#rpg game mastering

[legionofmyth]

Palladium Books Presents: The Rifter #1 - Rifts: City Creation

Ready to build your own city in Rifts? 🏙️ Discover innovative city-building rules in "The Rifter #1" by Palladium Books. Transform your gameplay with our detailed video overview. Click here! #RiftsRPG #CityBuilder #TheRifter

The Rifter #1 As a wise master unveils ancient city-building secrets, so too does our latest video guide you through the new urban landscape rules introduced in “The Rifter #1” for Rifts. Understand the foundations that make a strong city and the strategies that protect its people. Let your journey to becoming a master city planner begin here, where knowledge becomes power and creation shapes…

[anim-ttrpgs]

GM advice videos and threads are like What To Do if Your Players Can’t See in the Dark: Dip your hands in gasoline and light them on fire and wave them around.

And you would THINK that it would be really easy to sell a light-bulb to these people or at least a candle but they don’t believe there can be a better way.

[chacaillejdr]

How to write a TTRPG scenario ?

As a TTRPG campaign author, I’ve struggled for years to write scenarios that were coherent, that would not be derailed by players nor would force them onto rails, and that would allow escapism while keeping them hooked. I fumbled a lot until I found a method that I found quite efficient. So I thought I’d share. Of course, what works for one might not for another, but if you’re a beginner in TTRPG scenario writing and you don’t know where to start, well, you never know, this might help you.

The first phase is of course to make a rough draft. Just pour in a text document every single idea you have, without any filter : characters, cool scenes, story twists, gameplay elements… take your time, let your mind work in the background. Then organize every item, see what works with what, what would make sense in a chronological way… and fill the holes between the elements. This would give you a first draft of your scenario, something that should fill about two pages (regardless of whether your scenario is a one-shot or a full campaign).

At this point, the most adventurous GM would have enough material to start an improvised game. This requires a very specific skillset and a lot of memory. You do you, but at this point, I’ve only just started my preparations.

If you want to keep enriching your scenario, you’ll find yourself facing two issues : first, the more structure you have, the less freedom you’ll leave your players, because you have your “canon” on what should happen in your story ; and second you might miss holes in your scenario that your player will certainly have a lot of joy (or confusion) pointing out in the middle of a game. So here’s the trick. Find who is the main antagonist in your story (whether it’s a Dark Lord or your rival in the Most Beautiful Garden Contest, if your RPG is not a sandbox you will have an antagonistic force, else your players won’t have much to do…). Now re-write your scenario, from A to Z, but FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE ANTAGONIST, as if the players were not here, or were naive enough to fall into every single trap. Why ? To deal with both your issues at the same time of course ! On the one hand you can’t control your players’ decisions, but you can do it for your NPCs, so you CAN place your antagonist on rails and compensate every time they go astray without impeding on your players’ freedom. On the other hand, by writing out the details of your antagonist’s dastardly plan, you increase your chances to see a blatant error or omission and correct it.

Once this is done, you’ll want to identify the key elements of this plan, those that your villain absolutely need, else their objectives crumble. Those will be your “fixed points”. Your mission as a GM is to ensure that these fixed points happen no matter what your players do, in order to guide them along your main scenario. The remainder of the plan will be your “mobile points”, which your players will have way more control over. This will create a structure for your story, and you can complete the scenario with the mobile points, leaving as much freedom to your PCs as you want in them.

There’s one last task before you finish your story. Now that you have every step of your scenario, maybe even a division into chapters using the fixed points, you can do three lists : 

the places your players will visit

the NPCs they will meet

the lore elements they’ll have to learn

Using these three lists, you’ll be able to re-write one last time your whole scenario. Now you’ll have a rich story, with a way more formidable antagonistic force, and more freedom for your players.

You can totally start your campaign using these documents, using the three lists as reminders

Of course, if you’re like me and you like to Plan Out Everything in advance, you’re only at the beginning of your work : every place, every NPC, every fixed and mobile point will need their own detailed page ; and some more elements will need detailing. But we’ll talk more about it in a future article, so stay tuned !

[vintagerpg]

Sidney Sime is another under-appreciated artist of the Golden Age, which is a shame, because he’s one of the strangest. This is Sidney Sime: Master of the Mysterious (1980), one of only four collections of his work, all out of print and all rather pricey. During his lifetime, he wasn’t terribly prolific — his largest, most well-known body of work was illustrating (and inspiring) early stories by Lord Dunsany. The largest extant collection of Sime’s work remains at Dunsany Castle.

