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 Tip: Long-term campaign planning is great fun. But the more locked in you get to a sense of what’s supposed to happen, the harder it is to let the actions of the players and characters send the story off into amazing new directions. Plan setups and options, not destinations and outcomes.
FRPG Player Tip: Asking other players for help with a new character is a great idea, and most players and GMs love to talk character-building. But make it clear whether it’s mechanics or story you want assistance with, because getting the wrong kind of help can inadvertently make things worse.
FRPG GM and Player Tip: If you’re playing with a group whose gaming style simply doesn’t mesh with yours, have a conversation about that, and don’t be afraid to bow out of a game you’re not enjoying. If anyone tries to make you feel bad for doing so, that’s a sign you’re making the right move.
FRPG GM Tip: The theme and tone you set up for a campaign carries half the weight of the story you’re shaping. The other half of that weight is carried by the characters, so talk to the players regularly about how their characters are navigating the theme and tone as the campaign unfolds.
FRPG Player Tip: If there’s a specific aspect of your character’s backstory, personality, or goals that’s important to you, look for a chance to subtly reinforce that in every game session. Doing so helps to make sure the other players are seeing that aspect as clearly as their characters would.
FRPG GM Tip: For published adventures, always adjust the creatures in a fight based on how much the characters and the players want to fight. It can be fun to throw a tough challenge at a party low on resources, but that should always be a choice you make, not something an adventure tells you to do.
FRPG GM and Player Tip: It’s a cliche for a GM to say, “Are you sure you want to do that?” when a character is about to make a fatal mistake. But cliches often build on things that are unnaturally common, so never stop asking that question as a GM, and always listen for that question as a player.
FRPG GM Tip: If you have multiple secrets to reveal during a session, rank them from least to most important and dole them out in that order. Hold the best secrets for last to create a sense of maximum drama, and skip over mid-tier secrets if time starts running out before the big final reveal.
FRPG Player Tip: In any preliminary campaign discussion, don’t skirt around the topic of risk and lethality. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a “let the dice fall where they may” game, especially with a ruleset embracing that style. But if that’s not your preferred style, it’s okay to say so.
FRPG GM Tip: Combat often feels like the go-to option when your game feels like it needs an infusion of action, but action comes in many flavors. An NPC with an agenda, a moment of mystery that gets everyone thinking, or an unexpected reveal can all help get things moving in different ways.
FRPG Player Tip: When asking other players for advice about which classes are best to play, check whether they favor specific classes because they’re easy to run or because they’re easy to optimize. Then think which of those approaches will work best for you.
FRPG GM Tip: Even if you have no plans for combat at a specific location, a map can help bring that location to life. A visual reference for a tavern, a village, an estate, a forest, or wherever the characters happen to be can help solidify the imagination’s connection to the scene you describe.
FRPG GM and Player Tip: Playing through downtime activities can be fun, but a campaign with lots of downtime also gives players a great excuse to detail what their characters are doing between adventures. You can always ignore the mechanics of downtime and just make some shared story.
FRPG GM Tip: An ambush scene is great for dialing up the tension in a session — but not always in a good way. Avoid ambushes that deny character agency by leaving everyone unaware and surprised, and drop in clear opportunities for them to quickly turn the tables on foes expecting an easy fight.
FRPG Player Tip: It’s easy to say, “Don’t let bad luck spoil your fun,” but following that advice when the bad luck is all focused on you can be tough. When rolls aren’t going your way, look for things you can do — including supporting allies — that are more immune to the fickleness of the dice.
FRPG GM Tip: Multiple entrances are a mandatory part of any site-based adventure. But for best effect, make sure those entrances set up different challenges for the party — a frontal assault, a stealthy infiltration, a social encounter to bluff past sentries, and so forth.
FRPG GM and Player Tip: Among the many things worth making note of while you play, keep track of amazing moments. A line of brilliant dialogue, a series of clutch die rolls, the moment when a campaign’s big secret is discovered — being able to look back and recall those things years later is a gift.
FRPG GM Tip: Anytime you’re describing something, don’t divulge everything all at once. If you need to reveal three details to set a scene, reveal one to start. Then let the players’ questions in response act as a catalyst for the other details — or for improvising new details to replace the others.
FRPG GM and Player Tip: For some RPGs whose rulesets lean toward the complicated side, that complexity isn’t about intentionally making the game hard to play. It’s about trying to make the game fun to learn, as you get more proficient and discover more wonders in the nooks and crannies of the rules.
FRPG GM Tip: Mastering the encounter-building math for most RPGs is a complex undertaking. Instead, focus just on the one monster metric that’s most likely to turn a fight deadly by accident — challenge rating, damage output, tier, threat level, whatever — so you can make sure that doesn’t happen.
FRPG Player Tip: RPGs are never only one thing, blending narrative and mechanics, switching pace as the story unfolds, shifting the focus between players. But be aware of what mode the game is in as you play, so that you don’t accidentally push for one mode in a way that interrupts another.
FRPG GM Tip: If you’re playing in person, using miniatures is fun. Using expertly painted miniatures that are the exact fit for each PC and monster might be slightly more fun, but don’t let your inability to hit that higher bar stop you from having fun with minis that aren’t perfect for the scene.
FRPG GM and Player Tip: When the opportunity presents itself to run an impromptu one-shot game, nothing gets in the way of that faster than having to create characters for said game. Always have a set of pregens or a number of backup characters you’d love to play sometime ready to go.
FRPG GM Tip: Sometimes game balance is about ensuring things are evened up before the fact. Sometimes game balance is about wildly adjusting things on the fly that you thought were balanced but turned out not to be. Rebalance your game at any point if it starts sliding in a direction you don’t like.
Art by Dean Spencer