Intro Alright, this is a big one for me. I have a real axe to grind when it comes to this topic. Just to preface this, a lot of this piece will be geared toward those who create custom content for general release to the public (especially for money). This should not be a surprising … Continue reading Design Insights: Playtesting
Tag: Advice
The Third Layer of Storytelling Appendix
Intro Alright, I’m finally pulling this one down from the shelf and blowing off the dust. I had the full outline for the piece completed and just… never wrote it. This is a direct appendix to The Three Layers of Storytelling, which will be required reading for this piece to make sense. What I’ll be … Continue reading The Third Layer of Storytelling Appendix
Design Insights: Designing For Fun
Intro I left this series on the shelf for quite some time, which is a shame because I had quite a few topics planned. As much as this series was focused mostly on D&D 5e, there’s some more general advice I wanted to impart. Many of us GMs are homebrewing bits and bobs all the … Continue reading Design Insights: Designing For Fun
The Living World – Appendix
Intro This is a direct companion piece to the ‘Running the Sandbox: The Living World’ piece that can be found Here. I mention toward the end of that piece that there’s a few extra details I didn’t have the chance to dive into. It’s taken me a while but I’ve finally got them laid out … Continue reading The Living World – Appendix
The Five Types of Sessions
Intro In some sessions nothing happens, in some sessions everything happens, and every other session is somewhere in between. Yeah I know, what earth-shattering wisdom. What I’m interested in, though, is what actually happens in those in-between sessions. As I’ve grown more experienced as a GM I find myself thinking more and more in terms … Continue reading The Five Types of Sessions
Make Better Creatures
Intro I’ve had this one on the backburner for a while and finally have a way of expressing the concept. I have in my time DMing created a very useful mental model that helps me easily increase the quality of my encounters built entirely around how I use monsters. Full disclaimer, this advice is geared … Continue reading Make Better Creatures
When Campaigns Fail
Intro I haven't posted here for a while and there's a good reason for that. My last few games haven't gone well. There's nothing existential about that. It doesn't send me spiralling and calling into question my skills as a GM. It doesn't have me throwing my toys and vowing to never touch the game … Continue reading When Campaigns Fail
Yes And Is (Probably) Not Helping You
Intro This has been on my mind for a good long while and I’ve struggled to articulate exactly what my position is. In fact, I’m still not sure that I’ll do this topic justice. Still it’s worth a try, because quite frankly I think the touting of ‘Yes And’ as the key to good DMing … Continue reading Yes And Is (Probably) Not Helping You
Running the Sandbox: Finding the Quest
Intro So here I am now writing the 3rd piece in what was supposed to be a one-off explanation of a useful game concept. I guess I have more to say about this than I originally thought.Once again we must go back to the first piece in this series wherein I discuss the shift from … Continue reading Running the Sandbox: Finding the Quest
Running the Sandbox: Overarching Narratives
IntroWell I wasn’t necessarily intending on following up my piece on Reactive vs. Proactive questing in the context of a sandbox campaign, but there was something contained in that piece that I think could stand to be elaborated on.I discuss in that piece how in a sandbox things will tend to start off as Reactive … Continue reading Running the Sandbox: Overarching Narratives
Running the Sandbox: Reactive vs Proactive Questing
IntroI’ve been thinking about this for a while, and for a good span of time I felt there was a concept missing from the subject I was trying to tackle. Earlier today (at time of writing) MCDM discussed something fundamental about how rewards drive player motivation and suddenly the final piece of this write-up clicked. … Continue reading Running the Sandbox: Reactive vs Proactive Questing
The Three Layers of Storytelling
IntroToday I want to talk about what I would say is one of your most powerful tools as a DM. In order to do that, I need to lay out what I call the Three Layers of Storytelling. I’ll be discussing what these layers are, how they combine to make a cohesive narrative, and how … Continue reading The Three Layers of Storytelling
How to Keep Medicine Relevant in a World Where Magic Exists
IntroSo unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve no doubt heard of the Combat Wheelchair homebrew that’s been knocking about. Look, I’m not here to get into a discussion about that, but there was one thing I noticed some detractors saying. Go into any thread about said Wheelchair and you’ll see someone say something … Continue reading How to Keep Medicine Relevant in a World Where Magic Exists
The Realism Fallacy
Intro So here’s something I’m sick of hearing. “How do you justify the existence of [puzzle element] in your world?”. I get why it’s being asked, and I do think immersion is important, but I think there is often this perception that realism is synonymous with immersion. I frankly do not believe this is true, … Continue reading The Realism Fallacy
Building Better Dungeons Using Puzzle Game Design: Lesson 5
Intro We’ve really been through a lot together by now, and I like to think we need no introductions between us. Still, I will at least provide the courtesy of recapping the series so far and outline what this final piece will discuss. This series has focused on using lessons from puzzle game design to … Continue reading Building Better Dungeons Using Puzzle Game Design: Lesson 5
The Gold Problem, and Solving it with Rest Variants
This is an immediate follow-up to my most recent post here where I discussed the notion of switching between different modes of resting that changed the exact times while preserving relative time difference. I mostly discussed this in the context of pacing play and also managing your encounter quota. However, those are not the only … Continue reading The Gold Problem, and Solving it with Rest Variants
Running an Evil Campaign: The Whole World is Evil
This is a sort-of sequel to the previous post on how to have an evil party, and very much builds on notions I discuss there. At the very least, the things I'm going to discuss here relate to how I have built the world for the campaign I am running, and it has a party … Continue reading Running an Evil Campaign: The Whole World is Evil
There Is No Such Thing as a Problem Character, Only Problem Players (or ‘How To Run an Evil Campaign’)
This is an older write-up of mine that was based on the experiences of the campaign I was running at the time. The party included a lot of morally grey characters (and some who were outright evil) who often engaged in the sorts of behaviours that are normally considered 'problem behaviours', like stealing from party … Continue reading There Is No Such Thing as a Problem Character, Only Problem Players (or ‘How To Run an Evil Campaign’)
Apothecary Press 