Author Archives: Brent

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 … Continue reading »

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. Ahead of Time Find a first level adventure. While this will take some work, it’s a … Continue reading »

How much of your world do you need to prepare ahead of time to make the world appear fresh to your players? Let’s avoid the obvious extremes of zero preparation on the one hand, and a binder full of notes on the other. Some people run successfully with one extreme or the other; this post is … Continue reading »

Do you create campaigns to suit the player-characters? When the PCs reach a stopping point, do you move on from that world and create a new campaign? Or do you create worlds that your PCs happen to adventure in? Obviously, our games are never as cut-and-dried as this, but think about your general approach. In practice, … Continue reading »

In an earlier post, I designed a simple RPG in which players can choose an Easy roll for a good chance at success, or a Hard roll for a low chance plus a coupon for automatic success later. But success and failure are boring. Let’s re-think success and failure in the context of a tabletop … Continue reading »