RPG Mainframe (rpg-mainframe)

Adventure inversion, dramatic questions, and so-called dump-statting hit the creativity desk, as we examine new ways to mix up adventure design.

The campaign thinky-series continues as I take a look at my notes for starting and concluding your next campaign. Are these methods helpful? Do you have your own mantras for campaign starting and ending? 

There's something wonderful in culling many ideas to one. To nailing one thing before moving on. It's also called building from the bottom up, and Wildemount does it brilliantly. 

Jorbin and I discuss the changes we've faced and how the hobby gets through it all.

A creepy ghost story, and a discussion of implementing deadliness, lethal defenses and other fast-kill methods into your boss designs.

"If there is no death, there is no game." Handling player catastrophes with grace and skill.

Three clutch criteria for deciding whether or not new, created or assimilated mechanics matter in your game. 

All mailbag all the time as I spend some time thinking on reader comments and questions. How do you increase the enthusiasm and 'in-it-ness' of your players? Here's my best six answers.

In this RPG talk, I get into using your own internal urges to guide creativity, rather than so-called 'ideas.' Get after it!

Our brains are wired to take special note of the unusual. Sounds handy, right? In fact, it contributes to a distorted view of the actual world. This podcast explores how being self-aware of your own exception bias can help create a more holistic sense of creative life.

The book I mention here can be grabbed on Amazon. Brilliant read that is very salient for our times.  https://www.amazon.com/Humankind-Hopeful-History-Rutger-Bregman/dp/0316418536

Another round of answering readers questions!

Let's kick this thing off! I take some time to process some of the key reader questions that started the MAINFRAME in the first place.

My new lifestyle has removed most of the common trappings of any tabletop game. Weird thing is, this has proven a boon.

Get your pen and paper ready for this one. I propose a method to marry the opposing forces of GM prep and true player agency. No easy love affair, but with a few 'blobs and fingers,' I think I have an answer.

We all love lore.. it sets us off in new directions, sparks ideas, informs players. I take some time to explore some unseen lore from my world of Alfheim. 

Let's take a minute to consider how we can make TotM all it's destined to be.

After the awesome RIN CON, I reflect on things learned.

One of the most acclaimed episodes of Mainframe talks about making your GM prep part of your weekly fun habit. Can prep be as fun as playing? 

The RPG Mainframe returns! Listen in as Jorbin and I chat about what's next.

5 sessions of bone crushing action into my new at-home table game, and things have gone bonkers. Come hang out, I take a minute to catch you up on every detail of how I planned it, and what happened despite those plans!

Once again, reader questions answered.

A huge topic for huge creative moments. Let's take it apart.

Our hobby is evolving at a crazy rate these days, and yet I see so many tables swirling in a confusing morass of slow play, burdensome math, and lopsided player attention. Rally with me to a better future!

Reader mail! Make 'em retreat? JUNK'D updates. How to execute kickass intro's. Come and hang out a while.

CHUNKS are simple conceptual pieces of monsters, vehicles, or hazards that include abilities. Destroy the CHUNK, eliminate the ability. The uses are many... here are a few ideas.

Take some time to analyze your own pushing and pulling behaviors as a GM. A dynamic balance of assertive and passive components will make your game, like any good conversation, feel good to all present.

Hang around for some mailbag questions and our discussion on improv with special guest Josh Holober-Ward of Sidequest Theater.

This episode throws a blob of playable material your way, as our little goblin hero makes his way to a magical tower and (certain?) doom.

I take a break from the usual and answer all kinds of reader mail.

I stumble on a new way to attain conceptual command of my session prep, rather than deeper, more detailed note taking and re-processing. Write, forget, write again, remember. This is the MFT! 

Join me for a talk about confronting what you're 'currently struggling with' and the three methods I've working on to improve my NPC game at the table.

In this oddball episode, I experiment with direct 'read-aloud' type text for my adventure: Doomvault.

As I faced the uncertainty of running a new cyberpunk campaign, I discovered a useful dichotomy in my thinking: working toward moments of feeling versus moments of revelation. Join me for another critical look at how we create.

Take a deep dive with me into the oath featured in Index Card RPG. Be awesome, take the oath!

I take a long, folded path to explain my recent revelations about creating and recording stats for my monsters. My new thesis? Trust your reader (even if its you!) and write far less than you think you need to. The key is differentiation, NOT detail.

This episode of Mainframe goes deep on how the 'plan 1 night at a time' method works, if ICRPG is suited to long term play, and how campaigns can ever be published when they are so dynamic.

It's finally over: almost 5 months of weekly play in the ALTERED STATE world of guns, AI, and world-ending schemes! In this episode, I take some time to think back on the highlights of our campaign, and the GM lessons I walked away with.

