Well I’m sticking to the plan for some guilt free gaming today, as this post was written yesterday.

Here it comes, today’s hashtag thoughts…

I like things to be simple. It’s so easy when preparing for the next session to over complicate things. To spend lots of time on stuff that just doesn’t get used.

That’s why I became a practitioner of the Way of the Lazy DM as prescribed by Sly Flourish (click HERE for the YouTube playlist going through the steps).

Basically by using the 8 steps described by Sly Flourish to prepare for a session you are concentrating on the activities that will most benefit you whilst running that session. It’s not a ridged you must do all the steps, you do what works for you. It’s about giving yourself the confidence that you are prepared for that session.

There is a companion workbook full of useful tables and 10 generic locations that can be dropped into any campaign.

Mike aka Sly Flourish has even got the process down to 15 minutes! Yep if for whatever reason you hardly have no time at all to prep by using just 3 of the steps you can be ready.

What I like about this approach is the simplicity, and that it’s applicable to any RPG system. It really is a life changer.

Feeling smug I wrote today’s post yesterday! Which means if I write tomorrow’s post today, I can enjoy my friends birthday gaming day guilt free.

Let’s see what I wrote today…

I’d love a RPG based on the classic Asimov Foundation series of books.

I’ve not read the books in decades, but I loved them. I have fond memories of reading them in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and having my mind blown when Asimov linked the Foundation series with his equally awesome Robot series of books. They are the same universe and one big story! OMG!!

Naturally I don’t need to wait for a publisher to create a Foundation inspired RPG. Generic systems like Genesys RPG or the Fate system could be used to run a campaign in the Foundation universe.

Luckily with the books, audiobooks and the soon to be aired Apple TV show there is plenty of source material to refer to, and inspire.

I’m not saying using the generic systems will not require a lot of work to get something players can explore. I think my preference would be the Genesys system. With the Expanded Players Guide and it’s “refined” rules for creating adversaries, vehicles, skill trees and settings the work gets a little easier. The Space Opera setting notes from the core rulebook make a good starting off point. Plus when it eventual comes out the Twilight Imperium: Embers of the Imperium source book might have a lot of useful stuff that could be “borrowed”.

Maybe if the Apple show becomes popular we will see an official RPG for Foundation produced (That seems to be the way of things these days.)

Today is going to be another giant muffin day.

By that I mean I’ll be making more muffins. I’m going to try modifying my basic recipe so it becomes white chocolate and raspberry muffins.

Coffee and a nice muffin are one of life’s little luxuries that help make those me time moments special.

They also make a great treat while running a game session. Sadly for my friends and fellow gamers there hasn’t been an opportunity for them to try them since I got back into baking.

Let’s look at today’s hashtag theme…

Theme for me is just as important a factor as system when choosing an RPG.

If the theme doesn’t excite you then why are you playing a RPG with that theme? It’s why I have no interest in the upcoming D&D campaign/adventure Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos. I wasn’t a fan of the Harry Potteresq setting in MtG. So doing a D&D setting with it, it just isn’t for me. Which is fine. So I won’t be buying it or playing it.

Very often the mechanics of the system you are playing support and help bring out the theme of the RPG you are playing. A good example of this is in the Alien RPG with the stress dice and it’s stress mechanic.

Free League have done a really good job of using the Year Zero engine to bring out that element of stress to the game. Each player has a stress level which determines how many stress dice they roll in addition to their normal dice to make a skill check. They can even opt to take on stress to add a stress die to the check. More dice rolled increases the chances of getting a success. However there is a risk. Roll a 1 on one of those stress die and they have to make a panic roll. If the combined value of their stress level and panic roll is 7 or more then some sort of negative impact affects the player. Which could be as simple as increase their stress level, or at the extreme end make them catatonic.

Naturally being a fan of the Alien movies and comic books from the late 80’s/early 90’s, the theme attracted me. But what sold me was the stress mechanic. It struck me as being really cool.

So themes that are likely to get my interest are the usual fair, such as fantasy (D&D, Realms of Terrinoth, The One Ring), cyberpunk (Cyberpunk Red, Android: Shadow of the Beanstalk), sci-fi (Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 A.D., Paranoia, Alien), post apocalyptic (The End of the World) , and alternative history (Twilight 2000).

What themes grab you?

Nearly had something to break up the monotony of these posts. But life stuff got in the way and the plans had to be cancelled at the last minute.

Here is today’s poorly thought out and constructed post.

I kinda write a bit about RPGs. Nothing intelligent and useful like the likes of Sly Flourish and others.

My writings fit in with this blog, which if you haven’t noticed is more a diary/notes/brain dump of stuff than carefully crafted intelligent useful articles. Maybe some people stumble across this blog and find something useful. That’s a bonus.

