Im playing DND with a couple of friends. And there is one player in the group, who every time they roll low, they always try to double check to avoid the failed result. For example, they rolled a 7 on a survival check the other day to tie a rope to a tree that they were going to hang on, and imediately afterwords when "I want to check the knot" and "I want to tug on the knot firmly before I go down to make sure it can secure me" and things like that. If I then reveal to their character that it wouldn't have held them, they retie it until it does, but if they fail to check and then fall down anyways they complain that they checked. And they only really check if they know out of character the roll went poorly. If they had rolled a 22 on that same check, for example, they would not bother with checking.

Should I do something about this? This feels... Wrong, but I dont know how to better approach the situation. Please help!

I've done a few before and generally like them despite them feeling a little gimicky. My players seem to enjoy the Christmas ones (last time they were yeti attacking Santa's toy shop) but I don't think I do horror well enough for the Halloween ones to be that fun for them.

Do you do them at your table? What did you do and how did it go over?

Hello, so I am fairly new to GMing. I have a little roleplay group I do things with on ESO. I would like to run a small town academy for magic, however, I am running into this problem: how do I make classes interesting and fun?

I have several ideas, because this town doesn't have a Mage's Guild, it would fill that role.

There would be expeditions, hands on learning, possibly solving local problems

But I'm struggling to come up with ideas. My plan is to scout different places and build events from that, but as far as classes go, idk how to make it interesting outside a lecture.

I want to make it fun, that's it, and it's a good way for me to dip my toes into dming

Should a DM ever control a player character and/put dialog "in their mouth"? I'm working on a custom campaign that needs a few key things to happen to drive the story. Would it be better to give the player the cliff notes and let them play it out?

What the Title says. I have the rule book for Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine. There is a LOT I like about it.

I also realize that the system is just that, Basic. Game Masters are encouraged to tweak the system to do what they want. With that in mind.

Does anyone have any advice on how to add Abilities that would normally come from Classes?

Many Class Abilities could be duplicated via just letting a character use a Skill. A Ranger/Druid's skill with Animals could be handled via skills.

Any kind of Magic from Wizards/Sorcerers/Clerics/etc can just be Spells.

But then you have things like a Berserker Rage. My first thought would be to make that some kind of Super Power. But I also don't want to limit myself to just what is in the Basic Rulebook. So I thought I would ask if anyone else had a different solution.

Thank you in advance!

I'm creating a TTRPG of the video game Arx Fatalis. Although I'm struggling with if I should include the original protagonist (Am Shagar) within the game, or exclude/remove him (of him either dying or just not in the campaign).
I'm mainly worried about making the players feel like side-characters of the story as they follow the hero, making them feel unimportant.
Has anyone had this type of dilemma/challenge to deal with? If so, what are your suggestions?

There are other questions I'd like to ask, but I could probably answer it myself, but definitely wouldn't mind hearing a second opinion, but I suppose I'll keep this question optional if you'd be willing to give your opinion.
Like if I should have the story based before, during, or after the story of Arx Fatalis, or have a alternate scene to the story, keeping it somewhat similar to the original or far from it and improving upon it, or changing it entirely?

This is my first time GM'ing, and I really love the story of Arx Fatalis. Just having hard time making large decisions with how to go about making this TTRPG adaptation fun for the players, as well as me.

I run a Pathfinder 2e game for five friends every other Sunday, 14 sessions in. One player uses a dice app on his phone instead of physical dice, and over the last four sessions he has crit on what feels like every important roll. I'm not sure he is cheating, it could just be variance, but the rest of the table has started joking about it and it's getting a bit tense. Do I ask everyone to roll in the open from now on, set up a shared dice tray, or talk to him privately first?

I'm currently working on spinning up a D&D 5E campaign using Sesserdrix's Wildjammer supplement, and am having trouble running online combats that deal with the different scales involved. For those unfamiliar, the supplement gives each player a role on the ship; captain, bosun, etc, as well as special "ship actions". In mixed ground-ship combat, the player chooses between whether to use their character sheet to act or their "ship role" sheet.