I take a moment to ponder the future, and how language impacts my game.

In this episode, I pontificate on three aspects of RPG creativity you just can't do without.

At the core of all RPG making is writing. This podcast explores some of my practices and ideas for better written material, and happier brain.

In this think-and-ponder, I get into my long-standing relationship with Sun Tzu, and its evergreen effect on me as a designer and dice-roller. 

Your mind, and its ability to apply itself, see new possibilities, and be truly authentic is the key to your creativity. Join me in this special episode to explore three ancient methods to enhance your mind, and more importantly : YOU. 

In this episode, I go deep into the art of mastering your campaign's MIDDLE. It's before the end and after the beginning, and the end of the middle means the beginning of the ending.. wait... Oh, just listen to the podcast.

25 days of crazy work to create my system-free play world: Bearcats. Here's the play by play on the hurdles and triumphs. 

Enhance your dungeon designs by mindfully 'switching the music' and more to build variety and excitement. Come hang out a bit as I muse on a method to push your dungeon designs further.

All great games need motion in their intensity... something building up. This talk focuses on methods and ideas for that... the art of escalation.

The slow knife penetrates the shield! This episode talks about slowly cooking the intensity of your game, a thing worth the effort!

Current events are grabbing a LOT of our attention these days. How do you satisfy that urge to be relevant, but not clumsy, with your creativity? How can you give your hobby time that feeling of mattering when the world is in such struggle? Here are a few ideas at answering these tough questions.

Know where you came from! I realized while playing Chrono Trigger that almost all my ideas come from that wonderful game in some form. This isn't a bummer, but a new wellspring of creative renewal. Join me for a spirited report of my recent playthrough and deep-think.

Four key bullets to create and improvise a unique culture in your RPG world.

Just a straight gab on dice, where they came from, why we love 'em, what brands are my favorites, and how they get used in RPG's! No big theory here, just chewin' the fat.

Let's take some time to consider spells and how to get every ounce of cool out of them in our games.

Join me in this deep think of knowing too much, through the eyes of Dr. Manhatten.

Knowing your 'Whole Truth' is the key to improvising continuity, nuance, intrigue and emotion in a session. In this episode, I apply this to my adventure 'Hell's Hearth.'

Long have designers sought a truly GM-less game system. Is it a thing worth pursuing?

Is it bad? Is it great? Let's talk about the concept of forcing a series of events, and all it has to offer or deny a good game table.

I take some time to sit and talk about how we can find more mental energy for our games by releasing our prep, expectations, and concerns when we're at the table. I've only got so much brain power, so I need it HERE! NOW!

This episode has me hollerin' about my ups and downs creating the new supers supplement for ICRPG... VIGILANTE CITY. It was a wacky road, but as always, let's find ways to ENJOY our creative projects and let go of expectations and baggage.

This meaty episode explores the method of 'attacking' your room target, making everything easier if possible for players. Dynamic roll targets rock, so let's get into it. 

I go into some cognitive research on using pen and paper over digital tools. Let's get all sciencey, and reinforce what I see as the absolute CORE of what we do (yes, even moreso than DICE!) ... writing.

Why are we so engrossed in this glorious hobby? What is it we truly seek? Let's look within for answers, and take it seriously.

In this episode, I reveal the winding path I took to realize how valuable disposable work is, developing creative muscle, and facing hard truths! Join me for the twists and turns of a GM staring down a new campaign.

After a few hours of yelling at the clouds, I think I have an answer to why the dice cannot be fudged, why absolute honesty binds us at the table, and how an ancient way of thinking  can overcome relativistic arguments the feel like poo. 

Let's stop grinding gears with the term 'attention defecit.' I think of it as Attention Surplus Syndrome. A. S. S. Let's taco 'bout it. 

In this episode, inspired by THE ORDER OF THE AMBER DIE, I dive into tracking stats in your game, and how it can lead you to a THESIS on the improvements you've been craving. 

I take an episode to talk about my compact sci-fi PDF adventure: The Mercury Dale.

I take a few minutes to recollect and reconnoiter on ICRPG work, new creative frontiers, and Beyonce. A zany episode.

In this episode, I talk about possible dangers and 'incoming perils' in my Warp Shell sci-fi setting.

Don't just make a bunch of tunnels and rooms, give your next dungeon a potent theme using power words!

A dive into my methods and struggles writing my choose-your-path novel RETUNE. The how, the why, and what it means for the game master inside us all!

Thoughts and feels after a weekend in RPG crazy land!

Presenting monsters in groups is cool, but even better is a 'set' of foes that present variable challenges all at once. Let's get into it.

The fiction of Lovecraft has influenced so much of D&D... let's take a closer look.