Over on Bluesky and Mastodon Dice Camp, I post regular 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: It’s totally cool to use happenstance and accidental timing as adventure hooks, with the characters being in the right place at the right time to get all heroic. Adventure hooks centered around the characters being the only people who can solve a particular problem can get old fast.
FRPG Player Tip: Figuring out why your character wants to adventure is your first and most important job. Maybe it’s your dream to fight evil. Maybe it’s for revenge. Maybe it’s compulsive. Maybe you love money. Any answer is fine, but the first time the GM drops there call to adventure in front of you, be ready.
FRPG GM Tip: Sometimes a campaign starts with a strong theme and tone. Sometimes a campaign starts in a neutral state waiting for the players’ interests and the characters’ actions to catalyze the theme and tone. Either option is great, but talk to the players about which sort of game they’re in.
FRPG Player Tip: Let your GM know if there’s a specific magic item you’d like your character to pick up at some point. But also give them a sense of the broad types of items you favor (combat-focused, cool utility effects, et al.), because surprising players with cool magic is pure GM adrenaline.
FRPG GM Tip: If you find the environmental effects in your big combat encounters not as much fun as you’d like them to be, try building the encounter first without the combat. Tune and tweak the environment alone to create a fun easy-to-average challenge, then add monsters to dial up the threat.
FRPG Player Tip: As a new player, get your geek on by practicing your combat rolls on your own as prep for your upcoming games. Especially if you’ve got complicated attack or spell options requiring in-the-moment numerical choices, break out your dice at home and get comfortable using those numbers.
FRPG GM Tip: Getting a read on what parts of the campaign the players are having the most fun with is one of the best skills you can develop as a GM. But if you’re having trouble doing so — especially as a beginning GM — just ask them.
FRPG Player Tip: Though it might feel obvious, never stop asking yourself: “Do I love playing this character?” RPGs are almost always about portraying a person cooler than you are, and your relationship with your character should reflect that coolness. If it doesn’t, think about how to fix that.
FRPG GM Tip: As you get used to the tactics of experienced players, set up your combat encounters to take those tactics into account. Customize the fight for ranged heroes, area effects, and special attacks — most easily by adding extra monsters who’ll drop fast in response to those things.
FRPG Player Tip: Especially if you’re someone who panics at the thought of performing in public, try talking as your character as often as you can during the game. It only takes a few moments of reinforcing the “I” of the RPG experience to show how easy it is to become your character that way.
FRPG GM Tip: Real life meteorology, astrology, and seismology offer a ton of potential inspiration and drama for your game. If you’ve never had a landslide, an atmospheric river, a supermoon, a waterspout, an eclipse, a tornado, an earth tremor, or a sinkhole in your campaign, why not?
FRPG Player Tip: RPGs are fueled by the potential energy built up in the space between what you want to do and what actually happens. When the story takes an unexpected turn, don’t think of it as pushing you away from your goal. Think of it as offering a new and more interesting route to get there.
FRPG GM Tip: When you have lore to reveal to the players, ask yourself how that lore can be acted upon by the characters (including answering questions they already have) right now. Anything that isn’t actionable, find a way to make it so — or hold it until it can be more than just exposition.
FRPG GM and Player Tip: “There’s no wrong way to play an RPG” is a insincere statement at best. The colonialism, bioessentialism, and misogyny baked into the historical foundations of gaming are all extremely wrong ways to play, and the stories we create through RPGs are better for recognizing that.
FRPG GM Tip: Have a short list of stock environmental effects on hand that can be added to any encounter and that you know how to run. Then drop in one of those effects anytime a fight becomes less entertaining than you expected. Cult battle feeling flat? Time for that shrine of evil to explode!
FRPG Player Tip: Playing a high-powered, mechanics-optimized character can be fun in a hack-and-slash campaign that’s mostly about slaying monsters before they or the environment slay you. But in a game that’s not all kill-or-be-killed, optimizing for cool character story is almost always more fun.
FRPG GM Tip: Sometimes a random encounter can be about a fun fight or getting the lay of the land and not much else. But in most cases, you want to look for ways to tie a one-off encounter to the campaign story by asking, “What information, options, or resources can be gained from this?”
FRPG GM and Player Tip: Rules, rulings, and mechanics are the second- through fourth-most important principles of RPG play. The most important principle of RPG play is communication. Every interaction around the table, every shared moment within the world of the game, is key to the story you create.
FRPG GM Tip: If a travel scene adds something to the story, play it out in detail. If a travel scene is only about getting from point A to point B — especially if the party is retracing ground already covered — summarize it, then let the characters get on with whatever story point B has to offer.
FRPG GM and Player Tip: If you’re a player and a GM, work to make sure you don’t accidentally cross over into the other mode. As a GM, your job is to worry about everything going on in the game. As a player, your job is to worry about your character and let the rest of the game unfold from that.
FRPG GM Tip: All players have an innate sense of what’s fun and what isn’t, so don’t be afraid to look for and listen to that sense if it contradicts the rules or an adventure. Is everyone at the table frustrated by the target numbers for certain tasks? Then those numbers might be too high.
FRPG Player Tip: Even for a character with a detailed backstory, always look for ways to build out that backstory in response to the events of the campaign. Party ambushed by a werewolf? Maybe your grandparents were killed by a werewolf and this is the first time you’ve seen one face to face.
FRPG GM Tip: When you’re revealing lore, describing locations, or setting up important NPCs, focus on point-form information that invites questions. Set up the big picture in a minimalist fashion, then expand that picture specifically around the details the players want to know more about.
FRPG Player Tip: Even the most serious games have room for humor and in-character joking, but respect the tone the GM sets for the campaign so you don’t push the humor too far. Being told that the red dragon boss is named “Yrtraazon” versus “Biff” should give you a sense of where the bar’s been set.
FRPG GM Tip: For many monsters — especially the most powerful foes — the bonus attached to a damage roll carries more weight than the dice being rolled for that damage. So if a monster is hitting too hard or too soft, adjust that bonus on the fly to create a foe who’s tougher or weaker as desired.
FRPG GM and Player Tip: To keep a combat-heavy game from slowing to a crawl with a large party, focus on everyone being ready to act. Get into the habit of starting your turn during the turn of the person ahead of you — and have the combatant who’s up next called out to make that easier.
Art by Dean Spencer