/
RSS Feed
Recorded on Monday, February 16, 2026 at 7:30 PM ET.
Question of the Month (Leave a Comment)
What is something that you find yourself regularly struggling when running and prepping games?
A Request from Angry (Leave a Comment or Send a Message)
Do you value my work? Has it made a difference? I’m going through an exceptional hard time right now and would be very grateful to hear that what I’m doing matters to you.
Topics Covered (We Went a Lot of Places)
- Personal Update: Depression, Recovery, and the General Suckitude of February
- The Start of Wilderness Encounters: Contact and Awareness
- Frienemy Bonus Content and One Sheets as Rules Presentation
- Three-Tiered Content Plan: Game Mastering, Adventuring Building, Mechanical Tools
- Future Content: Let’s Build Adventures, Haggling and Bribing, Narration Skills, Traps, Wilderness Adventuring
- Forged in Fire, AKA The Slapdash Roleplaying Game Engine
- The Space Between Adventures and the Structure of a Campaign
- How Do You Dole Out Small, Permanent Bonus Rewards Over a Campaign?
- How Do You Make Orcs and Spiders Awesome? How Do You Make Anything Awesome?
Hi angry. I have not yet heard the live chat, but I want you to know that what you do definitely matters to me. You not only have helped me improve as a GM, but also have made me think things I took for granted and consider new points of view. Sometimes your revelations are at the truly mind-blowing level, and while in hindsight they may seem obvious, I had gone around a good while without connecting the very apparent dots until you pointed those things out. Please keep doing your good work. Sincerely. Diego
Hey Angry,
I just wanted to let you know that I also struggle with depression, and I also go through patches where it’s difficult to do anything at all with my days, let alone anything actually productive (I call it getting “stun locked”). It’s been inspiring over the years to see you keep getting back on the horse. That takes a lot of strength.
I found the FCR discussion of using level/tier of play as a way to vary difficulty over time very useful, even though I was running a homebrew with no hard and fast equivalent of CR at the time..
I think I tend to stick too tightly to every adventure is about the same difficulty once you take into account character power, and realizing that mixing some easy adventures in with some adventures of increasing difficulty, has, I think, made me a better GM who runs less bad games.
Thanks.
Hi Angry,
I love your work. It’s fantastic, both the articles and recordings.
I’m undoubtedly a better GM from subscribing to you these last few years, and I appreciate the effort you put in to everything you do.
Calling out Slapdash explicitly, I’m tremendously excited for it. From what you’ve said, it sounds like the *exact* kind of system I want to be using to run games, always eager for any and all updates relating to it.
Thanks Again!
There are two things I struggle with during play:
portraying different NPCs so that they are really distinct.
keeping the pace up when players start discussing, overplanning etc.
Has your work made a difference? You bet it did.
I must have read every post you ever wrote at least twice.
You completely changed the way I think and play as a DM. I just finished season 1 of a campaign which would never have been possible without your blog (and book). (I homebrewed not only the world and campaign, but also a simple RPG system that is designed for exactly this campaign.)
Furthermore, you kindled my interest in story structure and how it works, so I’ve looked at screenplay writing and Campbells monomyth. (Weirdly enough, knowing more about storytelling actually also helps me give people advice on giving scientific talks.)
I even have more fun with video games because you occasionally point out things like “Look how video games do this or that.”
Please never doubt that what you do is worthwhile.
yes, it is making a difference. I prep better games (more interresting and more agency for players) in much less time.
Also, as a native French speaker, reading in English for so much years help me a lot improving my English.
Hello Angry,
I first heard of your work when a friend showed me your 4e Paragon Monster system – which I immediately shoehorned into my very next session, ahaha. I used it to great success for every boss battle in my 3 year college campaign, along with your dismemberment ideas and various other inspirations from your articles. You’ve definitely brought more joy to my table, and two of those players are GMs now.
After several years I’ve gotten back into TTRPGs, and although I mainly came for the systems you tinker with like the Recovery Time initiative, Angrycraft, etc, I’ve also enjoyed reading your way of thinking on game design.
Whatever you do in the future, you’ve helped me in the past, so thanks. Wishing you all the best, and I’ll definitely buy any system you publish 😉
Angry, your work has probably been the most valuable resource I have found on the internet. I have been reading every single past and present article for years, and just recently I’ve been able to support your work, because it has made a positive impact in my games and in my life. I love how you analyze and explain everything, and it has inspired me to spend months of work finishing your crafting system (and now your megadungeon) for my home game because I feel like you’ve given us all the tools we need to design great games.
My friends can tell you that I can’t have any conversation without quoting you, or using something I learned from you in a different context, like “descriptive vs. prescriptive” or some logical fallacy. Even outside gaming, your work has ripples.
The part I struggle with the most is applying all of what I have learned over the years during the session, like involving a second story, describing the sky, maintaining good pacing, and other techniques I “know” but can’t seem to put into practice, but I know that’s just that, practice.
So, thanks for all these years of hard work! My games and my life wouldn’t be the same without this website.
