Tony 
Greetings gamers from all systems, places and timelines! Recently we ran a Saint Patrick’s Day game which was a great deal of fun for all of those involved. And while it took place on an island called the Emerald Haven, if your group is down for some over the top antics, these could be used … Read more
Greetings gamers from all systems, places and timelines! After two years and twenty-something sessions, our Journey to Ragnarok campaign has ended. Those familiar with my gaming style will find it no surprise that this went off-script. Not because the published material wasn’t excellent but because it’s hard to resist, at least for me, when it … Read more
While some players aren’t down for an adventure which is light-hearted and silly, it is kind of the risk you run when preparing for a game and its nature is a surprise. However, everyone, including the guest of honor, enjoyed it so the mission was accomplished.
Greetings gamers from all systems, places, and timelines! No matter what flavor of game you are playing or what system you’re in, it’s nice to shake things up once in awhile so that things don’t get stale. When my girlfriend asked me to run a game for her birthday, where everyone got to play as … Read more
Greetings gamers from all systems, places and timelines! The phrase “all good things must come to an end” feels extremely relevant as we enter the final chapters of both of our Journey to Ragnarok and Dragonlance campaigns. But there is often little time to celebrate these grand conclusions as the question of what’s next will be … Read more
Greetings gamers from all systems, places and timelines. One of the few things that can be guaranteed about running games is no matter the system, both the expectations of the players, as well as your own, will steadily rise over time. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but could also leave you forever under the … Read more
Greetings gamers from all systems, places and timelines!
How challenging your campaign should be is one of those questions, like alignment, where if you asked ten seasoned DMs, you can expect to get ten entirely different answers. Odds are the players at your table will have vastly different gaming backgrounds and expectations. This can be tricky to balance between the player who really doesn’t understand the rules fully but wants to hang out and have a good time with their friends and the player who’s been gaming for twenty years and thinks Elden Ring isn’t difficult enough.
The obvious solution is just to make sure everyone has fun. But this is easier said than done when your players are looking for different levels of challenges to enjoy themselves. This is why we put together a list of four methods that will help you keep your game challenging without leaving anyone behind
Greetings gamers from all systems, places and timelines!
During a campaign, there are dozens of ways the game flow can begin feeling disjointed or muddled. Like if your particular game has a great deal of lore or subplots that have put the players on different pages. This isn’t always a problem, but when a good chunk of the party can’t remember key details of the plot then it definitely has become one.
If you find yourself in this spot at least you will be in good company, as this has happened to the best of DMs. Especially if you’re running a significant number of campaigns and you’re constantly trying to outdo yourself. Or perhaps you just rolled too many plot drops that your group just isn’t retaining them. This is why we put together a list of five ways that you can help your party reconnect with both your game and story without starting over at square one.
Either in realistic settings, or fantastic ones like Middle Earth or Star Wars, there is nothing quite as visually awesome as an epic battle between grand armies, as these are often the main events within stories which can include a cast of hundreds or even thousands. Soldiers will cross swords, exchange gunfire, or dog fight in space fighters in a spectacularly cinematic fashion as the fate of the universe or world hangs in the balance. So, it makes perfect sense that you would want to bring this to your tabletop RPG, but this can be easier said than done.
Regardless of the system you have been running your players through, there are plenty of rules you can find to handle a mass combat scenario.
However, this style of event is significantly different from what your group is used to and, likewise, may not be something which you want to attempt a cold open for in a pivotal moment of your game. This is why we have drawn up a list of different ways this can be approached so that, when the Gates of Mordor need to be stormed, you will use the way which works best for both you and your players.
Now I get that not every story has a happy ending and some of the greatest of all time don’t. But when this happens to your character in a table top game it usually plays out and feels significantly different. So as a DM, if you have a chance to kill a player, should you? And, as a player, is this what you expect at the table? To help sort this debate out we are offering our top two pros and cons to consider if this makes sense for you and your gaming group.
