Over on Bluesky and Mastodon Dice Camp, I post daily fantasy roleplaying game tips for GMs and players. At the end of each month, you get the full collection of that month’s tips right here for your reading pleasure. And please feel free to follow me at either of the above locations to get new tips every day, fresh out of the idea forge.
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FRPG GM and Player Tip: That moment when your character or a key NPC does something you had no idea they were going to do is one of the best feelings you can experience in an RPG. Revel in it — and never be afraid to just let your subconscious sense of who a character is drive the story.
FRPG GM Tip: Whenever the party picks up a combat-ready NPC intended to fight alongside the characters, hand that NPC’s mechanics off to the players. Give one player the info for their attacks, another the info for their saves, another their hit points, and let the group run the NPC collectively.
FRPG Player Tip: If a campaign isn’t holding your interest, think about whether refocusing your character might make a difference. A character concept and a campaign story can both be great and still be out of sync with each other, but you can shape your place in the story any number of ways.
FRPG GM Tip: NPCs whose primary purpose is to aggravate the players can be great fun, but those NPCs work best when they’re clearly equal to or weaker than the player characters in terms of threat level. An annoying NPC who also holds real power over the PCs can get frustrating fast.
FRPG Player Tip: One of the best ways to expand your horizons as a player is to play with different groups. If you have a main game with players you love, that’s great. But try convention games, game store one-shots, pick-up games with other friends, and any other excuse to play in different ways.
FRPG GM Tip: Especially with a larger group where players sometimes can’t make it to game night, an episodic campaign where each session focuses on a specific location, mystery, or monster might be a better fit than a campaign built on complex, layered, multipart stories.
FRPG Player Tip: Insight checks and similar mechanics are perfectly valid ways to assess whether an NPC has something going on that they’re not showing you. But your own personal instincts based on what that NPC says and does are often a better gauge, so don’t be afraid to trust them.
FRPG GM Tip: As trivial as it seems, keep a list of the characters, their backgrounds, key backstory elements the players have shared, and their campaign goals at the top of your notes. You’ll be surprised how often reviewing that list will give you inspiration as you set up the campaign story.
FRPG Player Tip: If you’re having trouble thinking up a character’s backstory, start with them having a secret — even if you don’t know what that secret is. Backstory can be something you build in reverse, figuring out where your character came from in response to where the campaign takes them.
FRPG GM Tip: Detailed maps that you purchase or prep ahead of time might be the main way the players interact with a location-based scene. But don’t ever be afraid to add to those maps with a quick sketch on blank paper or your VTT. The players’ imaginations will make even the worst scrawl memorable
FRPG Player Tip: Having the story filled in while the GM spins lore should be as interactive as everything else in the game. Most GMs don’t like it when they have to monologue, so find the points in the lore that resonate with you and ask questions. Player engagement is what brings lore to life.
FRPG GM Tip: Villains whose goals are clearly evil work just great. Villains whose goals are clearly evil but look benevolent to them, or whose goals are clearly benevolent but turn evil unexpectedly, are usually way more interesting.
FRPG Player Tip: How many times you roll dice during a game can make it seem like rolling dice is the most important part of the game. It isn’t. The most important part of the game is you making the decisions that guide your character through the story. The dice simply tell you how the story reacts.
FRPG GM Tip: For a suitable location, pockets of unstable magic that can teleport characters and their enemies from place to place make a great tool for keeping creatures in motion on the battlefield. Or give enemies short-distance teleportation potions to keep the characters moving after them.
FRPG Player Tip: Running a game is a lot of work, but you can show your GM how you appreciate that by helping to make their job easier. In addition to staying focused, offering to keep notes, track initiative, or look up rules on the fly can all help the GM stay focused on more important things.
FRPG GM Tip: To avoid having forward progress lock down because of a failed skilled check, don’t treat failed checks as failing the activity they represent. Rather, think about how a character rolling low on a check might succeed in the worst possible way — then ask the players what that looks like.
FRPG Player Tip: If it’s your first time ever gaming, playing with a group of people you already know is ideal. If that isn’t possible, try to seek and find a group of people you’d like to know, because the relationships you’ll build at the gaming table can be remarkably strong.
FRPG GM Tip: If a player is sitting out combat because their character keeps failing a save to lift a restrictive condition, there’s nothing wrong with offering up a narrative option for auto-success. “That massive hit you just took snaps you out of being dazed/slowed/stunned/whatever.”
FRPG Player Tip: If your game were music, your GM should feel like your band’s lead vocalist — setting the direction, but leaving plenty of room for you to solo. If it feels more like the players are just the GM’s backup band, have a conversation about that — or look to make music with someone else.
FRPG GM Tip: Don’t beat yourself up over “lost opportunities” when running games. If you miss something, if you forget something, if you don’t pull a scene off perfectly, you’ll think of a dozen ways to adjust the narrative or make use of a great unused idea between one session and the next.
FRPG Player Tip: Even in a heavily tactical game, character optimization isn’t about the most damage, the most magic, or the best mechanical tweaks. The optimal character is the one that gives you the greatest sense of freedom when you play — and you’ll find that min-maxing limits that freedom.
FRPG GM Tip: Come up with way more ideas than you can use. Don’t waste a single moment thinking about whether they’re good or not. The act of spawning not-great ideas primes the creative pump for better ideas, and helps the best ideas stand out when you go back to choose which of them to implement.
FRPG Player Tip: Sometimes you’ll feel like you’re standing at a distance writing your character’s story. Sometimes you’ll feel like you’re inhabiting your character directly. Planning is great, but learn to trust your narrative instincts as well when deciding what your character should do.
FRPG GM and Player Tip: The guidelines laid down for play during session 0 are a starting point, but they don’t trump your instincts during the game. If another player’s words, silence, or body language suggest they’re having a bad reaction to something in the game, take a break to talk about it.
FRPG GM Tip: In an encounter with lots of related monsters (human bandits, gnoll raiders, whatever), using one stat block and adding on-the-fly bonuses and extra features to represent more powerful lieutenants and bosses can be a lot easier than running three or four different stat blocks.
FRPG Player Tip: Just because powerful magic items often have impressive names doesn’t mean you can’t give an impressive name to a baseline magic item — or even a mundane piece of gear. Your character is allowed to be on a first-name basis with any of the tools they routinely risk their life with.
FRPG GM Tip: Playing with detailed 3D terrain is cool, but don’t be afraid to take a pillow-fort approach to your combat setups. The same imagination that turns couch cushions into a citadel when you’re a kid can turn extra dice, building blocks, or any other knickknacks into terrain at the table.
FRPG Player Tip: Your character never needs an excuse to do something that feels dramatically satisfying. The adage “If it feels good, do it,” is never more true than it is in a story where you’re the hero.
FRPG GM Tip: Creating a unique creature or NPC for a roleplaying or combat encounter can be as easy as pulling one feature or trait from a different creature to add to a stat block. Give a hobgoblin boss the doppelganger’s ability to read thoughts or a fey’s local teleportation and see what happens.
FRPG Player Tip: Worrying over mistakes made in real life is always a waste of time. Worrying over mistakes made in the game is even more so. Keep a written list of every cool thing your characters have ever done, and review it each time you need to remind yourself how little a few mistakes matter.
FRPG GM Tip: Some players find it fun when enemies are keeping tabs on them from afar with magic. Some players find that implied threat frustrating with no way to respond. If you sense frustration, let the characters access magic to mask or protect them — perhaps as the subject of a fun side quest.
Art by Dean Spencer