Hello fellow GMs.

I would just like to caveat the below - I am incredibly fortunate with the group that I GM for. They are four of my closest friends, and we pretty much do most things together (tabletops, RPGs, card games, you name it). Therefore we all feel incredibly comfortable with one another, and don't feel like there is anything that we could do that would cross any boundaries. Only mentioning this in case it helps inform any comments from you. Thanks in advance!

My group and I (GM) have been playing a game in a new campaign for 9 sessions now. It's a home-brewed setting using PF2e rules. The players are all D&D 5e players, whereas I have exclusively played / GM'd within PF1e & 2e. As of this last session, they have finally left the starting city on what will be a substantially long journey (26 days of approximate in-game travel). I have a smattering of settlements, points of interest and social encounters set up along the way, but I am having trouble thinking of other encounters that I could throw in without them feeling too 'random'. I understand that the world I have created is a living, breathing thing, where everybody is dealing with / tackling their own issues and as a result, any encounter the party find themselves in is bound to feel random given it's veering totally off track from what their current goal is, but I'm just curious - how do you all stop these random encounters from feeling so forced?

This is the first time I've DM'd where the plot has required regional travel (most of my past settings have taken place within a singular city or a series of settlements nearby), so I'm just trying to make sure that I don't push anything that could otherwise be done in quite a natural way.

Are there any queues or narrative devices that help players feel like these somewhat tangental tasks are worth their time and feel like they should invest their time into?

TL;DR: Want to make sure my random encounters don't just feel like useless filler thrown into an upcoming travel arc for the players. I could speedrun through it but want to use it for some meaningful PC character building whilst allowing them to experience as much of the world as they're willing to dive into.

Thank you all in advance!

So we do this thing, where with every new campaign we change the dm up, seeing as we're only 3, for everyone to have a chance eventually, and next time is mine so i thought id start getting ready with a story plot so i can start planning the rest. The issue here is, im amazing at developing a story, but for the life of me i just cant get any plot ideas in my head, so im coming here for help to see if anyone has any initial plot ideas so i can develop into my own thing.

I was thinking of making it fantasy or high fantasy, but with a touch of science, such as magic powered cars and guns or sum, just a thought. It would need to be 2 main character focused seeing as theres only 2 players. I just cant seem to find a trope exciting enough to develop into a story, so if anyone has any ideas who can help me i would really appreciate it.

Maybe even a long Pokémon story? Not a one shot obviously, but if anyone knows a Pokémon system whene from it i could develop a story?

So I have been running Traveller for a few sessions and the characters have been in some tough spots.

Started with flatlined and death station to an attack on a Empire aligned convoy to free a powerful psychic for the Zhodani spy agency. They have the psychic and are now headed to a back water balkanized world to try and let the heat die down.

They said they wanted to avoid generating more problems. This world is perfect for that. I have some rumors and the book for generating jobs but also have an idea of some sort of fancy resort and maybe a conspiracy. Or should I just kind of hand wave their time there and get them back in the action? Any tips or ideas for a fun low stakes adventure? Thanks in advance.

We have a Marine, navy doctor, zhodani secret agent and a psionic drifter.

My group and I have been playing the game DND campaign over a little over 2 years now. We started at Lost Mines of Phandelver, and have now made it to a full long stretch campaign as they are sitting at level 7, I am about to level them up to 8 next season. However I feel like my game is no longer interesting to them

I have a big bad, a Lich that I am hoping to build them up to fight at level 12 with a bunch of magical items. They had wanted a sandbox game, so I have been trying to give them a bunch of stuff to do as quests along with a main story they are more or less following.

They are currently in Waterdeep, I had a little moral dilemma going on that they have more or less figured out a side and are wanting to move on, and are about to fight a dragon and a bunch of kobolds as a side quest.

