Pooling Your Information

Originally, I had this Long, Rambling Introduction™ about how I made a little extra cash in high school by reading Tarot and constructing astrological charts for people. Which is true. And I highly recommend every GM learn to read the Tarot. Yeah. Seriously. That is actual, honest-to-f$&%ing-goodness legitimate GMing advice. Learn to read the Tarot.…

Tension About the Tension Pool

Now that I’ve posted the Final, Definitive version of the Tension Pool rules, I never have to talk about it again. So, let’s talk about it again by responding to feedback! Whee!

How to Add Motivational Experiences to Your D&D Game

This one’s what I call a shower article. Mainly because people complain when I call articles like this, “articles I s$&% out while I’m s$&%ing.” The idea’s the same though. The article’s the result of an idea that came to me while I was dealing with some biological need or another. I wasn’t specifically working…

The GM’s Burden and Other Stories

The thing I like most about having a large fanbase and an active Discord community – apart from having my big-a$& ego stroked constantly — is that I don’t have to pick my own fights anymore. Used to be that if I wanted a f$&%ing fight, I had to go out and start one. But…

Two Game Mechanics and Learned Essays Upon Them

Let’s not talk about role-playing games today. Let’s talk about other games and how they might help us design role-playing game downtime systems. And why that’s a terrible thing to talk about.

Between Jobs

Before I can show you how I present towns, I have to talk about what players can do in towns. And before I can talk about what players can do in towns, I have to talk ABOUT what players can do in towns. That’ll make sense when you read the article. But the article’s about downtime activities.

AngryCraft: What’s in an Item

It’s that time of the month: it’s time to make incremental progress on AngryCraft. This time, I define all of the different kind of things you’d make stuff out of.

The Great Magic Item Analysis: How to Price an Item

It’s time for the AngryCraft Great Magic Item Analysis. Well, it’s time for the first part. The boring one with all the math. But, when it’s done, we’ll know exactly how to set a magic item’s price.

The Whatever Stat

Systems and rules are nice, but tools are better. So here’s a simple tool that you can use to do whatever you need to do. Really.

Designing with a Strong D (And Also the Return of Crafting)

Most amateur and professional game designs try to jump from the feeling they want something to evoke right into mechanical game design. And that’s a mistake. Because, to design a good system, you need a big, strong D. As the Angry GM demonstrates by talking about the return of his magic item crafting system!

How to F$%& CR: A Practical Example of Monster Building the Angry Way

Weeks ago, I told you to f$&% CR and build monsters and encounters the better way. And I confused a lot of people and even made a few people angry. So, here’s a quick and dirty example of how to build a simple monster – two different ways – that should dispel the confusion. But it won’t make the angry people less angry. Not that I care. F$&% ’em.

Angry’s Amazing Adventure Templates

How much stuff should an adventure have? How many encounters? How many goals? How long should an adventure take to play? Is there a simple template you can build an adventure around? Yes. Yes there is. Because I wrote one.

F$&% CR, There’s a Better Way (Part 2)

You know what? I’m sick of dealing with all the overly complicated, overly precise mathematics of encounter and custom monster design in D&D 5E. So I’m going to design an easier way to handle all of this. Unfortunately, I have to rewrite the whole Monster Manual to do it.

F$&% CR, There’s a Better Way (Part 1)

You know what? I’m sick of dealing with all the overly complicated, overly precise mathematics of encounter and custom monster design in D&D 5E. So I’m going to design an easier way to handle all of this. I just hope I don’t have to rewrite the whole Monster Manual to do it.

Why’d You Have to Go and Make Things So Complicated?

The Tension Pool was such a nice, simple mechanic. Why’d you GMs have to make it so complicated? Is it because I didn’t explain how to use it? Or where to build the complexity? Hint: you put the complexity in the Complications!

Tension on the Road to Elturel

I’ve been tinkering, off and on, with this Time/Tension Pool thing because my readers were smart enough to recognize a good thing even when I didn’t. And I’ve finally figured out a way to incorporate it into wilderness travel adventures.

Angry’s Guide to Experience

Every time I talk about experience points, people want to pick a fight about it. Well, this is my last word on XP: how to properly award XP in D&D 5E, regardless of what the rules say, and regardless of what other players and GMs say.

More Accounting for Magical Items

Hacking a complex subsystem into a game requires you to work within the limits of the system. Sometimes, though, the system has some underlying patterns you can spot if you look hard enough. And those patterns help you make room for what you’re doing.

Accounting for Magical Items

Hacking a complex subsystem into a game requires you to work within the limits of the system. Unfortunately, the system doesn’t always make it easy to find those limits. For example, let’s look at how D&D 5E might constrain my crafting system?

Theorycrafting an Unsummary

We’re back to talking about crafting. And it’s time for more thinking and pondering and brainstorming. Sorry, kids, that’s what design is. It’s about thinking, pondering, and making things way more complicated for yourself.

Crafting in the Raw

Accepting the disappointment that we’re going to have to stick with the obvious cliche of smashing ingredients together to make equipment as the basis of a D&D crafting system, now it’s time to figure out what those raw ingredients look like. And keeping it manageable.