Tips and tricks for RPG GMs
The idea of Condition Zones began to take shape with the encounter design principles described by Mike Mearls in “Mastering Iron Heroes” (2005). In that context, the concept supports zone-based combat by showing how an environment can apply steady, meaningful pressure throughout a battle. Mearls also distinguished three categories of battlefield zones: condition zones, event …
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Every meaningful decision in an RPG arises from the interplay between knowledge and choice. Information empowers players to define their goals, explore alternatives, evaluate possible outcomes, and ultimately judge the best course of action. These four phases – defining, exploring, evaluating, and judging – form the core of informed decision-making. In the context of RPGs, …
Read the full post →“How Information Drives Informed Decisions in Role-Playing Games”
Every minute at the table is a precious commodity. As a gamemaster, you spend real world game time – the most limited and therefore most precious meta-resource in your campaign – every time you zoom into the moment-to-moment play of a scene. The key to using that resource wisely lies in understanding one deceptively simple …
Read the full post →“The Agenda of a Scene: Managing Real World Game Time in Scenes”
Decision-making sits at the heart of every memorable tabletop RPG session. Players act, the world responds, and those responses create meaning. Meaningful consequences are what transform choices from simple menu selections into story-shaping moments. They connect intention and outcome, giving weight to success, failure, and everything between. Understanding how to design such moments is what …
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Every great tabletop moment shares one common trait: Time is running out. Drama is born from this urgency. The RPG system Daggerheart recognizes this and bakes it into its core system through countdowns. These countdowns give that pressure form. They provide visible (or sometimes hidden) clocks that tick down as players act. And when they …
Read the full post →“Daggerheart Countdowns and the Art of Ticking Tension”
There are moments in every tabletop game where none of the usual mechanics seem to fit. The character isn’t using a skill, there’s no obvious saving throw, and no stat governs the outcome. Still, the question looms: what happens next? This is where Chaos Rolls come into play – a mechanic used, for example, in …
Read the full post →“Chaos Rolls and Saves: Letting the Dice Speak”