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Walking the Line
Image by: alborzshawn No, this isn’t some reference to Johnny Cash. What I’m talking about is the line between planning your session and improvising. Both sides of GMing are vital to the long-term...
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Getting Your Ducks In a Row – Making Sure Expectations are Met
Image by: John Linwood I’m getting into the deep planning stages for my next campaign, and I’m finding myself running into a potential problem: it’s very possible that I want for this game is different...
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Dark Sun Campaign – PDF of the first adventure here for you to download
As promised and delivered early – Part one of my Dark Sun Campaign is available for download. This is intended for informational purposes only. I have made every effort to make it a coherent document...
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Make Your Good Game Better – Review of the Pathfinder GameMastery Guide
Those of us who spend the majority of our gaming time behind the GM screen, if we’re doing our jobs properly, are always looking for ways to make our games better. We post to discussion boards, we talk...
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“You Seem Trustworthy!”– Bringing the Party Together
Image by chinogypsie This is one of those topics that every GM has run into at one point in time or another. You’re stating a new campaign, your players have their characters all drawn up, you’ve got...
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Gaming: The Social Contract
Gaming is a social endeavor, we all know that, but sometimes we lose sight of what it means to respect one another. It may help to hash out a “social contract” between members of the group, be it...
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Review: DM’s Kit for D&D 4th Edition Essentials
The DM’s Kit for 4th Edition D&D’s Essentials line is out, and there’s something strange about it. But I’m ahead of myself…I’ll get to that in a moment. First, the product itself. This is more...
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The Rule of Three
Making an interesting, evocative scene that invokes the senses of your players is the holy grail of GMing, and it can be made a bit more achievable by following what I call the “Rule of Three.” Simply...
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Monster Vault: Fixing Solos
As I said in my review of Monster Vault, many of the older and classic monsters have been updated and brought into line with the design philosophy of the later Monster Manuals. Additionally, the book...
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Adventurer’s Toolbox – Bags of Holding
Image by: SoulRider.222 I have written a couple of article in this series already covering Immovable Rods and Feather Tokens. The next item up for bid is the Bag of Holding. Now, before I’m downed out...
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Plotting a Better NPC with the Rule of Three
In a previous post, I discussed the “Rule of Three.” That’s all well and good for descriptions, but how can that be used to build better plots and stories? Simple, give each major NPC three plot ideas....
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Treating In-Game Relationships with Respect
I was reading through my RSS feed today when I came across this post over at More Than Dice. Go ahead, give it a read. … Done? Great. Let’s talk about why I found it interesting. If you’ve been keeping...
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GM Growth: Listen to What you Say
Image by: WCGAPS For a good while now, I’ve been posting Actual Play sessions of my Freeport game to the Gamer’s Haven. The thing is, I had not listen to any of my own sessions, well, ever. I used the...
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What System Are You Really Running?
Image Source It’s been a while (too long) since I’ve found the time to post in my usual Thursday morning spot. What made me carve out some time today was an odd thought that occurred to me recently....
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Hooks, Lines and Secrets
Over the past few months, I’ve been getting a lot more involved with my fantasy campaign setting project, working title Kingsmead. Getting into the setting meant thinking about the tools that a GM uses...
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Ultimate glory: destination or journey?
Smile on 3! 1... 2... As a DM returning to the table from a long absence I’d have to say it’s both. The journey is its own self-same reward, but there’s a lot to be said for the accolades and loot you...
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Fiat Lux! The top 5 ways to speed up your tabletop RPG game.
Playing until 2am can be awesome… unless it’s because you’re still on the first encounter. Here are 5 ways that DMs and players can work together to keep combat moving quickly, making sure you’ve got a...
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In Defense of 4e
Photo by Matt Williams Wizards of the Coast announced this week they are working on Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. Unlike previous releases they are now courting player input. Many long-time...
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An Overdue Introduction
Hello everyone. I think it’s about time I introduced myself, since it’s been three months since my last post here on Troll. Considering the next move in a lengthy game of 'Tension Tower', as the game...
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Fiat Lux! TrollTips #3: 5 ways to bring your villain to life
This week on Fiat Lux! we’re talking big, bad, evil guys. This video offers 5 tips that add some vim to your villain, some sparkle to your swine, and some charm to your cads! Text transcription is in...
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