Some people love using miniatures in tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons because they provide a visual representation of where things are on the table. Others dislike them because they can take up space or get knocked over easily if you’re not careful. In this latter, the “theater...
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Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) games have changed the landscape in a lot of very positive ways, but the one that has resonated most at my table – even feeding into other games – is the idea of “failing forward.” That is, creating a partial failure that moves the plot, or at minimum...
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Put away the ski mask, you absolute sociopath. This is about doing bad things in gaming, and what you do on your own time is between you and your defense attorney. If you’ve been gaming for any amount of time, you’re familiar with most of the old adages about how to make a good game: “show, don’t...
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I’m currently running not one, but two experimental campaigns on weekends in Roll20; the experimental question is “how little worldbuilding can I get away with?” And the answer, it turns out, is very little. I started with this map from DeviantArt, made four gods, one quest-giver NPC, an evil...
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Any given game that you pick up off a shelf (or grab from itch.io) is an experience, geared toward creating a specific type of story: a fantasy skirmish simulator, a Jane-Austenesque adventure in manners, or living life as a cozy lesbian snake to name just a few. But sometimes you want to mix and...
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How do you run better games? You deliver more immersive stories. The Recipe Rising Tension Invoking a Variety of the Five Senses A Risk Worth Putting It All on the Line For Delegating to the Dice In the time honored tradition of tabletop role-playing games, the outcomes of...
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If you’re just here for the links, here they are. These are all available through DriveThruRPG because I’m lazy, and it’s really easy to find free models on there. If you click on any of these products, you’ll also see a bunch of free “customers who bought this title also purchased” options at the...
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When do you game? Is it a weekly thing? Does the date and time change, or is it consistent, like some kind of gaming pact? Holiday Traffic The holidays have a way of disrupting a gaming group’s routine and testing the commitment of each of its members. For some of us, from Thanksgiving to...
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So you want to try your hand at creating an East Asian Fantasy campaign setting? Start with some valuable research from Daniel Kwan’s favourites!
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Want to write better adventures? Want to prep more efficiently? Sick of players skipping all of your best content? Prep Smarter, Not Harder, with Encounter Theory Encounter Theory: The Adventure Design Workbook is a fresh way to look at adventure design by Ben Riggs, the voice of the...
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Hey you. Yeah, you. Do you know about Gnomecast 21? Why isn’t it in the archives? What are they hiding? If you value your safety… don’t go searching for Gnomecast 21…
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