How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hate the Dice
It’s time for me to answer the same basic GMing question I’ve been answering differently every few years for the last twelve: when should you resort to using the rules and the dice to resolve things.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Conflict But Were Afraid I’d Punch You for Asking About
It’s time for the first real article about Narrative Theory for GMs. The topic is conflict in traditional narratives and in RPGs.
On Being a (Game) Master Storyteller
Now that I’ve confused all of y’all thoroughly about plot structure, let’s start a new series on narrative theory for game masters. That can’t possibly go wrong.
Plot Architecture 101
In the SECOND part of my TWO part so far series on plotting a campaign, I explain what plot structure is and why it’s useful. You know, before I do any crazy s$&% like trying to tell you about Korean narrative structures and their applicability in exploration-based campaigns.
Build a Better Campaign by Exploiting the East
Let’s appropriate us some culture! Let’s use a 1500-year old Korean narrative style to plot a better pretend elf game!
The Road Trip to Adventure
All you need to start a campaign is a bunch of a characters and a first adventure, right? That’s what I said. But if you’re going to start a campaign with an ongoing plot, that’s not true is it. Yes. It is. Come on a road trip with the Tiny GM and I and I’ll show you how.
Ringing in the New Game
I’m in the midst of starting a new campaign. So it’s a good time to look at how to start a new campaign. Especially when you don’t have the time to do a full Session Zero.
Investigative Resolution
A long time ago, I tried to write a blog post about how to run good mysteries in D&D. But then, I got distracted and became The Angry GM. Ten years later, D&D has become even worse for running mysteries and I need to fix it to finish my latest project. But this isn’t about mysteries. It’s about using proficiencies right in 5E.
Obligatory Pun Title: Offering Insight Into the Insight Skill
Let’s see if I can piss off even more people in this follow-up to my article on resolving social actions by telling people they’re using Insight wrong.
How to Skin a Dungeon in Four Easy Steps
When it comes to designing a dungeon map, there’s more than one way to skin a kobold. The key is picking the right way to flay.
You’re Not Ready to Manage Social Interaction Like a Motherf$&%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.
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?
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.
Kobold Draft Picks
Homebrew adventures work so much better with custom-designed monsters. So let’s design some kobolds for my kobold adventure.
An Angry Shower Scene
Come into my shower. Lather up. Rinse off. And let your bored brain do a bunch of heavy lifting to make your adventure and scene design easier.
Two Other Things You Never Heard of to Make Encounters Not Suck
If you want to break your addiction to encounter rules and mechanics, there’s just two things you need to learn. Two things I should have taught you years ago. Sorry.
You Can Quit Encounters Anytime You Want
Why can’t you run a complex, engaging encounter with nothing but a paragraph of prose description and a copy of the PHB handy? Because you’re a system junkie, that’s why.
Mr. Angry’s Wild Ride: Outlining an Angry Adventure
All right, you asked for it. Let’s use the Amazing Adventure Building Checklist to actually build an amazing adventure. First step is steps one through five. It makes sense in context.
What it Means to Design an Adventure the Angry Way
Before I use my amazing checklist to show you how to design an adventure the Angry Way, I have to explain what the Angry Way is and why it’s so much better than the Crap Way.
Recognizing Non-Humans for What they Aren’t
What makes a NPC likable? I don’t know. But I do know what makes an NPC seem like an actual human thing worthy of human feelings. We call that relatability and this whole article is how to pull that off.
…But You Can’t Make Them Care
People have been asking me for years to teach them how to create and run games that their players actually emotionally give a crap about. And I’ve been avoiding answering for years. But now I’m ready to tell you how to make players care.
How to Run an Online Game… If You Must
Have you been forced to abandon real-world gaming due to current global events? Have no fear, Angry is here to tell you to run an online game. Just in time for the global lockdown to lift. You’re welcome.
Angry’s Double Impossible Adventure Building Checklist
I’ve been dared to do the impossible: write a simple, adventure-building checklist AND keep it short. Can I pull it off? Do bears s$&% on the Pope?
How to Homebrew: Clickbait Worldbuilding
The biggest obstacle to starting a homebrew campaign is having to build a world. And the biggest obstacle to running a good game is actually building the world. You’re better off just not worldbuilding.
How to Run a Biblical Campaign
A campaign bible is a powerful tool any GM can use to run a better campaign. As long as they don’t f$%& it up by trying to do it right.
The Game Must Go On: When Procrastination Wrecks Your Gaming Life
Do you cancel too many games? Do you put off working on too many projects? Do you find yourself falling behind in your gaming obligations? Well, I sure as hell did. And what helped me might help you too.
Fighting With Your Voice (Part 1… Maybe?)
I hate when people misuse my teachings to ruin things. Like maps. It’s okay to have nice maps. Even if you’re a mapaholic. But you should know how not to use a map. Especially in combat. You need to learn how to run a battle without a grid.
The Angry GM’s GameholeCon Seminars
A couple of weeks ago, I delivered a pair of seminars at GameholeCon VII in Madison, Wisconsin. And I recorded the things so I could eventually get them posted over on YouTube on a brand new Angry Games YouTube channel. Which I have now more or less done. Actually less. There were some issues.
Lost Player Skills: Calling
Maybe this is just me being an angry, 40-something, gen x grognard, but gamers today have lost touch with some essential skills. Skills that those fancy core books USED TO teach you. Like mapping. And calling. Which is what this one is about: calling.
Lost Player Skills: Mapping
Maybe this is just me being an angry, 40-something, gen x grognard, but gamers today have lost touch with some essential skills. Skills that those fancy core books USED TO teach you. Like mapping. And calling. But this one’s about mapping.