Tag: TTRPG

Picture of a bookshelf with books who have each a prompt written on their spine. Daily Prompts 1) Patron 2) Prompt 3) Tavern 4) Message 5) Ancient 6) Motive 7) Journey 8) Explore 9) Inspire 10) Origin 11) Flavour 12) Path 13) Darkness 14) Mystery 15) Deceive 16) Overcome 17) Renew 18) Sign 19) Destiny 20) Enter 21) Unexpected 22) Ally 23) Recent 24) Reveal 25) Challenge 26) Nemesis 27) Tactic 28) Suspense 29) Connect 30) Experience 31) Reward Question Prompts (roll D6) 1) Who 2) What 3) Where 4) When 5) Why 6) How Mood Prompts (roll D10) 1) Envious 2) Nostalgic 3) Proud 4) Enthusiastic 5) Confident 6) Optimistic 7) Lucky 8) Grateful 9) Contemplative 10) Excited Subject Prompts (roll D8) 1) Adventure 2) Character 3) Genre 4) Rule 5) Accessory 6) Art 7) Person 8) Lesson

#RPGaDay2025 Day 25: Challenge

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It’s the GM’s job to challenge the characters, right? No matter the game, the GM brings the world to life and pushes back against the characters’ actions. It’s the foundation of every good scene: Who is in it, what do they want, and why can’t they have it? Also, why do we give a shit? The why is the part the GM plays. The obstacles, the things that make a scene interesting.

The GM challenges the characters. Such is the natural order of things.

My favorite type of challenge is offering them hard choices. Difficult questions with no one good answer. Instead of just throwing consequences of their actions at them as the GM, ask them a question or offer a choice about it. Some games have push mechanics that simulate this very well. Often times, players can push a failed roll, but the at a cost. Perhaps another failure will bring major consequences, or there has to be something they have to give up in order to succeed. A price that must be paid.

In the Alien RPG, players can push a roll to reroll all dice that didn’t roll a success, but they increase their stress by 1. Stress in a horror game like Alien is not something you want to take on lightly, but a reroll could be the difference between closing the access door before the xenomorph reaches them, or coming face to face with it. Blades in the Dark lets you push a roll before you make it to gain an extra die at the cost of a point of stress. During narrative play in Lancer, you can push a failed roll which lets you reroll but the test is now harder, making it more likely to suffer a consequence even if the pushed roll succeeds.

Even games that don’t have this baked in can benefit from this approach. Failing forward, as it’s often called, the players get what they wanted from their action for a cost. They manage to break into the lock but damage their lockpicks; they sneak past the guards but leave tracks; they jump across the rooftop but drop something important. Even better if these moments are the choice of the player–if they want to succeed, the must pay the price. A difficult choice, which builds tension, lets the players inhabit their characters as they have to make a split-second decision.

Sometimes, these things could also be player initiated. Again, in Blades in the Dark, you’ll find a mechanic called “Devil’s Bargain.” A player can get an additional die to roll, but only if they accept a consequence that will occur regardless of the roll. The GM, or any other player, can suggest fitting Devil’s Bargains, and the acting player can choose whether to accept it. They never have to, but they can always ask for one. And again, these consequences will happen, regardless of the resolution of the action. The more creative the players and GM become, the worse these Devil’s Bargains can get. Think of the stories that these guaranteed consequences can unfold.

Creating interesting challenges is the GM’s job, but why not tag the players in to workshop what would make the most interesting story when a roll fails.

Picture of a bookshelf with books who have each a prompt written on their spine. Daily Prompts 1) Patron 2) Prompt 3) Tavern 4) Message 5) Ancient 6) Motive 7) Journey 8) Explore 9) Inspire 10) Origin 11) Flavour 12) Path 13) Darkness 14) Mystery 15) Deceive 16) Overcome 17) Renew 18) Sign 19) Destiny 20) Enter 21) Unexpected 22) Ally 23) Recent 24) Reveal 25) Challenge 26) Nemesis 27) Tactic 28) Suspense 29) Connect 30) Experience 31) Reward Question Prompts (roll D6) 1) Who 2) What 3) Where 4) When 5) Why 6) How Mood Prompts (roll D10) 1) Envious 2) Nostalgic 3) Proud 4) Enthusiastic 5) Confident 6) Optimistic 7) Lucky 8) Grateful 9) Contemplative 10) Excited Subject Prompts (roll D8) 1) Adventure 2) Character 3) Genre 4) Rule 5) Accessory 6) Art 7) Person 8) Lesson

#RPGaDay2025 Day 24: Reveal

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Some of the best moments in a TTRPG emerge organically through play, instead of careful preparation and plotting.

