Skull RPG: Game Masters Tell Your Story

Hey Storytellers,

Two episodes ago we talked about the different eras of games using the Greek understanding of creation. So there were the golden, silver, bronze, and clay ages of humanity. Today we explore playing a game at the height of magic or technology that your world will ever see.

 Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/

Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

The golden age or era is one of the hardest to play an RPG in because your characters are literally becoming the legends of old. There are no ruins of value because the stuff of value is literally being created each and every day.

These are usually higher-level campaigns (or a lot more points in a GURPS system).

Listen for even more tips.

Hey Storytellers,

I don't know about you but when I first tried to write my own adventures as a Dungeon Master for D&D 3.5 I thought I needed a world map. The same was true when I tried my hand at GURPS.

Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/

Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

But what if I told you that that may be the worst way to start a campaign?

Instead, just draw what is needed. 

If starting at first level or low level or local adventure just start out with everything they may possibly encounter at those levels.

So if you need a map it doesn't have to be more than 3 days journey in any direction and contain things like "abandoned mine" or "woods" or "larger town will name later."

So don't feel like you have to design the entire world and then drill down because frankly after reading a ton of fantasy novels we feel like that is a requirement, but for gaming you can go the other way.

Hey Storytellers,

In today's episode, we cover different eras as an overview. Using the Greek understanding of Golden, Silver, Bronze and Clay age of Humanity we talk about this in RPG terms.

Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/

Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

What does that mean? Great question.

A Golden Age adventure means that your world is at the pinnacle of magic / tech / etc. Most RPG's don't take place here.

Instead, most take place during a bronze age of heroes. This allows the players to explore old castles (now turned into dungeons because of time) for ancient relics.

Listen to the episode to learn more.

Hey Storytellers,

In one of my campaigns, I wanted to tell a story about the players hunting down a particular villain. I didn't want this game to last more than about 8 months of real-time and I didn't want to spend a year of in-game time that didn't connect to the overarching storyline. So what did I do?

 Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/

Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

Since we were playing GURPS I gave them 30 points to spend on whatever they wanted and told them that we would be fast-forwarding the game a full year in the calendar. They had done side quests and other things in that year that didn't correspond to the story, but they would still get experience for it.

I could do the same thing in a D&D or Pathfinder game by giving 2 - 3 levels and saying the same thing.

Listen to the episode for even more examples of how to accomplish this.

Hey Storytellers,

In our last episode, we covered if you should use traps or not. One really nasty thing to do is to incorporate them into a mini-boss encounter.

 Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/

Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

In this episode, we talk about using things like a pit trap, poison darts, or even worse types of traps to have the enemy do battlefield control and potentially take out one of the front line melee fighters out of the fight for a while by dropping him/her down a 20-foot hole (with or without spikes).

Hey Storytellers,

Do you need traps in your RPG? Do you need to create a dungeon where every room somehow has a 20,000 GP trap designed to kill your players?

Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/

Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

The answer to that is it is up to you. 

If you want to be trap heavy then tell your players they will need someone that can handle that task.

If you don't have traps then you should tell your players that traps will not be that central to the game, but may come up from time to time. I.e. you don't need a character dedicated to it but some skill would be helpful.

Hey Storytellers,

Sometimes in the middle of a conflict, you realize that your players are running through it too fast. So what do you do about that?

Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/

Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

In today's episode, we cover how to scale up or down your conflict in order to make it interesting. This may mean you fudge a die roll to avoid fully killing a player, or it may mean that backup for either side comes out of an unopened door or unexplored hallway.

Hey Storytellers,

In today's episode, we will cover how to scale the challenge rating of your encounters (up or down) depending on the players around your table.

 Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/

Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

Let's face it, if you have a min/max player and they are in their element (like killing one monster) then you need to move the challenge rating of that monster up (maybe 2 or 3 levels).

Or you have a player trying a new type of character and they aren't using half of their good abilities yet. Well, then you may need to move the challenge rating down for them.

Sometimes, you have both of these players (and others) at your table so what do you do?

Listen to find out.

Hey Storytellers,

Eventually, you may be ready to make your own custom RPG adventure and even campaign. This entire podcast is dedicated to helping you do just that and if you already make custom RPG's then our podcast is designed to give you more tools or maybe a way of using your current tools in a different way.

 Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/

Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

Hey Storytellers,

The next step to running a premade is learning how to string together one-off adventures if you want to run these cheaply either from free adventures on the internet or with some patreons dedicated to these.

Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/

Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

Learn how to string many of these together easily in a somewhat coherent story