Ask Angry: Ultimate Lie Detectors
This week, in Ask Angry, I tell you how to deal with players that have broken your game with psychic super powers so they can never be lied to or betrayed.
Scenes: The LEGO bricks of Adventure!
If you want to be a Master Adventure Builder, you’ve got to know your way around your LEGO bricks. By which I mean scenes. That’s the gimmick of this article. I explain scenes as an adventure building concept and then use a bunch of references to LEGO sets and pieces using obtuse LEGO jargon to show off how I’m better than you at BOTH game mastering AND LEGO. I also talk about Not-Straulia and raptor-puppies. It’s weird being in my head.
Ask Angry: Slow Decisions and Writing Poetry
Welcome to the first ever installment of my new weekly advice column: Ask Angry! That’s right. Every week I’ll take a question or two someone has sent me and I’ll answer it. With advice. Hence: advice column. Obviously. If you want to ask a question, e-mail me at TheAngryGameMaster@gmail.com and put Ask Angry in the subject line. If you don’t put Ask Angry in the subject like, I’ll punch you. And ignore your question. And punch you.
11 Ways to Take the Suck Out of Inspiration in D&D
Just because I hate the very idea of something doesn’t mean I can’t analyze it, deconstruct it, and put it together better. Here’s a deconstruction and reconstruction of Inspiration in D&D along with 11 options for using it better.
Every Adventure’s a Dungeon
Structure is the glue that holds your adventure together and every adventure needs a good structure. Fortunately, it turns out there’s only ONE actual structure. I’ll prove it through the magic of Commodore 64 adventure games and tentacles!
Son of the D&D Boss Fight Part 2: Elemental Boogaloo
You want more Paragon Creatures? You got it! How about animated armor that changes weapons and tactics when you beat it up? How about elementals crammed into animated armor that explode forth and wreck your s$&% if you hit them too much. OH YEAH!!! F&$% you, Erwin Schrödinger
What the Actual F$&% is an Adventure Anyway?
You can’t learn how to build adventures until you know what an adventure actually is. So sit down, Daniel-san, and listen to your Angry-senpai as I explain how encounter is like cracking an orc’s skull and watching it bleed. While holding the Triforce. I s$&% you not.
Return of the Son of the D&D Boss Fight: Now in 5E
Happy 5th Anniversary to me! Five years ago, I started this site by coming up with super cool boss monster rules for Dungeons & Dragons, 4th Edition. Now it’s time to do it all again. I’m laying the ground work for D&D 5E Paragon Monsters in this article, which I will continue to build on in future articles.
Fine! I Wrote About Speed Factor Initiative in D&D 5E!
After revealing that I was using Speed Factor Initiative in D&D 5E, I got a number of constructive questions and criticisms. So, I wrote this article to explain what the f$&% was wrong with me and why I didn’t deserve to die of cancer in a fire, thank you.
The Angry Guide to Kickass Combats (Part 3): Let’s Make Some F&%$ing Fights Already!
In the final part of The Angry Guide to Kicka$& Combats, let’s actually build some combats? How about four different combats? Just to show you how it’s done.
The Angry Guide to Kicka$& Combats (Part 2): Battlefields and BattleFEELS
In Part 2 of the Angry Guide to Kicka$& Combats, learn the ABCs of Combat design, which are not as easy to remember as you might think.
The Angry Guide to A$&kicking Combats (Part 1): Picking Your Enemies
The first part of The Angry Guide to Kicka$&% Combats is here! In this article, you’ll learn about what monsters actually are and what combats actually are and why there is no such thing as a combat encounter.
Three Shocking Things You Won’t Believe About D&D Combat
In this preamble to The Angry Guide to Kicka$& Combat, we’re going to tell you a few things you never knew about combat and debunk a few things everyone thinks they know about combat.
Everything I Need to Know, I Learned on Zebes
Today, I dispense a few tips for building exploration into your game inspired by my favorite f$&%ing video game series ever.
Respect the Metagame
I throw down with NPC Aaron of the NPC Cast about selfish players and the true meaning of the word “metagame.”
Gaming for Fun (Part 2): Getting Engaged
So, there are eight kinds of fun, right? RIGHT?! How do you bring the right ones to your table and keep everyone happy? You read this f$&%ing article and do what it says.
Gaming for Fun (Part 1): Eight Kinds of Fun
Every player and game master sits down to the table for a different reason. Or a different combination of reasons. And understanding the reason why people play is the key to get them to keep coming back. If you want people coming back (for some sick reason), you need this article.
Thy Game-Mastering Commandments
Happy motherf$&%ing new year. Read this article and write your own GMing credo. Get a grip on why you run games, what you want out of them, and write down all of the unwritten rules you follow so you can go ahead and just start calling them ‘rules.’
Popcorn Initiative: A Great Way to Adjust D&D and Pathfinder Initiative with a Stupid Name
Hey! Here’s a neat idea for changing up your Pathfinder initiative. It will work in D&D 3.5 too. Because I’m awesome. Hell, it’ll probably work in 5E.
Help! My Players are Talking to Things!
What do you do when your players actually decide to talk to things? How do you handle social interaction? The same way you handle every other f$&%ing action. But if you need more detail than that, read this article.
How to Build F$&%ing Awesome Encounters!
Finally, after thousands and thousands of words, I actually build a f$&%ing encounter. Here’s how to actually put together a good encounter.
Four Things You’ve Never Heard of That Make Encounters Not Suck
Once you know how to resolve actions, the next thing you need to figure out is how to stick those actions together into something accomplishes a goal. And that brings us to: the encounter.
Adjudicate Actions Like a Motherf$&%ing Boss!
This is it, the big one, the massive motherf$&% that tells you how to think like a GM. How do you handle it when a character does absolutely anything? You read this f$&%ing article!
Abstract Dungeoneering
What do you do when the dungeon is so large that it isn’t practical to map it all? I mean, if you were running an adventure in the Mines of Moria, would you seriously draw the whole goddamned thing? Of course not! Here’s a way to handle dungeon exploration without giant, useless maps.
The Memory Game
I hate reading long, drawn out player back-stories that go nowhere. Holy s$&%. Why do players think they are novelists? Here’s a simpler way to get useful backstories without a lot of useless extra drivel.
5 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenaged Skill System
Most GMs have no idea how to properly use the skill/action resolution in their game. And that’s a pretty f$&%ing major thing not to know. Let me school you.
Defining Your Game
What does the phrase role-playing actually mean? What is the difference between ‘good’ role-playing and ‘bad’ role-playing? Does rolling dice really spell an end to role-playing? I’ll tell you.
The D&D Boss Fight (Part 4)
The Angry DM finally gets his act together and writes down a set of useful rules and guidelines for Boss Monster design and throws in a red dragon as a bonus.
Schrödinger, Chekhov, Samus
If you have ever wanted to create a large, site-based super adventure, The Slaughterhouse System is for you. Whether your party is exploring a massive dungeon, reclaiming a ruined city, clearing a valley for settlement, or trying to bring a rioting city under control, the Angry DM has a tool that you can use to plan a dynamic, living environment for the party to explore freely.
The D&D Boss Fight (Part 3)
At long last, The Angry DM finally presents a prototype boss monster. Meet Bloodknuckles.