fbpx

Tony

6 Steps to Building RPG Characters Your Party Will Love and Your DM Will Love to Hate

by

Did you ever conceptualize a character who you expected to run like a badass D&D version of Batman, but instead of getting Ben Affleck, you ended up with Adam West? Unfortunately, a lot of things can go south between your imagination and the gaming table. Therefore, I have composed a list of 6 tips to help prevent your next dark and gritty character from unexpectedly ending up as the version of Batman with floppy ears and bat shark repellent (but with much less charm).

The 4 Pillars of Exceptional Roleplaying

by

If you asked 12 veteran gamers what fantastic roleplay looks like, you would get 12 very diverse answers. That’s exactly how it should be. You can’t nail down precisely what a great character looks like, and if you could, it would be boring. Instead, let’s look at some of the qualities adept gamers exhibit in terms of roleplay, and how they can be added to your gaming toolbox.

DMing RPG Party Conflict: 5 Tips for When Your Players Get Along But Their Characters Don’t

by

Gaming keeps friendships together. But. what do you do when one or more of your friend’s characters either don’t get along or outright dislike each other? Unfortunately, when this happens, it can kill a game like nothing else. And on this topic, I’m speaking from experience. So, I would like to give some tips to help navigate this situation if you happen to be that unlucky DM whose party members have more hate for each other than the final boss.

9 Legendary Magic Items From DM Tony’s Storm King’s Thunder

by

You heard about the crazy magic in my custom version of Storm King’s Thunder on the podcast. Now, let’s take a look at this broken mess of magical mysteries my party encountered.

DMing 101: 8 Ways the Justice League Snyder Cut Can Improve Your D&D Game

by

There are a lot of themes in The Snyder Cut of Justice League that are akin to gaming. In many respects, the superhero genre is the cousin of the Dungeons & Dragons world. Here are 8 things that Zack Snyder’s Justice League did well from a gaming perspective that we should all strive to hit while running and conceptualizing our games.

The 6 Habits of Highly Successful RPG Players

by

Just like everyone believes they’re good drivers, most gamers believe they’re good – if not outright great – players. I would like to suggest that it should be based more on how they interact at the table, even a virtual one. For this reason, I’ve compiled a list of 6 behaviors all great players share to encourage some self-reflection in the rest of us.

How to End Your Campaign the Right Way

by

Every story needs a proper ending, especially if it’s one of epic proportions. And few tales are as epic as an RPG campaign that reaches the end of its final story arc. Unfortunately, some endings are like The Sopranos, which left the audience thinking “WTF?!” for all the wrong reasons. Others feel rushed, forced or downright unsatisfying. After being on both sides of this equation, I would like to share some tips to prevent your story from tanking in the 11th hour and leave everyone glad they showed up for the final game.

Is the Game Interesting If the Players Always Win?

by

In any game, just like in life, no one enjoys constantly losing. Most people would quickly get discouraged and want to move on to another game or stop playing such games at all. If the players always won, wouldn’t the reverse also be true? Instead of being frustrated with consistently losing, the players would start phoning in every scene and battle because the chance of defeat is less than zero. That’s why the risk of failure is just as important as the risk of death to a good TTRPG game.

The Case for the DMPC

by

Understandably, many DMs and players feel strongly against adding a DMPC to the table. However, I am here to tell you that, if done correctly, this NPC could not only be valuable to the party dynamic but also provide the DM with unique perspective that you’d never get from the other side of the DM screen.

How to DM an Evil Campaign

by

To help you to have a successful villainous campaign, I will provide four guidelines that have worked for me in the past. And trust me when I say they can make the difference between a party wiping each other out or creating their own evil pantheon. (And who wouldn’t want to do that?)