A chronological listing of every post The Angry GM has ever… posted.
Every hero needs a motivation. Though you wouldn’t know it by watching movies like Guardians of the Galaxy. Or listening to the lying liars who sit at your table pretending to be role-players. Doesn’t matter. When YOU write an adventure, you damned well better figure out how to motivate the characters. AND the players.
There’s this complex, math-laden analysis out there ‘proving’ resting in 5E forces a particular adventure structure. And it doesn’t matter a bit. The Angry GM explains.
Remember the old days? When heroes would literally tear monsters limb from limb? Wouldn’t it be awesome if one of the D’s in D&D stood for dismemberment? Here’s how to build monsters in D&D that can literally be torn apart!
The hills are alive with the sound of Anger! Angry advice about how to start building adventures by figuring out the ending that is!
How do you run a good mystery game rather than a good game about a mystery? And what’s the difference? Read to find out and then post your s$%&y, wrong, alternate advice in the comments.
Why are thieves so antisocial? And what do you do when they steal from the party?
Psionics sucks. Let me explain.
Remember how, months ago, I promised there would be more boss fighty goodness? Well, here’s some more boss fighty goodness. Let’s talk about swarms and oozes and that one wizard who can make copies of himself that are indistinguishable from him.
Never point your GMing gun at something if you’re not willing to pull the trigger. In this edition of Ask Angry, I help a desperate GM plan for failure.
Charisma sucks! Intelligence sucks! What to do about it? NOTHING! … Unless you’re willing to write your own RPG from the ground up.
How do you make the wilderness actually matter? You have to f$&%ing work at it. Just like everything in RPGs. Shocking, I know.
In this installment of Ask Angry, I field questions about how alignment works in the Angryverse (when I’m not too lazy to give a f$&%) and how to figure out how to use my Paragon Monster rules with the ludicrously over complicated encounter balancing system in D&D 5E.
There comes a certain time in every GM’s life when he starts to notice changes. Suddenly, he starts to take an interest in those strange creatures sitting across the table from him. Or her. Whatever. They are players. And their ways can be strange, mysterious, and vexing. And they can make a GM feel all sorts of strange emotions: nervousness, fear, frustration, and violent rage. But, no matter how strange and confusing, no GM can live without players. So, eventually, every GM has to figure out how to talk to players.
Usually about five seconds into the first game session.
Traps suck, but you have to do them. So, here’s some ideas about the least worst ways to deal with traps.
Need an awesome volcano dragon boss fight for your level 14 PCs in D&D 5E? Of course you do. Who the f$&% doesn’t? Here, have one. Happy Fourth of July!
On paragon dragons, PC-on-PC interaction, and starting RPGs with solid premises.
Are you going to GenCon for the first time? Great! Are you a super-popular blogger or podcaster or game writer? No? Let me tell you how to do it under 7,500 words.
The Angry GM answers questions about pushing players out of their comfort zone and how to fix your GMing mistakes.
Should GMs let players play evil PCs? Do GMs have any say in what the players play at all? The Angry GM answers. Spoiler alert: there’s a no and a yes.
Kevin M. asks hypothetical questions about a hypothetical RPG. And asks, hypothetically, how that hypothetical RPG might answer the hypothetical question of classes. I’m NOT writing a game, people. When the f$&% would I have the time for that!?
Another installment of Ask Angry. This time, a kind of new GM asks about Perception, Insight, Passive Skills, and Knowledge.
How do you start a new campaign? Should you play the D&D Adventure System Games? Ask Angry and ye shall receive answers.
This week, in Ask Angry, I tell you how to deal with players that have broken your game with psychic super powers so they can never be lied to or betrayed.
If you want to be a Master Adventure Builder, you’ve got to know your way around your LEGO bricks. By which I mean scenes. That’s the gimmick of this article. I explain scenes as an adventure building concept and then use a bunch of references to LEGO sets and pieces using obtuse LEGO jargon to show off how I’m better than you at BOTH game mastering AND LEGO. I also talk about Not-Straulia and raptor-puppies. It’s weird being in my head.
Welcome to the first ever installment of my new weekly advice column: Ask Angry! That’s right. Every week I’ll take a question or two someone has sent me and I’ll answer it. With advice. Hence: advice column. Obviously. If you want to ask a question, e-mail me at TheAngryGameMaster@gmail.com and put Ask Angry in the subject line. If you don’t put Ask Angry in the subject like, I’ll punch you. And ignore your question. And punch you.
Just because I hate the very idea of something doesn’t mean I can’t analyze it, deconstruct it, and put it together better. Here’s a deconstruction and reconstruction of Inspiration in D&D along with 11 options for using it better.
Structure is the glue that holds your adventure together and every adventure needs a good structure. Fortunately, it turns out there’s only ONE actual structure. I’ll prove it through the magic of Commodore 64 adventure games and tentacles!
You want more Paragon Creatures? You got it! How about animated armor that changes weapons and tactics when you beat it up? How about elementals crammed into animated armor that explode forth and wreck your s$&% if you hit them too much. OH YEAH!!! F&$% you, Erwin Schrödinger
You can’t learn how to build adventures until you know what an adventure actually is. So sit down, Daniel-san, and listen to your Angry-senpai as I explain how encounter is like cracking an orc’s skull and watching it bleed. While holding the Triforce. I s$&% you not.
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.