Hey, reader, don’t miss yesterday’s front-page feature, Pass-Fail Dice Rolls Are Totally Fine… Until They’re Not.
Hey, supporter, if you already listened to The Angry GM’s May 2026 Mostly Monthly Live Chat, there’s nothing new here. Just saying.
May update time. I know May is half over, but that’s okay, since this is mostly about June anyway.
Want to Listen Instead of Read?
In this update, I’m just going to summarize what I’m aiming for in terms of content publication and events in June and beyond. This is the “consistent update and output schedule” I’ve been building toward for the last two months or so. But I also talked through all of this crap last night in a Discord Live Chat for my supporter community. One of the things my supporters get access to is live chat events and archived recordings, you see.
As a bonus to everyone who reads my site, supporter, follower, and lurking rider alike, I’m going to let you listen to the whole Live Chat recording instead of reading the summary below. Here you go. Listen here or download the MP3 version. I’ve also put up the recording on YouTube if that’s more your jam.
In addition to discussing my future plans, there’s some discussion about my current weekly campaign and a half-hour deep dive into how you might run swarm encounters better in response to a supporter question. If you just want to hear me think through how I’d make a better swarm encounter, it starts at 1:24:00.
Download The Angry GM’s May 2026 Mostly Monthly Live Chat in MP3 Format
Listen to The Angry GM’s May 2026 Mostly Monthly Live Chat on YouTube
The June Vision
For the last two months, I have been struggling to undo the damage I’ve done by just getting by for the last two years while I was in a deep depression and managing numerous financial and health problems. I continue to be deeply sorry for letting so many of you down, and I’m grateful that many of you have continued to support me and that many more of you have shown up for me as I’ve started turning things around.
I’m now prepared to announce what I consider to be my regular output for a month and what readers and supporters can expect. I’ve built up enough of a lead on work that this workflow should be maintainable. June will be the big ole test.
The Three Pillars
Based on all the feedback I’ve received over the years, there are three kinds of content people consistently come to me for and discover my site while searching for.
People still want general Game Mastering Advice. The kind that never gets old. How to actually run games at the table, how to narrate, how to adjudicate, how to manage players, how to deal with problems. Every month, I will put out at least one piece of this kind of classic advice. Right now, I’ve been working through tips and tricks for enhancing narration. So that’ll be for the next month or two.
Next, people want to learn how to build good adventures, encounters, and campaigns. I’ve been calling this Scenario Design, but that confuses people. So I’m just going to call it Adventure Building. How to homebrew good content that provides satisfying gameplay and narrative experiences. Right now, I’ve been working through how to build a Pretty Good Dungeon. I’ll be continuing that and then moving on to different scenario design topics. For those in the know, this will replace True Scenario Designery. It’ll cover the same topics; I just won’t be calling it that.
Finally, people love my little mechanical hacks and subsystems. Things like the recent Haggling article, which is still in Early Access. I want to put out at least one of these every couple of months, maybe every month, but they’re time-consuming to build. Especially because I like to spend at least half my time teaching folks how to build good mechanics, not just building mechanics for them. Again, my Haggling article is a good example. I am working on two things that might interest some people right now for future releases. One is a thing I’m currently calling FCR24. Another is something called Tension Pool Two.
In addition to those three pillars, I like to always have a bigger, longer series that I touch on every month. One that encompasses all three pillars and deals with a major failing or missing mode of play in modern editions of D&D. Right now, I am considering one of three possibilities to play with for a few months. One is exploring searching, hidden stuff, and traps. Another is handling wilderness adventuring. A third is how to handle the town stuff between adventures at the table better than anything D&D is currently offering.
If you have a preference about which I should tackle first, leave a comment.
Weekly Content
Every Tuesday, I will publish a new feature to the front page for all the world to see. That’s General Access. I’ve already been hitting this target weekly.
Every Wednesday, I will publish a new Early Access feature for supporters. I’ve been hit or miss on the actual day so far, but by June, it will be consistently on Wednesday. Supporters will also receive an audio read-aloud of every article, as they have been doing for some time, which will be published with the article.
Every Thursday, Frienemy-tier supporters following the development of roleplaying game system, Project Slapdash, will find a new design blog talking about whatever I happen to be working on with Slapdash that week as I prepare for the big Slapdash Battle Area Combat Engine tests this summer, which a couple of dozen Frienemy-tier supporters, at least, will have the opportunity to participate in.
On one or two Fridays every month, starting in June, Frienemy-tier supporters will also receive a bonus content item. A small rules hack, a table tool, a map, some monsters, an encounter, a puzzle, whatever. Just smallish, usable content, some of which I’ve built for community members in response to specific questions and some of which I’ve built for my own use.
Live Events and Recordings
Though there have been a few disruptions in the last month, Monday night at 8:30 PM ET has become my night for Discord Live Events with supporters in my Discord community. I’m going to make it official. Monday nights are Live Discord Events.