P.D.: I swear I’ll finish Chrono Trigger! (I still haven’t read the article locked behind its completion)
Question of the Month Response:
Lately I struggle with 3 things:
1) Making a dungeon seem like a place that actual people could have lived in once upon a time while also being a fantastic and weird place. I spend a lot of time trying to make sure chambers make sense and have clear purposes for inhabitants. Unfortunately my attempts also drain the weirdness and fantastic elements out of dungeon. Sometimes I feel they somehow become too mundane;
2) Seeding dungeons with treasure;
3) Drawing maps of towns, regions, and dungeons.
A Request From Angry response:
Angry,
I’ve been here awhile. I don’t talk very much, especially lately. Sorry about that. Here’s a response to your request: Your work has been life-changing for me. You showed me the joys of tabletop gaming. You showed me that building and running better games means caring about my craft and the people at my table. It means being the captain of the ship, taking responsibility and taking the next step. It also means that I must be brave and put the work in, even when anxiety and overthinking would keep me in stasis. I’ve learned so much from you and your work. From your lessons for Game Masters to your Mechanical Stuff to your War Stories to the examples of adventures and encounters, you’ve created so much amazing and useful stuff! I also appreciate that you don’t repeat the same nonsense that the various D&D cliques spout without thinking (from forum posters to influencers to actual designers). You think and share your own ideas, even if they run counter to popular consensus. I enjoy the character of Angry, the style of your articles, and your voice as a writer. I enjoy your spoken and video content as well.
As for the future: Dude, I’m THRILLED for all the stuff you’ve hinted at in the works. The articles, the new-and-improved Tension Pool, the lecture on Mysteries, the Wilderness, Social Interaction, the One Sheets. And beyond these, Slapdash will truly be something amazing to behold!
In March of 2025 and in the article Untitled Bullshit, you spoke of an island. A place for those who don’t quite fit in with the ways the hobby and the communities around it are changing. It resonated powerfully with me. As long as I can do so and you’ll have me, I’ll be here on the island, helping keep the bonfire lit with you. I want to witness your dreams coming true and your work coming to fruition. But if instead it all comes crashing down, doomed to fade away, know this: Your efforts MATTERED. You matter.
See you on the island.
Hey Angry,
I’ve been a member of the community for a short time but have been reading for several years. Your work has been hugely influential on my games. I use the narration techniques from the True Game Mastery series every game and have seen player investment skyrocket while simultaneously improving pacing. It’s been truly black magic. Your advice on making interesting combat arenas is something I use regularly and in conjunction with purpose building monsters so that their cool thing is the best way to play them has led to even the most low stakes resource draining combat being interesting. All of the articles about employing game design principles have led to my adventures being more fun and engaging and frankly at all playable. The campaign management stuff has helped me set clear expectations on scheduling that saved one of games from my impending burnout dealing with no call, no shows. The Tension Pool has dramatically changed the way my players make decisions in dungeons and they love it as much as I do. The session start up script you wrote a long time ago is something I use every session including the player reintros and I’ve noticed a marked improvement in both my and my players recall of important lore and NPCs, as well as a smoother start to the game (even if I do have to keep my club at the ready for the more prose prone players).
I could go on and on through each of hundreds of articles that have gotten me through a mental block, showed me something new that was immediately useful at the table, thoroughly eviscerated my previously held notions in a way that made me think and grow as GM (and only as a GM, this blog is only about pretend elf games after all), or provided value to me in some or another. Or even the time you directly helped me personally with the whole Chaos Dungeon that still has something resembling a Golden Path thing.
I obviously can’t speak for anyone else, but your work has been incredibly valuable to me. My friends’ and I owe a significant chunk of why our game nights have gotten so good to you and this blog.
So thank you Angry!
Sup Angry
Well, I have to say you made me want to become a better GM. I don’t know if I actually got any better but I sure as hell try. I came in for the smug inflammatory attitude and stayed for the advice. Plus I have to say I really enjoyed Digressions and Dragons. I still listen to it from time to time. Keep it up.
What I find myself struggling as a GM regularly lately is time constraints. My weekly session is at most 3 hours long. Usually about 2 and half hours and I have two groups each playing bi-weekly. In order to deal with this I adopted a formulaic episodic structure where each session is more or less guaranteed to have a set-up, a challenge and a pay-off. My problem is that the formula will eventually make itself felt to the players and they will always know what to expect and that I have to fit various types of play into that formula and not all them seem to be a good fit or fit at all. So I would really love any advice about structuring sessions with strict time limits in order to accommodate various types of play.
Cheers.
Did I hear a Nanny Ogg in there? So both Douglas Adams and Sir Terry Pratchett in the episode? AWESOME!
Regarding Question of the Month:
I’d love to see something on how to create interesting choices for non-magical gear (weapons, armor, and/or other items) at lower levels without making things fiddly.
Regarding Three-Tiered Content Plan:
Might I suggest doing all three in a month on a single topic? For example, “This is Traps month!” At least for me, I do better producing products when I can focus my efforts on a single topic rather than “multitasking.” Also, at least for me, it feels much more rewarding to say “I completed thing X!” Rather than “I completed the forth document on thing X, but now I’ve got to do the 3rd on Y, and the second on Z.”
Regardings A Request from Angry: I’ll email separately.