Sime’s rather hard to pin down stylistically, I think. He often reminds me of Harry Clarke, who was a contemporary, but while Sime isn’t hesitant to be highly detailed or ornamental, he often combines line work and washes in ways that are surprising. These contrasts look like cells of cartoon animation, and give many of his illustrations a curiously anachronistic feeling. It’s so odd, but I can picture so many of these drawing moving.

Some really great stuff here. “The Incubus” is jaw-dropping in its subtly and its atmosphere, definitely a favorite. The castle of the Gibbelins and the house of the Gnoles are both nicely horrific (and are important influences on RPGs). Lots of skulls, lots of dragons, lots of weird lumpy creatures. I love how, like the Dunsany stories they illustrate, the art seems to depict mythology from an alternate world, free of the centuries of symbols and associations of our own. This makes Sime sometimes feel obscure, but also, as the title says, establishes him as a master of mysterious.

[j-richmond]

Hi everyone! Do you play TTRPGs? I just wanted to let you know about a game that I make with my brother called The Magical Land of Yeld! Yeld is a game about children from our world who discover a magical land and then become trapped their when the door home closes. They have to go on a quest to find a way home again before they turn 13 and become monsters! Yeld is a game about growing up, with a focus on exploration, teamwork and tactical combat. Its a little like a Zelda game crossed with Avatar, with a dose of Final Fantasy Tactics!

The 2nd Edition of The Magical Land of Yeld is available now! Its a big colorful 400 page book, but don't let that scare you! We've designed Yeld for both new and veteran players. If this is your first RPG, you'll find easy to learn rules, with instructional comics to help you along your way! If you're an experienced gamer, Yeld's deep tactical system, endless customization and shared storytelling mechanics offer you a lot of meat to sink your teeth into!

Want more? We've released over 15 expansions for Yeld, including adventures, Job Guides, starter sets and rules for games with just 1 player and 1 Game Master. Our Patreon offers 3+ years of Yeld content, including new rules, miniatures, short stories and player created monsters! We also have an excellent and award nominated actual play podcast called YeldPlay! There's a ridiculous amount of Yeld stuff out there!

And of course, Yeld got its start in the pages of my long running webcomic Modest Medusa!

You can get he hardcover Yeld rule book and PDF from the Yeld site, IPR or Tabletop Bookshelf. The PDF is also available from DrivethruRPG and Itch. I hope you'll check out our game! We're a small publisher and we could use your support! If you give Yeld a try we think you'll really like it! - J

[cluelesshero]

#502 Unforseen

One universal truth for every campaign: It won´t go according to plan

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[dailydungeondelves]

Please, ask me!!

[cawyden-gaming]

Rogue Trader - (mostly) Heinrix related romance and general information, toybox flags + etudes

My youtube channel with Rogue Trader videos.

Heinrix romance related

Toybox - general and Heinrix specific information

Devil/closeness flirt

Heinrix romance - flirting differences (devil vs. closeness)

Corruption points

Act 4 - Heinrix + Guard difference (kill/spared) and corruption points

Act 4 - Heinrix 2nd romance scene and Corruption points

Questions

Janus corruption dialog popup when

Heinrix quest flag/etudes + affected endings

Act 4 Date trigger

Toybox Navigator Points

Dialog screenshots/videos

Heinrix - amasec and wine

Act 1 - shard options and affected Heinrix dialog

Act 2 - Black Ship - Heinrix romance specific dialog

Act 3 - Heinrix joining party dep. on romance

Act 4 - Heinrix romance - Date - love confession

Act 4 - Heinrix romance scene if he was not in Commoragh

Act 4 - Heinrix romance specific talk after freeze scene (video bridge talk)

Not romance related

warp event - Heinrix, Argenta and Abelard

Act 1 - Idira prophecies about companions

Act 1 - Heinrix changed voice over in intro

Act 1 - Heinrix recruitment - disguise

Act 1 - Heinrix and Evayne in Prison (Evayne unharmed)

Act 1 - Rykad Minoris - Ritual Chamber + Heinrix dialog

Act 1 - Heinrix dialog at Cassias recruitment quest

Act 1 - lower deck banter (Heinrix+Abelard, Idira+Abelard)

