10 Crazy Ways to Kick Off Your Next Campaign
Tired of plot hooks that start in the local tavern? This article contains 10 crazy campaign kick-offs to challenge your players. Enjoy!
The Secret Lives of Closet Gamers
Are you a secret gamer? Do you hide your geeky hobby from the world? If so, you’re not alone.
6 Ways to Bring a Shy Player Out of Their Shell
Shy players can be a challenge for DMs. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if they’re enjoying the game or planning to do you bodily harm. (It’s always the quiet ones…)
Size Matters: How to Manage a Big Gaming Group
Big gaming groups don’t have to mean big chaos. Here are some tips for running crowd control and cutting down on combat time when you’ve got lots of players.
5 NPCs That Won’t Put Your Players to Sleep
If your players get glassy-eyed when they have to interact with your NPCs, you’re in need of some quick inspiration. Here are five NPC archetypes that will definitely keep your players on their toes.
The Secrets of Great City Campaigns
In a lot of campaigns, cities are just temporary stops between dungeon crawls. They also provide needed services like shops, taverns, and inns. But don’t let the buildings and cobblestones fool you: it’s a jungle out there. If you’ve ever thought about running a campaign based in the city, here are some ideas to chew on.
How to Get Rid of DM Guilt Once and For All
When someone asks you to run a game, what do you do? It’s tempting to say yes, but do you really have the time? Here’s some advice for avoiding DM guilt and letting your friends down easy when you just can’t fit a game into your schedule.
How to Run a Non-Linear Game You Can Be Proud Of
Whoever said that a straight line is the best way to get from Point A to Point B knew nothing about non-linear campaigns. They’re more than meandering chaos waiting to happen; in fact, they’re a lot of fun for adventurous players. Here’s a handy guide to running an awesome non-linear game you can be proud of.
How to kick up your game energy: meta-gaming edition
Are your players dragging themselves to the table and struggling to lift their dice? Not sure how to jump start your players’ enthusiasm? Forget the Red Bull I.V., all you need are the tips from our Kicking Up the Energy series. First up, metagame edition!
Elements of Fear: Horrific Ideas for your Campaign
If you’re looking for ways to add elements of horror to your D&D campaign, use this article as a springboard for your creativity. Here, we explore the terrifying elements of paranoia, ultimate evil, and the vast unknown.
Random Fun with Random Plot Generators
Random plot generators? Just clicking through them can provide at least 1d4 hours of entertainment. If you find a good one, you might even generate a nifty plot hook for your next adventure — but even the bad ones are good for a laugh.
Featured | Gaming Life | Quiz
What’s your inner D&D 4th edition character?
25 questions – that’s all you need to answer to know your inner D&D4E character. And don’t come whining to me if your inner character sucks!
The DM’s guide to uber-villains
What comes out of a meeting between an uber-villain and a red dragon? A how-to guide!
Are these DMs on fire? Why, yes, I believe they are.
Power your way to great gaming sessions by optimizing your prep time.
Murphy’s Law – RPG edition!
Most DMs know (from experience) Murphy’s Law. It states that if anything can go wrong, it will. These Murphy’s Laws of roleplaying games are brought to you by Maikl of RPG Thoughts, and confirm the inevitability of some things in RPGs, as suggested by yours truly (Immutable D&D Laws) and Stupid Ranger (Some things are inevitable). The…
Top 10 D&D CRPGs
This is a brilliant guest post by Mr. Gnome from The Random Gnome’s Random Lair. For hours of computer- and retro-gaming goodness be sure to check out his site. The digital world of Dungeons & Dragons Truth be said, computers do face quite a few problems when striving to provide us with proper RPG experiences….
Love-to-hate-them villains: a how-to guide
D&D Tuesday tips for DMs (DNDTTFDM) 04-15-08 PCs are the backbone of your campaign. Villains help flesh out the adventure! Here are some easy ways to make that villain brilliant, annoying, intrusive, challenging. In other words, these are my thoughts on making villains easy to hate and remember! The love-to-hate-them villains should: Miss appointments. The villain asks…
Make your campaign better… NOW!
Random thoughts With the ever-growing geek population I wonder if we’re ever going to live through a “taped glasses and hunched back is sexy” trend. 7 quick ways to make your campaign better Just because you have planned a fun campaign and your next few games are prepared doesn’t mean your campaign can’t get better. …
Cameo time!
Cameo time Looks like I’m going to have a special PC cameo during my next game. A good friend of mine who has never played an RPG has recently shown interest. So what will I focus on for that special occasion? Make him understand the DM gets free pizza, chips, and salsa. Let him roll…
Better NPCs, better world
I bundled the Instant World Builder in a single file but I decided to wait for a few days before releasing the .pdf file. The reason? I want to make it better. So this is an unofficial addition to the project. Generic NPC quirks A great way to add flavour to a region of a…
Instant world builder – Part VIII: Color Commentary
This article is part 8 of the Instant World Builder series. The color commentator Two of the characters in my ongoing campaign once met an NPC – completely improvised at the time – who stuck around and became a fan of the 2 PCs. The NPC was a bard and would travel the world singing…