#GM Tip Advice and Questions

[theresattrpgforthat]

I asked abaut a dating rpg but of you know of an easier game to hak than KoB i woud love recomendasions for that to Im kinda new to haking so I woud lovde tips on games easy to change

THEME: Hackable Games (Dating Sims).

Alright friend, I said I’d address both parts of your question, and this is me answering both parts of your question. In my previous rec post, we talked about ways you could take dating sim games that are already out there and how you could combine them with Kids on Bikes. I also talked about the Kids on Bikes system, and the kinds of things I think it expects from people who are playing it.

So, now that we’re talking about games that are easy to hack, let’s talk about some options. I've got two different approaches here: taking romance games and tweaking them, and using some beginner-friendly SRDs.

Caltrop Core, by TitanomachyRPG.

Ever wondered how to make your own TTRPG? Welcome to v1.2 of Caltrop Core, an introductory game design system using the humble and sharp d4!

Caltrop Core is a system designed for folks that are new to game design. It’s meant to be an extremely simple system reference document (or SRD) that guides you through the basics of the game you want to play. Your resolution will involve rolling a number of d4s and looking for the highest one; as the designer you’ll have to decide what is worth rolling for and whether your characters will be spending resources (tokens) to improve their chances of rolling or whether they’ll use a predetermined set of stats. The range of games that have been made with this system are very broad, from games about underwater cephalopods, to games about taxis in space, to games about doing your best to win your sapphic love.

What’s So Cool About _? By Jared Sinclair.

The original game of What’s So Cool About Outer Space? is no longer available on Itch.io, but Litza Bronwyn’s guide on how to make a WSCA game is still there. WSCA is a very simple system, asking each player to make up a few things about their character, and then detailing how to resolve something that is risky. What success and failure look like will usually be determined by the table as a group, and the player will roll 2d6, adding +1 to the total based off of things that exist on your character sheet or other questions that make sense in the genre that you’re playing.

The GM advice is also pretty basic, encouraging the Game Master to continually introduce new things that are happening, and dealing some key elements of the genre that you’re trying to emulate. There’s also the expectation that as you play, the game will grow; you’ll come up with new rules to make sense of specific situations or challenges that make sense for the kind of game you are playing. This is another beginner-friendly approach to game design, starting you off with a few basic tools and encouraging you to fiddle with them until you have a game that makes sense for your table.

If you want to see what kinds of games people have made in this genre, I recommend checking out the What Is So Cool About Jam!

Dating Sim, by Tyler Crumrine.

Dating.sim is a light-hearted romance roleplaying game inspired by the TV show The Dating Game as well as the “dating simulator” video game genre. Dating simulators are narrative-heavy games where players can date one of multiple eligible characters via choose-your-own-adventure-style conversations. Make the right choices and a character might like you more, make the wrong choices and they might like you less. Dating.sim recreates this structure through competitive roleplaying, with players improvising multiple-choice options for one player to select over the course of a date.

With more of a competitive, game-show style of play, if you pick up Dating Sim, you’re not so much hacking a game as you are creating a setting to put into the game. The art for the game points to a multitude of genres, so you would just want to start the game by asking the table about the universe this dating game show is happening in, and what kinds of contestants would be on it. This suggestion is more in line with the previous week’s posts, but sometimes trying out these kinds of games will help you figure out what kinds rules make sense for the game your playing; are your dates competitions? Are they mysteries? Or are they something else?

Thirsty Sword Lesbians, by Evil Hat.

Thirsty Sword Lesbians is considered genre-agnostic, with some suggested settings inside the game, but plenty of room to create or borrow a setting of your own. Hacking this game could be anything from creating your own custom setting but running it rules as written all the way to creating your own movies and character playbooks to fit the feeling of a dating simulator.

In general, PbtA games can provide great engines for interpersonal drama, which means that it often lends itself to allowing players to take things down a romantic path. Pasión de las Pasiones is another romantic PbtA game, this time originally focused around Spanish telenovelas, but I’ve seen people hack it for other genres as well.

However, keep in mind that the more concentrated a game is around a specific type of media or theme, the more work you’ll likely have to do in order to make it work for the theme you’re aiming for. In terms of PbtA games, this is especially true.

Boyfriend Dungeon Unofficial TTRPG, by CaptainKrail.

Make a character, fight through Dunj's, Craft items, Wield friends, level up by increasing your relasionships and fall in love in this Tabletop adaptation.

This TTRPG is an adaptation of the Powered By the Apocalypse system, using 2D6 to resolve conflict.

Because this game is specifically inspired by a dating-sim style game that involves impressing potential partners through learning about them, this game might be worth looking at, although many of the character options are focused around combat. I like the fact that part of the progression in this game is discovering more about the back-stories of the date-able companions, indicating that you are growing when you’ve built enough trust with someone to unveil more about their personal story.

Some Other Things To Think About

So I’ve watched a pretty in-depth explanation of how games like Tokimeki Memorial work, and I’ve also played Monster Prom. Both of these games reward multiple plays, because you’re expected to learn more and more about each romance-able character with every time that you play. If you wanted to replicate that in a tabletop roleplaying game, I think the closest mechanics that work for that kind of game are mystery games, especially games that have characters slowly accumulate clues that they can use to answer a bigger question.

The two biggest games that I can think of that are mystery-related are Brindlewood Bay and the GUMSHOE system.

Brindlewood Bay is a game about elderly ladies solving eldritch mysteries, but it’s also been hacked a number of times to represent mystery-solving in various settings. If each “mystery” was focused around a single date-able character, and the theorize roll was transformed into a roll that is actually you asking them out, you might have an interesting loop there.

GUMSHOE is an investigative roleplaying system that is designed to feed the players different clues throughout the course of play, but leaves the interpretation up to the players, giving them a series of investigative abilities that help them uncover extra information. You could re-structure this to make the clues elements of a character’s backstory, with the abilities of each character tied to ways that they can set their crushes at ease, slowly unlocking information that informs them about what kind of date their crush would like to go on.

A big caveat I have with both of these games is that I don’t think they’re necessarily easier to hack, especially if you haven’t played either of them. If you want to turn games like these into a fleshed-out dating simulator, my recommendation would be to pick up the game, run it RAW for a little bit, and think about what you like or don’t like about the game. If you want to make a quick hack, this kind of process probably isn’t for you.

[utilitycaster]

i would LOVE if crit role did a stream similar to the world building stream worlds beyond number did during the break....just matt answering lore questions would be perfect

TBH, something like that would be great! I truly don't mean to be a hater here and I don't mind questions about process (how do you come up with xyz) nor relevant personal taste questions (the fantasy book recs one) but it is like...I don't know if the CR cast are just nice and don't want to turn down questions, or if it's just the size of the fandom, but every panel does seem to have a few questions that make me go "that literally cannot be answered/that's been answered 20 times already/that probably should be asked of a different person in a different venue or researched on your own/that's a wildly personal and inappropriate question" and I think having a lore/process-specific rule for at least some panels (for Matt) and a character-relevant/process/no crack theories rule for the rest of the cast would also help.

(in particular: I really do think it's important to read or watch GM-ing advice that doesn't come from actual players, and indeed I think it's actually useful to seek out opinions from people who are weird about/dislike actual play because I don't agree with them on that, but I think they often do have a GM-ing perspective that's helpful for home games if you can get past the weirdness. Like, there's a ton of stuff FROM Matt about GM-ing online anyway between the GM roundtable and G&S GM tips but if you're a CR fan and especially if that's your main D&D source, I highly recommend poking around elsewhere for how to DM.)

