Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #299 150 Benign Urban Encounters From Chris Buono Chris polled members of the GMMastery Yahoo group for benign urban encounter ideas and then added a few of his own to come up with this awesome list you might find useful for your own campaigns. Editor Isaac and I added a few more […]

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Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #300 Q&A With Johnn Four I didn’t imagine Roleplaying Tips Weekly would reach 300 issues when I first started it six years ago, but here we are and it’s been a wonderful experience. I’ve met gamers from around the world and made many new friends, virtually as well as in person. The […]

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Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #301 120 Benign Wilderness Encounters From Chris Buono Chris polled members of the GMMastery Yahoo group for benign wilderness encounter ideas and then added a few of his own to come up with this awesome list you might find useful for your own campaigns. Editor Isaac added a few more as well. […]

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Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #302 WHY GO DICELESS? Readers Respond Last week I posted a reader request for information and tips about playing diceless RPGs. As usual, the Roleplaying Tips community responded generously with opinions, information, and advice. Thanks! Below are a few of the e-mails I received. Almost Everyone Has Already Played Diceless From Vitenka […]

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Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #303 Running Faster Combats From Kurt “Telas” Schneider I struggled for the last year with the pace of combats, and learned a lot from other GMs, my players, and personal experience. I hope what I learned will be of use to you. This article will be aimed at D&D 3.5, but many […]

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After each game, let’s take 10 minutes to review our session log to help plan for next time. I outline below a quick approach we can follow using my Loopy Planning method. We do this for a couple of reasons. First, we tend to improvise a lot during sessions. So we want to review and […]

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The first issue of 5 Room Dungeons Zine features underwater gameplay in a location you would not expect to have to swim or fight. Part of the reason I made this unusual environment the 5RD’s Feature Location is to challenge your players to master the underwater rules. When your group learns edge case type rules […]

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RPT GM K. asked me a question about rewards in sandbox games: Hi Johnn, I’ve been running an (in my opinion) fairly successful West Marches/Open Table game for several months now. I’ve accumulated a dedicated set of players and run at least one game per week, and so far it’s good fun for all involved, […]

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RPT GM E. shared with me that they’ve got writer’s block, and maybe a little GM burnout. Here’s their email, paraphrased a bit: RPGwise, I realized this week my creativity is gone. I had to brainstorm and couldn’t whip up anything. Right now, I’m in a total slump gamewise. Right now is a great opportunity […]

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Here’s another way to get players more engaged and better prepared to game when they arrive. It could also get more players showing up more often if you have that problem. Send a message to your players a week before next session. An alert. But with added strategic pieces to make it a fantastic new […]

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Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #304 Take Ten: Balance From David Newland A character with skills is a character with options. Often overlooked and underused, skills can change the game with a single die roll. Skills add meat to the ability score bones of a character, developing their persona and creating heroes that are memorable and playable. […]

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Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #305 Getting Player Feedback From Mike Bourke, Sydney, Australia Players should impact the direction and content of the campaign. However, good feedback can be hard to find. Some players are uncomfortable criticizing the GM, who puts more work into the campaign than anyone else. Others prefer to wait and see where the […]

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Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #306 Changing the Rules From Dave McKay, Calgary, AB I’ve GMed a small, experienced group for four years, and we discuss the game after each session. A growing theme emerged: we were each unhappy with certain game elements. Moreover, there was a major part of the game system (spells and magic) we […]

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Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #307 100 Waterborne Encounters This sunken treasure chest full of water related encounters, hooks, and snippets of detail is brought to you care of the GMMastery Group. Thanks to everyone who contributed their ideas! Use the following list as inspiration, in-game encounter seeds, or backdrops when your group next sets sail. Ahoy! […]

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Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #308 Baby Steps In Campaign Setting Design From Mike Bourke, Sydney, Australia Designing a campaign setting is one of the most daunting and rewarding tasks a referee can undertake. For a novice GM, an established setting is probably the best choice, but there will come a time when a GM wishes to […]

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Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #309 Myth Crafting From Jason Pasero Over the years, as a player and GM, I’ve struggled with the elements of religion in my games. The fault for this is likely my own fascination with myth and the types of religions typically distributed with role-playing games. Many focus on statistics, magical powers, and […]

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Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #310 Airborne Minis Tips Last week I put are request in my Brief Word section for ways to represent flying or climbing minis on battlemats. Following is a surprising number of methods you smart folks wrote in with. Hopefully, if you use minis, you find a method below that works for you. […]

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Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #311 More Waterborne Encounters & Events In this sequel to Issue #307, here is another batch of ideas, seeds, and hooks to use for ocean, lake, river, and coastal encounters. Thanks again to the creative folks of the GMMastery Yahoo! Group for your contributions. One of the crew members kills an albatross, […]

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A tip for you today about making your world feel dynamic and amping up your stories at the same time.

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Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #312 Take Ten: Bluff From David Newland A character with skills is a character with options. Often overlooked and underused, skills can change the game with a single die roll. Skills add meat to the ability score bones of a character, developing their persona and creating heroes that are memorable and playable. […]

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