Build a Better Campaign by Exploiting the East
Let’s appropriate us some culture! Let’s use a 1500-year old Korean narrative style to plot a better pretend elf game!
Ask Angry: And the Angry GM Award for Scrupulous Fairness in Role-Playing Gaming Goes To…
The only reason I’m answering this question is because I was in pain and on drugs.
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…
The Road Trip to Adventure
All you need to start a campaign is a bunch of a characters and a first adventure, right? That’s what I said. But if you’re going to start a campaign with an ongoing plot, that’s not true is it. Yes. It is. Come on a road trip with the Tiny GM and I and I’ll show you how.
Ask Angry January Mailbag
Ask Angry time again. This time, I’m addressing realism in games, facing, why the Faerunian commodities market is a sucky addition to the game, and how not to design a tracking system.
Fine, I’ll Tell You How I REALLY Feel
You couldn’t leave me alone about it, could you? Fine, I’ll tell you why I chose D&D 3.5 over Pathfinder and why I banned monks and hate gnomes. And why I can’t give you an answer you’ll like. And how to think for yourself.
Ringing in the New Game
I’m in the midst of starting a new campaign. So it’s a good time to look at how to start a new campaign. Especially when you don’t have the time to do a full Session Zero.
Adios 2020, Guten Tag 2021
It’s time for my occasionally annual New Year’s resolution type post.
Ask Angry December Mailbag
It’s a Christmas miracle. I opened up some letters to Angry for my December mailbag and they were all good. No one ended up on the naughty list.
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.
A Wandering and a A Wondering
After recording an interviewing with Nick at the Brewmaster’s show and trying to test a new way of building D&D towns, I decided I needed to bulls$&% for 5,000 words about the concept of exploration.
Ask Angry November Mailbag
It’s that time again. Time for me to phone it in by answering reader questions. This month, I’m talking about advancement systems, hidden mechanics, and not talking about World of Darkness.
Investigative Resolution
A long time ago, I tried to write a blog post about how to run good mysteries in D&D. But then, I got distracted and became The Angry GM. Ten years later, D&D has become even worse for running mysteries and I need to fix it to finish my latest project. But this isn’t about mysteries. It’s about using proficiencies right in 5E.
How to Stat Friends and Influence Their Actions During Gameplay (Part 2)
Once upon a time, D&D allowed players to lead fellowships, attract merry men, and even just hire some temps from the Henchman’s Local #246. I miss those days and I’ve brought them back.
How to Stat Friends and Influence Their Actions During Gameplay (Part 1)
Once upon a time, D&D allowed players to lead fellowships, attract merry men, and even just hire some temps from the Henchman’s Local #246. I miss those days and I’m bringing them back.
How to Present Your Module, Part 2: Reorganizing Encounters
Wherein I—a guy who has never turned an adventure into a module—tells everyone else how to turn adventures into modules. Using information hierarchies.
Ask Angry Mailbag Fakeout: How to Dole Out Magical Items
In this month’s Ask Angry Mailbag, the Angry GM answers a question about how to distribute magical items when creating D&D adventures. And nothing else.
How to Present Your Module, Part 1: Fixing Crappy Character Sheets
You never know what you don’t know until you try to do it. I didn’t know, for example, that adventure modules really suck at presenting GMs with the information they need until I tried to write one of my own.
Three Short Stories from Around the Angryverse
Trying to clear my desk before I head off for my writer’s retreat. Found these three, short topics scribbled on bits of paper and hacked them into a crappy three-for-one article about setting DCs, using passive checks properly, and instructing players.
Obligatory Pun Title: Offering Insight Into the Insight Skill
Let’s see if I can piss off even more people in this follow-up to my article on resolving social actions by telling people they’re using Insight wrong.
How to Skin a Dungeon in Four Easy Steps
When it comes to designing a dungeon map, there’s more than one way to skin a kobold. The key is picking the right way to flay.
You’re Not Ready to Manage Social Interaction Like a Motherf$&%ing Anything
Looking for a comprehensive guide to running a great social interaction encounter? Well, this article isn’t it. But it is the preamble to it in which you get a comprehensive guide to resolving social actions.
Ask Angry August Mailbag
It’s mailbag time. This month, I discuss Old School Hack, wilderness encounters, encouraging your players to do things they don’t like, and adding warfare to your D&D campaign.
The Game You SHOULD Run
It’s bulls$&% time. And that means complaining about my correspondents again. This time, I’m complaining about how no one understands how to make decisions anymore.
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.
Sending Players to the Bench
Ideally, your game will have a perfect one-to-one ratio of players to characters. But sometimes the characters split up or a player skips a game or someone gets killed. What do you do then?
Ask Angry July Mailbag
Time to open up the ole mailbag again. This time, I’m talking about how to let your players play two parties, expounding on game balance, telling people how to help their depressed GMs, and explaining why I totally suck and how I’m going to fix it.
Angry’s Two-Note Player-Character
There’s a better way to role-play. A more genuine, more engaging way. You just have to start playing your character before you know anything about them. Sounds crazy, I know. But let me explain…
Angry’s Two-Note NPC
How can you possibly populate an entire world with relatable NPCs and role-playing them effectively? You can’t. Because you suck. But here’s how you can fake it.