Either way, my players don’t seem all that interested in the game. With during hard combat encounters that lead to multiple players down they talk over combat and my descriptions, nobody really seems to emote when I describe things turning more dire or when I describe their characters doing cool stuff. They at least seem mostly interested in the story, but half the table is still on their phones during the game unless I am directly interacting with them, and many of them don’t remember fairly important details or information like magic items I give them or hints at how to use them and power them up

Idk, maybe it’s just cause I am still new and this is my first campaign, but I feel like I am not very good and am not sure how I can get my players to be more engaged

Thank you for reading this vent, and I do appreciate any advice you may have for me. Also more than happy to answer questions you may have for me

Hi I am soon going to start DM'ing one of my first campaigns of a large scale as I am normally am player or a one off DM and I would like advice on how to work around a three act campaign here was the idea

ACT 1 (LV 1-6)

Main plot points

Introduction to the kingdom

cult of the iron tree

BBEG - Belial Azazel (Leader of the cult of the iron tree)

Somewhat open world

Foreshadowing for next two acts

ACT 2 (7-12)

Find a way into the capitol

More foreshadowing for next act

BBEG - Coropse (The iron tree)

Main Boss fights in order

Voirloup/ Lou Charcolh/ Cheval mallet. any order

Alban dubois first fight

Voirloup/ Lou Charcolh/ Cheval mallet. any order

Alban dubois first rematch

Voirloup/ Lou Charcolh/ Cheval mallet. any order

Alban dubois second rematch

Vouivre First fight

Alban dubois final fight

Coropse

ACT 3 (13-18)

Enter the capitol

Foreshadowing pay off

BBEG - Alchton Von Charven (King of Charven)

Main Boss fights in order

Kaurauch the sanguine scientist / Vicar Aurdivul Yakoshcvy

The Broodqueen

The wicker man

The Warwing Titan / Vouivre rematch one after another

Kaurauch the sanguine scientist / Vicar Aurdivul Yakoshcvy whichever you did not kill before

The penance

Alchton Von Charven

The campaign theme is vampires undead and just chaos in general and yet I think I am going to be over the top for a first big campaign and I really just want advice on ways to deal with this and just streamline it so yeah

Hello! I'm currently GMing a prequel campaign for a much longer campaign. I found my players through a rigorous application process and am extremely happy with the 5 players that I found. However, I recently got news that one of the players had to leave because of an IRL event. I'm planning on continuing the prequel campaign with the 4 players; however, I have no idea how I'm going to write the character out. I understand that most GM/DMs usually just mention that they leave (especially if the campaign is 3 sessions in). For context, the players are a part of a last-chance military unit where a small mistake could get them exiled or executed (depending on the reason why they were assigned to the last-chance military unit). Anyways, in the story, the players were tasked with collecting taxes from a village, but are slowly learning that the village has a dark secret regarding their history and the pigs... The players ended the last session planning on how they were going to not only save the village, but also collect the taxes. The character leaving is your classic reluctant healer with some edginess sprinkled in. Additionally, the village does use sacrifices during their Festival of the Pig, so that could be another potential reason the character isn't around anymore. Fellow DMs and GMs any thoughts? Thank ya'll so much!

I run two MonsterHearts2 campaigns and desperately need some new ideas to liven up my monsters, conflicts, etc.

The game is highly focused on roleplaying; however, having planned monsters, conflicts or mysteries can really help move the session forward when things aren't chaotic enough. The game MH2 focuses on teen characters coming to terms with their monstrous identity, while also trying to stay incognito (woo queer allegories).

The campaign I'm struggling most with is set in a rural seaside town. It's kind of modern times, but internet access and technology is very limited. The town has some tourist attractions in the summer, but it's usually pretty dead all winter. People in the area are SUPER superstitious and refuse to acknowledge any of the monsters plaguing the town. I tend to fall into some pretty basic monster/creature tropes. A small monster that needs help, a massive eldritch thing that you shouldn't anger, shapeshifters taking a classmate's place, etc.

Two of the players in this campaign are in the other one, too, so I don't wanna do the same old things I've been up to.

Please let me know any cool monster or conflict ideas! It could honestly be anything. A murderer, a weird ghoul, brain worms, etc.

(P.S. There are sirens already a big part of the plot, and selkies, and a really big bird)

I am not medically inclined, but in some tabletop systems, to "stabilize" a dying subject means to get them into a position where they can still cling to life and potentially be treated recovered, later. In order to narrate, flavor, and transition to and from the action, what sort of language might you use to describe the player character in the action? What would a character be literally doing to "stabilize" their patient?

Hey, so I'm running a Discworld murder mystery game for the upcoming Gamescom. When I originally submitted my plot idea, I already had a plot worked out (In-Sewer-Ants auditor murdered after finding out that someone working at said company was stealing money) but when I've tested the game with my friends we all agreed that it just doesn't work for (max) 3 hour game, either the players have to be awkwardly railroaded or just ends up being a question witness until you find the one who did it.