The second Monday of every month is going to be my Mostly Monthly Live Chat. Those get recorded, and supporters at every tier get access to the recordings.
The fourth Monday of every month is for my Project Slapdash Live Project Updates, where I talk about how the project is going, go into detail about some specific mechanics, and sometimes do a little Q&A, though I am deliberately being a little more cagey now about what I talk about. Those are obviously only for Frienemy-tier supporters.
The other Mondays are for The Angry GM’s Deep Dives, in which I basically deliver the equivalent of a full feature article’s worth of analysis, design, and advice as an audio and audio-visual presentation. Those are also recorded and disseminated to Angrican-tier supporters. The next one, on June 1, will be the second part of the Mystery Adventure Deep Dive, where we’ll be discussing investigative and interrogation encounters.
Recordings of previous events will always be posted on the following Mondays.
On Sunday nights, at 8:00 PM ET, over on my soon-to-be-more-utilized YouTube channel, I do live video game streams. They’re crappy and casual and purely for my fun, but end up involving a lot of game design analysis. I had to take some time off due to health problems, but they are resuming immediately.
Every Friday at 3:00 PM ET, starting in June, I will be recording the read-aloud for the next article and invite anyone on Discord who wants to listen live while I do so. I’ve been doing these basically at random, but I am just about in the right place in my workflow that I can do them the same time and day every week. The hangouts are usually a good time. We chat and joke around afterward while I try to remember how to fix and save audio, and I often get distracted answering game design questions or else presenting The Pants Theory of Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers and the Disney Multiverse. I shit you not.
Finally, as I mentioned in the Live Chat, I am planning to experiment with streaming a short shot game. In June, I will be recruiting players and making plans. Initially, the streams will be limited to my supporter Discord community. This is a feasibility test more than anything. My goal is to stream a real, ugly, basement game. The kind real, actual humans can run, not the sanitized, professionally produced stuff that clogs the Internet nowadays. I want people to see what a real game run by a real stammering, stuttering idiot of a Game Master looks like. Because, despite all my advice, I struggle as much as anyone at the actual table.
Technical Issues
There remain several technical issues that I’m working through on the site, as well as a bigger cleanup effort. I’m aware that the backlog of Early Access posts has made it hard to find Early Access stuff that’s older than two weeks, but hasn’t found its way to the main page yet. I also know my website has stopped sending out e-mails letting subscribers know new articles have been posted. I’m also aware that the entire archive is a complete and total mess, and my site is just very unfriendly to new readers or anyone who wants to read the archives. That’s all getting taken care of, one thing at a time.
This summer is going to be a long, hard period of unfucking everything that I’ve fucked up, while also keeping content flowing and moving big projects forward, and giving more value to my loyal and generous supporters. That said, nothing is as big as it sounds. It’s all manageable, and the reason it’s taken me two months to iron all of this out is to make sure I can keep up with these various things and maybe one or two other things as well.
The End
Anyway, that’s it. That’s the plan for June and beyond.
Thank you again to all of you for your patience, for sticking by me, for your ongoing financial support, and for your encouragement and emotional support. Ironically, as I start really moving forward, I find myself in a pretty dark place. My brain keeps telling me that I’ve ruined everything and that there’s no fixing it. That I’m doomed. That I’ll never finish anything. That TheAngryGM.com and all of my future dreams are dead, but that just hasn’t stopped moving yet. It’s probably lying, but I won’t know for sure unless I try my damndest. Having all of you around me helps me fight off the darkness.
I really, truly just want to give people the chance to play and run the greatest, most fun games they can possibly have with the people they love. It sucks that it’s this hard.
Love your advice, and this seems like an awesome plan for things going forward. I’m really sorry to hear you’re in such a difficult place right now, and yeah, it’s pretty bullshit that it’s so hard to share what you love. But even before all these steps forward, I know I speak for a lot of people when I say that you’re already helping me ‘play and run the greatest, most fun games they can possibly have with the people they love.’ And as someone who moved across an ocean from my friends, but still runs game for them every week, that’s something I appreciate more than you know. And from where I’m sitting, I’d describe your content lately as not just ‘not doomed.’ It’s felt like a rebirth. And while I may not be religious anymore, I was raised by a mom who was a pastor and Stephen Minister in Wisconsin, so I attended my fair share of Good Friday services. And I know that times of rebirth often feel the darkest, and most uncertain. But they can lead to some pretty amazing things. Best wishes, Angry.
…and also, how to run town events better sounds pretty awesome, but wilderness stuff is a close second for me!
This all sounds awesome. If I had to pick, I’d rather the focus be on either “Searching & Traps” or “Town.” My personal favorites are the narration tips. I always struggle describing the “room” and giving the players stuff to interact with. Keep up the good work!
Glad to see things are continuing to get more consistent. The last couple months have been great!
Also one vote for expanding on Town Mode next!
