Meeting the Villain – And Letting Them Live
It’s a classic TTRPG punchline: the GM spends...
Read MorePosted by Alexander Atoz | May 12, 2025 | GMing Advice
It’s a classic TTRPG punchline: the GM spends...
Read MorePosted by Peter Martin | Apr 28, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice, Tools for GMs
Whether it’s Aragorn showing up with his army of...
Read MorePosted by Phil Vecchione | Apr 25, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice
This past weekend, my gaming group did not reach...
Read MorePosted by Josh Storey | Apr 11, 2025 | Game Mastering
In the D&D cultural zeitgeist, the paladin is often characterized as a stick-in-the-mud or worse, a narq, but there’s so much more to this trope beyond the memes. So let’s take a closer look and figure out how to use the fantasy of a stalwart champion to create absorbing character arcs.
Read MorePosted by Phil Vecchione | Mar 28, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice
In November, I paused my Mutants in the Now game...
Read MorePosted by J.T. Evans | Mar 19, 2025 | Game Making, Game Mastering, GMing Advice
This is the final article in my adventure design...
Read MorePosted by Phil Vecchione | Feb 28, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice
I generally don’t use published material for my...
Read MorePosted by J.T. Evans | Feb 24, 2025 | Game Making, Game Mastering, GMing Advice
To get your PCs to move from one scene to the...
Read MorePosted by Phil Vecchione | Jan 31, 2025 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice
I give you all a lot of GMing advice. I also...
Read MorePosted by J.T. Evans | Jan 8, 2025 | Game Making, Game Mastering, GMing Advice
In any adventure, the party of player characters...
Read MorePosted by Phil Vecchione | Dec 27, 2024 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice
It being that time of the year, I decided to...
Read MorePosted by J.T. Evans | Dec 11, 2024 | Game Making, Game Mastering, GMing Advice
Players love getting handed real-life, physical...
Read MorePosted by J.T. Evans | Nov 27, 2024 | Game Making, Game Mastering, GMing Advice
“I stand there and swing my sword.”...
Read MorePosted by Josh Storey | Nov 25, 2024 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice
Tropes are frameworks for plot beats and character arcs. Cliches are the overused versions of those beats and arcs. Cliches, generally, should be avoided, but tropes are useful AF. They work like signposts, guiding your decisions when it comes to story elements and, in turn, speeding up your session prep.
Read MorePosted by Phil Vecchione | Nov 22, 2024 | Game Mastering, GMing Advice
Recently, one of my gaming groups decided to...
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