You can read my thoughts and ideas for my campaign and sessions I run by following the session planning category of this blog.

Whilst you can see how I think the sessions went by following the post mortem category.

Having the two categories I’ve just mentioned is really useful to me. It makes finding my notes easy, and I hope sharing them may help some-one. But combined they are basically what I’d be putting in a physical notebook for myself.

Following the RPG category captures most (hopefully) of my posts about RPGs irrespective of the system. I do have other systems that I dearly would like to get to the table. But finding interested players has been a challenge. May be I’ll have better luck once our gaming group starts back up playing in real life.

That’s it brief and to the point. More tomorrow.

Another shortish post is in your immediate future giving you some brief thoughts from my mangled mind.

Here is today’s hashtag entry.

So far in my limited time as a DM I’ve used a couple of traps. The first was in the Matt Colville “one shot” for beginning DM’s The Delian Tomb. The other was in the pirate liar that my party of adventurers stumbled into at the start of our campaign.

I try and use things like traps and puzzles/riddles sparingly. I don’t want to be reliant on “gimmicks” or be formulaic when it comes to sessions and what happens in them. I want things to feel natural and authentic when players come across them. So when the party comes across a trap I want them to think “oh this makes sense to be here” and not that it’s something I’ve put there because I can, and to give them something to do.

My preference for trap design is to follow the additional advice given in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything over that in the DMG. I like the advice better, especially the layout and information given for designing your own. Most probably simple traps are the only ones I’ll use.

If I need to create a trap on the fly the Lazy DM Workbook has 5 tables to roll against to generate one. Plus it can also be used to inspire/create one during session prep.

If my players are reading this. There may or may not be a trap or two in your future (once we return to the table).

Wrapping up this post with some sage words from the man himself Matt Colville and Dael Kingsmill on the subject.

Not much to say here so let’s skip to the meat of the post…

I’ve gone with the alternate theme Tribute today.

Historically a tribute has meant a “payment made periodically by one state or ruler to another, especially as a sign of dependence.”

In my campaign I made use of a bit of lore for Mintarn from The Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide involving the dragon Hoondarrh, the Red Rage of Mintarn.

The lore specifically spoke of a yearly tribute that the Red Rage demanded from the people of Mintarn.

The party of adventurers were hired to guard the small fishing town of Queen’s Cove contribution to the tribute as it was sent to Mintarn. On the way they were attacked by sahuagin who were trying to steal the contribution. An attack they successfully repelled.

In Mintarn the party of adventurers ended up being asked “nicely” to escort the whole tribute to the home of the Red Rage on a nearby island by the Tyrant of Mintarn.

A bigger sahuagin raiding party tried stealing the tribute whilst it was at sea. After a very very close battle on board the groups ship they defeated the sahuagin, and delivered the tribute.

Once back at Mintarn the party were rewarded with some magic items.

I liked how I used the tribute as a plot device. It worked really well. It’s certainly one I’d return to in the future.

I’m phoning it in today. Just knackered. Need rest.

There are some really great supplements out there for which ever system you play.

My favourite ones are campaign settings like Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, Eberron: Rising from the Last War, and Guildmasters of Ravnica, Android: Shadow of the Beanstalk to name a handful.

I love how they combine lore, character options, new monsters, themes and genres to fuel the imagination for your own campaigns.

There are also a rather lot of great supplements online by independent designers in places such as DriveThruRPG and The DMGuild. Think of a subject and you will probably find some-one has done it on one of those platforms. Tables to roll against, lore, new classes, new monsters, the list goes on. And the standard of the supplements produced is usually very high as well.

Let’s hope tomorrow is a better day.

And yes I’m still doing this hashtag.

So shut up, stop complaining and go and do something a lot more entertaining like watching grass grow.

Oh if that’s too much excitement for you here is today’s post.

I was looking at some of my newer RPG books such as the Alien RPG, Cyberpunk Red, Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 A.D. and they show that the older D&D DMG isn’t the only core rulebook that doesn’t include advice about running a session zero and in particular using safety tools (although the Alien core rulebook does give some questions to ask the players about their party and characters at a “session zero”). Which is kinda disappointing.

It wasn’t until Tasha’s came out that we got a couple of pages from WotC about running a session zero, social contracts and soft/hard limits. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft added to this with talking about content with the players. Which it should do as it is a book about running horror campaigns in D&D.

I really like how Alice is Missing handles providing information to players before and at the start of the session. An example is below.