[dailycharacteroption]

Hello! GM new to PF1E but been playing PF2E for about two years, and 5E for about 5+ years. I am planning on running Iron Gods for some friends who have similar experience levels with ttrpgs.

If you've read or played Iron Gods, what tips might you have for me or the players? Or any resources for either groups?

Last question: what's the most commonly forgotten rule at the table for PF1E, in your opinion?

Welcome! Always happy to hear from another enthusiast!

I've read through the entire AP, though the only real advice I can give is keep the tables for timeworn tech (and Numerian fluids, if some in your party are impulsive/gamblers) handy. And also know when to use both the "we don't know what this tech is" and "Here's the version for the players so they recognize what you're talking about" descriptions for the robots and technology as appropriate.

As for the most commonly forgotten rule, I can't speak for everyone, but for me at least, it's not so much a rule as a part of stat blocks, and that is to say, be sure you know what feats your monsters have, as they can often give them different tactics even without magic or special abilities.

I hope that helps, and thanks for messaging!

[bleongambetta]

Hello! Wanted to tell you I stumbled upon Pasion de las Pasiones by chance and I LOVED it! I only found the ashcan version so i'm looking forward to getting the whole game! You made an excellent choice designing the moves and the audience, it really spices up the game! I am planning on making a solo run of it, and wanted to know if you would have any tips for it?

This was asked all the way back in August and I didn't realize! Sorry about that, @the-blue-eyed-fallen-angel!

Thank you so much! I'm so glad that people are finding and enjoying Pasión de las Pasiones!

I'm guessing that I'm about 5 months too late with this advice, but let me see what I can do!

A solo run may also mean a couple of things, so I'll try to answer all possibilities because... hey, more advice is better!

If you are playing just one episode: More or less, think of the game in thirds. In the first third of the game, let everyone show what they want. Set up what they need to get through in order to get their goals. Show an easy way out if they give up some morals. In the second third, let the players go at each other and have a little chaos. In the third third, it's GM time. Go HARD. Every move should hit like a truck.

If you are playing with 1 player, 1 GM: Turn the audience moves into a question of what you two players believe together the people watching your show would think and swap to a -2 or +2 instead of counting audience members. If you can't come to an agreement on the feelings of the audience, make it a +0! If you are playing alone: That may be tough! I'm not an expert in fully solo game experiences, but I think usually those involve some sort of an oracle that you can consult on rolls. I could see making a quick oracle out of the GM moves, but not sure if that would work! Got me thinking though!

[open-hearth-rpg]

#RPGaDay2024

Acclaimed Advice

It’s wild self-aggrandizement, but I’ve written two collections of TTRPG advice, insight and resources.

Age of Ravens: Volume I: Running 

Age of Raven: Volume II: Tools

That first volume includes…

-Running Mysteries: planning and executing mystery scenarios in rpgs -Conspiracy Sandbox: building an rpg campaign around open world conspiracy -Seven Starter Stories: go-to inciting incidents -Running One Shots: tips and tricks for running one-shots at cons or beyond -Hack the Table: the joy of quick hacking games and getting them played -Online Con Management: lessons for running large online events -Five Faces of the GM: a quintet of game facilitator roles -Pandemic Brain: Breaking the TTRPG Reading Block: how I stopped worrying and learned to grok rpgs again -33 Tips for Running Online: specific advice for running rpgs online -How To Run 200+ Sessions With 25+ Systems In One Year: a run-through of my process …plus 18 more

If you’d prefer, I’ve also got a collection of TTRPG talks & seminars. You can see that playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUKV1MEOXoTU5bhjfTYuLsaOBpA4OzhfN

That includes general advice as well as looks at several different systems. 

If I had to give one piece of advice to GMs– new and veteran– it would be this:

Questions are the heart of what you’re doing as a game facilitator. You respond to a statement /query or set something up and then lob a question about that, 

Always direct your question to a particular player/character. If you ask an open question to the table you will get silence, delays, and hesitation. Nearly every time you ask an open question you waste time and energy. That’s especially true online. Name who you’re asking. 

If your question could apply to everyone, set someone up to start. For example, “What do you want to do next? Let’s start with Sherri’s answer.” When they answer (or opt to pass) move it on to the next player.

It’s a little thing but makes a huge difference.

[silverscalezine]

Welcome to Silver Scale Zine!

Hello and well met, traveler! This is the official blog of the Silver Scale Zine, an upcoming TTRPG zine made by fans, for fans.

Our first issue is going to be released in January 2025. We wanted to give ample time for submissions and formatting, as well as to spread the word about our little project! The hope is to release issues every quarter, though if it takes off we wouldn't mind increasing to bimonthly or more!

Are you a writer, artist, or other creator in the Tabletop Roleplaying Game space? We'd love to feature you in our zine! We are accepting art, homebrew, articles, GM and player advice, miniature painting/terrain building tips, and anything else related to the space.

Submissions do not have to match the current theming, but those that do will be given priority! Current theme is: None! Go Wild!

You will own all rights to your work! Submitting simply gives us the rights to publish it in our zine with your permission and any credit/handles/email you wish so readers can discover your work!

We do have the goal to sell each issue in its first few months for around $1-5 pay-what-you-want, which will be dispersed among the contributors to thank them for their submissions. We welcome all thoughts on this and how best to distribute to contributors!

If you are a creator with any thoughts, submissions, or questions, please reach out via our inbox here, or through silverstreamcreative@gmail.com

[alexissara]

Doing GM Advice on a new Streaming Platform for Evil Hat

Evil Hat has invited me to do GM advice for Thirsty Sword Lesbians on this new Platform Moonbeam and I am really excited to do this with Nomo and Lily. I've run for and been a player for Nomo and Lily in Thirsty Sword Lesbians multiple times. Their both amazingly talented GMs who both come at Thirsty Sword Lesbians from different angles.

I've got to do lots of design work on TSL but I am also fairly confident that I am the person on this planet who has GMed the most games of Thirsty Sword Lesbians with I think around 100 sessions GMed and even more played. I really love this game and I have watched tons of the live streams and most podcasts too. I have tons and tons of thoughts on common errors new GMs make in TSL and lots of experience to draw from my own mistakes, lessons and just things I have found my players really like.

While I'd love to do more written advice getting to do a 2 Hour Live stream followed by a 1 hour fire side chat is really a place where I will be able to go into the details, the little questions and stuff I just couldn't really get to in writing while also like working on all my projects. Plus you'll get the perspectives of the other two amazing panelists who really are two of my favorite GMs in the world even outside of TSL. I've played lots of exciting stuff with them at different tables and I really trust their advice too.

Not only that but the amazing Sean Nittner is going to be moderating for us and he is such a talent. I've worked with him lots of times both as a TTRPG designer and on live streams and he is really great at keeping everyone on target, making sure things run smooth and everything. We're in amazing hands with him at the wheel.

The Moonbeam platform itself seems really interesting, I don't have full knowledge of it yet but I do like the idea and I think it's a promising platform even if there are things that seem like potential flaws. I love the idea of having like Discord + Twitch built in all together especially with both companies increasingly fucking up and getting greedier. I'd like to run a realm for folks but we'll see how the platform works out and like what they offer me.

[pleaseburger]

New ask!

