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Gamemastering
Keep your campaign moving with these proven techniques.
The way characters talk and the words they use can be helpful worldbuilding tools for the GM.
As a GM, this is true no matter what game you are playing or with what group.
Guest author Erwan Raoudaut has bent the Airtable online database to his will, and uses it to manage his campaign. Now he reveals all his secrets.
Intricate settings full of history, factions, and wonder can be intimidating. Here are some tips on how to approach them as a GM.
Some people use Trello for tracking business projects. Others use it for far more important purposes, like managing tabletop roleplaying campaigns.
It can be hard for new GMs to get past the nuts and bolts of game mechanics and into actually running sessions. Here are some tips that may help.
How do other gamemasters run their games? Here is how Erwan Roudaut keeps his campaign running smoothly.
Liam Stevens from the popular Mud & Blood podcast reveals how he manages his game mastering and preps for sessions.
If you are new to game mastering it can seem overwhelming. But these three tips should help you relax a bit as you prep to run your first session.
Looking for inspiration for your next campaign?
It can be a lot of fun to subvert gaming tropes, but it is also important not to go too far with it.
Yes, it can be cheesy, but CW’s post-apocalyptic serial is propulsive. Everything is in motion, nothing can be taken for granted. And the show provides insights for gamemasters.
It is tempting to think of NPCs as bundles of stats, but the most interesting of them are personalities that catch the attention of players.
Find out what separates post-apocalyptic campaigns and how as a GM you can bring those differentiators to the table.
The US government’s survivability plans can provide useful inspiration for your post-apocalypse campaign.
With a one-shot you can provide a new perspective inside an ongoing campaign without derailing the central narrative.
Ever wondered what the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG is like? Read this to see how the new Han Solo movie conveys the feel of EotE.
The concept of Minimum Viable Product, adapted from the world of software development, can be used to help gamemasters focus on first things first.
Two nonfiction books provide lots of information and inspiration for gamemasters interested in running post-apocalypse campaigns.
The iPad Pro is tailor-made for reading full-sized PDFs. But how else can it be used for tabletop roleplaying?
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Reviews
The two-volume Justitian setting book describes the Protectorate and the largest city in Europe, and gives the GM NPCs and plot hooks galore. Read all about it.
What happens when a group that last played Cyberpunk in the 80s gets together to give Cyberpunk Red a try?
What was it all like before everyone started squabbling about tabletop roleplaying? What was it like when everyone just played the old school way?
Tales from the Loop is more than just a game about an alternative 1980s – for guest writer Wouter Goedkoop, it is a kind of return to that decade.
The new Artifacts supplement for Degenesis provides optional rules, Bygone artifacts, and lots of other goodies. But how useful is it at the table?
A box of dungeongoing goodies guide good games.
The new D&D Essentials Kit differs from the previous beginner boxed set in several respects, and is a solid offering.
If you’ve ever wished for a comprehensive introduction to tabletop roleplaying, filled with tips for players and GMs, take a look at this.
Black Atlantic is the third and final adventure in the Jehammed Trilogy for Degenesis . In this guest post Pablo Ruiz Valls provides his assessment of the book.
After six sessions of running a campaign, it is time for a follow-up to my initial review of Degenesis with notes about the In Thy Blood published adventure.
What happens when a concept design studio puts out a huge two-volume tabletop roleplaying game? This in-depth review answers that question.
The Aukey Ora macro attaches to your phone. How well does it work for photographing minis?
Rogue One is a departure, a side path that showcases previously unseen sides of Star Wars .
What do you get when you merge post-apocalyptic skirmish rules with elements of tabletop roleplaying? Find out within!
Why do we play the games we play? This personal journey delves into that question and explores how gaming and the rest of our lives intertwine.
Age of Rebellion is focused on the fight against the Empire. But how well does is stand up in actual play?
On a Roll is a guidebook for tabletop roleplaying, covering a broad range of topics.
The dark underbelly of the galaxy has always drawn Star Wars fans. How well does the Edge of the Empire game evoke it?
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Administrative
After a long hiatus, I’ve finally given UJ a well-deserved overhaul.
An update on website traffic, which pages and blog posts were most popular, and what other UJ trends appeared in 2020.
Sometimes you have to take a step back and assess.
An update on website traffic, which pages and blog posts were most popular, and what other UJ trends appeared in 2018 and 2019.
In what has become an annual tradition, I offer a year in review analysis of UJ and thoughts on what’s coming in the next year.