“Just a heads up, this game inherently deals with a missing teenage girl in a small town, and all of the topics that can arise when that happens. Our characters will be the people closest to her attempting to unravel the mystery behind her disappearance. Because of this, themes like tense family dynamics, grief, death, violence, jealousy, and helplessness can and often do come up during the game.

If this sounds like something you might be sensitive to or triggered
by, please don’t hesitate to let me know—even if this is something you only realize during play —your safety and well-being are always more important than the game.” Alice is Missing manual

It doubles down on this warning and discusses the use of X cards as part of the games setup. Alice is Missing goes even further on all the above by telling players to have a debrief after finishing the adventure to ensure players are ok after dealing with such difficult subjects.

Personally I’d like publishers to follow the Alice is Missing example and have CONTENT & TRIGGER WARNINGS at the start of each published adventure for DM/GMs to reference. This I feel would be a great help in that session zero for DM/GMs to discuss with the players. But also in aiding the selection of which adventure to play.

Sly Flourish has a great two pages (“Session Zero Checklist” and “RPG Safety Tools”) in his Uncovered Secrets document on his Patreon, that are great references to use as a starting off point.

The safety tool that a group uses should be something that everyone agrees on during the session zero as part of the whole discussion about the content and triggers. Everyone should be comfortable with what’s being put in place, and know how to use it during a session.

I think it’s great that these safety tools are being discussed and used more. But no matter how good these tools are they don’t fully protect you from a DM/GM who is just a massive dick (as one or two high profile examples over recent years have shown). To stop that one you need experience to spot the warning signs (which hindsight is great at) and the confidence to walk away from the table (much harder to do) when they deliberately do things they know will trigger players.

However the majority of DM/GMs are not massive dicks and want everyone to feel welcome, included, and have fun. There will be odd occasions when they stumble onto something that causes a player to feel uncomfortable, but that’s not deliberate, and the reason the safety tools are there. They take that final bit of the Alice is Missing quote above “…even if this is something you only realize during play —your safety and well-being are always more important than the game.” very seriously.

Be safe and have fun.

Unlucky for some, and definitely those that read this blog. I’m back with my 13th post for this hashtag.

Let’s get the pain over with…

Three floods come to mind.

The first is from the D&D Starter Set adventure, Lost Mine of Phandelver. After surviving the initial goblin ambush on the Triboar Trail our party stumbled upon the Cragmaw Hideout. If I remember correctly the goblins did manage to trigger the flooding of the main passage catching a couple members of the party. The majority of us were safely on higher ground.

The second flood that comes to mind is the flooded gladiator arena for a historical recreation of an infamous halfling battle that my players took part in, in our campaign.

This encounter was based on the Adventure League adventure called Shackles of Blood (DDEX3-2). I share some notes on it in my session planning notes here and how it went here.

The third and final flood I thought of was one for a setting for the Genesys RPG Android: Shadow of the Beanstalk to be used in a one shot/campaign.

The setting takes place after the events detailed in the Android novella Monster Slayer by Daniel Lovat Clark.

I thought having the campaign/one shot take place after the tsunami hitting New Angeles would be a good way to explain how the party all ended up meeting (assuming the characters did not know each other before hand) and why they only had the equipment/gear that they had with them.

And there we have it, three floods that come to mind fir today’s theme.

We are fastly approaching the mid point of this hashtag stuff. There have been more than one or two that I’ve struggled with, and it’s shown.

But hey we are here now. So let’s look at today’s theme.

“Think (think)
Think (think)
Think (think)
Think (think)
You think (think)
Think (think)
Think about it (think)” Aretha Franklin/Ted White

Obviously with today’s theme, apart from the rather excellent song sung by Aretha Franklin in the bloody amazing cult classic The Blues Brothers now an ear worm for the rest of the day. I associate the theme with problem solving and puzzles.

I haven’t run a puzzle in my homebrew campaign yet. I like the idea of them, but have run shy of actually doing one.

With the Matt Colville intro adventure The Delian Tomb from his now very well known web series on being a DM, there is a simple riddle/puzzle. Which would qualify as the only puzzle I have used as a DM.

In the D&D Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything we are given some puzzles that can be dropped into any campaign on the fly. However that chapter of the book starts with a bit of great advice.

Which mirrors a DM tip I got off Twitter last year I think. It was definitely before Tasha’s came out.

Which takes a bit of the pressure off the DM, especially during prep.

The puzzle with no solution could be an obstacle of some sort to overcome like having to cross a river or chasm. It could be a locked door. Your imagination is the limit.

I also have a small, and I mean small bank of puzzles I can utilise for a game such as the Gygax Ingenious Door Puzzle.

There are also more than a few third party puzzle books on DriveThruRPG or the DMGuild, especially from older editions that still can be used.

More tomorrow, see you then.