I’ve talked at length about using random prompts to procedurally generate content for your games. This time, though, I’d like to just talk about natural developments that come out through play, without the aid of things like Mythic GME.

This is almost always player-driven. They seek out an NPC the GM didn’t consider, or ask interesting or strange questions of them. They have abilities or tools that let them approach a challenge from a unique angle. They have clever ideas to overcome a challenge in unexpected ways. Whatever the case, go with it. Like I said before, work with them to make it make sense. Let their actions and ideas reveal new and exciting stories.

More than that, what if the game you play, its rules and systems, help you and your players reveal new information and narrative beats as part of play?

Blades in the Dark has a Flashback mechanic, that lets players introduce new elements and facts into a story by flashing back to a time before the current events to explain how they prepared for what they’re facing now. It’s a game about crime and heists, inspired by media of the same persuasion, where flashbacks are commonplace. Maybe they run into a guard out on patrol, and a player creates a flashback to when he bribed that guard the night before after their shift, hanging out in a bar to unwind after work. That scene alone could reveal new insights into their score, into the guard, and the relationship to that player. And if they fail that roll to bribe them, well, wouldn’t that be fun? Now the guard they run into in the current scene isn’t alone. They’re just the first to round the corner, as they increased security after the attempted bribe.

Likewise, Spire’s Fallout mechanics of its Resistance system turns failure and consequences into narrative, revealing new and exciting terrors for the player characters as their stress eventually breaks. Fallout can cause the story to take wild twists, forcing the players to change their plans as new details and threats are revealed.

Even a game like Daggerheart has its Fear mechanic, which helps the GM establish interesting and new threats based on player dice rolls.

Whether it’s game mechanics, or player action, when there’s a chance to let the narrative emerge organically, let it. Let the story tell you what it wants to tell. It’s worth it to listen.

Picture of a bookshelf with books who have each a prompt written on their spine. Daily Prompts 1) Patron 2) Prompt 3) Tavern 4) Message 5) Ancient 6) Motive 7) Journey 8) Explore 9) Inspire 10) Origin 11) Flavour 12) Path 13) Darkness 14) Mystery 15) Deceive 16) Overcome 17) Renew 18) Sign 19) Destiny 20) Enter 21) Unexpected 22) Ally 23) Recent 24) Reveal 25) Challenge 26) Nemesis 27) Tactic 28) Suspense 29) Connect 30) Experience 31) Reward Question Prompts (roll D6) 1) Who 2) What 3) Where 4) When 5) Why 6) How Mood Prompts (roll D10) 1) Envious 2) Nostalgic 3) Proud 4) Enthusiastic 5) Confident 6) Optimistic 7) Lucky 8) Grateful 9) Contemplative 10) Excited Subject Prompts (roll D8) 1) Adventure 2) Character 3) Genre 4) Rule 5) Accessory 6) Art 7) Person 8) Lesson

#RPGaDAy2025 Day 23: Recent

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I used to play tactical TTRPGs quite a bit in the past. Though, they’re not what I used to play back in the day. Shadowrun–while crunchy, isn’t really tactical in that same grid-based sense–and Vampire the Masquerade were my introduction to the hobby. But in 2017, I started with 5e, my first and only direct exposure to the D&D brand. We moved on to Lancer, tried Pathfinder, and there were a couple of other peeks into similar games in the d20 fantasy genre.

If I can be honest here–and I think I can–I was about to give up on the tactical fantasy RPG niche of the hobby for good. And that’s fine. I enjoyed my time with them, despite a lot of the frustration that comes with the genre in my experience. But interest in them started to fade in recently.

