What happens now in my game?

My current Dungeons and Dragons game tends to happen once a week and every week I end up asking myself: 'Great! What happens in this week's game???'

This certainly is more of an issue in games that are following a larger plot than in a 'monster of the week' campaign but both of them require you to think ahead and find new adventures time after time and that can be a challenge... especially when you have players going in directions you didn't plan!

So how do you figure out the answer to this question?

1. What do your players want/What are they good at?

My players tend towards roleplaying more than combat so generally the encounters we have are social. My group is also made up of all caster classes so there are few physical challenges to overcome because that creates a frustrating (though sometimes funny) situation for everyone involved. When I'm really stuck, I create a poll for my players and ask what they want to do next: a dungeon, big fight, city visit or festival. Honestly, there's no shame in asking for guidance from your players.

2. What hasn't happened in a while?

Variety really makes TTRPGs shine so I try to keep my sessions a bit different from each other. After so many 'trapped in a dark dungeon' sessions in a row, it can start to feel a bit tedious for me and my players. So I try to mix things up from dungeon exploration to city encounters to shopping episode to big siege fight at a tower. Changing things up every week also helps prepping feel like less of a chore for me. At the end of the day, you've got to remember that you as the game master are playing this as well, so make it fun for you too!

3. Utilize resources.

There are a ton of resources in official resources for games and on sites like DMsGuild and DrivethruRPG. Go looking through them and see the amazingness available to you. There are some incredible one-shots that fit into a lot of types of games and do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. These types of resources have been a life saver for me and I still use a lot of them when I am really struggling. I love that these options exist and knowing and embracing that has really leveled-up my game mastering style.

Those are some ways to find new options for your games to keep them feeling fresh and new week after week. BUT, don't forget it's important to take breaks too and not burn yourself out by trying to keep going when that creative well is dry.

Making NPCs Stand Out with Voice

We're here again with some more tips on running your tabletop roleplaying game! This time I want to talk about dialogue and voice!

If you're anything like me, you dream of being able to do really great and unique voices for every character in your game... and if you're like me, you have maybe 4 different voices you default to in your games. So how do you deal with this and make it clear who is talking in your games?

1. State it outright.

There is no shame in straight out telling your players: "The dwarf woman says to you "Help!'" There is no confusion here about who is talking to who. It can maybe feel a little cheat-y but it's a clear direct means of sharing information and making things totally unambiguous.

There is no shame in clear communication.

2. Different word choice.

One thing that can make your characters stand out for one another is their diction and the words they use. The elf professor of evocation probably will have a different way of explaining things than the goblin bartender. The way they talk, the words they use and the speed they share them in all make a big difference in keeping personalities clear too.

This is my favorite way of having characters stand out from each other and the one I tend to use the most.

3. Gestures and nervous habits.

During a lot of conversations, people are doing things while they're talking. What do your NPCs do while they're chatting with the players? Does the tavern waitress play with her hair or fiddle with the quill she's using to take the orders? The movements and habits of a character can really bring them to life and make them feel more relatable as well.

These are just three ways to make your NPCs stand out a bit more and feel different even if they all use the same one voice you can manage. There's no shame in not being a nerdy-ass voice actor :) .

NPCs with Teeth

Continuing on with our February theme of tabletop game tips, let's move on to one of my favorite things: non-player characters! I adore adding in NPCs and my poor players have so many NPCs they run into all the time. So what makes for a good interaction in a game?

1. Goals of Their Own

The NPCs have their own goals, plans and ideas. They have their own idea of what needs to happen and how to make it happen. This mainly applies to NPCs with bigger roles. Every single shop keep doesn't need a backstory and motivation that really plays a big role.

However, if there is a noble giving the adventurers a quest, there's probably some reason behind it and some 'proper' way of it being handled. They have their own issues to worry about and reasons for interacting with the players. That shapes how they speak to and behave towards the players.

2. Flaws/Interesting details

There's always the running joke in DnD that players will want to talk to Boblin the Goblin and not the mysterious hooded wizard in the corner. Why? I mean a friendly goblin with a fun name is way more interesting! An NPC should have something that helps make them stand out. Now, that could be their name, their appearance, their way of speaking or some other fun trait.

Maybe the noble that hires the party regularly always wears a beautiful purple pendant and speaks with a faint stutter. It makes that NPC feel more real and also stand out against the background of the rest of the fantasy world. I also find it helps to have NPCs with names that start with different letters or sounds... something I neglected in my current campaign with Faylie and Raeleigh (recurring NPCs) regularly get mixed up because their names are too similar. Whoops!

3. Opinions on the players' characters

NPCs should not be impartial or indifferent to the characters interacting with the game. Whether they're good or bad, the characters have made an impression. In ttrpg, the characters impact the world and that includes the NPCs so have them react to what's happened, what the characters have done. If you've never had a group of NPCs form a fan club for the players then I suggest going that route because that creates a whole lot of fun for everyone involved!

Honestly, I could write about NPCs for a ton of posts but I'm going to keep it to a minimum for the start of all this. Stay tuned through the rest of the month for more ttrpg tips!

MORTAL COMBAT: DnD Combat Tips

The month has gotten away from me! I swear that just a moment ago it was early January and now here we are almost to the middle of February!

This month I wanted to talk about some general tips for running a tabletop roleplaying game like Dungeons and Dragons!

To start off, I'm jumping straight into the thing I struggle with the most: combat! Yeah, I have a hard time running fights in a lot of my games. I tend towards improv conversations with non-player characters rather than a long, drawn out fight. It's something that I am working on so here are some tips that have helped me start leveling up my combat!

1. Use the environment

Not every fight needs to or should take place in an open field. Fights could break out anywhere in a chaotic fantasy world where giant, hungry demons roam freely. Use the environment to create extra challenges for your players. One of my favorite encounters including a forest of free-floating trees. Because the trees constantly moved around, the scene shifted and line of sight, hiding spots and more changed. The players had to stay on their toes to keep ahead of the trees or risk getting knocked off their fight.

2. Use more than numbers!

This is one I try really hard to work on.. consider these options when describing a hit:

"Does an 18 hit?" your player asks.

"No," you answer. "You need a 20."

versus

"Does an 18 hit?" your player asks.

"Your great sword grazes against the ghost knight's chainmail but isn't able to find a vulnerable spot," you answer.

They're both giving the same information: the hit doesn't land, but one feels bit more cinematic and exciting than the other. Describing the fight in terms of action sequences versus just a clashing of numbers makes the fight feel more real and urgent. On the other hand, it can also make fights run longer so be aware of that downside as well.

3. Adjust

This is one I have really leaned into and may or may not work for your game. My current group is made up of all casters, most of them are very squishy with low hit points. I have absolutely almost one-shot the group because of a good damage roll... that I then tweaked. Yes, I'm talking about fudging the dice rolls.

For me, games are all about fun and my table isn't about the 'constant looming threat of character death', it's something we've agreed on already. So, adjusting the damage to not splatter the wizard in one hit makes sense.

It also means that if the wizard nails the big boss with a fireball, well maybe that enemy has a few extra hit points now.

This one is a fast and loose rule for certain and really takes a lot of knowing your group. If the group is tired and obviously not feeling combat, people have a few less hit points and the fight ends quicker... otherwise, maybe the fight goes a little longer.

I know this can be a controversial take cause, let's face it, fudging dice rolls is a slippery slop but with a group that trusts one another, I think it can help combat feel more exciting, engaging and cinematic!

So that's where I am in working on ttrpg combat! What are your tips for helping combat run smoother?