In this episode of the RPG series of the Game Design Round Table, hosts Dirk Knemeyer and David Heron are joined by Justin Alexander , a renowned game designer and thought leader in tabletop RPGs. Known for his influential essays and innovative GM techniques, Justin shares insights into the role of the Game Master as designer. They dive into how GMs can connect narrative ideas to mechanics, the philosophies behind crafting memorable RPG experiences, and the challenges new GMs often face. Whether you’re building worlds or running them, this episode offers practical tools and deep design wisdom.

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Beneath its charming exterior, the Eye of the East is a charnel horror of death and despair.

CAPTAIN MORSUL: Captain Morsul is a minotaur vampire, infected during a voyage through the Serpent’s Teeth. Use the stats for a vampire nightbringer (MM 2024, p. 316) with the following traits:

• Strength 18 (+4)
• Languages: Common, Abyssal
• Charge. If Morsul moves at least 10 feet straight toward a target and then hits with a gore attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 9 (2d8) piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 10 feet away and knocked prone.
• Labyrinthine Recall. Morsul can perfectly recall any path he has traveled.
• Reckless. At the start of his turn, Morsul can gain advantage on all melee attack rolls he makes during that turn, but attack rolls against him have advantage until the start of his next turn.
• Multiattack. Captain Morsul makes one Bite attack, one Shadowstrike attack, and one Gore attack.
• Gore. Melee Attack Roll: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) piercing damage.

VAMPIRE SPAWN: There are 1d4+1 vampire spawn on the Eye of the East. (Morsul creates them from slaves and mutinous crew members, then has them periodically fight in survival-of-the-fittest deathmatches for the entertainment of the crew.)

SHIP MAP: Elven Tower’s Scorpion Ship battlemap. (Minor alterations.)

AREA 1 – MAIN DECK

A fairly typical, double-masted ship’s deck.

CARGO HATCH: A clever device allows a shutter, operable from below, to be drawn across the cargo hatches and cover the grating. (This is unusual, but can both hide the slaves in the cargo bay and protect the ship’s vampires from sunlight.)

AREA 2 – BALLISTAS

The upper deck ballistas are mounted on swivels.

SEARCH — DC 10 Wisdom (Perception): 6 of the bolts at each ballista tipped with alchemist’s fire.

ALCHEMIST’S FIRE BOLTS: 3d10 piercing damage. Target takes 1d10 fire damage at the start of each of their turns.

• GM Background: These bolts are sourced from the Alchemical Lab — Shadowworks.

AREA 3 – CREW QUARTERS

This compartment is filled with crisscrossing hammocks. Additional bed rolls are spread uncomfortably on the floor.

SECURE DOOR: The door to Area 5 is steel-cored and securely locked.

• AC 19, 40 hp, DC 18 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools)

AREA 4 – STORAGE & CREW

Ship’s stores are kept here. Because Area 3 is too crowded for all of the crew to sleep there, several additional hammocks are also hung high here above the stores.

AREA 5 – SECURE HOLD

This compartment is used to store high-value or sensitive cargo. The ship’s anchor is also operated from here.

AREA 6 – VLADAAM MAGE’S QUARTERS

Makena, the Vladaam Mage assigned to the ship, keeps her quarters here. Their personal belongings include their spellbook, a potion of superior healing, and a djinni’s lamp.

HADIYA THE DJINN: The djinni in the lamp is Hadiya. Makena has come to consider Hadiya her best friend and will spend hours in her quarters just chatting with her. Hadiya, however, yearns for freedom from her imprisonment.

AREA 7 – CAPTAIN’S QUARTERS

The portholes of this aft cabin are draped with thick, black velvet curtains which have been securely fastened and block out all light. An everburning lamp is built into the desk and casts long, dancing shadows around the compartment.

BED: Concealed beneath the bed is a coffin of mahogany inlaid with jet (worth 3,000 gp).

DESK: On the desk is a box of red jade containing three onyxes each painted with a dragon’s head. (The box is worth 750 gp. Each onyx is worth 75 gp.) Also on the desk is a Letter from the Founder’s Guild to Captain Morsul (see handouts).

AREA 8 – SLAVE HOLD

Dozens of shackles are attached to the walls and to long metal bars running along the floor.

AREA 9 – VAMPIRE SPAWN QUARTERS

These rooms are used by the vampire spawn. The bedclothes are soiled and smeared with blood and filth.