Then, Draw Steel released. And, damn, did it revitalized my love for tactical games. See, I didn’t follow the development of MCDM’s flagship heroic fantasy game all that closely at first. Seemed like just another one of those. But I was and am subscribed to their YouTube channel, so their development videos crossed my feed. Eventually, then, I did start to pay attention.

This isn’t a post to gush about how great Draw Steel is. I did that already. But here’s the thing: the intentionality of Draw Steel, the focus and commitment to make a better one of those games, shines throughout their open development, and has led to a truly great game. It brought me and my group back to the table proper.

More than that, it showed me that tactical games can be fun. That they can be designed from the ground up to avoid a lot of the frustration I felt in all these different forks and descendants of d20 fantasy. Which, in turn, got me back to looking at making my own game. Working on some sort of tactical RPG has been an interest for a while–making the game that I believe would be perfect for my group and myself. That’s the dream.

This is also got me to starting this blog recently. It got me wanting to reach out to the larger community of the hobby, engage more on socials, read more about other games and designers. I feel a lot more energized about the hobby, both personal and publicly. Which makes me want to create more, play more.

Picture of a bookshelf with books who have each a prompt written on their spine. Daily Prompts 1) Patron 2) Prompt 3) Tavern 4) Message 5) Ancient 6) Motive 7) Journey 8) Explore 9) Inspire 10) Origin 11) Flavour 12) Path 13) Darkness 14) Mystery 15) Deceive 16) Overcome 17) Renew 18) Sign 19) Destiny 20) Enter 21) Unexpected 22) Ally 23) Recent 24) Reveal 25) Challenge 26) Nemesis 27) Tactic 28) Suspense 29) Connect 30) Experience 31) Reward Question Prompts (roll D6) 1) Who 2) What 3) Where 4) When 5) Why 6) How Mood Prompts (roll D10) 1) Envious 2) Nostalgic 3) Proud 4) Enthusiastic 5) Confident 6) Optimistic 7) Lucky 8) Grateful 9) Contemplative 10) Excited Subject Prompts (roll D8) 1) Adventure 2) Character 3) Genre 4) Rule 5) Accessory 6) Art 7) Person 8) Lesson

#RPGaDay2025 Day 22: Ally

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Saw a take somewhere on the internet recently that went something like, “Saying ‘Yes, And’ to everything your players want is bad advice. It’s good to learn to give a firm ‘No.’ sometimes.” Something like that.

I think that’s also bad advice. You know, when it comes to running tactical or rules-heavy games, saying “No” is probably fine to make a ruling or whatnot. But outside of that, I’m not so sure denying players’ ideas is a great idea in general.

Be your players’ greatest fan. Be each others’ hype-person. Players can have some outlandish, weird, or outright confused ideas on what they want to do in a given narrative. Sometimes, going “Yes, And” just doesn’t really work. But don’t tell them they can’t do a thing they’re excited about. Instead, ask questions. Offer different angles. Work with them to get the spirit of their idea to work within whatever framework you’ve going on. You know, workshop it.

Maybe they can’t do exactly what they want, as it wouldn’t fit with what’s going on, or because they’re not quite getting the full picture for whatever reason. That doesn’t mean that their goal or intent isn’t something worth exploring. Something got them excited, got them thinking. Talk to them. Be honest. Ask questions, give feedback. Let others chime in if they have something to add. Maybe another player can offer insights or beats that would bring the original idea closer to being plausible. Sometimes, it will becomes clear that their actions really aren’t a fit, but at least you helped them understand why. This understanding can also lead to more fitting ideas in the end.

Saying “No” is just deflating. Especially in a narrative context. Do that a few times, and the GM-Player relationship begins to feel antagonistic. Or, at the very least, it becomes an unnecessary power dynamic. Now, the players see the GM as someone that needs to be convinced, that needs to allow ideas, that usually says “No.” And I, for one, dislike that a lot.

I’m a fan of my players, I champion their characters. Elevate them as much as I can. Ask questions and offer feedback to help them engage with the fiction, the setting, the game at large.

We’re in this game together–players, GM, all should lift each other up, be each others’ biggest fan.