I've run a one-shot with this system on Roll20 previously, and the main conflict comes when switching between character-scale (5X5 ft grid) and ship (mega) scale (500X500 ft grid). In an in-person game, obviously, this poses little problem; one map for on-ship mini-scale combat and a separate map for ship positioning. This allows everyone at the table to do ahead-of-time turn planning if they want to act on the character or mega scales during the battle. However, online, I found myself flipping back and forth between scales every turn on initiative, massively slowing down combat and causing people to lose track of what was actually going on.

I've done some poking around, and either Talespire or Foundry VTT with some specialized plugins might have to be what I end up going with, but I would prefer not to for money and learning curve reasons, although the latter is less of a concern. Theater of the mind is also unfortunately out of the question, as there's simply no way I can expect 5-6 players to memorize the positions, orientations, and firing arcs of everything I'm planning on throwing at them.

My questions/ requests are as follows:

What advice/experience do you have with running similar games?
Is there an easier way to do this on Roll20 that doesn't involve multiple map screens?
Failing that, is there another (free) program that might let me do this easier?
Should I just bite the bullet and get a paid VTT like Talespire or Foundry?

I run a Pathfinder 2e game for five friends, about 14 sessions in. Over the last month I modeled each player's character from their character art in supavoxel and printed them at 32mm on my resin printer, then painted them to match. They don't know yet. Part of me wants to swap them onto the battle map at the start of the next fight, but our big arc finale is in three sessions and that feels like a better moment. Has anyone done something like this, and did the timing matter?

I'm about to GM a Fear and Hunger RPG to a bunch of friends, the system is algophilia2e, but im kinda new to gming and i want to know if anyone has any tips for a campaing being a bit of survival horror, like, i want the players to be really cautious in the beggining and grow reasonably stronger so they can fight more Reliably later on.

To anyone who watched, i kinda want to make it like the Hardcore curse of strahd campaing from the World of IO channel.

So I am running two different games in two different systems where the players have gathered a motley band of NPCs that they are either protecting, escorting, working with, or otherwise have reasons to be with the PCs. To be specific, one game is Star Trek Adventures, and the PCs have gathered a number of different NPCs (and in some cases, groups of NPCs) that are passengers on their ship for various reasons. In the other (Starfinder) the PCs crashed on a planet and are collecting survivors and cast offs as they journey across the planet.

The issue isn't really including them in encounters (they don't typically get brought into that except it specific circumstances), but rather me, as a GM, managing them all, giving them life, and having them follow their motivations and not just forgetting about them.

So often I get caught up in what they players are doing and then one of them will be like 'Hey, what is Bob doing' and I'll be like, oh crap, Bob would totally have a vested interest in this current activity and I've had them stand around like a zombie the whole time.

How have you successfully managed similar situations? How do you keep your NPCs from acting like video game NPCs (just standing around until a PC engages them), especially when you have a number of them.

Hey! I play Vampire: the Masquerade and I’ve been running this Campaign for three months and it’s going great! I only have one problem, two of the three players don’t seem to be to confident. I try to give them bait to become more involved but they won’t bite. I feel a bit guilty that a lot of my focus is on the player that gives me the most to work with. If anyone has some advice I’d appreciate it!

Me and my mates, who now retired being murder hobos, kudos to you kind strangers for helping btw! Have finally entered a dungeon and completed the puzzle, but our session was cut short before the boss battle. And now I'm overthinking whether or not I keep my current intro for the boss being a red dragon wyrmling and all.

It has the wyrmling protecting a room of gold within the dungeon and the Tiefling of our group can read infernal and has to read a stone tablet in the room before the big fight. When they read the inscription expecting a lore drop it is actually a spell that unleashes the dragon wyrmling by awakening it and starting the fight by blowing open the door from the treasure room where it laid. I'm starting to think it's either too far fetched for an entrance, or it's way too boring or basic, can I get a hand?

