Activity
Mon
Wed
Fri
Sun
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
What is this?
Less
More
Game Master's Laboratory
449
5.0
Free
222 contributions to Game Master's Laboratory
3d •
Real World Spells?
I cast Dispel Traffic. This morning my brain went dispel magic -> dispel traffic and since then I have been thinking of how much easier real life would be with spells/feats. Some already exist like Glean Contents, but I am curious what jumps to your mind.
7d •
Tactical Limitiations
So I'm going to through myself under the bus with this one: I suck at tactics. I'm great at plotting out an interesting story and challenging social and exploration encounters... But when it comes to combat my players laugh at me. Does anyone have a process to help train me up to become more tactical and challenging for my players? I've run encounters where they stomp on individual monsters that should be a challenge for them. I've introduced a dragon that was wildly above their level and nearly TPK'd them for no real reason (just trying to show how badly I can plan these out). I've currently got a group of engineers and mathmaticians playing ranged attacking characters that sweep the board of any fight I throw at them. I want to get better at tactical combat but don't know where to start. Help!
3 likes • 3d
Have you asked your players how they feel about the combat balance? Over the years I have found that my players were feeling more challenged by the combat than I was. What was most important for my players was adding enough variety to give them a chance to use different features/spells in different battles.
Sep 8 •
Bugs as Beasts of Burden?
Where might my players encounter giant bugs that can be domesticated? Which species would you pick as mounts and beasts of burden? What might the players provide that they need... In my Beyond the Wall game, we have ended up with a bit of a plot hole. We need some mounts and beasts of burdent to move mateirals, but the storm requiring that everyone take shelter means that there would be precious few in the outer city. I asked the players and their pitch was bugs, giant bugs. I can see them reacting differently to a storm and not being affected by the curses etc. I can see them not directly competing for paturized land. Sometimes I think they come up with these crazy ideas to see if I can figure out how to make it work.
4 likes • Sep 16
The party laughed at a lot of the options I suggested, including about 10 minutes of joking locust's jumping into the upper atmosphere, but settled on beetles and possibly domestigating them by harvesting sap from a particularly rare tree variety that is playing a prominent role in the story.
Oct '25 •
Beyond The Wall (campaign journal)
I pulled together a group of story focused players to try an emergent campaign (collaborative+proactive). I am going to use this thread to share periodic updates on how it is going and what is working. Meetings will be sparse this fall and then weekly after the new year. It is five players from my in-person games who had to move out of town.
2 likes • Aug 3
@Tristan Fishel I will be better about doing the prep I enjoy doing and working around the stuff that feels like a job.
3 likes • Sep 16
SESSION 28 - The party snuck into the inner city for the first time. First on their list of activities was "a nineties chick flick shopping montage". It started with mass invisibility in an alley and the rogue sneaking off to steal an outfit. Of course what he could grab didn't fit him and another character had to go buy outfits for everyone else. In the start of session engagement question I had asked for a responsible and irresponsible thing they wanted to pick up, and Mara's was little trinkets and gifts for everyone she knows. So as she went to buy things I asked everyone else to share a trinket she spots that distracts her from her task. They loved it and had perfect little ideas of dumb little things for NPCs in the outer city. It stands out that this worked because they knew the other characters and cared about the NPCs. This knowledge was there because moments like this reward them investing in each others characters. Then Mara's player got a turn when I asked her to add what about the outfits she picked up was more/different than what they had asked. As an example, Vil's little anime pant suit apparently had frills at the top of the socks. I am not sure this would work for all groups, but breaking up solo time by having the other players add detail to the story seems to really fit with our table's interpretation of proactive gaming.
Sep 7 •
Gameplay Loops and Goals
I found my players had an easier time not over-thinking goals, and all their criteria, when I prompted them with simple, straightforward questions. The one that helped me with short term goals was "what do you plan to do next session or two?" But I never came up with an equally down to earth way to ask about mid or long term goals. I recently found a video about game loops and TTRPGs. Stephanie proposes these 3 loops, at different scales: Meta loop: Why does your character care? Progress loop: How do the characters move forward? What are they striving for? Core loop: What are they doing right now? (Or next session) To me this seems super helpful for assisting my players with goal making. To me they line right up with Long, Mid, and Short term goals. https://youtu.be/9HXCPiP54R8
3 likes • Sep 8
"fake planner friends" I feel seen. More seriously, her level of planning and using it for scaffolding improv really appeals to me.
1-10 of 222
@eric-person-8885
he/him - player and GM of TTRPGs since the early 80s - playing mostly pathfinder at the moment
Active 18h ago
Joined May 14, 2025
California
Powered by