Do you have any tips for:

1) Introducing a new system to a group of players. They're all open to learning it (it being Fate, or possibly Starforged now), and while I don't want to overwhelm them with an entire rulebook I'm having a hard time sifting through it all and picking out what's vital.

2) Running a Fate game a GM. I read the Accelerated rulebook, was confused, and now am halfway through the Core rulebook, so I could very much be jumping the gun asking questions about it. I'm mostly hung up on Fate points and Aspects, knowing when to make something a Compel or charge a Fate point for an Invoke, versus just letting the players do what they want.

An example: The player is fighting a giant spider, and aimed a swipe specifically at its eyes to blind it. They rolled two shifts above the my roll for the spider so I said they succeeded in doing that. What I get hung up on is, the spider is blinded. Why should they have to spend one of their three Fate points to capitalize on that?

As far as aspects, does Everything need an aspect? The room, the zone, the enemies, the npcs? Is "Poisonous" and "Many Legged" good enough aspects for a poisonous centipede enemy? I almost wish there was a table of aspects but I understand why there isn't.

Typing this all out I actually think I understand it better, but I'm curious as to what you say.

And thank you again! I live in a small town and am basically introducing the concept of ttrpgs to my friends so I have no one else to ask these questions. I appreciate your service to the community 🫡

honestly, I don't think it's important for players to absorb the rulebook before you start playing. pick the rules that you think are the most important to get a bare minimum understanding of play started (if we're using D&D as an example, I'd explain like, d20 checks, combat turns, and maybe spellcasting to the magic users). I find that RPGs are mostly learned by doing, and rulebooks are easier to parse the more experience you have to reference.

the best way to get players excited about a new game is to talk up the premise of the adventure you have planned, and just promising that the ruleset youve chosen is gonna be the best fit. its hard to get people hyped about rule systems unless theyre a very particular kind of design nerd

warning, I'm not a FATE expert, I've just played it occasionally and people I respect really like it, so my specific advice here may not be super helpful but I'll try anyway:

fate aspects are the important parts of your game, decided by *you and your players*, not the game. this takes some time to digest coming from D&D because the way that game is structured, it tells you what's important, but fate enables you to choose for yourself.

if this specific room is important, give it an aspect. if it's just a space to hold an important monster, focus on the monster instead. there isn't a table of aspects because anything can be an aspect, it's up to what you think is going to make for the most enriching addition to the story. I think "poisonous" and "many-legs" would be great aspects for a giant centipede enemy. but what if you gave it the "royal" aspect? what about "hellspawn", or "cybernetic"? do you see how these small additions radically change the tone of the scene?

fate points are a special resource that can be more broadly referred to as a **metacurrency**. theyre kinda like D&D inspiration, but the designers actually put some thought into it. they're ultimately a tool to empower players.

if you're having trouble chewing through the Fate Core book, the SRD is available to read online. here's the page for Aspects & Fate Points (it has a little dropdown you can open with the + button on the left sidebar with more detail on various things)

[austinramsaygames]

Do you have any tips for gming for oneshots or more episodic style campaigns? I'm wanting to run a scum and villainy/galactic 2e game for my friends but with all our vastly different responsibilities and unreliable schedules we probably wont be able to play more than once a month at most, and likely not even with the same people every time. How do you prepare for that kind of episodic play that can be set up and reach a resolution within the same session?

The main thing with running one shots and single session adventures is organizing yourself around time. Many times I've seen people talk about how their one shot turned into a four shot, which is fine if everyone is up for that possibility, but it sounds like you're pretty restricted.

The first thing is that it helps if you run games that you are fairly familiar with. This isn't necessary but it does help with judging how long a group will take to work through the adventure. Not only will you have a better idea for how challenging an obstacle is but you'll also be able to answer any rules questions more quickly.

Planning for what the session IS, even before planning the adventure, goes a long way. What is your pitch of the adventure to your players? Is everyone doing character creation beforehand? What about reviewing safety tools like Lines & Veils? How familiar are the players with the system? How much time will you have for playing? These are all important questions to have answers to.

If the players are unfamiliar with the rules and you have the time, you may want to consider doing character creation step by step as a group. This way you can also steer players away from any skills or abilities that are completely irrelevant to what you have planned; if you're having a desert adventure, they probably don't need to take water walking/breathing spells, for example.

GMs have different valves for controlling the speed that the players move through an adventure. You make things harder than originally planned if they are flying through the adventure and easier if they are struggling. They won't notice because either the danger is ramping up or they are excited about their success.

You can adjust:

The obstacles' offense

The obstacles' defense

How aggressive obstacles are

The locations of objectives/clues

How helpful side characters are

How much control the players have over the narrative (aka just rolling with it)

All of the above will help keep your adventures to a single session.

When I run games at conventions, I follow the above advice and can run a full Beam Saber mission in 4 hours, including 1 hour for character creation.

As for doing an episodic campaign, the first step is to come up with a conceit that allows the mix of characters to change between sessions based on availability. You can hand wave absent characters more easily than you can present characters who are VERY quiet for a while. A good set up is having a central employer/fixer who hires each character on a contractual basis. Once the current job is done, they may or may not get hired again for the next one.

Next is tying the episodes together. There are two ways that I do this:

A string of pearls. Each episode is directly connected to the one before it by a thread. This may be something major like an ongoing antagonist, or small like a one off macguffin item. It doesn't have to be the same thread between every episode but having each connected to the one before gives a sense of continuity for any players who are there consistently.

A tree branch. Each episode is unconnected to the ones that come before and after, but ALL of them are connected to the same central plot. For example you may have several episodes that are all about how an organization harms people, but those people and the way they are harmed is unconnected. This creates a central theme for the episodic campaign to build itself around while allowing space for players that aren't familiar with The Lore to focus on the problem in front of them.

I hope these help you with your game! Good luck with the scheduling!

[simul16]

The Newbie Guide to GenCon -- Stolen and Updated!

But then start all the other questions. Questions that start “it’s my first time going to GenCon… “ and end with “… HELP!” And I’ve noticed it’s sort of the vogue for bloggers to waste a week writing a “Guide to Surviving GenCon” every f$&%ing year. I was going to do something actually useful about narration and running games and s$&%. But no, people are DEMANDING I write this crap instead. So you get this. See, the thing is, all the GenCon advice out there doesn’t really tell you everything you absolutely NEED to know. It’s all these thousand word, top-ten-list style bits of bulls$&%. Me, I’m going to give it to you straight. I’m going to tell you about experiencing GenCon for the first time along with some awesome tips.

- The Angry GM (Scott Rehm), "How to Even GenCon: The Complete Noob Guide"

Gen Con is just around the corner. And as is traditional for this time of year, places are putting together 'guides' for how to enjoy Gen Con, even if you're attending for the very first time. Sadly, though, most of those guide are pretty lame, as the Angry GM notes above. So what to do?

Well, the Angry GM's own guide from 2015 is still fairly good, so I thought I'd just link to that. Except as I read through it, I realized that the guide definitely could use some updates and clarifications, because (shockingly) the guide as originally written by Angry is long on his perspective, and short on others' perspectives (the section on etiquette notwithstanding). So I thought I'd provide a service and update Angry's classic Gen Con guide for newbies, updating it for the (almost) post-COVID era.

So let's roll!

