#gmtip — Public Fediverse posts

GM tip: add an enigmatic NPC early in the story. Have them appear, establish a little personality, and vanish. Later, when you need to: draw out a shy PC; motivate a side quest; plug a plot hole, out they come, with a great reason for doing whatever needs doing, and it looks like you planned it.
#GMTip #RPG

A good campaign ending gives the players a choice on how to finish their character's story, even when all their storylines have been finished. #DMTip #GMTip

My favorite tool for planning a campaign is a mindmap. I use SimpleMind since it is cross platform, but there are many free alternatives. A mind map allows you to build your broad strokes of the campaign with the intersection of locations, factions, plot points, and PCs. It is also easy to change as PCs and player choice change things. #GMTip #DMTip

Waiting in a car to pick someone up? Waiting for an appointment? Now is a great time to pop open your phone and do some quick prep. Look up what creatures inhabit the mountains for next session or scribble down some possible plot points. #GMTip #DMTip

Prep is great, but nothing makes a session move smoothly like reviewing things right before game starts so it is fresh in your mind. #GMTip #DMTip

GM Tip:
Give your players enough information to make interesting choices!
If they don't know enough to make an informed choice, they're just stumbling around in the dark
If their choices don't matter, they're not really choices

#ttrpg #rpg #gmTip #DMTip #railroad #quantumOgre

"Was ist, wenn meine Gruppe die Herausforderung nicht schafft?" kann ein paralysierender Gedanke für viele GMs sein.

Die Gruppe verhindert das Ritual nicht. Im Bosskampf ist jeder Angriff für die Tonne. DIESE EINE BLÖDE TÜR LÄSST SICH EINFACH NICHT KNACKEN. Was nun?!

#GMtip: Macht jeden Fehlschlag einer Herausforderung spannender, lustiger, unterhaltsamer als einen Sieg. Entwerft sie mit der Annahme, dass alles schief geht. Unerwartete Erfolge sind dann eine schöne Überraschung. #pnpde #ttrpg

Dear Game Referees:

If this isn't somehow on your list of encounters, then I don't even know...

#ttrpg #gmtip #dmtip

#gmtip
For your first session ever running a TTRPG, use a simple setting. Either use a published one, or the ‘default’ assumptions for your chosen genre. In D&D, you can just use the basic assumptions as truth straight out of the Player’s Handbook and don’t worry about the rest. In sci-fi, just, once again, use the base assumptions of the system you are using. Don’t worry about the big picture. Worldbuild after you have some sessions under your belt.
#ttrpg

#gmtip Use No, but...You are the arbiter of how reality works in your game. You don't have to say yes to every thing your players come up with. "You can't roll to seduce the dragon, an ancient being that isn't even humanoid. But you can persuade it not to eat you."
#ttrpg

#GMtip: Limitations are good. Tiefling artificers or gunslingers or sapient oozes or even catfolk don't fit every setting. Certainly agree as a group on what you want to play, but a limited palate of options *increases* creativity.
#ttrpg

'plot' is not another way to pronounce 'railroad' dammit! I will die on these tracks.. er.. hill.

(Also #disabled speech slurring a little; subs are clear and accurate if needed!)

#ttrpg #gmtip #dungeonsAndDragons

https://youtu.be/pfqq3RDbw20

There is a lot to be said for having a mobile GM kit that you can carry all by yourself in one trip. You never know when you'll get to DM in a new location. #GMTip #DMTip What's in your mobile DM kit? #MobileGMKit #MobileDMKit

I'd imagine that commoners with no knowledge of the world probably call most monsters by the same name:
Farmer: Did you catch that orc yet?
PC: You mean the Ettin? It had two heads!
Farmer: Yeah, one of those two-headed orcs!
PC: *sigh*
#GMTip #DMTip

I like to think of bestiaries and monster manuals as field notes from researchers. Sure, that is what they thought about the creatures they encountered, but that doesn't mean there aren't local variants of the creatures that are radically different. #DMTip #GMTip #UnreliableAuthor

A tip for sandbox game masters. Try out solo RPGs. I have been playing a solo 13th age game with Mythic Game Master Emulator (2nd edition is amazing btw) and I've been playing a solo Ironsworn: Starforged game. I had no idea how much that experience would help me in my sandbox/improv GM skills, but it's been fantastic.