Thanks for the update! And for the next long running series, and rank it as town stuff, traps and searching, and wilderness adventuring last.
I second this!
Third this!
I third this!
Agreed, Town has priority for me as well.
Super excited for Tension Pool Two. Generally always happy to see new posts, but definitely very intrigued about what improvements have been made to the Tension Pool.
I love your wilderness stuff but I think you are the only one to talk about Town (capital T) so my vote goes there.
While my games would be greatly improved by any of the three options presented, I feel like I do a passable-enough job at the wilderness and at finding secret stuff to keep things moving. I’m looking forward to an eventual deep dive on all three, but I’m in desparate need for a town mode intervention ASAP.
I hope you push through your dark times soon; we’re all rooting for you.
I honestly think your writing is better than it’s ever been. And doing all the things you would do if you were *not* in a dark place is exactly the right way to go. I’ve found it’s like your brain watches what you do and say, and after a while decides you must not be depressed after all, and your feelings change. Or that’s my experience anyway, but I do have a weird brain, so maybe it’s just me. xD But yeah, until then it can be a slog.
As for article order, I enjoy everything you write, so I’m looking forward to all of it!
I would love to hear more about Town stuff if there’s meat there! You mentioned during the live chat that Town stuff will mostly be hacks, but if you have some rants or advice on how to use the hacks and piece them into a cohesive whole, I’m all for it!
If that isn’t what you have planned, then I’d like to hear about exploring searching, hidden stuff, and traps.
I feel that searching and traps and wilderness travel and exploration both have enough advice in articles to manage to be okay, but with town mode I am at much more of a loss, and have eagerly awaited a return (?) of that topic/series.
Excited to hear more about Town Mode and the new and improved Tension Pool. Hope all falls into place this June!
So glad to have True Scenario Designery back on the menu ! I also really liked the first deep dive, I am excited for this second episode.
For the long running series, I would have a slight preference for Searching & Trap, and Wilderness.
Finally… Don’t give up, skeleton! all the more praise the sun!
Very excited for more Adventure Building/True Scenario Designery!
Hey Angry
To me, True Scenario Designery is second only to True Game Mastery. Your other work on Adventure Building has been great as well; I just want to throw a chip for the more abstract, less actionable, more thinky content you’ve made.
Additionally, I want to share my heartfelt appreciation for theangrygm.com. It actually doesn’t matter that much to me how you balance your content — almost all of it is amazingly useful, or at least entertaining, anyway.
When any friend of mine wants to GM for the first time or wants to get better at it, I only have one recommendation to give. Not because others aren’t good, but they honestly pale in comparison. Your content is genuine, honest, fresh, thought provoking, and, most of all, exceptionally useful.
Doesn’t matter to me what order the topics come in, I learn from all of it. I just want it all as quickly as possible 😀
Glad things are improving for you, Angry.
I’m still keen for the wilderness distance tracker
True scenario design is back yeay !
Thanks Angry, truly, your content is amazing, bar none.
hope things will continue to improve on the mental side !
I would like to put in my vote for exploring, searching, hidden stuff ad traps. Your last article about light really got me thinking about this sort of thing, so naturally I want more.
Man, I have benefited from your advice so much over the years, I can’t begin to tell you how psyched I am that you’re still helping me run less worse games. Your site is actually what got me back into the hobby about a decade ago. So I just wanted to say THANK you for all you’ve done over those many many years, and for your outstanding Game Angry book – hands down the best GMing book I’ve read. I can’t wait to see what’s next for the site and for Project Slapdash. I suppose this is just a rambling way to say: as awesome as our brains often are, some days they’re just a#*holes, and when yours is whispering dark BS, I hope you’ll turn to your many supporters and friends for a reality check on how much you’re appreciated. Take care of yourself!
Hoping for continued improvement for your mental health. Random internet people do really care about other random internet people.
Also, looking forward to all of this, especially a streamed game that isn’t a multimillion dollar ‘experience,’ and is actually faithful to how D&D really is
Listening to your Mostly Monthly Live Chat, I wondered about using a different system for the strike team’s assault on the facility in your Dark Matter campaign. I think it was your article on campaigns with usual continuity that planted that idea. My approach would be to find a system that handles modern, strike-team-esque combat elegantly and use that for the raid, then switch back to Alternity for the usual characters afterward.
I mostly don’t know what the frick I’m doing so any articles are helpful to me.
“Player agency. Avatar strength.” It’s that kind of fundamental principle that i find most helpful.
I just started playing with my kids. I played decades ago with my dad and it’s a great experience to pass along. Your site really helped me get started. And your writing style is hilarious. I like it so much, i tried porting it over to the office during meetings. That didn’t go over so well so I’m dropping that, but i still love your style of delivery on this site.
Count me in for Tension Pool 2!
Surprising absolutely no one, my vote goes for Wilderness stuff first, with Traps second and Town third.