Okay, let’s talk quickly about WHY you’re going to GenCon. Because the biggest mistake I made the first year was not knowing why the hell I was going. And most people don’t. They are going just to go. Here’s the deal. GenCon is big. You just won’t believe how awesomely, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. You might think your local gaming convention in the basement of one hotel is big, but that’s just peanuts to GenCon. Listen… Every f$&%ing fandom imaginable is at GenCon, including weird crazy-a$& s$&% you’ve never heard of like SuperWhoLock. There’s RPGs, card games, board games, video games, war games, and LARPs. There’s video games, consoles, PC games, MMORPGS, MOBAS, MUCKs, indie games, all that s$&%.

That last sentence is actually a bit of a reach. If you're going to Gen Con with the idea that you're going to get the same sort of video-game experience you'd get at PAX, then you're going to be disappointed. You can find video games at Gen Con, if you look hard enough, but not a lot, certainly not compared to the board games, TTRPGs, and other games that are there.

But the larger point kind of still stands -- there's a lot to do at Gen Con, and why you want to go is important. For the reason why that's important...

So, why are you going. What do you want to focus your time on? You don’t have to devote all your time to your focus, but it’s a good fallback to have. When you don’t have anything to do and you find yourself lost, you can fall back on “well, I meant to come here and play plenty of RPGs, let me check the schedule and see if there are any games coming up.”

That's solid advice. You can go with the idea that you want to soak in as much of the Gen Con ambiance as you can, but it's good to have an idea of the main 'big thing' you want out of Gen Con and be able to use that as a fallback in case you find yourself awash in options that all seem really cool and you're at the risk of analysis paralysis.

To Angry's advice, I'd add just one thing: try to find one thing, an event, a panel, something, that you wouldn't otherwise consider doing if it was just something a bunch of your buddies back home decided to do. Find the one weird thing that you can only do at Gen Con and do that thing. Even if you don't end up liking it all that much, you'll have a story worth sharing (and you don't have to do that thing again next year if you really didn't care for it all that much -- you'll be able to find other things).

In case you have never been to GenCon or any other large convention before, here’s how GenCon actually works. Your badge gets you into the convention itself. That lets you walk around and enter the big public spaces. And that’s about all it does. Anything else you want to do generally requires you to register and have a ticket. There are whole bunches of official events scheduled. Everything from seminars to games to moving showings to dances to knitting classes. Every f$&%ing thing imaginable. Each event has a certain number of tickets available. If you buy a ticket to that event (which might be free or it might cost anywhere from $2 to $20), you can attend that event. At the event, your ticket will be collected and you will get to be in the event. IN THEORY. See, there’s a few things that f$&% with that system. First, you’ve got generic tickets. Generic tickets are wildcards. They cost $2 apiece and you can use them in a couple of different ways. Many events that don’t have a set number of seats ONLY ACCEPT GENERIC TICKETS as buy-in. If you want to play an official D&D game, for example, or play in one of the Magic: the Gathering tournaments, you need to bring generic tickets to cover the cost of the event.

That last bit is no longer really true. In the past, it was easier for event organizers with large number of events to just rent space in Gen Con and only take generic tickets rather than list out all the events they planned to run, but that's not really true anymore. Pastimes, the main orgnaizer for Magic events at Gen Con, have 456 different ticketed events in the online event catalog, while Baldman Games, who runs the official sanctioned D&D events that make use of the current Organized Play system for D&D 5e have 155 different ticketed D&D events. They will still accept generic tickets, if there is space to allow generic ticketholders into the event, but they will all prioritize actual ticketholders.

As far as I can tell, the two reasons for this are:

Gen Con has upped their administrative game, making it easier for these large event organizers to submit their events, and

The benefits of actual ticketed events outweigh simply accepting generics only.

What do I mean by the benefits of ticketing? Say you're Pastimes, and you check the online event catalog a month prior to Gen Con and notice that not only have none of your scheduled 8-player Commander drafts sold out, but most aren't even half sold, while your Pauper win-a-box tournaments have been sold out since the week of event registration. You can make the decision to cancel some of those Commander drafts, knowing that most of the players affected by those cancellations should be able to pick up seats in other still not sold-out drafts, and instead schedule more Pauper win-a-box tournaments which people actually want to play in. This is a great tool for organizers, and they have embraced it; as a result, generics are significantly less important than they used to be.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea to have some generic tickets available, on the off-chance you find an event in the catalog and can't get ahold of an actual ticket. You can definitely get into some events, even 'sold out' events, using generics (mainly if other ticketed players don't show up). But since generics can't be refunded -- only returned for system credit -- it's not very helpful to buy $30, $40, or $50 in generic tickets on your first trip and find out you only end up using less than $10 worth. You can always buy more generics if you really feel you're running low.

I'm skipping the entire 'Knowing Your Way Around' section, because it's still largely accurate.

Don’t touch anyone with permission.

The 'General Etiquette' section is very good, but this should clearly read, "Don't touch anyone without permission."

Putting that crap aside, this is the big one: Indy loves GenCon. The businesses love GenCon. Partly because they bring a huge amount of money into the city and partly because Indy thinks geeks are really nice, harmless, friendly, happy people. It’s true. Ask them. They all say the same thing. They love us. They love us more than the sports fans. Don’t f$&% that up. It’s actually kind of nice that the whole city basically becomes Geek Valhalla for four days and you can run a Dungeon World game in a hotel bar for three hours and no one looks askance at you. It’s neat that you can dress up like Slave Leia and still get served in a restaurant without anything thinking it is remotely weird. It is nice to have people genuinely think you’re a good person because you’re a geek. And you know why that works? Because most of the people who go to GenCon are actually nice, friendly, happy people just having a good time. If you like that experience, deserve that experience. You be nice too. You’re an ambassador for GenCon when you’re at GenCon. It’s part of the price of GenCon. Accept that. Oh, side note: lots of business try to get into the spirit of GenCon by changing their menus or offering special geek-themed stuff like a burger called The Desolation of Smaug or a cocktail called The Winter Soldier. It’s kind of cool. And some restaurants really go overboard. But… they only do that for like five days out of the entire year and most of the staff aren’t geeks. So a lot of those words are gibberish. I’ve seen geeks get annoyed with wait staff who have to confirm which burger the Eye of Sauron actually is. And that pisses me off. Don’t do that. The servers are working their a$&es off to make you feel comfortable by trying to celebrate your subculture. Cut them some f$&%ing slack.

I've copied this entire section because it suggests a point that it doesn't make -- the businesses in downtown Indy will say they love Gen Con -- especially places like restaurants that are busy pretty much the entire weekend. This doesn't mean that everyone working for those businesses loves Gen Con or even tolerates it very well; if you worked in a downtown where two days out of the year you could count on needing 45 minutes to get lunch or an hour to drive out of downtown at the end of the day, I'm sure you'd be a bit irritated as well.

And, despite how much the folks whose jobs it is to be nice to you want to be nice to you, they only have so much energy and stamina; don't just cut them some slack if they don't know the geeky names for their menu items, also don't actively be a jerk by complaining that a restaurant ran out of 'the only entree I'd eat in this restaurant' on Saturday night, or by showing up at 11:55 on Friday night when the kitchen closes at midnight demanding to be served.

In spite of capitalism, being treated nicely at Gen Con isn't a right -- it's a privilege, and one you should help maintain for all other attendees.

'Your Gen Con Bag' is excellent advice. No notes.

And here’s where I can give you an expert pro-tip. If you fly in, you will need a taxi to take you to the city from the airport. And you want to do two things. One, tip that cabbie extremely well. Like $5 to $10 well. Two, get that cabbie’s card. That cabbie is now yours. They will prioritize you. And, most importantly, they will prioritize your trip back to the airport on Sunday or Monday, provided you call about 30 minutes ahead. Keep tipping that cabbie a buck or two per trip, but if you don’t have extra change and you skip a tip, that cabbie will be okay with it. Because that cabbie is yours. You bought them.

