The one aspect of RPGs that I’ve seen most house-ruled are death rules.
For example, in the last few editions of Dungeons & Dragons, a character that drops to 0 HP or less makes death saving throws unless stabilized or healed, and if the character fails three rolls, they die. A lot of groups nerf that.
My group house rules as follows: If you fail three death saving rolls, you fall completely uncon...
]]>You come across a cool movie, TV show, or book, and you think, Man, I want to run a tabletop game in that world. But there’s no RPG designed specifically for it. What system do you use?
Unless another system fits particularly well, I always default to Risus.
Why? The entire Risus system can be described in one paragraph. In fact, I’ll do it now:
]]>Write down clichés or catchphrases that describe your character. You have up to 10 points to dis...
Let’s say your players need to retrieve a heavily guarded item in a fantasy RPG scenario. How should you go about running that?
First thing: establish the location. You’ll need a detailed map of the place where the item is kept; find a map online or create it yourself. Place the item deep within that location.
Then, populate the location with traps. The item itself may have spells on it, or the room may have spells, or you may have mundane mech...
]]>Read it here or download a PDF.
Please let me know what you think!
]]>Your villain should be committed to her or his cause, just like the heroes. Your villain should be convinced that she or he is right, and have reasonable justifications for her or his behavior.
Your villain should inspire others to follow the same cause, just like the heroes.
However…
Your villain should be willing to do anything to accomplish her or his goals. Murder, theft, bribery, kidnapping; all of it...
]]>Let’s say you’re going to run a game at a convention, or you want to introduce a new system to your regular players who may not continue beyond one session. That’s what I’m calling a one-shot for this article: a self-contained tabletop RPG session, where you don’t expect to return to the characters or world.
Since this is such a different experience than so many games, you’ll want to approach it differently:
Create interesting characters. Make sure the characters...
]]>Lots of GMs want their campaigns to tell an epic, inter-connected story with plot threads woven over dozens of sessions. But as soon as they plan one, their players take a left turn two sessions in and never actually interact with 90% of the material the GM planned.
Here’s the secret: don’t write out what happens. Instead, develop big problems and big antagonists.
In other words, create an antagonist who has big plans, like raising an undead army...
]]>You want to run Dungeons & Dragons for the first time. Awesome! You’ll have a great time. Here’s some advice for the absolute minimum you need to do for your first session to make it run as smoothly as possible.
Find a first level adventure. While this will take some work, it’s a lot easier for a first-time DM than building your own scenario. The “Lost Mine of Phandelver” adventure in the D&D 5th Edition Starter Set is...
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