Hey everyone! I’m a relatively new DM, and I just finished running my seventh session of a homebrew campaign.
I feel pretty confident in my worldbuilding, overarching storyline, and the NPCs I’ve created. My players seem to be enjoying themselves, and they’ve been getting more creative with how they approach encounters.

However, one thing I’m really struggling with is actually roleplaying NPC conversations.
I usually know the NPC’s personality, motivations, what information they have, and what they should or shouldn’t reveal. But when my players start asking questions, my mind starts racing.
I’m simultaneously trying to:
Figure out how the NPC would naturally respond.
Remember what information they’re allowed to reveal. Avoid accidentally spoiling important plot points. Make the conversation feel meaningful rather than just dumping information.
Actually deliver the dialogue in character.
Sometimes I freeze up, lose my train of thought, or struggle to find the right words. Then I start worrying that my hesitation is breaking the immersion.
I don’t necessarily want to script every conversation because I love giving my players freedom to approach situations however they want.

For experienced DMs, how did you get better at improvising NPC dialogue?

Do you use NPC cheat sheets, practice conversations beforehand, prepare certain responses, or just get more comfortable through experience?

I’d especially appreciate advice on managing NPC secrets and information without constantly second-guessing what you’re saying.
Thanks!

Hey everyone! I'm the wholesomeDM. I've been DMing for about 20 years, and for the last 10 years I've been running three campaigns in the same world.

I recently left a comment on dm academy about making villains believable, and it got such a positive response that I thought I'd share the idea in a separate post. And now the post was doing great and reddit suggested me to post it here aswell haha.

I think one of the biggest mistakes we make when creating villains is assuming they need to be logically consistent to be believable.

But people aren't always logical. We can hold two completely contradictory beliefs and genuinely believe both of them. So why shouldn't our villains do the same?

When you're having a philosophical debate with your players as the BBEG, try making it clear that the villain actually knows about the contradiction in their own beliefs. They just believe everyone else has been deceived.

Maybe the gods lied to the world. Maybe society is built on a lie. Maybe everyone else has been fooled by their own emotions.

Whatever it is, the villain doesn't think they're wrong. They think *everyone else* is wrong.

One thing that has really helped me when creating villains is giving each of them a **core emotion**.

Whenever I'm unsure how a villain would react to something, I go back to that emotion. I try to keep it as simple and primal as possible: anger, disgust, envy, shame, fear, hunger, loneliness, pride, etc.

Here are a few examples from my own campaigns:

* **Asmodeus — Disgust.** He's disgusted by how imperfect life has spread across what he sees as a once-perfect reality. Everything he does comes from wanting to cleanse existence of that corruption.

* **Grazilax the Mind Flayer — Hunger.** He needs brains to survive, and more brains to expand his empire. All his grand plans and philosophies eventually come back to that hunger.

* **Demogorgon — Anger.** He's rage given form. He doesn't destroy things as a means to an end. Destruction *is* the end.

* **Szass Tam — Envy.** He can't stand seeing power in the hands of others. Everything he does comes back to the belief that what others have should belong to him.

The idea is that all their plans, philosophies and justifications grow out of that core emotion.

Players can argue against an ideology. They can poke holes in a philosophy or expose flaws in a plan. But you can't really argue someone out of being hungry, and you can't reason someone out of envy.

For me, it makes improvising villains a lot easier, too. When the players do something unexpected, I can ask myself how someone driven by that emotion would react, and go from there.

I'm curious: **Would you guys be interested in hearing how I use this same approach when creating and roleplaying NPCs?** I use it for more than just villains, and I'd be happy to share some examples.

A little more about me: I also visit different D&D conventions to teach, give TED-talk-style talks, and run games. If you're ever at Dutch Comic Con, feel free to come say hi and join a game!