I do have some notes on this paragraph, though:

$5 to $10 isn't really all that great a tip for an airport-to-downtown taxi ride (or vice versa), and cab fares have also gone up since Angry wrote his original piece. Expect to pay $40 or more for a cab ride to or from the airport; if the fare is slightly over $40, paying $60 and having the cabbie keep the change will have the desired effect. However,

The one time you really don't need to take a cab is from the airport to the convention center. There are shuttles that go past all the major downtown hotels surrounding the convention center, there is a bus line that goes directly into downtown and drops off right in front of the ICC, and there are other rental options. One year I went with a friend, we made acquaintances of a number of folks on the plane with us, and we all decided to go in together and rented a limo to take us into downtown. It might be more expensive now, but it worked out to about $10 per person then, so may still be worth looking into if you have a big enough group.

With that said, if you are not at a 'connected hotel' and need the option to cab back and forth from the ICC to your hotel, getting a cabbie you can call repeatedly over the weekend and who knows you tip well is an excellent option.

In general, any event is skippable. And if people know they can show up with generics and take your seat, that doesn’t have to be a problem. But still, show a little bit of restraint. Don’t sign up for things if there’s only a slim chance you’ll go. In that case, the proper thing is for you to show up with the generics and try to get an open seat. Just know that, just because you have a ticket for an event doesn’t mean you are bound to that event.

This is probably the thing I most disagree with in Angry's guide, and I'll illustrate why with an anecdote.

My wife and I met Irish folk dancing at a pub, and when we noticed there was a Sunday morning Irish folk dance event at GenCon where we could get the last two available tickets, we were pumped to go. We got up early Sunday, raced to the event, and then sat for 25 minutes as literally none of the other ticketholders showed up. Since most Irish folk dances require more than one couple, the organizer really had no choice but to cancel the event, and though we were able to get the cost of those tickets refunded, it didn't make up for the lost time, the inability to get into a replacement event, and the simple crushing disappointment at not getting to do an event we had our hearts set on.

Obviously, there are limits. If you are actually sick, then don't go to the event. But if you find yourself filling up your schedule with events you're not excited about, and you start skipping them, maybe turn the other tickets you're not excited about back in. Gen Con is huge, but that doesn't mean every event at Gen Con is huge. Otherwise, if you have a ticket for an event, make more than a minimal effort to get to that event. If you really don't want to be there, and you can see there are others there with generics who are happy to take your place, then go ahead and let them. But at least in this case, you're doing the polite thing and helping to ensure that the event still gets to happen for the people who want it.

Most of the advice in 'The Dealers Hall' is good, but...

And now comes some stuff about money. Look, lots of geeks deal in plastic rather than cash. And most booths can take credit/debit cards. But you’re best off using cash for several reasons. First of all, like flea markets, convention dealer halls are notorious dens of identity theft. And it’s easy to lose sight of your card as the staffer walks over to run the transaction through the dealie. I am not kidding about this one. It’s becoming a HUGE problem. Second of all, if you have a set amount of cash to spend, you won’t overspend and then discover you can’t afford a meal or a cab fare later. Third of all, the dealers prefer cash for a variety of reasons. In fact, if you pay cash and have exact change (and often, they will round off prices to make that EASY), the dealers will usually cheer you on. Seriously, there is an Exact Change Cheer many dealers do. It’s kind of neat. In fact, in general, even if it is not your normal habit, you should deal in cash. Cash makes it easier for cabs, to split checks in restaurants, to leave tips, to use vending machines, and so on. Get in the habit of pulling cash out for the day’s activities. If you budget well, you can actually leave your plastic safely in your hotel room safe.

The world has changed since 2015, and this entire block of advice is simply wrong:

Most places who do business in the dealer hall have adapted to e-commerce and now make use of Square or similar card-readers that are portable and will read chip cards without you ever having to let go of your card. In this environment, the odds of identity theft are virtually zero. If a vendor is small enough that they do need to take and swipe your card on something, they'll likely also be small enough that you can see them do that, and if you can't, feel free to refuse to use your card for that purchase. It won't be common.

Budgeting is a good thing, but you should be able to set a budget without carrying around large quantities of cash. Not to mention that carrying large quantities of cash is a great way to lose all that cash if you get your pocket picked or otherwise lose track of your wallet. Not saying it's common, but it is a danger.

Dealers do not necessarily prefer cash. There are some vendors who will actually refuse to take cash (this is actually getting fairly common in Artists Alley, since purchases tend to be large there), since keeping track of cash is a hassle and a headache, and electronic payments don't just walk away during the close of business.

The world, including Gen Con, has grown accustomed to dealing with electronic payments. Take advantage of that where you can to keep your own finances safe.

First of all, try to eat three meals a day and try to eat them at the same time every day.

Good luck with that. Not saying it's bad advice, but unless you're doing something like a full day of D&D where meal breaks have been worked into the schedule for the DMs, you probably are on your own for figuring out when your schedule allows you a meal break. Gen Con as a whole does not set aside any blocks of time where 'everybody' goes and gets a meal. If you're putting together an eclectic schedule of events, you're almost certainly going to end up with eclectic mealtimes as a result.

Breakfast is the hardest meal to find at GenCon.

This is true, but breakfast is also the easiest meal to work around, since you can eat it before, on the way to, or even during your first event (depending on the event). If you're flying in, you can certainly fit granola bars or breakfast bars or some other shelf-stable, high-energy option in your baggage. If you're driving, you have even more room to plan out meals and snacks, such as the classic PB&J. If you're addicted to your morning coffee, though, then I feel for you, because short of bringing your own coffeemaker (or using whatever is in the hotel/your room), there's few good alternatives.

Honestly, coffee is the biggest damned problem at the whole convention.

True.

Stay away from the food courts and vending machines inside the ICC. They are expensive, slow, crowded, and they serve s$&% food.

In a pinch, you can probably survive a hot dog from one of the ICC food vendors, but unless you are a young person with an iron stomach, you don't want to make the ICC food vendors a habit.

Last point, because it's not one that was a 'thing' back in 2015: do not harass, belittle, or even comment on other people at your events or in public spaces that choose to wear masks during Gen Con.

With all that said, if this is your first Gen Con, here's hoping you have a great time!

[dungeonsandquestions]

Favourite and least favourite feat? Why?

