Search results

I have a friend who is a fantasy novels author. We know each other for a long time and even played TTRPGs together (I GMed). Recently, he introduced me to his common novel structure and what he had learned over the years. Although the medium is different, how we think about story structure is...

How to Welcome The New Player From JohnnFour | Published July 9, 2022 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,208 Brief Word From Johnn I read an interesting article last night that asked the question: What's more important, the player or the character? In the real world, it's the player, of...

How to Motivate Your Players - Part II From JohnnFour | Published June 27, 2022 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,207 Brief Word From Johnn Some GMs have more free time and get a lot of gaming done in the summer, while for others it gets busier and they play less. Either way, I hope you had a...

d6 Tips For a Player's First Session From JohnnFour | Published June 22, 2022 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,206 Brief Word From Johnn A mid-week newsletter issue as I catch up on a few things. Today, I'd like to help brand new players. I get often emails from new players who download my...

How to Deal with Silence at the Table From JohnnFour | Published June 6, 2022 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,205 Brief Word From Johnn Today Jonathan talks about silence during sessions. There are many kinds of silence, and he shares his thoughts about a couple of the trickiest ones. If you...

My Secret Ingredient For Making Great Puzzles From JohnnFour | Published May 30, 2022 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,204 Brief Word From Johnn Think too small and think too big. We've got a critter making a nest under our deck. We can't see it because it's found a good crack to inhabit. But...

6 Tips On How To Tie Dungeon Encounters Together From JohnnFour | Published May 25, 2022 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,203 Brief Word From Johnn Last night I found a great course on Udemy about video game design. In part, it dives into the tension between player agency versus game designer...

Mission-Style Roleplaying – Part I From JohnnFour | Published ?? Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #223 Mission-Style Roleplaying Combat in RPGs is a physical, tangible, visceral thing. In many games, combat stuff takes up 75% or more of a character sheet. When the fighting breaks out, you have...

How to Write Motivation Into Your Games From JohnnFour | Published May 17, 2022 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,202 Brief Word From Johnn I played in a Pathfinder 2E one-shot on Saturday using Foundry run by my friend Mark. My guy was a big brute wielding a dwarven scattergun trying to save...

How to Create Great Non-Combat Encounters From JohnnFour | Published May 18, 2015 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #657 Brief Word From Johnn Last Day For This Book Sale Send Me Your Topic Requests

Campaign’s Pillars: How to Pacing Your Game’s Exciting Moments By JohnnFour | Published March 21, 2022 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,034 Manage pace during sessions instead of scripting it. This lets you react to your game as it unfolds and is one less strict plan you must track. But...

The Problem With Maps From JohnnFour | Published May 2, 2022 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,200 A Brief Word from Johnn Today I have some tips for when players get distracted by your beautiful maps and don't pay attention to your encounter details. In addition, I have a couple of Wizard of...

3 Round Combat Plans For Lightning Combats – Part II From JohnnFour | Published March 30, 2021 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,149 How do you make your next combat fast and exciting effective 3 Round Combat Plans? And what are we supposed to do in each round? What is our strategy here? That’s...

When Players Go Feral — How to Clarify Actions of Misunderstood Players From Jonathan Hardin, sojournersawake.com | Published April 25, 2022 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,200 A Brief Word from Johnn Today's tips from Jonathan cover a problem I've experienced many times, especially at...

Episodic Campaigns Part 2: Tips and Session-Ender Narration Tool By JohnnFour | Published ??, 2014 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #608 A Brief Word From Johnn Website Has Search I’ve updated roleplayingtips.com so it has a search engine. You can search the new site content and the classic old...

Episodic Campaigns Part 1: 3 Ways To Run Them By JohnnFour | Published ??, 2014 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #607 A Brief Word From Johnn Reading Body Language Is Easier Than I Thought I just took an online course about how to read body language. Everyone, including your players, engages in...

Simple Ways to Keep Fun in Your Games From Jonathan Hardin, sojournersawake.com | Published April 11, 2022 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,199 A Story to Begin I remember taking my children to a playground one day in a small town. We expected plastic playsets where kids could run up and down...

Role-Reversal: GMing other GMs From Jinx Strange | Published ???, Updated May 23, 2021 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #471 Fundamentally, it isn’t. The same game rules apply; the same expectations of manners, courtesy and participation are all relevant. On the surface, running a game for...

How To Run A Lunch Hour Game From JohnnFour | Published April 4, 2022 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,198 Wizard of Adventure CD asked me this question about squeezing some gaming in at lunch: Thanks for the question, CD! I've run two lunch campaigns at work over the years. Alas, I was just...

Combat Missions: Adding Glorious Stories to Gruesome Struggles From JohnnFour | Published November 10, 2014 Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #631 Brief Word From Johnn Dungeon Crawl Classics Is A Classic I had a blast this past weekend playing the DCC RPG for the first time. We adventured...