Go to Part 16E: Slave Trade Handouts

T-Prime asks:

I really like your Roll Initiative Last video, but how could you use this with the alternative initiative checks from Pathfinder?

I often get asked questions like this. Here’s another one:

D. asks:

I’ve been using your Dice of Destiny system for years. It revolutionized my Vampire game! But now I see that you’re talking about D&D a lot. How does that work?

There’s also a more hostile variety where someone will, for example, see me talking about perception-type skill checks, and snarkily denounce me for “only playing playing D&D.”

This is, of course, hilarious. Ironically the angriest folk often seem to be those who have played D&D and literally one other RPG and have concluded that any points of difference between the two represents some fundamental divide between D&D and every other RPG in existence.

But the point is, of course, that RPGs do differ from each other. There are a lot of skills and techniques – particularly at the macro-level (like scenario structures) – that you can transfer from one game to another, but there are others that can’t survive the transition. This is particularly true when you get down in the trenches and are finessing how you handle individual action resolutions to best effect. (Consider, for example, Rulings in Practice: Sanity Checks, which is obviously only relevant in systems that have sanity check mechanics.)

So, for example, how can you use Roll Initiative Last in a system like Pathfinder where the initiative check made for each encounter will vary depending on how each encounter gets started (and what individual characters are doing)?

Well… you don’t. Compared to systems where you can Roll Initiative Last, those systems are trading a certain amount of efficiency for the benefit of more accurately modeling different types of encounters (and also likely encouraging players to explore different ways of initiating encounters).

Similarly, Technoir eschews initiative entirely. Instead, during a confrontation, the only rule is that everybody must take an action before anyone is allowed to take a second action, and the order in which those actions are taken is left up to the discretion of the GM. Here, again, efficiency is sacrificed, but with the benefit of both flexibility and seamless action scene transitions.

In the Infinity RPG, on the other hand, the PCs always go first, but the GM can “steal initiative” by spending Heat points. Here the system essentially “bakes in” the benefits of Roll Initiative Last (since you can launch straight into any encounter without pausing for initiative rolls), but instead of Technoir’s completely open flexibility, it plugs the whole thing into fueling the Momentum & Heat economy that’s a core pillar of the game.

Are these trade-offs worth it? That’s ultimately up to you and your group. (And what’s right for one game won’t necessarily be right for another.)

Of course, these other systems will also have expert-level techniques that can’t be used in D&D. For example, in games like Technoir and Infinity where you need to be able to answer the question, “Who hasn’t gone yet this round?”, it’s usually a good idea to keep a list of combatants and check them off as they each take their actions. In a system that uses hot-potato initiative (where, at the end of their turn, each player decides which character is going to take their turn next), it becomes essential to figure out how to make sure everyone at the table has access to this information.

(And that’s an example of a trade-off I don’t like: The extra bookkeeping necessary to make sure everyone knows who’s going to next, plus the extra decision points, plus the analysis paralysis from not being able to plan your turn ahead of time creates a huge drag in actual play and is just not worth whatever marginal benefits the hot-potato initiative is supposedly providing.)

ADAPTING TECHNIQUES

Sometimes, though, a technique that doesn’t work in a new system can be adapted so that it does.

For example, let’s go back to Pathfinder initiative checks. You can’t pre-roll initiative at the end of each encounter because you can’t be certain which type of initiative check each character will be making.

Could you just have everyone pre-roll every type of initiative check and then just use the appropriate set of checks? Probably not. Even if you limited this to just the most common initiative checks (Perception, Stealth, etc.), the extra hassle of collecting all that info and the time spent on wasted rolls probably isn’t worth it. Plus, you’ll still need to sort those variable results into the final initiative order.

Maybe you could use secret rolling to achieve a similar effect? You’ll need to be on your toes, but if you’re good at multitasking you might be able to get all those initiative checks made when it becomes clear a fight is about to happen but before things actually kick off. The trick, of course, is that this is no longer easy to pull off, and you might run into problems with players who don’t like losing the illusory sense of “agency” that comes with rolling their own dice.

Digital tools might help, though. You could imagine one that lets you very quickly select the appropriate skill for each combatant and then click a single button that would roll and organize the entire initiative order for you.

Alternatively, you can actually tweak the mechanics to achieve a desired effect or efficiency.

As an extreme example, you could just drop the entire concept of alternative initiative checks and go back to having just one type of initiative check. (You’d do this if the trade-off of efficiency for modeling different encounter approaches wasn’t worth it to you.)