Now I'm GMing a 13th Age complete sandbox with near-zero prep (like 15 minutes of prep between sessions) and have the Mythic GME next to me and the drama is fun, the characters are unique, the plot is thick and the twists are great. I really recommend trying out solo games to help build up your improv skills :)

#TTRPG #DnD #13thAge #SoloRPG #GMTip #DMTip

Folks have a limited view of the world that limits their understanding of what is really going on. Consider this in game. Does a farmer really know if that monster in the woods is an ogre or an orc or a goblin? Was it really a spirit or a neighbor trying to scare him in a sheet? #GMTip #DMTip

Bonus intrusion: Oak leaves!
The toughest, slipperiest, most treacherous leaves in the forest. They fall last in late fall and early winter, covering the crunchy, swiftly-decaying maple and birch. Aided by a little ice in a hard frost, they turn smooth-sided rocks into significant hazards and transform a casual stroll along a narrow cliff edge into a deed of daring. All attempts to move quickly on this surface are Hindered.

#TTRPG #Cypher #GMTip

GM Intrusions don't have to be fancy. We encountered one of my favorites in person on a recent walk.

GM Intrusion: lost guidepost
You've reached the middle of a thickly growing stand of birch and oak. Among the fallen leaves, you can make out signs of at least three paths. The tree that formerly served as a guidepost is shattered. The marked trunk lies across the trail.

#TTRPG #Cypher #GMTip

A quantum ogre is a device used by GMs to give the illusion of choice when there is no choice. There are two tunnels. It doesn't matter if the players go left or right, they will always encounter the ogre, because the DM puts the ogre in whatever tunnel the players choose. Use it sparingly, or better yet, design for the most fun outcome from the start. #GMTip #DMTip

As a GM, you have all of the tools of the writer at your fingertips. Don't forget to use them. Examples: Alliteration, Metaphors and Similes, Foreshadowing, Personification, Show Don't Tell, Repetition, Foils. All of these can be used while still making the PCs' choices matter. #GMTip #DMTip

Anyone have any great low-prep/collaborative GM tips like Blades in the Dark faction clocks? I don't want to "write a story" but things like faction clocks give me threads to pull on whenever to keep a cohesive story together. Anybody got anything like that?

Asking because I'm starting a new game in 13th age after running Abomination Vaults in #Pathfinder 2e. I enjoy how 13A has a lot of narrative features and seems to even endorse a PBTA-style game where the players and GM work together on the story rather than having the GM do everything.

#TTRPG #DungeonMaster #GameMastering #DMTip #GMTip #DungeonsAndDragons #DND #PBTA #BITD

Been using #ChatGPT for generating NPC descriptions.

I don't have it describe any appearance, just some characteristics. Then I put the personality and general description of the character into #midjourney.

Here's my ChatGPT prompt:

Provide an NPC description with the sections - (personality, quote, hidden secret, good life events, tragic life events, motivations and fears, known allies, known enemies) for a [general character idea here]

And then in midjourney I put in a prompt that looks like this:

[description of character here], character concept art, digital portrait, dungeons and dragons --v 4 --q 2 --ar 2:3

For example, I said this to ChatGPT:

Provide an NPC description with the sections - (personality, quote, hidden secret, good life events, tragic life events, motivations and fears, known allies, known enemies) for a city watch rookie

I got this back in the personality section:

The city watch rookie is a young and eager individual who is determined to make a difference in their community. They are dedicated to upholding the law and ensuring that the city is safe for its citizens. Despite their lack of experience, the rookie is confident in their abilities and is not afraid to take on challenges.

So in MidJourney I used this prompt:

city watch guard, rookie, young and eager, confident, not afraid, character concept art, digital portrait, dungeons and dragons, artstation --v 4 --q 2 --ar 2:3

After some playing around with MidJourney, I settled on this city watch rookie to be a female Tiefling named Sibyl.

Here's Sibyl!

Also, posting some screenshots of my chat with ChatGPT

#Pathfinder2e #Pathfinder #PF2e #DnD #TTRPG #AI #GMTip #DMTip

Engage your players with descriptions that hit all the senses -- the smell of the musty air, the gradual sloping floor of the rocky tunnel, the cold slimy feel of the mossy walls, the glint of leftover ore in the cavern walls, the drip of water echoing deep below, the salty taste of the sea spray. #GMTip

#GMtip #DMtip
Prep less, build more. Don't prep for sessions, instead build your world out in all directions from the point where you are. Unlike session prep, it's infinitely reusable, and once you truly know your world, improv is easy.
#ttrpg #dnd #gurps #fantasy #scifi #roleplaying #tabletop #rollenspiel