Category Archives: RPGs

The Battle of Five Armies. The Battle of the Hornburg (Helm’s Deep). The Battle of Pelennor Fields (the Raising of the Siege of Minas Tirith). These were epic, even before they were ever animated or filmed. Such battles bring a new element of drama to a fantasy PbtA campaign, but the challenge is how to handle them cinematically and at a high level, without getting bogged down in mechanics. You’re not going to manage every individual soldier as you might in a wargame. Here are three frameworks for accomplishing this: […]

BLUELITE is designed for playing classic Level 1-3 RPG adventures with the standard abilities and classes but with fewer rules (i.e., “with the flavor but not the crunch”). BLUELITE is Holmes Basic with the rough edges rounded off, a streamlined schematic hack using a common d20 mechanic where higher rolls are better. Probabilities of success approximate the original but on a d20: for instance, a 2-in-6 chance to force open a door is now a 14 or higher on a d20. Keep in mind in the original, opening doors was […]

This post is an excerpt from The Best-Delayed Plans: The Game Master’s Guide to Adventure Prep. Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) games—games in the school of design of Apocalypse World—often outline moves and principles for Game Masters. While these are typically intended for use during play, they can also be useful in prep, no matter which RPG system you use. Principles Here are some principles to keep in mind during prep— Moves While principles guide overall play, in PbtA games “GM moves” are the types of responses that GMs make […]

Free League Publishing is currently crowdfunding a new edition of its Coriolis science-fiction RPG­ – Coriolis: The Great Dark. The new edition is based on the updated Year Zero Engine, which powers their RPGs based on licensed properties: Alien, Blade Runner, The Walking Dead, etc. Unlike those games, Coriolis is their own IP, their own setting. I discovered its predecessor, Coriolis: The Third Horizon (ironically, its second edition) when seeking science-fiction modules for my Impulse Drive campaign. While I’ve never used its game engine, I did find the setting to be invaluable for prep and adventures. Billed as “Arabian […]

You can now back Chasing Adventure on Kickstarter, to get a hardcover copy of the book or to pre-order the PDF. And the game, which used traditional copyright during its development, is now part of the PbtA Commons! So you can integrate its text into your own PbtA hacks, as desired. The author, Spencer Moore, describes Chasing Adventure as “built to facilitate fast cinematic fantasy action-adventure.” I’ve typically pitched it as “DW-D&D,” that is as Dungeon World minus some elements of Dungeons & Dragons, removing ability scores, hit points, encumbrance, […]

During its beta, I ran Stonetop pretty much Rules As Being Written, though we didn’t always update to the latest version.  As I wrote in my review of Stonetop, “My hacks to the system were minimal: integrating a Flashback move to keep things advancing, and experimenting with different forms of prep (threat maps, Monster of the Week countdowns).” More often I brought in material that Jeremy Strandberg, Stonetop’s author, and Jason Lutes, his publisher, had created elsewhere. Flashback For my Dungeon World campaign, I had hacked together this move: Flashback When you propose that you took some previously undeclared action in the […]

I ran 5e with 8 to 10 players for two campaigns. The first campaign was an open table at our FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store). That campaign quickly grew from 3 players the first session to a peak of 12 players once (on which occasion we split into two separate tables with two DMs). Given the shortage of DMs, you too may find yourself with lots of players. My key advice: In general, just embrace the chaos! Roll with the punches! All my plans went out the window fairly quickly […]

I’ve compiled and updated all of my blog posts on preparation techniques for Game Masters into a free 86-page ebook. Key content: This advice comes from my own experience with 5e, O5R, and PbtA games, so it spans a range of systems, albeit with a focus on fantasy worlds. In addition, I’ve licensed the text under the Creative Commons, so that you can freely adapt any of this material for your own RPG projects, simply by following the CC BY-SA 4.0 licensing terms. You can download the ebook from Itch.io. You […]

Impulse Drive is a science-fiction PbtA RPG that is licensed under the Creative Commons and offers ship playbooks for four different styles of campaigns: “These Ship playbooks not only describe what technology your Ship may use, but also the kinds of adventures your Crew will get up to, what motivates them, and the kinds of trouble that will follow your Crew around the galaxy.” The ships— The ship playbooks have custom moves that lean into the types of stories that can be told with such ships. For instance, each has a […]

While I latched onto warm-up questions as a starting move for Stonetop, some other systems have their own starting moves. Urban/Modern/Fantasy, in which PCs embrace or discover the supernatural, was the first system I encountered with a Start of Session move— Start of Session When you start a new session after your character has significant downtime, say if you primarily focused on your mortal life and obligations or if you furthered your supernatural interests. If you chose mortal, the GM will tell you how one of your Entanglements, Desires, or Dread […]

When preparing to run a PbtA (Powered by the Apocalypse) TTRPG, keep in mind how experience is gained. Many PbtA games have an End of Session move that awards experience points. Make sure you’re giving players chances during the session that align with this move! Here is the End of Session move in Dungeon World: When you reach the end of a session, choose one of your bonds that you feel is resolved (completely explored, no longer relevant, or otherwise). Ask the player of the character you have the bond […]

How some RPGs get coins wrong: they matter a lot until they matter not at all. It’s fun to play until your PCs are rich, but it’s even more fun to be able to buy things with those riches. Absorbing Excess Wealth At early levels, PCs lack coin and equipment, and they spend whatever coin they get on gearing up. Then eventually the coin no longer matters. There aren’t enough weapons, gear, luxury items or magic items to buy. You’ll know you’ve hit that point in 5e when PCs are […]

The Road goes ever on and onDown from the door where it began.Now far ahead the Road has gone,And I must follow, if I can. –       J.R.R. Tolkien I remember reading The Fellowship of the Ring on the school bus, arguing with my friend. I loved the songs and poems, but my classmate said they were awful and skipped right over all of them. Hey dol! Merry dol! Ring a dong dilly! He’s got a point that some of these are silly. Still, I’ve found there’s a […]