Picture of a bookshelf with books who have each a prompt written on their spine. Daily Prompts 1) Patron 2) Prompt 3) Tavern 4) Message 5) Ancient 6) Motive 7) Journey 8) Explore 9) Inspire 10) Origin 11) Flavour 12) Path 13) Darkness 14) Mystery 15) Deceive 16) Overcome 17) Renew 18) Sign 19) Destiny 20) Enter 21) Unexpected 22) Ally 23) Recent 24) Reveal 25) Challenge 26) Nemesis 27) Tactic 28) Suspense 29) Connect 30) Experience 31) Reward Question Prompts (roll D6) 1) Who 2) What 3) Where 4) When 5) Why 6) How Mood Prompts (roll D10) 1) Envious 2) Nostalgic 3) Proud 4) Enthusiastic 5) Confident 6) Optimistic 7) Lucky 8) Grateful 9) Contemplative 10) Excited Subject Prompts (roll D8) 1) Adventure 2) Character 3) Genre 4) Rule 5) Accessory 6) Art 7) Person 8) Lesson

#RPGaDay2025 Day 20/21: Enter/Unexpected

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I didn’t make yesterday’s prompt because I just didn’t really feel it. Nothing came to mind for “Enter” — at least not anything interesting enough to talk about.

Today’s prompt is “Unexpected,” so let’s just combine these two into one thing: Mythic GME.

I’ve talked about using Mythic many times at this point. It’s an engine that can replace the GM, enabling solo or cooptative play. To me, however, it’s also a great tool to prep for and run games. Let’s talk about entering something unexpected into your games.

Once upon a time, after we had enough of 5e, my players and I played a short game of Savage Worlds–a gritty, gonzo lore-agnostic game. I really like it, so I convinced them to try it. See, the game that made me want to quit D&D for good was very heavy on prep. It was a full campaign after all, and the characters were all really cool. So I did my best to keep things just as cool and intriguing. But, due to life being life, the game fell apart. The campaign itself was written so poorly, I had to change pretty much everything; two players left due to scheduling issues, right in the midst of us exploring their character beats. It was a bit much. So, when we started Savage Worlds, I decided to actively use Mythic GME to run it. Not just in the background, no, but together with the players. We would use Mythic’s system to establish scenes, check for random interruptions, and roll on prompts together and talk about them as we go. I still had the final say on GM-related parts, of course.

That was a lot of fun, and changed the game in so many interesting ways.

They game was about them playing a criminal gang in the town of Luskan. I set it up that way to warm them up the idea of playing Blades in the Dark, and it worked well. As part of that, they entered into a relationship with an up and coming crime boss, Lady Von Smoot. We all pictured their relationship as a strained one, it being only a matter of time before one side would turn on the other.

One day, we were down a player. Since we weren’t really in the middle of anything, I just used Mythic to roll up a random event to get us started. I don’t remember all the details, but the event itself was “NPC negative” and another random roll told us it was “Lady Von Smoot” who was affected. How interesting? We rolled more prompts, asking questions and letting the inspiration guide us, and in just a few minutes, we came up with this really cool hook. Apparently, Lady Von Smoot was making a deal with a Pirate Boss who backstabbed her. Literally. Now, the Lady was stumbling through the dark streets of Luskan, a dagger in her side, blood mixing with the rain. Nowhere to turn, she sought out the party. She didn’t trust them much, but they were the only people she didn’t suspect to be part of that coup against her rising crime enterprise.

See. None of us would have thought of that–I sure wasn’t But we entered a random event, let us be inspired by the random prompts of Mythic GME, and talked it through together. And it led us down such a cool story.

I think preparing big campaigns and stories, NPC, worldbuilding, can be a great exercise. But most of that, the players won’t ever engage with, right? I have started to use Mythic in my prep work pretty much all the time. It doesn’t tell you what to do–what would you do with a prompt rolled on two tables that reads “Reward/Safety” or “Waste/Group” in a vacuum? It’s nonsense. But what if you ask a question, like, “What happened to Lady Von Smoot?” and you get “Harm Energy” as a prompt? With everything you know about her, maybe you start thinking about someone casting a spell to hurt her. Maybe she tried to harm someone in a fit of rage. It’s not about what the words actually mean, it’s the images and ideas they conjure in the moment within the context of all that came before.

It’s procedural storytelling. And letting in the ideas conjured can lead to strange and interesting places you’d never consider otherwise.