As a less extreme example, you might learn that your group is overwhelmingly likely to make initiative checks of a particular type. (Probably Perception-based initiative.) So now you can have everyone Roll Initiative Last with that check type, but rule that if an alternative approach is taken (Stealth, for example), then a new roll will be made and supersede the pre-roll.

Would that work? Maybe. But in some groups you might discover that this creates some weird metagaming. (“I’d sneak up on them, but then I’d lose that great Perception initiative check I made!”) You could combat that with secret checks (but now with easier bookkeeping!).

Or you could lean into it by instead ruling that the new initiative check will only supersede the original check if it’s better than the original check. This would, in turn, encourage players to always find an alternative approach to initiating encounters than whatever the default approach is. Is that desirable? That’s a question only you and your group can answer.

FINESSE TECHNIQUES

Taking a slightly broader view here, a lot of what we’re talking about here are finesse techniques: These are the subtle little differences in how we use, interpret, present, implement, and execute the mechanics of an RPG. (And also non-mechanical interactions!)

These techniques can have a huge impact on the quality of a game session, but a surprisingly small amount of GMing advice talks about this stuff. Perhaps this is because such techniques can be so situational in their use. Whatever the case may be, I think you can reap huge rewards by making a point of really thinking not just about the rules you’re using, but how you’re using them.

For another example of finesse techniques, check out Random GM Tips: The Numbers That We Say.

Go to Ask the Alexandrian #21

Goblin! is a solo RPG from Hexy Studio and the first installment in the Misbehave series of solo RPG experiences. I’m going on the adventure of a lifetime as the Goblin Who Will Soon Be Known as Ghost-Tooth. Can Ghost-Tooth triumph, reunite the goblin crown, and lead his people to victory against the tyrannical gnomes?

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In the Belly of the Beast is not only an excellent product in its own right, it deserves to be the template by which other adventures will be written.

Review Originally Published May 21st, 2001

Not only is every Penumbra product from Atlas Games a tour de force of excellence, each betrays an immense talent which is capable of constantly providing a fresh perspective to every aspect of a high quality product. In the Belly of the Beast, sprung forth from the brow of Mike Mearls, offers no contradiction to this rapidly emerging reputation.

PLOT & CONCEPT

Warning: This review will contain spoilers for In the Belly of the Beast. Players who may find themselves playing in this adventure should not read beyond this point.

In the Belly of the Beast begins when the players are approached by Bruno Mezzia, son of Hallan Mezzia and heir of House Mezzia – a powerful and wealthy family in possession of a trading empire. He wants the PCs to help him take care of the Ring of Iron, a local guild of thieves and slavers which has been causing problems. What the PCs don’t know, though, is that Bruno is trying to establish his own position of power within the city’s underworld – and is planning to use the PCs to do it.

When the PCs and Bruno attempt to go after a stronghold of the Ring of Iron located in the city’s sewer system, however, things go wrong: Unknown to Bruno (or the PCs), a member of the Ring of Iron has come into possession of a rare and strange magical item belonging to a necromancer. In fact, the necromancer from whom they had stolen it had – in turn – stolen it from a tribe of orcs.

What none of them knew is that the magic item in question was a chrysalis – an egg from which the demon Vog Mor would be born into the world. While located in the sewer stronghold, the egg has hatched – trapping the Ring of Iron, the necromancer’s apprentice (who killed his master and now pretends to be the master), and a war party of orcs who came after the egg inside the belly of the slowly emerging Vog Mor.

Bruno and the PCs, of course, end up in exactly the same place.

So, to sum up:

The PCs, the head of a would-be crime family, a gang of slavers, a war party of orcs, and a would-be necromancer (who is slowly going insane) are all trapped in the belly of a demon who, in a few short hours, is going to wake up and take over the world.

Cool.

SOMETHING NEW IN MODULES

“This adventure is roleplaying-intensive.”

How many times have you seen a module claim that? 15? 50? 500 times? How many times have you read those modules and then found out the author was telling you a bald-faced lie?

Every single time, right?

The problem with writing a “roleplaying-intensive” module is that, by its very nature, character interactions cannot be as neatly summed up as “when you open the door you see 5 orcs in a 10’ x 10’ room playing poker”. Monsters meant for slaying, traps meant for escaping, dungeons meant to explore. These can be quantified, described, and mapped with precision. Negotiations with King Strophius to release the Mycenaen prince he holds for ransom? That’s a bit more difficult to put down on paper – and ultimately relies upon the particular DM and PCs who are handling the negotiations.

