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How Do You Feel Rolling a Crit?
When you roll a critical hit for a monster attacking a character, how do you feel about it? Does it feel awesome? Does it feel like justice? Do you feel guilty about the crit? Do you enjoy the suspens...
Organizing Digital RPG Materials
One effective way to organize digital RPG material is by making a directory structure of
Ensure the Resilience of Your RPGs
In January 2023 we saw the biggest up-ending we've seen for the RPG hobby. After 23 years, Wizards of the Coast attempted to de-authorize the Open Gaming License, shaking third party publishers of D&D...
Using Maps for In-Person Games
Broccoli, a Patron of Sly Flourish, asks: Do you have any tips on preparing and using maps for in-person games? After fifty years of different approaches there is no perfect solution for preparing a...
Running Travel Scenes in 5e
Travel scenes can be hard to run. Like downtime, travel scenes can lack structure, not offer any meaningful actions to the characters, and not offer any interesting choices to players. Some GMs run a ...
Creating Villains
Villains often drive the story of our RPG. They frame the situations in which the characters find themselves. Good villains drive the game forward, building momentum and reacting to the characters act...
Five Ways to Integrate Characters Into Your Campaign
When we think about where best to spend our time to maximize the fun of our game, we can do far worse than focusing our attention on the characters. In the eyes of our players, no aspect of our game i...
Calm Pre-Game Nerves with Session-Focused Character Hooks
Sometimes, right before a game, I get the pre-game nervousness. Am I really ready? I've done my eight steps. I've got my maps. I've got my minis. I've got my strong start and my secrets and clues. But...