I’m assuming we’re sticking to DnD 5e feats here because feats in older editions got a bit out of hand/very specific over time in my opinion. I’m also gunna stick to the Players handbook/UA (I’ll mention race feats but not in detail)Special mention: Lucky. Saying I hate lucky is not incorrect but it’s not my least favourite feat, I just think it’s too easy to apply to a character with no restrictions or limitations. It’s not overpowered (Divination Wizards, Rogues and Halflings all have luck manipulating effects) but all of those have drawbacks associated with them. Lucky can be grabbed at level 1 (humans) or 4 (first ability score improvement (ASI)). That being said incorporating lucky into a character can make for some fantastic role-play (idiot savant) especially if you don’t abuse it however taking it and just rolling whenever you would crit fail a save/attack is just kinda boring to me. I can’t say it’s my least favourite though because it serves a good purpose to swing things in the players favour against harsh DMs (also no one said monsters can’t have feats…)Before we get into it; there’s many types of feats in 5e and almost all have either a nice bit of flavour, are interesting or are extremely useful. Some I dislike because they’re boring, but they make for interesting character choices/builds and support certain play styles. However my least favourite feat manages to be uninteresting, pretty useless and have no real flavour.Least Favourite: Heavy Armour Master. If you’ve never bothered with this I don’t blame you but long story short: Your Strength goes up by 1, and non magical weapon damage (slashing, bludgeoning and piercing) is reduced by 3 points. That’s it. Bare in mind that medium armour master feat can increase your AC by 1 and removes disadvantage on stealth for all medium armours. Sure at level 1 or 4 this might be okay because enemies aren’t magical and don’t deal that much damage, but by level 8 or 12 this effectively feat becomes: Increase your Strength by 1.This feat is by no means game breaking but it’s so useless it might as well not be there after certain levels, even if your characters whole thing is a cool suit of heavy armour the fighting feats or shield master are better suited because at least then you do some cool fighting stuff implying you’ve trained and become a capable fighter.The good thing is bad feats in 5e are rare, sure I may not like some because they aren’t great nor flavoured but they have uses, or someone could incorporate them into a backstory/actions to make them fun. Good feats on the other hand are all over the place. War Caster is one I pick up on most spell casters I play (useful, flavourful and interesting effects/ways to manipulate it), the two -5 to hit, +10 damage feats (Sharpshooter + Great Weapon Master) provide interesting risk reward, and the race feats are just cool (mostly). However there’s three that I rarely see used (even by myself) but I love the ideas behind them and what you could do with each one;3: Keen Mind: Can be unfortunate for the DM to deal with but encourages good note taking by both parties, stops you naturally getting too lost and explains how you always know rough times in fantasy settings. Certain classes get more out of the idea of this but I feel you can apply it to any character to gain some interesting knowledge that you have to work to use, is very flavourful and pretty interesting range of stuff.2: Inspiring Leader: Simply give this to a bard, sorcerer, warlock or paladin and you’ll likely be getting Lv+5 extra health each short/long rest. It’s boring if used every rest but saving it for a handful of big bosses and giving a proper rousing speech is just fantastic. Hell even if you only have the minimum 13 Cha for this, that’s still 2-21 extra health to all your party before any major fights. 1 and my Most Favourite: Mage Slayer: Tbf there’s a lot of feats I find more useful/powerful/applicable. But there’s something about specialising in fighting magic users that’s just fun. The idea of characters in the DnD worlds who just run right up to mages to start wailing on them (despite the fact they can launch meteors and lightning bolts and warp the planes themselves) is fun to me. The abilities are definitely useful against a magic users (especially if your own mage teleports you right beside the ones you fight). While the flavour of being someone who hunts down those that misuse magic is just fantastic. I wish it wasn’t forced to be 5ft on all it’s abilities but I can see why that limit was imposed. And I know it’s by no means the strongest or ‘best’ feat, but it is my favourite, at least currently (my opinions on this shift a fair amount).This is one I’d love to see other peoples opinions on (reblog this with your answer or stick them in the tags I guess), or even go into detail on specific feats and where I rate them. If you’ve any other questions for me I’d love to answer them.

[dexadin]

What advice would you give GMs who want to run Strahd as a horror-leaning campaign without including the really questionable stuff in the module? I already looked at Mandymod, but I wanted some concrete tips from someone doing it.

Thanks for the ask! This is something I definitely want to expand upon as I continue working through the module, but I’d be happy to share my thoughts and advice on changing the truly copious amount of questionable material in the raw Curse of Strahd module.

As much as we like to shitpost about Strahd in ATSBB, it’s definitely intensely horror-leaning, which I attribute to having clear boundaries and expectations set during our (several) session 0s. I read through the module and changed a ton, which is largely noted in a complicated system of stickynotes and flag tabs in the book, which I’m going to try to to condense under a readmore. Apologies in advance, I’m allergic to being concise.

*Spoilers for CoS module under the cut (safe to read for ATSBB players)

SAFETY TOOLS. You’re going to need them, even if you’re already friends with your table and even if you’ve played through campaigns without them before. There’s a lot of different kinds available and it’s gonna be your call which you want to use. Having these expectations and boundaries set before you play mitigates harm and lets you know what specific plots you’re going to need to change from the raw module. It also gives you as a DM confidence in running horror devices without worrying about hurting your friends.

The RPG Safety Toolkit was curated by Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk and is available for free here, and contains a ton of different tools that might work for your table. For ATSBB, we used a version of the RPG Consent List that I modified for specific concerns I had in relation to CoS and to my own horror preferences as a storyteller. This was helpful because I immediately realized that certain topics that played a heavy role in CoS were on the red list and got to edit those parts before the party ever got a chance to encounter them. We also use the Luxton technique and have Roll20 macros, which I highly recommend in lieu of physical play/pause cards for online play.

HE, STRAHD. This is a big one that I think a lot of people would disagree with especially over on the CoS reddit, but as written, Strahd himself is 1. Extremely triggering and 2. Incredibly boring. He’s this horrible and powerful psychosexual monster, sure, but he’s also…just kind of an incel if you gave him the power of a god? His entire character arc hinges on his failed attempt to woo Tatyana and it truly doesn’t get any deeper than that if you don’t get into the characterization present in the novelizations. I really recommend reading the Strahd backstory in the beginning of the module, keeping the skeleton of it, and bullshitting the rest based on what your RPG consentlist comes back with. You can write an evil, despicable, unredeemable Strahd without making him a sexual predator, which he explicitly is in the books, and you’re probably going to get a much more interesting and wellrounded villain out of it.

FANTASY RACISM. I personally play at a no-fantasy-racism table, and if you also do, you’re going to need to change a lot of Strahd’s backstory regarding Rahadin and the dusk elves. He’s portrayed as a colonizer, slaver, and genocider and even for a horror campaign, that might hit too close to home for a lot of people. If you want me to expand on how I addressed Rahadin and the dusk elves in particular, let me know! I think they are probably my largest divergence from canon and from MandyMod/Dragnacarta’s reddit guides, and I honestly haven't seen a ton of other DMs talk about it.

You’re also going to need to change the Vistani. There’s really just no getting around it–it’s fantasy racist and real-life racist, as they’re explicitly written as a stereotype of Romani people. WotC released an errata that was supposed to address this, but beyond removing the actual anti-Romani slurs, it sucked (Van Richten's Racist Tiger isn't actually racist!! He still has it though, and it still hunts Vistani. But it's because it sniffs people in league with Strahd, who just happen to be largely Vistani, but not all Vistani!!) There are plenty of Romani folks who have spoken to this point way better than I can as a white dude, so I highly recommend doing your research in that regard. Some people I've seen recommend making your Vistani more inspired by actual Romani culture, turning it into representation rather than just a mash up of racist stereotypes. Other people reccommend changing the Vistani altogether, and avoiding racist stereotype that way, which is what I ended up going with.

HARM TO WOMEN & CHILDREN. Oh my god there is so much unnecessary harm to women and kids in this book??? Even for a meatgrinder-y grimdark game, there is harm to women and children to an almost comical extent. Very genuinely, you get graphic harm and death in *every single chapter* in the book. Harm to children was a “yellow light” in my RPG consent list, so I ended up changing most of these encounters. There are some plots in which I mitigated the amount of harm (ex. Gertruda & Mad Mary in Barovia), some plots in which I made it considerably easier for the party to intervene in that harm (ex. Arabelle in the Vistani encampment), and some plots I completely got rid of. Notably, ATSBB did not run Death House nor the Dream Pastry plotline at all and honestly I don’t think this changed the story literally at all.

