Creating a world for an RPG campaign does not have to be a solitary experience. A lonely gamemaster sitting at a computer desk creating reams of material dreaming of friends who actually want to play role-playing games as desperately as he does is not a healthy state of being. Have your players help you create […]
If you are creating your own setting for an RPG campaign there are some keys to not losing your mind. Let me back up to say worldbuilding is a ton of fun. That’s why it is easy for some gamemasters to get a little out of hand. We are looking for an outlet for our
Gamemasters sometimes you need time to think during a session. Other times you need a place to start your campaign or session. If you are playing Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder or another combat heavy tabletop RPG, you’re in luck. Combat is a great stalling tactic as well as a great place to start an RPG
A handy city map you can use in your next RPG session. Use my random 1D100 tables to fill in some details. The map was generated with this tool and I colored it.
A gamemaster needs situations and complications, not huge epic stories and plotlines. For the no prep GM this is where that catalog of stories we talked about comes in handy. Don’t think of a plot Don’t think of an event follows another event or that event is triggered by this event. Once your players begin
This is a bonus tip for gamemasters who do not have time to prepare. While you’re consuming stories, reading books, watching TV shows or movies you can actually just take the scenario and the story of the book or movie and run it as an adventure or an RPG campaign. Simply take the movie or
Okay, this is the woo-woo section where I tell you to be a better person. Just hang with me for a bit. I think it is critical for any gamemaster or dungeon master to understand story. To understand how stories work and how they are told. But I don’t want to go overboard. I don’t
A quick town map you can simply throw into your next RPG session. Use my random 1D100 tables to fill in some details. The map was generated with this tool and I colored it.
Published RPG adventures, often called “modules,” can help the gamemaster who doesn’t have time to prepare. These are ready-to-go adventures that can be run by anyone. However, there are some drawbacks. The Downside of RPG Modules The first drawback is cost. If you’ve already spent a hundred $200 or $300 on RPG books and other
Session zero is a very helpful tool in the gamemaster’s toolkit. It is a relatively new development in tabletop RPGs and it has gone kind of mainstream within the gaming community (if there is such a thing). I wish I would have thought of it when I was a teenager. If you are beginning an
If you get overwhelmed with all the decisions that a gamemaster has to make, there is a quick way to solve that issue in the no-prep GM model. This is what I like to call the best-case/worst-case roll. (Yes, I need a better name for this, but this will do for now.) Simply take a
This map of a large city is perfect for your next RPG session. Just grab it and go. Use my random 1D100 tables to fill in some details. The map was generated with this tool and I colored it.
The best tool for the no prep gamemaster is the random table. A random table is simply a list of items, objects, people, places, situations, complications that are given a number so that dice may be rolled to chose one at random. The random table is the gamemaster’s most faithful best friend. Random Tables Cut
No prep GMing comes down to the mindset of how you approach the game. If you approach the role-playing games as the game master who has to know everything and control everything, you just put a ton of pressure on yourself. However, if you can get into the mindset that you are here to have
It is a dirty little secret among the role-playing game community, but there are very few people who actually want to be a gamemaster. Or least who want to be a GM exclusively. I think that is because the role of the gamemaster is misunderstood. Let’s take a look at what the role of the
