cities (Johnn’s Bookshelf #02)

Who knew economic and urban development theory could be exciting? I certainly didn’t, until I stumbled upon a book called The Economy of Cities by Jane Jacobs. This small academic tome changed how I build worlds, and today I’ll show you why. Welcome to the latest installment of Johnn’s Bookshelf, my series where I share […]

Getting Players Attached To Their Home Base

Getting Players Attached To Their Home Base Home bases are like Swiss Army Knives for GMs. A collection of useful campaign tools in one small package. With home bases, we get great GM boons: When players get attached to their home, all kinds of plots and adventures open up. However, if players are willing to […]

World Calendars & Campaign Timelines

Do you create a world calendar and campaign timeline? RPT GM Chris asks if this is common: Good day Johnn. I was working on my game world history a bit today, and found myself wondering if things I do are common among many other DMs? For instance, I always have a calendar for any world […]

My 2-Stage Prep System And How I’m Ready For EVERY Session

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by prep? Or struggle to balance world building with what’s urgently needed for next game? I used to fall into this GM pit trap a lot. Scrambling every game day while also stressing over my incomplete campaign plans and setting. The core issue often stems from mixing Session Prep and […]

How I’m Scaling My New Campaign From 0 to Epic Universe

If you start with just one 5 Room Dungeon today, you’ll soon have a player-driven world brimming with factions, mysteries, and drama, all without burning out, herding cats, or skipping sessions due to lack of prep time. That’s not just theory. It’s exactly how I’m building my own new campaign, using the very system I […]

CampaignCraft: Announcing My New Secret Weapon for Building & Launching Successful Campaigns

The secret weapon I wish I’d had in my first dozen campaigns… GMing long-term campaigns is hard. I’ve started dozens over the years. Some crashed. Some fizzled. And a few became legends. What made the difference? How I started. Big worlds. Big plots. Big prep. Those campaigns buckled under their own weight. The best ones […]

Your World Is An NPC

Before I share today’s tip, a reminder for Wizards of Adventure that it’s the last Saturday of the month in a few days and that means it’s Zoom time! Hop onto a call with me this Saturday noon Mountain Time to get some help. Get tips, ideas, or feedback about your next encounter, monster tactics, […]

Golemageddon: Golem Ideas for Your Next Campaign

A couple of quick announcements. First, I was on the Roleplay Rescue podcast recently with Tiny Prep co-author, Che Webster. It starts off with a question: What would you do if you had a new player to add to your existing roleplaying group? And the convo evolves from there. Here’s the link to listen. Second, […]

1 2 3 … 7 Next »