I’d say that those are probably the biggest points of advice/heads up I can give to a DM who wants to take out the questionable material, but I promise you, no matter how much you plan in advance to change things and mitigate harm, you’re going to have a moment where you reread a section of the module and go ‘oh *god*, why the hell is that in there?’ and you’ll get to choose what to do with that on the spot. The benefit of the module structure is that even with changes, it’s hard to write yourself into a hole you can’t get out of.

In general, I'd reccommend considering what about Strahd and Barovia you want to hone in on as points of horror, and that'll change for every group. For ATSBB, I hone in on psychological horror: feelings of isolation and otherness, the fear of losing hope, and the fear of watching yourself and your loved ones lose themselves to darkness. For other groups, a more violent or aggressive horror, or even leaning into the paranormal aspect of horror may work better. You can then use that to dial back the questionable elements and write in new elements that compliment the story you want to tell better.

I won't lie, Strahd is a daunting module to remove questionable material from, because there is just so damn much of it, but I've still found it super worth running. If there’s any plotlines in specific you’d like me to go into my edits for, let me know! I made significant edits to every plotline except for Argynvostholt, which I pretty much ran as written with some u/MandyMod flair. I’m always happy to subject you all to my thoughts as a DM. Happy vamping!

[utilitycaster]

Hi hi! This actually isn’t a critical role specific question from me, but you said you’ve been a DM, and I was wondering if you have any tips or tricks for beginners at running a table?

Thank you!

So, DM-ing is a lot of things and it's hard to give a succinct summary so feel free to narrow it down, but here's a few things I have found useful that I haven't found easily elsewhere, or are particularly good notes from things I've watched/read. (For fans of actual play - Matt did some DM tips for G&S back in the day and obviously the GMs of Exandria Roundtable with him, Brennan, and Aabria is good; Brennan's Adventuring Academy is also good and can be listened to as a podcast if that's easier, as can Dungeon Court on NADDPod. The last one isn't explicitly GM tips but Murph is probably the GM whose style I try to emulate most and there's a lot amidst the wacky questions that is worth keeping in mind about how to approach problems as a DM). Also, I failed to keep up with Three Black Halflings but they also had good DM-ing tips.

Don't be scared to say no. Don't be too rigid, but sometimes you are going to have to give a flat no. A lot of people won't do this because they're nonconfrontational or have absorbed too much of the "D&D is fun! Do whatever you want!" philosophy and haven't actually considered that a lot of people do want structure, that one player constantly trying to break the game isn't fun for anyone else at the table, and because the only things the players know about the world and how it works is what comes out of your mouth, you need to provide a consistency within said world. Also sometimes people will be like "can I be this broken-ass build I found on Reddit that deals 700 damage per round but requires a deliberately unintuitive misread of the rules" and you can just be like "nope!" and save everyone a lot of annoyance.

Have a session zero; make sure the party makes sense for each other and for the world and story. Also make sure whatever other tools you use work for everyone. I've said this before but: I play over Discord and I'm often looking at my notes. I'm not going to see someone throw a red card if they're uncomfortable, so I tell my players at the beginning that they will need to speak up if they're uncomfortable, and it's worked out well. Some meta advice on what other DM-ing advice to take: do not listen to the wack jobs who say there is only one way to run a table and that it is coincidentally theirs. Find something that genuinely works for your entire group, what you want, and how you play.

Things to set in the session zero: basic world/party comp including if there's any classes/races/subclasses that don't make sense for said world; absolute no-gos for players (ie, the trigger/this isn't fun for me list) and how you will handle discomfort that arises in the game; house rules. I don't believe in doing most house rules early on - play things generally as written or at least intended until you find something that your group needs that isn't in the standard rules - but I do usually play with Matt's resurrection rules rather than the standard D&D ones but I check with the players first about this.

I think Aabria said she usually plans around the length of the session for each session, and this is pretty reasonable. When I've done significantly less planning than that it's been rough, and usually I don't find that I need significantly more.

Everyone always says "if it's your first time DM-ing, use a module" and like, no one ever does, but consider doing so. It is way easier.

Mistakes happen and don't be too hard on yourself! But also if things are going super off the rails or your players seem very confused, or if the players make a wild but valid choice, it is ok to take a break. You're human; you can say "hey, I'm worried we're not on the same page" or "hey, you did something cool but also I did not prep for that, give me 10 minutes."

CR ratings are really more vague suggestions. I've used kobold fight club to try to build encounters but also I think it's helpful to just accept your first few encounters might be kind of weak, and scale things from there once you get a better feel.

The best part of the GM Roundtable was all of them but notably Brennan talking about how the goal of a DM is to guide the players towards the most interesting resolution because solving things too quickly isn't a story.

It's ok to be on rails. Don't force people outright into choices, but you can guide people towards something specific; a full sandbox-y world is really hard to do. This is also why modules are good because that expectation is set.

Reward good RP. It doesn't need to be mechanical rewards (though someone who's been making consistently interesting and dedicated choices deserves an occasional treat, imo) but if you have players who aren't just running through the basic rules but are actively making creative choices or doing excellent character work and engaging with your world, at the very least make sure they get rewarded with good story.

You are a player too; this is what D&D Court from NADDPod is very good at hammering home. You want to make it a good time for the players! You're also doing TONS more work and if a voice is wrecking your throat, if a topic makes you uncomfortable, or if the party is refusing to follow plot hooks, have a conversation. I think a lot of advice skews either really heavily towards "everything is for the players and you should sacrifice yourself for them and anything less is selfish and mean" or else "the DM is god and if the players don't make the right choice then that's their fault" and neither is correct. You're a player; you're also doing more work. If your plot doesn't interest anyone, then no one's going to have fun, so revisit (and perhaps run a longer/more extensive session zero and do a post mortem, because you are allowed to want to run a specific type of story but you might have needed to be clearer with the players); if an NPC is hard to play you can come up with a reason to change them a bit to make it easier; and if a topic makes you uncomfortable, you're also allowed to throw the metaphorical red card.

Really, I think the biggest theme for all of the above is "don't be afraid to stop and talk if things are in any way not working; do not let a fear of confrontation or breaking immersion set you down a path where no one is having fun."

This was all more on the order of general philosophy so again if you have specifics on like, how to pick monsters or whatever, feel free to ask those, but I find there's often a lot of advice on those specifics and much less on the above. Good luck!

[staggeringsmite]

dm/gamemaster asks

a little love for all my forever dms out there because i always love hearing from people who run! these are written with dnd in mind but should be applicable to other systems and for gamemasters in general. 

✨ plot hooks ✨

1. how did you get into ttrpgs? was there a transition into the dm’s seat, or have you always been there? are you playing more often than you’re running or vice versa?

2. what was your first time running a game like?

3. have you picked up any general dm tips or tricks that you’d like to share? what types of resources do you use, if any?

4. do you have any noticeable dm mannerisms? anything you’ve picked up from ttrpg shows or other dungeon masters in your life? or common tropes, themes, or encounters that reappear across your games?

5. what is your favorite part about running a game?

6. what is your least favorite part about running a game (if there is one)?

7. if you could give one piece of advice to first time gamemasters or people thinking of running their first game, what would it be?

8. what types of stories do you like to tell? what is a game of yours incomplete without?

