gamemastering

RPT GM Martin V sent me this excellent email on his key takeways from this fantastic game, and how they might be used for other systems. [Here are some] interesting insights from Blades in the Dark, a game I've been reading recently. Blades in the Dark is a game about playing daring scoundrels...

So I have been playing 5e a while now and the predominant tier that folks love to play is tiers 1 to tiers 2 and sometimes maybe halfway to three. As a result I have dm'ed about 5 games above level 10 and 1 game above level 14. I am terrible at it. Either my npcs are pushovers or they are...

DM Bible is a OneNote-based gamemaster notebook by Icarus Games: https://www.icarus-games.co.uk/onenote-dm-bible You can either browse the notebook online or download a copy of your own.

I've recently switched from D&D to the Genesys system for running a home-brew campaign. I used D&D Beyond for that system and it was pretty smooth to run on my laptop, but I mostly ran published campaigns. Genesys is all PDFs and I'm finding it really unwieldy (given I'm new and have to do a...

Dear fellow GMs, Do you know the feeling that you want to do something spectacular that the players don't expect? To surprise, fool or trick them with a great tactic or strategy? Some of you find it hard. Some of you might already have a list of tactics which came from creativity or experience...

Hey, gang. I hope this doesn't sound too pathetic. So I originally signed up for this workshop in order to improve my players' engagement, as it has been lagging as of late. Since then, it hasn't improved and I have subsequently developed DM Burnout, finding it difficult to get excited about...

I'm just getting started planning a new campaign at the moment, and in going through various options with the players one of them indicated an interest helping out if we go with one particular setting. At first I wasn't sure as I've always run games solo, but the more I thought about it, the...

Usually all adventures play out exactly the way we GMs envisioned them, all characters behave exactly like they are supposed to and the dice do their job exactly as we expect them to, right? Well...No. For me, the beauty of role-playing is in the things that surprise me. Things that are funny...

One of my biggest weaknesses as a GM is my lack of proper preparation and focus when it comes to rewarding my players for a completed adventure or campaign. To play the campaign I prefer intrinsic motivation of the players/characters and as a GM, I am quite content if a story was fun, the climax...

A guy called Red Trolls Gaming has set up a Teachable video course about writing RPG adventures: https://redtrolls.teachable.com/p/writing_dnd_adventures_alt2 He also has a short, free course about creating an online random generator using an existing randomization service...

Every now and then some random source features a generic article on gamemastering advice. Maybe they are worth collecting? This week Kotaku ran just this kind of an article - with pointers to some great online sources for further reading (with some missing links)...

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...

Got this great tip from RPT GM Rob Adams: Just a quick comment about differentiating characters -- "voice" isn't simply vocal modulation and accents. For instance, a proper noble might enunciate his words a little more clearly, use language that suggests a subconscious superiority complex, and...

I brainstormed this list for Monday's Musing. Here are some ideas for doling out clues in different ways. d30 Fantasy Clue Methods A prophecy written on an amphora now in shards Written as a cypher on a bookmark inside a book it's the key for Carved with a dagger and scarred into the back of a...

flowchart mapping An old post in the Neuronphase blog presents a simple but effective mapping tip: instead of a presentation of the physical space, one can use flowchart maps: http://www.neuronphaser.com/fantasy-rpg-flowchart-mapping/ [Edit: Originally my idea was to create a single thread...

A new gamemastering newsletter started last month: https://dungeonmasterdaily.com/ This is a daily(!), brief mailing that promises to deliver short gaming tips, but its rather ambitious raison d'être seems to be listing all new gamemastering related content published on the Web on the...