And I'd love to hear about your villains, too. Do you use something similar when creating yours?

I am working on a little side quest for October; players get transported to a plane that’s stuck in perpetual my world Halloween where once a year the clans (each classic monster has a clan family) compete in trials

One of them is for the party to survive a night while avoiding vampires; not being killed by them and trying to make sure they don’t come in. However, I’m having a hard time thinking of unique social, and mechanical encounters I can use for the night. For context I have ran COS so I’m familiar with the vampire ethos just not sure how to gameify it to be fun for a session

Edit: to clarify I would love ideas regarding the game of surviving vampires trying to kill them in the hotel

One of my players has a character that’s uncompromising when situations create opposing points of view. When there’s no conflicting POV their character says effectively “whatever you want to do.” But if there’s a disagreement it’s “well if you want to do that, go ahead, but I’m doing this anyway.”

It makes sense for the character, it might be challenging for the group, currently comprised of 4 PCs. This is a survival-horror game and everyone knows that and there’s an expectation of conflict in dire circumstances. That’s what makes the game.

So far, it’s been fine, but now at the start of our second year of playing this campaign, one player is struggling with the rigidity. Previously, their character was usually in conflict overall with the rigid PC and they thought it was difficult but accepted it, but now they’re agreeing on most things except how to do the things or maybe the order in which to do them and the rigid PC is still uncompromising.

This player asked for a pvt chat and said they are now playing their PC in a way to avoid discord for the game instead of playing their PC as they would like to because they have to anticipate what the rigid PC will want and suggest that rather than their real instincts because they know any other approach will create tension and discord for the game, not just the PCs.

So. Have you dealt with this? How did you approach it?

Hellos! I have done some GMing here and there, but burnout is a bitch so I haven’t had the energy to do a proper long-term campaign until very recently. I’m doing the Wildsea. Pirates but the sea is trees and beavers are canon. It’s great. Anywho, I want to be able to record our sessions, in-person or online. We’ll likely be doing a mix of both because we’re all in that awkward early-mid 20s part of life where we’re finishing up school and working towards grad school or our first “big kid” jobs with like… insurance and stuff. We mostly live with our parents because the cost of living is shit, and like all 20-somethings, our parents walk the tightrope between treating us like kids and telling us to grow up and figure it out like they’re performing in Cirque de Soleil. Sometimes we’ll do it in person if our family is okay with us being nerds and louder than your average conversation, sometimes we’ll do it online because our siblings are using the car and have unilaterally decided that they need to use it, and their social life is more important than ours. Annoying shit like that.

I want to record sessions (likely just sound because video takes up A LOT of space) for reasons:
- Adulting. If there’s gaps between sessions (2 weeks or two months, or longer) we can listen back.
- I have auditory processing issues, and one of our players is also hard of hearing. Having a transcript that people can read or reference would also be useful. I know people process information differently too (eg books vs audiobooks) so it’s a good tool to have in the arsenal.
- If they’re like me and are neurodivergent and black out and forget to take notes because they’re so excited, we have a backup plan.
- Memories! I’m taking a film class and learning a lot about lost media and videos/music/recordings just… vanishing into nothing? Like most friends we forget to take photos when we’re together and I would like a record of a story we’re telling together.
- Decompression/communication/player safety things. A lot of us are neurodivergent and sometimes that means delayed emotional responses where you don’t know something sucked emotionally until later. Having recordings can help process all of that.

I know that recording would be nice, but I don’t want it to feel like a show. I’m on the verge of getting enough actual play credits to make a player reel. I’ve been in those. I’ve watched and listened to thousands of hours of APs. I’m also a film student. I know it’s better to record each person separately with a lavalier/lapel mic. But that’s a lot of work, and then it feels like a whole event when we’re making home video and not Dimension 20. Idk. An omnidirectional mic in the middle of the table will get the gist of what we’re saying, but then it compromises quality. And when your ears don’t work as they should, the quality helps. I also don’t know if we’ll be taking turns hosting or we’ll be at the same table every session. Room size can affect quality a lot too.