9. what is your preferred roleplay to combat ratio? do you enjoy one more than the other as a dm/gm? why?

10. what is something your players do that makes your job easier or livens up the table in a way that you appreciate from the gm seat?

✨ lore dump ✨

11. favorite npc(s) you’ve ever played?

12. npc you wish the pc’s had spent more time with/gotten to know better?

13. favorite place(s) you’ve describe or created?

14. place you wish the pc’s had spent more time in or a plot hook they didn’t follow?

15. what are your favorite battle memories? do you have a favorite villain/enemy/monster you’ve played?

16. is there something that you desperately want to run someday, be it a specific system, setting, module, campaign, npc, etc?

17. what is your proudest improvisation moment?

18. funniest improvisation moment?

19. is there any major plot detail you would go back and change from a game you’ve run?

20. best/worst player-ism that stuck in a game (ex. getting a name wrong to the point that’s just what everyone says, whether on purpose or accident)?

✨ behind the screen ✨

21. where do you draw inspiration from when you’re getting ready to run a game?

22. do you prefer running homebrew, independent modules, or source material? do you mix and match?

23. are you a stickler for the rules that are set or is there just about anything you’re willing to introduce a mechanic for?

24. how long does preparing for a session usually take you? do you chronically under or overprepare?

25. what do you do when you feel stuck preparing for a session (ex. not sure where to take the party’s reaction to a hook and nothing’s coming to you)? how do you work through it?

26. what do you do when you feel stuck making a decision in game (ex. not sure what an npc’s or environment’s reaction to the party’s decision would be)? how do you manage it and get the flow of the game back?

27. have you ever had a big dm goof (forgetting to give information, giving too much at the wrong time, etc.)? how did it turn out?

28. what do you have to have in front of you to feel confident going into a session?

29. how do you treat critical success and failure? have you ever had a game-breaking nat 20 (or nat 1) to honor? what happened?

30. have you ever had or been close to a tpk, or otherwise stressful party situation? how did you handle it? were there any shenanigans to save the day?

✨ chance ✨

31. best game snack/drink?

32. do you have any dice/other mechanic rituals? do you feel like you roll abnormally well (or the opposite)?

33. if you can, post your favorite comment/note/line from your game prep or gm notes made during a session

34. do you do anything adjacent to your games like make playlists or journal (in character or about the game)?

35. how do you wind down after an intense session?

36. how do you gear up to run a session? any pregame getting into character/setting moments?

37. wildcard: any question you haven’t answered or received and want to!

[raksha-the-demon]

You don't have to answer this, I understand I can look up most of this stuff, but I wondered if you had any advice for playing DnD? My friend 'suggested' me as someone who could act as DM for a campaign among a wider group of friends - I made it clear I had no experience but I was interested in learning how. I do have the starter kit instructions. It's just a little intimidating, people seem to take this quite seriously? (I might have been on anon but I asked you about vampires a while ago)

First of all I love talking about TTRPGs pls ask me all of the questions always.

Second, I absolutely have advice, starting with "check out Matt Colville's Running the Game videos on Youtube". You don't need to watch them all before your first session (hell, you don't have to watch them all, period) but they're full of tips and tricks that I have personally found very useful. But the most important bit of advice from those videos is that running games is fun, and you can do it. Because it is, and you can.

I’m not going to go in to a ton of specific advice about rules, or what kinds of modules you should run (aside from “you should run a short level one module rather than committing to a whole campaign right off the bat”) because that advice is already explained in a million places, including Colville’s videos and probably your starter kit as well. Instead I want to talk about how intimidating it can be to GM, because I think that’s something everyone deals with. It can be very scary to step behind the screen and take over running the game, because it feels like all the pressure is on you. What happens if you fuck up?

Well I’ve got great news, because fucking up does not matter. Seriously. Half the time the players won’t even notice, and the other half they won’t mind because it’s just a game and you’re all collaborating to have fun together. Misread a rule? If it’s a big deal you can retcon what happened, otherwise who cares? Accidentally make an encounter way too difficult? The bad guys decide to take prisoners instead of killing anybody, and now you’ve got a jailbreak adventure. Accidentally let the players do something completely encounter-breaking? Congratulations, they will never forget how cool that moment was or how awesome they felt doing it. (Seriously, just ask @ultranos or @birger-wuvs-elsa about the Flour Incident.)

You don’t have to take this super seriously. You don’t have to remember the rules perfectly, or always stay in character. You can say “hey I don’t understand this rule, hold on.” You can disallow things that make sense, because it’s not covered in the module and you’re not comfortable going off-script yet. You can do something, realize it was dumb, and then rewind and do something else. And you can allow the same for your players, too. 

At the end of the day, this game is about a bunch of people sitting around playing make-believe. So just tap into your inner five-year-old and go play.

[werelocke]

Hey, your worm monster character seems super neat! (i forgot their name im sorry aksadha) I was wondering how that idea worked out, mechanically, with hunter abilities and such? Are they a monstrous hunter? Apologies, I came up with an idea of a monster pretending to be a human (or kinda stuck as one) and I was really excited to see someone had a character that's presumably similar! I suppose I'm looking for tips? I'm incredibly new to MoTW. Totally fine if you're not down to give tips, or even if I was totally wrong about my assumptions with your character! Anyway uh have a nice day, your art is super cool btw

Howdy!!!

I wanted to roll them as a Monsterous but I had actually played that class last time 😳 My GM had me roll Taylor (Worms Character) as a Crooked to start and then later they changed to a Spooky when their worms started acting up! The Worm Transformation was actually mostly of a flavor thing for them, most of my play actually consistsed of using Psychic Worm Powers to bamboozle people. And then straight up punching them if we got into a fight!

This was their sheet!!

THE SPOOKY

CHARM: +0 / COOL: +1 / SHARP: 0

TOUGH: +2 / WIERD: +2

MOVES: Telepathy, Premonitions, Hunches, Tune In, The Big Whammy

+ Invincible, Unnatural Appeal (From the Monsterous playbook!)

Since Taylor's Wierd matched their Tough, I would just use those stats interchangeably when I was attacking, using Tough for Regular Punch and Wierd ("Big Whammy") for Worm Slinky Grapple Punch. Probably not for everyone and I wouldn't even recommend it because it sort of forced all of my other stats to be Bad, but Im kind of obsessed with failing rolls so I didnt mind it!!

As for the Monster element of my chatacter, it was.... never really a point of conflict! I kind of wanted it to be, but it just wasnt really that kind of campaign? Especially because one of our other players (playing The Monsterous) was ALSO a person infected with a parasite LMAO... My GM told me later she's not particularly into that kind of drama (monster person vrs regular person) so it's just not an element that shows up in her sessions as a core factor! Not to mention a bunch of their NPCs are always monsters too, so it wouldnt really make sense. Basically my whole group is comprised of Wierdos and we ALL want to be monsters, which makes being a monster sort of the norm...

BUT, I have two major points of advice! ONE is to talk to your GM while you make your character so you can plan together and make it really cohesive. Im GMing the next round and I've LOOOOVED working with the others to make their character! Ask lots of questions!!!!!!

TWO is that you should take moves that you like and not nessicarily ones that "are strong"!! Like, Telepathy on Taylor was mechanically useless because their charm was bad, but it was really fun to roleplay Taylor mindblasting people obviously with them holding their hands up to their head and looking right at them. In short, play abilites that suit your character even if theyre "not good"! Its fun!!