The only thing worse than a GM with no sense of narrative structure is one who just learned some new form of narrative structure in school. This is an open letter to GMs obsessed with the three-act structure, the five-room dungeon, and Joseph Motherf$%&ing Campbell to PLEASE STOP E-MAILING ME.
Building on the successful construction of a single room last week, we’ll double… no triple… no quadruple our output this week. Let’s build another cool cave and then the three rooms that make the Grand Concourse.
Mysteries are like pancakes: solving one is satisfying, but solving a whole stack is even better. But when it comes to stacking mysteries into a delicious mystery campaign, it’s easy to f$&% it up.
I’m surprised that there wasn’t a major revolt last week. After going back and looking what I had done on that ill-fated Saturday night – and what I’d written about it – I was pretty unhappy. That’s why I titled it “Shuffling Maps Around.” It comes from a business term – well, more a bureaucratic…
RladalFatih asks about how to handle split parties. And Linus and the site’s own editor Hasse the Heretic both ask about feedback.
Does becoming a GM change you? That simple question consumed my weekend, filled it with Twitter drama, and saved me from listening to someone tell me about their game in a coffee shop. Unfortunately, it also kept me from thinking of anything better to write an article about. Sorry.
Saturday night with a White Russian, a Megadungeon Map, a vision, and no idea how to proceed. So, let’s just shuffle some papers around until things become clear. Sometimes, that’s design.
What’s coming up this week and for the rest of April?
There’s one question I hear more than any other: when are you going to write a book, Angry? Well, the answer is: June, now shut up and let me write!
This month’s Fanservice BS is about how it’s possible to run a low magic campaign in D&D. What what that even means. And why you would want to do it. And why you probably can’t.
This Megadungeon Monday, we use the power of doodles to add some backstory to our growing dungeon map. And then we use the power of names to put off drawing an actual map for another week.
NanbanJim asks if charging XP for long rests would fix the 15-minute workday and Giiuy asks about magic magic items that gain levels.
On this Megadungeon Monday, we finish the exit map we started nine months ago before the Megadungeon project fell off the face of the Earth.
David asks for examples of bad habits that need to be broken and then asks about two different criteria for deciding what gets die rolls.
There’s a difference between a puzzle and a problem. And most GMs don’t understand the difference. That’s a shame because most GMs who think they want puzzles in their game actually want problems. And problems work better.
How do you create a cat-and-mouse horror experience in a table-top RPG with a too-powerful antagonist? You Ask Angry. That’s how.
If you can believe it, someone actually had the nerve to demand a birthday article. About railroading. What is railroading and when should a GM worry about it? Well, it isn’t anything and a GM shouldn’t. And here’s 4,000 words spelling that out. Happy birthday, 25-Year-Old GM
I’m sick of dealing with questions about how to implement puzzles properly from GMs who insist that puzzles just suck. So, it’s time for me to act. By writing 5,000 words about it and then walking away.
Justin asks why advantage doesn’t stack in D&D 5E and what would happen if it did? And Tristan wants to know when a new GM is ready to run their first homebrew campaign.
In this month’s installment of Fanservice BS, I’m going to address the stupid idea of dwarven bear cavalry. And hopefully my Patrons will learn an important lesson about the topics they propose for this column.
In this month’s Fanservice BS, I address how to be wrong as a GM. And how to handle being wrong. It’s basically two articles in one. Because my Patrons SUCK at picking topics.
Sometimes, you just get tired of taking notes and you just want to show up and have a fun adventure. And then another. And another. Enter: The Adventure of the Week Campaign. Which has nothing to do with meatballs. Except when it does.
Character arcs are really awesome things that movies just don’t believe in anymore. But I sure as hell do. And you should to. And you should want them in your D&D game. Let me tell you how to get them.
Remember how I made an awful armor table three weeks ago? Well, let’s turn that AWFUL into AWESOME with two simple words: elegance and extensibility.
No type of campaign is more iconic than the Epic Quest Campaign, especially the Save the World Campaign. Well, unless you count Dungeon Delve Campaigns. And Adventure of the Week Campaigns. But shut up. We’re talking about Epic Quest and Save the World Campaigns.
We all know that innovation is the most important thing ever in games, right? So why don’t more people choose what’s innovative over what’s familiar? And what does that mean for you as a GM?
Some GMs just don’t know when to stop. And, lucky for you, I’m one of them. What started as a simple effort to reskin some armor for my upcoming campaign turned into a massive overhaul of the D&D equipment system. And here’s where that overhaul began.
Once upon a time, I claimed to be the only one to know what game balance actually was and to be able to define at least three types of game balance in RPGs. Now that everyone has forgotten that I said that, it’s time to explain what I meant.
It’s time to look ahead to new beginnings. Specifically, the beginning of my new campaign. And since I went through all of the trouble of running a Session Zero and writing a Pitch, I thought I’d let you see exactly how I developed MY upcoming campaign. Merry F$%&ing Christmas or whatever.
Symbolism is a great way to add some artistic merit your game. Just don’t actually use it ever.