Game Mastering

What Is a Situation in an RPG? How to Create Dynamic Play.

Posted by Chris Sniezak | Jan 19, 2026 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice, Tools for GMs

There’s an idea that adventures are like trains....

Fresh Starts

Posted by J.T. Evans | Jan 12, 2026 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice

It’s a new year! Time for resolutions (I...

Why this game?

Posted by Phil Vecchione | Dec 19, 2025 | Game Mastering, General, GMing Advice

For the most part, I pick the games I am going...

Background Events

Posted by Phil Vecchione | Nov 26, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice

One of the things I love about Blades in the...

Prepping Your Game in Obsidian

Posted by Josh Storey | Nov 21, 2025 | Game Mastering, Tools for GMs

The perfect game notebook doesn’t exist. That said, out of all of the notebooks I’ve tried—physical, digital, or otherwise—I’ve yet to find an option as close to perfect as Obsidian. I love it a lot, and what’s the point of writing for a TTRPG blog if you can’t share that nerdy love with others? So here’s a rundown of why I think you should try Obsidian with some tips for how you can use it to organize your campaigns, improve your prep, and evolve the way you run sessions.

Make It Personal

Posted by J.T. Evans | Nov 14, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice, Player Advice

Session zero is packed. Like, really packed,...

Preludes

Posted by Phil Vecchione | Oct 29, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice

In my current Blades in the Dark game, I started...

Small Groups vs. Large Groups

Posted by J.T. Evans | Oct 24, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice

How large is your RPG group? Small? Large?...

Making Second Chances Cinematic: Introducing the Invocation Reroll

Posted by Jesse Edmond | Oct 17, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice

The problem isn’t the mechanic. It’s the framing. Rerolls are inherently dramatic — a refusal to accept failure, a desperate second chance — but most games treat them as paperwork.

The solution is simple: give rerolls a ritual.