Act 1 - Heinrix - Triumph and Psyker

Act 2 - Heinrix add. dialog for iconoclast act 1 ending

Act 2 - Heinrix Footfall (interactions)

Act 2 - Footfall - Heinrix dialog - Drink in Cantina

Act 2 - Janus - Heinrix and Abelard

Act 2 - Heinrix dialog suppressed on Janus

Act 2 - Kiava Gamma mission talk with Heinrix - additional/hidden dialog line

Act 2 - Kiava Gamma mission briefing

Act 2 - Heinrix at the Magnae if not romanced

Act 2 - Ceremony - joining Inquisition - affected Endings

Act 3 - Heinrix + Achilleas/underlings spoiler

Act 3 - Heinrix + companions interactions in Commoragh

Act 3 - Heinrix escape dialog dep. on Yrliet/Marazhai

Act 3 - Heinrix, Yrilet and Marazhai versions (anat. opera)

Act 3 - Heinrix joining party dep. on romance

Act 3 - Help Achilleas/Wrack return to realspace

Act 4 - Xavier Calcazar - Heretic > 2 and Heinrix reaction

Act 4 - Heinrix on bridge "Lies"

Not act related

Examples of Heinrix not blindly following Xavier

Heinrix and his rosette

Some Heinrix dialog observations

Ulfar and Heinrix interaction

Other

Regicide

Turns and Cycles (time)

Act 2 - Inquisition Signet Ring color

Xavier Calcazar appreciation (spoilers act 2-5 + ending)

Interesting details (Time spent/Theodora/von Valancius dynasty)

[jackteagle]

I did a lot of work for Lost in Cult on Console Chronicles, and a Handheld History Vol: 2

It was a lot of fun, and I pushed the images as far as I could go in the schedule I had. Here's a peak of a Phantasy Star image I created. I'm really excited to show more on release!

[legionofmyth]

Palladium Books Presents: The Rifter #1 - Nightbane: New Morphus Tables

Transform your Nightbane character with the new morphus tables in "The Rifter #1" by Palladium Books. 🌑 Explore how these changes can revolutionize your gameplay in our latest video. Watch here! #NightbaneRPG #TheRifter #RPGGaming

The Rifter #1 Like an ancient scroll revealing transformative powers, our video unveils the new morphus tables for Nightbane in “The Rifter #1.” This arcane knowledge grants you the ability to reshape your Nightbane character’s destiny with unprecedented depth. Let not this wisdom pass you by, for those who wield it will command the shadows and light. Click the image to claim your guide to the…

[anim-ttrpgs]

Y'all state in the Eureka rulebook (at least the version I have) "In our experience, the more preparation,the better, no matter the genre." I was wondering if you've expanded on that anywhere? I've been rambling in my drafts about how different games talk about prep, including PbtA games which often state outright that you should only make limited preparations.

Yeah this is something that it would be a good idea to expand upon, because “GM prep” is word that has been so diluted and corrupted by D&D5e and its toxic critical role play culture, where “GM prep” means “they will do this, and when they do, the music will be timed just right and the battle map will be so impressive, etc.” PBTA is telling you to avoid prep because it doesn’t want you doing that kind of prep (and no good RPG does). This can work for PBTA for a number of reasons that I actually don’t want to get into in the interest of time but it has a lot to do with the pure genre emulation and the limitedness of the playbooks.

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, however, cannot get away with this because it is both a much more expansive “toolbox” game and because it is explicitly a mystery-investigation game. There are many other games that do also really benefit from the type of prep that Eureka wants from its GMs, such as dungeon crawlers, but Eureka needs it the most.

But the kind of prep Eureka wants isn't “they will do this and when they do it will be perfectly timed and look so impressive,” it is “what if they do this? What if they do that? What if they do some other third thing?”

A Eureka GM needs to have something ready for the shed behind the house, in case a PC decides to go to the shed behind the house, because this is a mystery game. You can’t just improv it, if you make something up on the spot, then and that thing doesn’t perfectly adhere to the facts of the case, the case can be ruined. That’s why we push for using adventure modules so much, because they’re literally designed to do that prep for you.

