BEGINNING GAME MASTERS
Prep Tips for the Beginning DM
Prep Tips for the Beginning GM: Cyberpunk
Failure for the Beginning GM
Pacing for the Beginning GM
How to Prep a Module
Your First Homebrew Setting
ADVENTURE DESIGN
Three Clue Rule
Don’t Prep Plots
Don’t Prep Plots: The Principles of RPG Villainy
Don’t Prep Plots: Tools, Not Contingencies
Don’t Prep Plots: Prepping Scenario Timelines
Empower Your Prep: The Rachov Principle
Node-Based Scenario Design
Xandering the Dungeon
Advanced Node-Based Design
The Secret Life of Nodes
Thinking About Better Dungeon Maps
The Lion, the Witch, and the Scenario Hook
How to Remix an Adventure
Types of Dungeons
Quick Shots
Mythos Revelations
GAME STRUCTURES
Game Structures
Game Structure: Party Planning
Game Structure: The Festival
Game Structure: Sector Crawl
Game Structure: Thinking About Urbancrawls
Game Structure: Thinking About Wilderness Travel
Game Structure: Tactical Hacking
Hexcrawls / 5E Hexcrawls
Pointcrawls / Depthcrawls
Scenario Structure Challenge
Some Brief Thoughts on Campaign Structures
SCENARIO STRUCTURE CHALLENGE
#1: Raiding the Death Star
#2: Race to the Prize
#3: McGuffin Keep-Away
#4: Heists
#5: The RPG Montage
#6: Innkeepers
AT THE TABLE
The Art of Rulings
The Art of Pacing
The Art of the Key
The Railroading Manifesto
GM Don’t List
Smart Prep
Universal NPC Roleplaying Template
Advanced NPC Roleplaying Templates
Quick NPC Template
Running the City
Running the Hexcrawl
Framing Combat Encounters
Music in Roleplaying Games
OPEN GAME TABLES
Opening Your Game Table
Open Table Manifesto
(Re-)Running the Megadungeon
Treasure Maps & The Unknown: Goals in the Megadungeon
Keep on the Borderlands: Factions in the Dungeon
The School of Turin: An Open Gaming Table in the Real World
Escaping the Dungeon
RANDOM GM TIPS
Running Combat
Revisiting Encounter Design
Getting the Players to Care
Metagame Special Effects
How to Use Published 3rd Edition Modules
Strip-Mining Adventure Modules
Breathing Life Into the Wandering Monster
Are You Sure You Want To Do That?
Prepping System Cheat Sheets
Foreshadowing in RPGs
Disarming Magical Traps
Players Who Won’t Bite
Rewind the Timeline
Three-Point Plotting
5 Node Mysteries
Juggling Scenario Hooks in a Sandbox
Matryoshka Search Technique
On the Use of GM Screens
Fantasy Lorem Ipsum
Speak with Dead Mysteries
Evocative Descriptions
The Grok Threshold (Using a Published Setting)
Adaptation & Reincorporation
Stealthy Thoughts
Visualizing City Block Maps
Learning a New RPG
Using Revelation Lists
Surprising Scenario Hooks
Bringing the PCs Together
Memorable NPCs
The Numbers That We Say
Your Hidden Toolbox
Swap Notes for Your GM Screen
Calling in the Big Guns
Calling in the Little Guys
Random Numbers with the Usual Dice
Running Horror
The Reaction Point
Why Wilderness Encounters?
Cypher Bad Guys
Fistfuls of Dice
Driving Past the Dead End
Running Portals
The Mop-Up
Making Clues
Encounter Distance
Matryoshka Hexes
Non-Focal Random Encounters
Visualizing Combat
Awesome Dungeon Rooms
Splitting the Party
Description Formulas
Backup PCs
While You’re Dead
What Were We Doing Again?
Long-Term Scenario Hooks
Rolling for Riddles
Skill Check Finesse
Dogpiling the Check
Inner Monologue Prompts
Epilogues & Skipping Time
2+2 Storytelling
Roleplaying Initiative
Standoffs & Surprise
Pineappling
Zone of Truth Mysteries
What Are You Looking For?
Rolling Behind the Screen
RUNNING MYSTERIES
The Null Result
Returning to the Scene of the Crime
Enigma
The Two Types of Leads
Hints
Proactive Nodes
Background Revelations
RUNNING THE CAMPAIGN
Ptolus: In the Shadow of the Spire (Series)
Dragon Heist: A Party at Shipwrights’ House
Dragon Heist: The Manshoon Heists
Dragon Heist: Creating the Characters
