73 Ways to Bypass a Guard

Ever have that one guard who refuses to leave his or her post? Even sleeping guards can cause an adventurer problems if their apnea kicks in. Here is a partial list of potential paths past that pesky protector.

Building Better Locations: Relationships

When it comes to building a better realm for your players to play in, the most often overlooked aspect of location building is the relationship our dungeons/towns/ports have to the world around them. If you don't spend time nursing these relationships, your locations will feel cold and fake.

A Better Kind of Long Rest

When your player characters first arrive in a town, they may be invited to stay in the palace of the king or camp with guards outside the city walls. However, barring a plot-specific reason why their accommodations are already taken care of, how can "we take a long rest" become more than just hit point dice rolls? Can resting be an adventure all its own? I think it can.

Map of the Day: Malford's Launch

Malford's Launch is a growing ferry stop located on the primary route that runs up and down the east coast of the local region. The ferry connects the town to Malford Island -- approximately six miles offshore. While the ferry has been around for over a century, the town has been growing impressively over the past decade as a result of residential growth on Malford Island. The ferry is run by the local liege lord and is quite mundane compared to the power struggles between original residents and immigrants elsewhere in town.

Culture of the Day: Lumpfzball

The most exciting sporting events in the kingdom are the massively popular Lumpfzball contests. Held every year at the end of winter, Lumpfzball is a cross between jousting and dodge ball.

99 Ways to Circumvent a Locked Door

So, you just failed your "unlock the door" check and you're desperate to see what's on the other side of the door. Could it be a cache of weapons? Could it be a cache of armor? Could it just be some cash? You may never know because the dice refuse to cooperate.

But the one thing about table top role playing games is that game masters LOVE creativity. And if you use your noodle to circumvent the locking mechanism in some unusual way, they'll probably make sure that whatever is on the other side of the door is equal in impressiveness to the solution you used to solve their problem.

The Problem with Published Modules

Flexibility in the face of unforeseen change is a fundamental part of what makes TTRPGs fun. Sadly, published adventure modules are, in my opinion, deeply flawed by the very fact that they are designed to send players down a strict path of content without consideration for player input.

In a game genre where the word "railroading" is as dirty as any four-letter offering you can muster, published modules openly embrace this design flaw and turn it into a full-fledged game mechanic.

Map of the Day: Garthmound

Garthmound is a medium-sized fishing village located on the major trade road between two large cities. At first only an emergency stop for those seeking a nice fish dinner, it has grown over the past two decades into a legitimate trading hub full of local vendors. However, the fisheries have also continued to grow -- pitting the major players against one another as they jostle to control the river.

10 Things Every RPG Town Must Have

When it comes to designing a town for your table top role playing game (TTRPG), there are some questions that will come up on a regular basis that -- if you haven't thought them through in advance -- could trip up the flow of your game as you fumble for the answers. In this article, I'd like to present the ten things you need to have in your fantasy village, town, or city design in order to make sure that the people who live there don't die a horrible death.

Types of Quest Giver

Many game masters complain that there is no variety in the sources of quests in a table top game because most people hyper focus on the various non-player characters (NPCs) they meet in the world. As a bonus post today, I want to talk about alternative sources of player quests and then specifically list the types of quest givers -- both sentient and non-sentient -- that a party of adventurers may find as they play the game.