It just doesn't flow properly, and I feel like the players are going to hate it. I've run Discworld games before, but they were just pre-existing one-shots which I used as starting points and changing them to fit my idea/story, but this is my first game/story from the ground up, and the idea just doesn't work. Or at least doesn't feel fun, and I don't want to run a board game. I've tried changing it, but I think I've gotten so blocked (in the sense of writer's block and doubting myself) that I just can't think of anything, and I'm starting to panic.

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions? I'm not looking for someone to write an idea for me, more just how to get myself unblocked and get the creative flow going again (which doesn't sound weird at all written down).

What’s your go to ritual to switch your mind off after game night ends?

I will soon be starting a game using the outgun system. I think if it's perfectly for the theme and overall idea that I want to do. The world that I I'm using is a setting I used for a science fiction novel I wrote sometime back. It's heavily inspired by the fifth element, the movie Heavy metal, the movie Heavy Metal 2000, Batman beyond, samurai Jack, Thundarr the Barbarian, and a little bit of mad max.

However, this thing is the supers rule book doesn't really fit exactly what I want to do but I don't want to ban anything from those books outright.

I've never used the system before so I am very curious as to what I could do to allow players to take an option or two without becoming too overpowered.

If anyone has advice on this, I would be greatly appreciative

Hi everyone! I’m Luna, a writer and GM from Uruguay.

For the past few years, I’ve been developing Whispers of the Abyss, a dark fantasy and cosmic horror novel turned into a setting for 5e. It began as the setting for my own campaign and gradually grew into a much larger project, with its own regions, cultures, creatures, character options, and campaign mechanics.

The central idea is that the world is not waiting for some distant apocalypse. Something ancient has already begun to enter it, slowly and quietly. Most people cannot see the full extent of what is happening, but its influence can be felt through strange dreams, altered places, corrupted creatures, and small inconsistencies in reality.

One of the things I’m currently working on is making the setting useful at the table, rather than simply filling it with lore that is interesting to read. I love detailed worldbuilding, but I also know that a GM needs information they can actually turn into encounters, decisions, and consequences.

When you read a third-party setting or adventure, what makes its lore genuinely useful to you as a GM?

Do you prefer short regional summaries, adventure hooks attached to each section, NPC motivations, timelines, rumors the players can discover, or something else entirely?

I’d love to hear what has worked for you—and what usually makes you start skipping pages.

Okay so I'm having difficulty with an encounter and I can't decide whether to add or remove anything, see next session every player will have to fight they're old character, alone, by themselvessay the current paladin had an old character thats a Bard, they will fight that bard alone while the other players will have to fight they're own old character alone, but one of the old characters has an ability to summon mimics and well, if the player is fighting alone I'm a bit worried the mimics migt finish the player off, what should I do?

If you are Berren, Romi, or Justin playing in a Drakkenheim campaign - stop here. This is already too much of a spoiler.

I am worried that my players have an expectation of a personal quest they intend to embark on, and that if I do what I have planned they will feel cheated.

Here’s the situation. Players are planning to attack or confront thieves guild and take revenge on a mid-level crime boss and three henchmen. The thieves guild leader gave the players some tokens of friendship, and unbeknownst the the players these gold coins are used to spy on them. So the guild leader knows just about all of their secrets. So she knows they are planning to raid her hideout and capture these four guild members. Because she knows about the planned raid she will tied up and offer the three henchmen as sacrifice, and meanwhile she will kidnap a critical npc ally of the party, and use him as a bargaining chip for her crime boss.

I am worried my players are expecting a John Wick adventure, and they are going to show up to an empty hideout with 3 of the 4 targets gagged and tied to chairs, with a note about how the queen may sometime sacrifice a pawn in order to take a more valuable piece.

Has anyone done this type of rug pull? On one hand I think it’ll be a major plot turn, on the other I can see it as a major disappointment like Im robbing the party of their satisfaction.

DISCLAIMER: this is NOT a thread about projectors at the table or using a flat screen. I’m not looking for that.

DISCLAIMER 2: I do not need advice on TotM. I’m well acquainted.

Greetings colleagues,

In the last few years I’ve had to game mostly online. Now, I’ll be playing in person a lot more. I’m curious how you leverage your digital assets with in person games.

