Campaign Mastery

Part one of this series used six tables to define the physical properties of a tavern (no guest accommodations) or inn (with guest accommodations), plus – because the modifiers needed were at hand – the meals provided by the kitchens. Part two used another six tables to determine everything that directly contributed to the ambience […]

Chatting with a fellow GM on twitter recently, I was reminded of a technique that I use from time to time to generate backstories, that I thought I would share, in somewhat fuller and more developed form than I was able to convey in a handful of 140-character tweets! There are two ways to use […]

Part one of this series used six tables to define the physical properties of a tavern (no guest accommodations) or inn (with guest accommodations), plus – because the modifiers needed were at hand – the meals provided by the kitchens. Part two used another six tables to determine everything that directly contributed to the ambiance […]

This month’s blog carnival is being hosted by Johnn over at Roleplaying Tips. The subject is Curses…. Curses are pretty weak and trivial things in D&D/Pathfinder, let’s be honest. This is especially the case in light of the spell level of Bestow Curse and Remove Curse – I mean Cleric 3, Sorcerer/Wizard 4, just for […]

Part one of this series used six tables to define the physical properties of a tavern (no guest accommodations) or inn (with guest accommodations), plus – because the modifiers needed were at hand – the meals provided by the kitchens. Part two used another six tables to determine everything that directly contributed to the ambiance […]

The Context Saxon, one of my players and a fellow GM who has contributed guidance through ATGMs on a number of occasions was telling an anecdote the other week about what transpired in the D&D 5e campaign that he plays in. It seems that one of the players was unable to attend. That happens in […]

In part one of this series, six tables (and one set of subtables) defined the physical properties of a tavern (no guest accommodations) or inn (with guest accommodations), plus – because the modifiers needed were at hand – the meals provided by the kitchens. (This is an era when “restaurants” (i.e. locations for the sole […]

How do you work accents into your speech patterns for voicing NPCs? I have three techniques that I use repeatedly, and two general principles that I rely on continuously. Today’s article is going to look at these five secret weapons in my characterization arsenal (some of which I have described before, I must admit, though […]

The Palomino and Fox and other establishments: Mike’s Fantasy Tavern Generator Pt 1 Preface As part of the series on Beginner GMs, I promised a Fantasy Tavern Generator after showing how you could start with one Tavern and ring in variation after variation as needed. This is a little more complex than the example provided […]