Doing all of this online where we already all have our own mic tracks, would be easier, especially for transcripts. I know that, too. But we graduated high school during the pandemic, have done our share of awkward online meetings, and I know it’s a chore, but I want to play in-person with my friends. And have fun. With SNACKS. And when you have to say: “What?” “Pardon?” “Can you repeat that?” or you miss details because your brain can’t connect the dots and it’s working really hard to so you can have fun with your friends, it becomes exhausting and a lot less fun. I want my players to have the resources to play and be in the moment without feeling bad that they may miss bits and pieces, or feel like shit because they can’t read what notes they wrote two months ago, you know? Or maybe they’re having a sick day and want to binge watch/listen to our campaign.

Any tips would be appreciated. If you know of any subs that I could cross post to that could help with mic recommendations or sound design tips on a teeny tiny student budget, it would be also appreciated. Trying to track down what textbook I used in… the only film production class I took where we talked about mics. Because the textbook was online. And I like books. And we only got chapters to read because copyright. Sigh.

Thanks for reading!

I accidentally told my players wrong information about the cofounders of the organization that they'll be joining. My plan was originally for one cofounder (Chairman J) to be deceased, with the only mentions of him being other npcs reminiscing about him like Rose Quartz or Falin from Steven Universe/Dungeon Meshi. The other co founder (Chairman W) is the one who currently runs things.

I told my players (through the npc that hired them) that they might be able to meet the cofounders one day if they climb the ranks, and specifically told them about the chairmen's race and genders. But the hiring npc should definitely know that Chairman J is dead, and wouldn't have said the party could meet them had I not forgotten.

The session was supposed to be just light roleplay since I was feeling a bit out of it from some sickness, so I didn't even realize I told them wrong information until the day after the session.

What do I do? Just bring it up to them saying I messed up the lore because I was feeling out of it? Do I readjust my story to work with him being alive still? Or could I just give an in-universe explanation why the hiring npc is wrong? There's transparent with how they use mind wiping for people who decline, so I might be able to do something there? But I'd prefer to look at my other options before...

Hello all, I'm planning on running a Ghostbusters RPG campaign in the not too distant future. It'll be my first time GM'ing and I'm in the process of gathering useful resources. Does anyone have any recommendations for software for creating floorplans and maps? It would need to have modern looking assets. Open source/free if possible, but feel free to suggest paid stuff if you think it is particularly good. Thanks.

Hey! I’m running a session for my campaign this Sunday, and we’re having one new players who’s never played before joining our group, and one player who also has not played before who’s going to sit in for the session. How do you guys normally handle this? Run a filler episode? Just run the campaign? I’ve had people sit in before but not this many and I don’t even know one of them. Any advice?

I see a lot of posts about Obsidian being all that and a bag of chips; is it really that good? Why not a plain text editor? If you note take in markdown, why not something like VS Code? Are there any websites people use so my notes automatically back up?

I tried Obsidian Live Sync self hosted - both with Couch DB and P2P - and both seemed clunky. I get that Obsidian has a sync option, but seems pricey for syncing text files.

I feel I'm missing "the wow factor" that makes it so great.

I'm thinking of ordering an initiative tracker. It slots on the DM screen. Its states it's a perfect fit for "standard 2mm WotC screens".

Thing is, I have a Pathfinder 1e screen, not a WotC DnD screen. My screen, when closed, measures exactly 10mm thick, so 2.5mm per panel.

Is that actually identical to a WotC screen (supposedly 2mm) or is my screen slightly thicker?

If you have a WotC screen, please measure how thick it is when closed, in mm. Because the answer is impossible to find online and AIs have no clue about this.