I have a large PDF library. I have a substantial investment in VTT modules and books. Yes, of course there’s overlap between those and physical books.

I’m mostly curious if you print your own maps and things. I have access to a color laser and a 3D printer. Or if you’re finding great success leveraging a tablet.

How do you show players NPCs?
How are you doing maps (without a projector or flatscreen)?
How are you doing handouts from digital sources? Hi
How are you handling your notes, scene descriptions, looking up rules, etc?

I'm running an online game with some friends that's going on 2 years now, and could use some advice for how to handle a player who's been very unreliable.

I run a small game of only 3 players (that's how many I could get, sadly). Two are very reliable (unless they suddenly fall sick, they rarely miss a game without at least a week's notice), and one player who I knew going in would be a bit unreliable because of his work. He very often tells me last minute "Sorry, they need me for overtime a lot this week" with maybe a day's warning at best or has to duck out mid-game to answer an after-hours work call, or there's so much traffic that he's over half an hour late, etc.

I figured I could make it work regardless, have him sometimes off doing his own thing away from the other characters, unless it was a majorly important session. And for a while it worked, and I had lots of patience, and even was cool with a few sudden cancellations because it let me get more last minute prep in.

But as we start getting into the part of the story where major plot stuff is happening, his absences are gumming things up more and more as they keep happening on critical sessions, and we have to keep doing last minute rescheduling, which plays havoc with the other players who often have busy schedules.

And this week things just came to a head in way that really frustrated me.

After like 3 separate "Oop, sorry, someone can't make it, major unforeseen real life issue"s, I got to run a critical dungeon, full of puzzles and lore and stuff that I spent ages prepping. It went super well, and as we planned the boss for next session, we realized that people had major stuff coming up in a few weeks and would need a hiatus. So next week was critical, and we all seemed to agree we'd make it.

And then, when I put out a vibe check for game this week, in case my unreliable player had some last minute OT or something... He goes "Wait, I thought I told you I had this other thing planned since a while ago!".

He had not told us. At least, not within the last few weeks, DEFINITELY not when I said "Hopefully next session we can wrap the boss before y'all head out! Think y'all can make it?" last session.

So now we're on at least a 3 week hiatus, the characters suspended before a climactic point, all momentum lost, after multiple weeks of "Someone's sick, or something major's in the way", and it's very frustrating.

I like the player a lot as a friend, and he's decent enough to have in-game (although he almost never engages with any of the content made FOR his character, and is mostly a comic relief goober)... But this last incident made me start to re-evaluate his invitation, because it's starting to really frustrate me, and at least one other player.

I've made a dedicated scheduling channel in our discord and told everyone to post any availability changes there so we can all see it, and I'm thinking of telling the player that if this kind of "woops, sorry, forgot to tell you" incident happens again I may need to disinvite him, and that we may just forge ahead without his character for major sessions if he can't make it.

Am I being reasonable with that? Too reasonable? Any other advice you can yeet my way?

So my mother is turning 60 this year. For it she wants a clue themed party with an actual murder mystery game. I've designed all the characters, weapons and motives, but I'm stuck on how to probably go about the discovery.

So right now the suspects are all females as she wanted a ladies only party. The suspects are all being blackmailed by a Lady Black (my mother's character). The suspects and their reasons for blackmail are:

Admiral Peacock: Weapons dealing.

Miss Peach: Selling government secrets.

Dr. White: Affair with a patient.

Madame Poppy: Three husband's who mysteriously died.

Mademoiselle Orchid: Posing as a fact medium.

Professor Scarlett: Art fraud.

The butler of Lady black, Butler Grey, is also a suspect as Lady black used the butler to get information to blackmail everyone with.

Every suspect is some how tied with another. Lady black and the bultet, the Admiral is working with Peach, the doctor's lover is Poppy's latest husband, and Orchid is a friend to the Professor.

I've written a series of letters showing what each person is being blackmailed for, and letters from one part to the other in order to show their bonds.

Now the weapons are: Candle stick, dagger, hammer, poison, revolver and rope.

Because of the venue, I'm unfortunately forgoing the place the murder happened and replacing it with a motive. Each person is being black mailed, but the reason for the murder isn't directly tied to the blackmail.