TL:DR

TTRPGs are games where anything can happen, so instead of being extremely meticulously prepared for one possibility, a good GM is moderately prepared for a wide variety of possibilities. In a game where “the facts” not 100% lining up doesn’t fully matter or isn’t likely to be pried into, you can get away with lower prep in each of your possibilities you’ve prepped for, but in a game where “the facts” and tiny little details are all that matters, you should have a high level of preparedness for each possibility, and the best way to do that is to use an adventure module.

[koti-katja]

I thought it funny and awesome to have the Lancers in the game I run have to fly out and intercept some bombers in the air.

I got that idea immediately after I made the mission be about an assault on an airbase, and had to have that as the closing combat.

Giving them some form of flight and having the combat be in the sky with some flying cover and enemies with the ship template as the bombers. With some regular template NPC's also flying about.

But I am curious if any people on here know how horrendously wrong things could go in practice if everyone is flying.

Also any cool NPC's and stuff I could use to fuck with em.

Or other thoughts on the matter.

[kogetaikid]

TW! DARK/CYNICAL HUMOR

Since I couldn’t ask my dad, I asked one of my friends to name some UTY characters (now with El Bailador and Guardener!)

*sigh* I love making these things :)

[inocyde]

"The Husk" terminal of Jormara 25x35

In the north of Jormerun... in fact in the north at all, at the antipodes of all civilization, at the end of the world, you'll find the Jormara ice pack. A wild, inhospitable desert of ice. An expanse of shifting, all-consuming, ever-changing pack ice. Instead of fine sand dunes, you'll find titanic icebergs frozen in time or floating in deathly calm along the shores of this sea of ice.

In this labyrinth of frozen teeth and fangs, you'll sometimes catch a glimpse of great black columns silhouetted against the blizzard. These gigantic peaks of basalt rock are Jormara's only fixed points, the summits of lost mountains. Dating back to a time when civilizations and men still slept the benevolent sleep that preceded their birth. The banished gods is the name given by the few inhabitants of this white hell to the mountains that rip through the depths of this frozen ocean.

If your eyes see one of these black towers emerge, after weeks of travel in the blind blizzard, you'll be able to contemplate the flickering, fragile glow of hundreds of torches on all sides of the peak, staking out the body and entrails of the rock. If you get any closer, you'll be able to hear the song of these gods, a symphony of clatters and sharp blows. The pickaxes of dozens of miners echoing in the wind.

That's why there's life here, barely surviving, eating the snow and chasing all forms of heat so as not to die out. The treasure of the dead gods, the heritage of an entire people, glory and wealth for deserters and adventurers. Mithril.

Veins of mithril almost outcropping! Mines so abundant and rich that sometimes you only have to stoop to pick it up. This is the honey that attracts bees of all races and all countries to this great chase: the mithril hunt of the Jormara ice floe.

That's where you set off, hoping with all your soul not to end up like all those pioneers, frozen for eternity on their knees in the middle of nothing, frozen with their hope and their life's fortune packed in their bag.

After two months by boat, you arrive at the furthest point from inhabited land. Zigzagging between icebergs that have become mountains, you can't go any further. You're at the gates of Jormara, one of the departure camps for the Great Devourer.

Welcome to the Husk, home to 3 and a half people and a few sled dogs.

On the menu for the year: fish in fish fat, all cooked in melted ice.

It's best to book your bed in advance if you don't want to brave the polar night and enrich the next day's ordinary.

Make the most of the fire fed by the remains of ships that weren't lucky enough to arrive, like yours, in one piece.

As you watch your nave sail away into the dawn, you'll realize that you are now a resident of Jormara. Your wealth, perhaps, your prison, surely, and your grave, no doubt.

-Sileas Kel Pionner of Jormara

more in my patreon

[satinerpg]

Lee Jung-jae avatars as Master Sol. 400x640 Crédit: Satine

[cynicalbengal]

I'm learning the hard way that DMs on Reddit are woefully lacking in imagination. I'm running the Tomb of Annihilation and I have a player with the Death Curse, so I'm trying to find ways to make that interesting, or at least not just kill them outright.

I'm being told that I should just let them die.

Like, really? All my instincts are screaming to me that there's a way to make this cool, even if death will be the end. They're a paladin, maybe I could get their god involved? Could lycanthropy help them out? Vampirism? Maybe I could build a magic item that would slow down the effects? How would any of this work mechanically in a way that respects how deadly the curse is while also giving the player some new options?

Is there anyone on here whose run the module and handled a similar situation, or just has a cool idea I can riff off of?