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.
.jpg)
FRPG GM and Player Tip: Roll damage for an area effect as soon as you announce it, even if that’s before you’ve decided on location and targets. That way, you can total the damage up even while saving throws are being made to keep things moving.
FRPG GM Tip: Ask players to give you as much of a heads-up as possible when they need to miss a session. With advance notice, it’s often possible to tune the narrative and make sure a missing character has the least possible impact — or can even be sidelined for in-game reasons.
FRPG Player Tip: When you start out, you’ll need to ask for reminders of how certain rules in your game work, and players who’ve been at it for a while will help you. When you’ve playing for a while, new players will need reminders and you’ll help them. RPGs are so often about paying favors forward.
FRPG GM Tip: The best part about a big site-based adventure is watching its complex layout unfold. The worst part is having to constantly backtrack through that layout. Set up convenient portals or safe routes so characters can retrace their steps narratively or leave a location without a fight.
FRPG Player Tip: Give your character a theme song — or a whole suite of theme songs. You don’t have to play it for anyone else, or even share that information. But just like with backstory details, that level of personal interaction with a character can help bring them to life in a profound way.
FRPG GM Tip: When choosing foes to build an encounter, make sure to not accidentally end up with everyone imposing similar conditions or effects. When a couple of creatures can limit the heroes’ movement, it’s a threat. When all the creatures can, it’s a slog.
FRPG Player Tip: From useful terrain features to the potential for other creatures to shake up roleplaying, the GM probably hasn’t thought about lots of potential benefits that might play out in an encounter. But most GMs are quick to grant benefits to players who ask about them, so always ask.
FRPG GM and Player Tip: Even if you’re not playing in theater-of-the-mind style, feel free to ignore fixed distances on tactical maps in favor of deciding, “Yeah, that looks about right.” As long as the characters and their enemies are playing by the same distance and area rules, it’s all good.
FRPG GM Tip: Conflict is what drives story much of the time, but conflict in a fantasy game doesn’t always have to mean combat. Conducting a strategy session in which the players and characters come up with a plan to avoid an encounter can be just as much fun as fighting.
FRPG GM and Player Tip: Especially if you’re playing a game that tries to define the things characters can do by focusing first and foremost on the mechanics of action types, feel free to ignore that. Let characters and foes choose what they want to do, then figure out what action covers that.
FRPG Player Tip: When a narrative scene is focusing on another player’s character, you can still look for opportunities to play a part. Asking the GM if there’s anything your character can do to assist the spotlight character is a great starting point.
FRPG GM Tip: Sometimes it’s fun to let the players and characters go off on a tangent where they suspect a benevolent NPC is up to no good. But sometimes you need to say, “I’m going to go meta to tell you this person is on your side.” Don’t let suspicion derail character interactions for no reason.
FRPG Player Tip: You don’t have to keep a diary or anything, but make notes on important points of narrative development for your character as a campaign unfolds. Especially if their personal goals shift over time, the way your character grows and changes is great fuel for roleplaying.
FRPG GM Tip: Giving NPCs a humorous tone can greatly boost the players’ engagement with them. Even in a purposefully unfunny campaign built around serious themes and stories, look for opportunities to have NPCs engage in irony and slapstick from time to time to anchor their place in the story.
FRPG Player Tip: Like most fiction, campaigns are typically built around the idea of what the characters want to obtain. But some of the best roleplaying comes from thinking about the things your character has lost, and whether the things they hope to obtain will ever fill that void.
FRPG GM Tip: Whether by accident or by virtue of min-maxing, if a character is vastly overpowered in combat compared to the rest of the party, do not hesitate to have the toughest foes somehow sense that and focus on that character. Sometimes game balance is attained on a round-by-round basis.
FRPG Player Tip: When another player’s character does something you think is cool, make a note of that. Especially if you’re new to game, there’s nothing wrong with your character emulating what the other heroes are doing around them as they shape their own heroic style.
FRPG GM Tip: You don’t need unique stat blocks to play unique creatures. Just start with a stat block you like, then add one attack and one noncombat trait from two other creatures, and you’ll create a threat that’s likely never existed in the game before.
FRPG Player Tip: Never be afraid to ask out loud, “I wonder if what’s going on in the campaign is _____?” Knowing what you and your character are thinking will help the GM fine-tune the story as it unfolds — or might even inspire them to take a different approach based on your speculation.
FRPG GM Tip: Your boss villain doesn’t need to personally threaten the characters in the manner of directly attacking their loved ones. But their threat needs to feel personal. Keeping the characters’ personal goals in mind is thus usually your best guide for hitting those characters where it hurts.
FRPG GM Tip: Coming up with unique names is an endless task, but non-unique names should also be part of every fantasy culture. Have ten NPCs named your world’s equivalent of “John Smith” and dozens of hamlets called the equivalent of “Springfield” to underline that commonality.
FRPG Player Tip: It’s totally okay to enjoy maximizing your character’s mechanical benefits. But if you ever realize that that process is the only part of your character you enjoy, it might be a sign to step away from mechanics and delve into your character as a person with a story instead.
FRPG GM Tip: Even for players who love to be descriptive during a game, it’s easy to feel reluctant to offer up description from a fear of taking away from what the GM is meant to do. So make it clear when you’d love some input by asking for descriptions of tavern interiors, killing blows, and more.
FRPG Player Tip: Power gaming can be fun, but the hobby is filled with power gamers who will tell you how much more fun they started having when they focuses less on optimizing mechanics and more on optimizing story. Heed their wisdom and experience.
FRPG GM and Player Tip: Whenever characters gain new benefits, features, or magic, players should feel free to talk about that and why it excites them. Sometimes that’s an out-of-game discussion, but it can also be an in-game moment of “My character dramatically reveals this new thing they can do!”
FRPG GM Tip: If you run your games on a virtual tabletop, prep way more encounter maps than you need. Being able to easily drop an easy random encounter into the narrative makes a great way to fill out a session if you’re not quite ready for where the characters want to go next.
FRPG GM Tip: Taking a stock monster and converting some of their damage to a different type is one of the fastest ways to customize foes. Skeletons with lightning swords or cultists whose fire spells deal poison instead can give an otherwise straightforward encounter a unique feel.
FRPG GM and Player Tip: The right number of tests and checks to make in a game is the number that feels the most fun. If too many checks start to feel tedious, or if not enough checks makes it feel as if the characters aren’t doing anything, talk about what changes might make for a better balance.
FRPG Player Tip: If your character has a mount, a companion creature, a magical statuette that turns into a dire tiger, or what have you, personalize that pet to your heart’s desire. And don’t be afraid to talk to the GM about having story hooks revolve around a pet if that feels like fun.
Art by Dean Spencer