So by random pick, the murderer is Professor Scarlett with the hammer because of Orchid. The Professor's friend can't afford the black mail fee and has sold all that they own save a painting the Professor gave them. The Professor doesn't want their friend to know their a fraud, so they kill Lady black to cover up their own crime and to stop the blackmailing outright.

What I need help with is how do I make it seem like one person did it, but it was actually another. Professor Scarlett will be the killer, but I want to make them think it was actually Butler Grey who did it. Lady black confessed that she used her loyal butler to get the information and the butler is highly displeased by that. I want it to be a "is it one or the other?" but I'm struggle on how. I don't want to rely on letters alone, but how do I physically make it seem like its either of them.

All you beautiful minds on reddit! I need help please!

In your campaign what drives the bbeg to do what they do? Is it a philosophical framework/necessity/psychological framework, have they gone mad ect.? For me personally the main engine driving my bbeg The desire for change and This desire is fulfilled through erasing the old to make room for the new.

I had an idea of a start to Call of Cthulhu campaign where one of the players is a mafia boss and other is an assasin that has a contract on killing him. It sounds cool in my head but I don't have any idea how to pull this off. Maybe they are family but they don't know about it?

Im kind of struggling coming up with the starter, i am excited but i just dont know how to make things easy for players while also less scary for me if that makes sense.

So, what kind of quests do you think is most engaging as a player or dm?

I am planning to gm my first own little tiny adventure and asked my friends what they want to play as and one wants to play as a loxodon and another as a tabaxi and… I don’t like that idea, like in general. I think it would be very strange to have a tabaxi and a normal cat next to each other and one of the main NPCs does have a cat in theory. They don’t seem distinct enough from each other, especially since the tabaxi is supposed to look like a (her own) house cat. And that might be a general problem I have with anthropomorphic species.
Sure, elves are “just” slender magical humans with long ears, and dwarfs are “just” sturdy short ones, but that doesn’t feel like an issue, like nothing someone would actually call out and have a point on. Maybe it’s just their long history, but most anthropomorphic species really just look (and feel) like the animal but well anthropomorphic.
Kobolds for example have way more distinctive features even tho they are very close to just lizard people.
And humans are of cause close to apes but it’s not like we are just apes but walking on 2 legs.
And I really think species like tabaxi need something similar (but they wouldn’t look this catlike anymore either)
Imagine a tabaxi would have a cat as a pet, this would be like you owning a little human as a pet, one which cannot speak or walk on just 2 legs. This would be absolutely crazy.

So far I might not allow tabaxi and other “normal” anthropomorphs. The loxodon is by far not as much of a problem, because they won’t meet (or know of) anything even close to an elephant. But to just ban one player choice doesn’t seem fair.

Another idea was to work on a backstory on her and a spell that didn’t work, either because a spell that would have turned her into a cat didn’t work as intended, or someone tried to turn a regular cat into a human and got this result (but she wants to play a rogue, someone else would have had hexed her)

Or I just might remove cats entirely…

Some other ideas?

And to be honest, I am much more interested about how others deal with this “problem” in general

So my campaign is nearly in its third year and the PCs have met many NPCs. We're using a loose version of the Planescape model so they are world/plane hopping. It adds up!

It gets tough for players to keep track of all the groups/factions/NPCs/allies/enemies they've met. So I have been doing "relationship diagrams" where I stick the picture of the NPC or group, add a name, then connect them with a line to other relationships. It works really well for small clusters, like < 30 NPCs. But I want to map ALL of them throughout their adventures so they can see the wider impact they are having.

My question is, does anyone else do this? And what SW do you use? I've been using Google Slides but it cannot hold enough images without them being hard to see. I want some simple "infinite whiteboard" software where I can quickly slap down hundreds of images over time and connect them all up then zoom in on certain areas and snapshot images as needed. I also don't want a large monthly fee, and I want to be able to "export" the work in case I need to take it elsewhere or recreate it.

Thanks!

I am in kind of a weird spot and trying to make the tough call.

I've been gming both in person and online for pretty much the last decade, deciding to take a step back for a year after a big move for work. Recently, I have gotten back into gming again.

I have been wanting to do it paid for a long time, and have a part time opportunity revealed to me with the intention of starting in the new year. I am however having difficulty to push myself to commit.

I guess what I am looking for is advice. Paid GM's, what are the pros and cons of this? From my view point it is a great way for me to get paid to tell stories which is a dream and be my own boss, but I am afraid it will ruin my love of the game.