So “roleplaying-intensive” adventures are an interesting conundrum: You can make ‘em. You can run ‘em. You just can’t buy ‘em.

Or so I thought.

There are times when I love being proved wrong.

In the Belly of the Beast is a roleplaying-intensive adventure, and it really, really, really works. No, really: It does. Would I lie to you?

So how does Mearls do it?

First, he gives you five different factions of power in the demon’s belly: The PCs (which he, of course, leaves undefined), Bruno Mezzia and his thugs, the Ring of Iron slavers, the Blood Hatchet orc war party, and the “necromancer” and his servant. Each group is detailed, and each member of the group is detailed – giving the DM a full grasp on his cast of characters.

Next, he gives everyone a common goal: Escape the demon belly.

Then, he gives everyone a common enemy: The servants of the demon who are trying to get past the impromptu barricade and kill everyone.

And then, to round out the foundation of the scenario, he gives everyone a reason for distrusting everyone else – and a reason to ally with one another against the others.

Into this potently developed dynamic, Mearls then adds an exhaustively detailed series of events (and potential events) which allow the mutable plot of the adventure to form. Mearls carefully designs this episodic plot so that it can adapt to whatever actions the PCs may take, giving the DM a strong helping hand without forcing them to tie their players into strait jackets. At the same time, he doesn’t allow the episodic nature of his narrative structure to dominate the actual playing experience – tying his events to each other in a variety of ways, so that the underlying dynamic of the scenario will create a holistic and memorable gaming experience no matter who plays it… or how.

CONCLUSION

So, at the end of the day, In the Belly of the Beast lays claim to being something a little different, something a little new, and something which should definitely find its way into your gaming library. In fact, if your players aren’t able to look back fondly and say, “Hey, remember that time we were stuck in the belly of Vog Mor?” then you’ve definitely made a big mistake in not grabbing this module up and running it.

Now, a real quick note on a weakness I think the product has: It is marketed as containing a “tear-out section”. This section contains the stat sheets for the major NPCs, a combat chart, a hand-out, and the adventure’s map. I, honestly, cannot imagine anyone actually bothering to tear this section out of the module – and the net result is that information which could have been presented in a truly useful manner, now disrupts the lay-out of an otherwise excellently presented adventure. While I applaud Penumbra for experimentation on the one hand, on the other I wish that they would focus on producing the high quality product they’ve proven they’re ably capable of producing and leave the gimmicks for when they are truly deserved and needed.

That’s my assessment as a reviewer, GM, and player. Now, if you’ll indulge me for a moment, I’d like to pass my judgment on this product as a freelancer who has written or contributed to roughly half a dozen D20 products:

In the Belly of the Beast establishes a paradigm for developing roleplaying-intensive modules. Mearls is, of course, building upon design tools which have been developed before, but, to my eyes, he has done so by creating the ground floor of something that deserves a very close look. I, personally, am already working on a module which will play around with and develop these concepts – and, once I’m done with that, I’m probably going to take a look at combining it with an old idea of my own and seeing how they can be combined to enhance a dungeon environment. I encourage other freelancers (and GMs) to look at Mearls’ work in this light as well – not only to duplicate what he has done, but also to open your minds to doing things using new tools and methods.

Okay, I’m off my soapbox. You can stop reading and go out to buy your own copy now.

…

No, seriously. I’m done.

…

C’mon. Get out of here.

…

Look, I’m going to call the cops if you don’t leave!

…

Okay, that’s it. You’re in trouble now, big guy! You just wait and see!

Style: 4
Substance: 5

Author: Mike Mearls
Publisher: Atlas Games
Line: Penumbra
Price: $8.95
ISBN: 1-887801-96-0
Product Code: AG3202
Pages: 32

This adventure had a HUGE impact on me as a GM. I’ve previously discussed its influence on the Universal NPC Roleplaying Template, and you can trace its impact all the way into So You Want to Be a Game Master. I think it would be fair to say it’s directly or indirectly impacted almost every single roleplaying scene I’ve run in the past quarter century.

I also remember it being incredibly effective in actual play. The faction setup, the flexible diplomatic relations, the event sequence, and the looming threat of Vog Mor all combined beautifully. (Although, if I recall correctly, I souped things up with some material from The Book of Fiends.)

So, yeah, this one is a certifiable classic. Really deserves to be on more Best Adventures of All-Time lists.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.