Coaching Yourself At The Table
Posted by Phil Vecchione | Jan 31, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice | 0
Gnomecast 205 – Mastering Mysteries
Posted by Poddy Gnomington | Jan 29, 2025 | Gnomecast | 0
You’re Playing My Game Wrong
Posted by J.T. Evans | Jan 24, 2025 | General | 2
Gnomecast 204 – Running vs. Playing
Posted by Poddy Gnomington | Jan 15, 2025 | Gnomecast | 0
Adventure Design: Supporting and Opposing NPCs
Posted by J.T. Evans | Jan 8, 2025 | Game Making, Game Mastering, GMing Advice | 0
Prepping Your Character for Play
by Tiffany Reynolds | Feb 7, 2025 | Player Advice
We spend a lot of time on GM game prepping, and comparatively little time talking about players prepping for games. I want to propose a method for players to prepare characters and the stories they want to tell in next session or campaign. Like a GM might prepare a secession players can also prep...
Read MoreCoaching Yourself At The Table
by Phil Vecchione | Jan 31, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice
I give you all a lot of GMing advice. I also take my advice as much as possible. The hardest kind of advice for me to take is the kind that affects my table style. It’s not that I am dismissive of my own advice, but rather, in the heat of running the game, the changes I want to make get lost in...
Read MoreGnomecast 205 – Mastering Mysteries
by Poddy Gnomington | Jan 29, 2025 | Gnomecast
https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GC_205_Mysteries_final.mp3 Join Ang, Chris and Tomas as they discuss all the ins and outs of running mysteries in a variety of game systems! Links: Xeno Brandon Sanderson writing Lecture Series 2025 Afternoon Maps Patreon...
Read MoreYou’re Playing My Game Wrong
by J.T. Evans | Jan 24, 2025 | General
My FLGS (friendly, local, game store) has a Discord server where patrons can chat about all sorts of subjects in clearly marked channels. Most channels are highly active, and my heart is warmed by the pure excitement show for their wide and varied outlets for finding joy in gaming of all types....
Read MoreGnomecast 204 – Running vs. Playing
by Poddy Gnomington | Jan 15, 2025 | Gnomecast
https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/CG_204_runningVSplaying_finalV01.mp3 Join Ang, JT, and guest Alex Thomas as they talk about the difference in the skills needed to run games versus play games. They dive into what they like about both and why it’s important to have both sets...
Read MoreAdventure Design: Supporting and Opposing NPCs
by J.T. Evans | Jan 8, 2025 | Game Making, Game Mastering, GMing Advice
In any adventure, the party of player characters (PCs) will inevitably encounter other intelligent creatures and people. These are the non-player characters (NPCs) of the world that are largely controlled, run, an enacted by the game master. There are moments (and some systems greatly support...
Read MoreFive Things I Learned in 2024
by Phil Vecchione | Dec 27, 2024 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice
It being that time of the year, I decided to reflect again on my year of gaming and see what lessons I learned. This is the second year I have done this. Overall, this year I gamed less than 2023. There were two main reasons. The first was that at the start of the year, I had some terrible back...
Read MoreReview: Shadowcat Magazine
by J.T. Evans | Dec 23, 2024 | Reviews
Full disclosure before I launch into my review of the promo issue of Shadowcat Magazine: I received the PDF for free (you can too!) from Chaz Kemp, the creator of the magazine. Additional disclosure: Chaz and I have been good friends for a number of years now, but that has not colored my review...
Read MoreTales of the Valiant Monster Vault Review
by Jared Rascher | Dec 20, 2024 | Reviews
An interesting side effect of having multiple iterations of D&D 5th edition based on the 5e SRD is that some content allows publishers to produce content that works in their game but may also be helpful to people who aren’t utilizing the entire ruleset. One of the most prominent examples of...
Read MoreGnomecast 203 – Resolutions Old & New
by Poddy Gnomington | Dec 18, 2024 | Gnomecast
https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CG_203_Gaming-Resolutions-2025_final.mp3 Join Ang, JT, and Tomas as they look at what they hoped to accomplish RPG wise in 2024, how that turned out, and what they’re hoping for in 2025. Links: Libby JT’s Amazon Link JT’s Website...
Read MoreTome Of Maps: City Battlemap Book Review
by Tomas Gimenez Rioja | Dec 13, 2024 | Reviews
Snowys Maps has been kind enough to come to me to talk about their product. They offered me 2 of their spiral booklets for free (just a press review version which is not the complete one) and allowed me to speak my mind of them. When this happens I try not to post negative reviews, talking...
Read MoreAdventure Design: Maps and PC Handouts
by J.T. Evans | Dec 11, 2024 | Game Making, Game Mastering, GMing Advice
Players love getting handed real-life, physical artifacts that tie their characters into the ongoing adventure. There are oodles of props, maps, handouts, images, and so on that can be tossed over the GM screen into the middle of the gaming table. Not everyone has time, energy, or skill* to get...
Read MoreAlien: The Roleplaying Game – Building Better Worlds Review
by Jared Rascher | Dec 9, 2024 | Reviews
Usually, I try to be more timely with reviews here, but I kept running into interesting hurdles while working on my review for Building Better Worlds. I had heard rumors that Alien: Romulus would remove Prometheus and Alien: Covenant from the movie timeline going forward. Then, we received news...
Read MoreTales of the Valiant Player’s Guide Review
by Jared Rascher | Dec 6, 2024 | Reviews
You may have noticed some significant developments in fantasy games that rely on the 5e OGL for their core rules. Not long after the Great OGL Debacle of 2023, Kobold Press announced that they were working on their own set of 5e OGL fantasy rules, and part of the draw for this set of rules is that...
Read MoreGnomecast 202 – Surviving the Holidays
by Poddy Gnomington | Dec 4, 2024 | Gnomecast
https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CG_202_Survivingtheholidays-Mixdown-1.mp3 Join Ang, Matt, and Senda as they talk about how to help your gaming group survive the inevitable scheduling woes of the holiday season. Links: Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970-1977 Grinding...
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