The last couple posts discussed a technique I call a “Flight Plan” to plan for your monsters’ retreat. The idea is to figure out ahead of time where your monsters will get going when the going gets tough. That way, you don’t have them blundering about in unbelievable ways.

But planning for fleeing monsters is just the start of your trouble. Once they’ve fled, you have to keep track of them. This post presents a technique for keeping track of the shifting encounter setting that arises when monsters move about in response to the player characters. …continue reading Arrivals and Departures: Tracking Moving Monsters

The last article suggested a way to record your plans for adversaries that flee an encounter. In this article, I offer some advice on formulating those plans.

…continue reading Recipe for Retreat

Your heroes have scattered the villanous kobolds that ambushed them. Great. But where will they go? This article presents a technique for planning the monsters’ escape.

…continue reading Planning for Defeat

If you play Call of Cthulhu or another game with a pulp horror setting, you’re going to like this….

I’ve recently stumbled upon a site with all sorts of Lovecraftian props, and it’s a good thing I did. Why? To my horror, I discovered that mine was not the first brilliant mind to consider an article about using props in your pen-and-paper roleplaying game.

…continue reading Mad Props – Handouts for Your Pulp Horror Game

Awhile back, I was searching for someone to create a mascot for EpicTable. I wanted a mascot–an iconic figure, not just a logo. Some creature that would be to EpicTable what Eddie is to Iron Maiden. My search led me to Adam Vehige and his gallery on deviantART.

Along the way, I spent (way too many) hours paging through some really great artwork. I’ve found myself returning to these sites when I need inspiration for an important villian or location.

…continue reading Inspirational Deviants

“We’ll investigate the crypt while the rogue sneaks into the baron’s study.”
Not one of a GMs favorite things to hear. Do your players split up? Mine do–almost perversely often. Sometimes I think they’re just trying to make my life difficult. GMing a split party can be difficult, but thanks to the recent practice provided by my players, I have some thoughts to share.

…continue reading Let’s Split Up! – GM’ing the Split Party

If you’re using a virtual tabletop (or “VT”), you have the option of playing on maps that are much nicer-looking than a wet-erase mat. “Yeah, but I’m not an artist…” you say. The good news is, you don’t have to be. There are a lot of resources out there for the VT map-maker. I’ll introduce you to some of them in this post.
…continue reading Finding Maps: Virtual Tabletop Tips, Part 2

I wanted to call this “Virtual Maps are Better than Physical Maps…Unless You Use Dwarven Forge…And Have Unlimited Funds…And Unlimited Room…And a Really Indulgent Spouse”, but that seemed a little long winded for a title. So, “Maps!”, if only because I’d exhausted my own patience by then.
…continue reading Maps! – Virtual Tabletop Tips, Part 1

Happy New Year! I thought that in keeping with the holiday spirit, I’d talk a bit about using holidays in your campaign world. Holidays are a great
opportunity for you to make your campaign world a little more real to your players. Holidays let you demonstrate that your world isn’t static; time passes, seasons change, and the people of the village don’t exist just to sell beer, swords, and healing to the player characters.

…continue reading Wiggly Inspiration