Campaign Mastery

Techniques developed to write last week’s “Getting The Most From AI 2026” and their relevance. plus some bonus tips. Perplexity AI strongly recommended that I write a follow-up to last week’s post detailing the methodology used to construct the article, because it featured a number of ‘clever innovations’ that it had never seen before – […]

AI is a tool. You have to learn to use it correctly. This post is intended as a guide for GMs who want to try using it that way. This post has been lurking in my to-do list for so long that the ground has shifted beneath it, and not all the original advice that […]

GMs can take a lot of the strain off by worldbuilding within their encounters. It’s easier than it sounds! Any genre. I’ve been increasingly frustrated lately by dramatic headlines that offer two choices, neither realistic, only for the whole of the content that follows to knock down one of the two and assert that this […]

Three roleplaying tips for both players and GMs regarding the conveying of emotions. A short but universally applicable post. Tip One: Tone A basic roleplaying tip for anyone at the game table, today, especially useful for beginners. Tone of voice can be used to convey all sorts of emotional states, including quite complex ones. When […]

Discomfort niggles, nags, distracts, and exhausts – for everyone. Until now, there have been no rules for simulating this. If it’s good enough for elite athletes to take into account, it’s good enough for an RPG. Another quick World Cup -inspired post today. During the Qatar v. Switzerland match (in Portland, I think), played in […]

This post offers a way to create unique original names on the fly, selecting for cultural relevance as you go. It’s another shortish one to help me stay on-schedule while devoting time to the bigger articles to come! I was half-watching a FIFA world cup preview on YouTube when the hosts flashed up a list […]

There can be huge benefits to undertaking measures that will improve the delivery of languages (real or alien) and accents at the game table. The article below contains a lot of advice for the delivery of foreign-language speech and accented speech at the game table. You don’t have to adopt all of it – find […]

Colors are often associated with emotional states. Remapping them can create uniqueness for non-human races and cultures. This is something of a filler article. The one that I’ve been working on all week on Futuristic and Alien tech is around the 10K words already but isn’t quite going to be ready in time. I thought […]

World-building through an exotic cuisine technique, it’s easier than you might think – AND more effective. This post is one of those ideas that comes to you out of nowhere but, as you’ll see, as a technique, it’s worth sharing. One of the hardest things to do is to convey a sense of the action […]

A process for designing & constructing big or complex things, from spells to magic items, castles to space stations, industrial processes to political campaigns, new chemistries to better TVs and AC systems, using something every RPG already has. The real world caught up with me somewhat in the course of writing this article – I […]

A technique for creating unique and interesting characters that makes their cultures more rich and detailed. Simple but comprehensive. I was reading something on Quora the other day about how Deep Space 9 used the overall concept of Ferengi Traits to make the personalities of Quark, Rom and Nog distinctive (and don’t worry if you […]

Ripple plotlines use domino chains that feed back to the main plotline while cascading out to trigger other plotlines in a chain reaction. They can start from the most apparently inconsequential act or decision and grow until whole Kingdoms hang from them like Christmas baubles. Today (as I write this) is Australia Day, our equivalent […]