Sometimes you gotta step back.
An update on website traffic, which pages and blog posts were most popular, and what other UJ trends appeared in 2016.
After making a few changes to UJ, I need to assess the future of the site and how much time I am willing to devote to it.
An update on website traffic, which pages and blog posts were most popular, and what other UJ trends appeared in 2015.
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Expanding
The Three Factors approach to classifying tabletop RPGs gets a few refinements.
What if there were a way to classify games without making reference to what agendas they support?
Some games are just different enough to make you re-examine what is possible.
OK, I admit it sounds a bit ludicrous, but if you were on a desert island with your friends, what TTRPGs would you want on hand?
Sure, everyone knows about the retro-future of Fallout . And old-timers remember the mutant-packed Gamma World . But there are other sorts of apocalypses.
‘You see the phrase all the time, often in reference to successful games. So how are we to reconcile the popularity of broken games?’
If you are looking to branch out from D&D , you may want to consider a tabletop RPG based off a franchise you already know from TV, films, or video games.
D&D is the 800-lb gorilla of the tabletop roleplaying world, but there are lots of other mammals out there. Let us take a look at a few of them.
Answering the inevitable question of which RPG is best requires a bit more definition up front.
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Guides
‘The Degenesis setting is complex, and can seem overwhelming at first. This guide will help you make sense of it so you can start playing.’
The two big books and richly detailed setting can make Degenesis appear intimidating. Here is a smooth onramp to the game.
GURPS has a reputation for complexity. In this post we get a painless breakdown of how to get started and the best path to GURPS mastery.
Glorantha is one of the oldest settings in the world of tabletop roleplaying, and there are now multiple ways to have adventures in its many lands.
Playing D&D 5e in the Forgotten Realms? Here are dozens of links to setting materials and adventures going all the way back to AD&D.
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Observations
Tabletop roleplaying games give us room to try things we wouldn’t otherwise attempt. Making use of a broader emotional palette is one of them.
Hint: It involves dice and rulebooks and a great group of people devoted to gaming.
If you are discovering tabletop roleplaying by way of a streaming show and are curious how to run games at your own table, this is the place for you.
We often think we are into tabletop RPGs so we can play them. But maybe there is more to it than that.
In any collaborative creative endeavor there are occasional moments when everything comes together just right.
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Impressions
Adventures in a realm of Viking mythology await in this Kickstarter-funded game from a father-son team.
Quest is a new game that takes an unconventional approach in pursuit of two goals: making it easier for newcomers to get rolling, and facilitating online play.
Ever wanted to run Eclipse Phase using more narrative mechanics or just less crunchy mechanics? You get both with this conversion guide.
In the same neighborhood where I had played Arduin way back in the 80s, I was introduced to DCC , a game that really did make me feel like I was back in that era.
After an initial session, here are some thoughts on Tales from the Loop .
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Hobby
We need to pay attention to what is happening to the hobby.
In the 1980s, lack of information shaped how gamers and non-gamers perceived the hobby.
People are drawing the wrong conclusion from an opinion piece in Christianity Today .
Back in the day, and I mean waaay back in the day, the high school library was the go-to location for many a tabletop RPG session.
Back in the day the hobby was different in more ways than you might think.
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Gamers
The Kickstarter for Song of Swords is in full swing, and this Q&A with one of the people behind the game digs into the details.
This is the story of a gamer who reached the end of the line and decided to turn in his dice.
The tabletop roleplaying hobby is more diverse than the one-dimensional nerd tropes of old would have us believe. These profiles of four gamers illustrate that point.
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Starting
If you are curious about tabletop RPGs, this video will help.
The results of the totally unscientific UJ investigation are clear: D&D is not the only onramp to tabletop roleplaying.
There are more onramps to the hobby than you might think.
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Industry
For years there has been an ongoing discussion about whether 5e has been a bane or boon for the larger TTRPG industry.
Looking at D&D as a product, rather than as a set of game rules, what accounts for its continued sales growth?
Fifth Edition D&D has obviously been selling well. But how well? Only WotC knows for sure, but we can make some educated guesses.
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Roleplaying
As a GM or player there are myriad ways to use tattoos in your game, as Erwan Roudaut explains.
Few things are as contentious in tabletop roleplaying as the concept of character alignment. Here are three different lenses for looking at it.
We all know there are many ways to play D&D , but if you follow these links, you will get a taste of just how much range that encompasses.
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Inspiration
Put The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity on your reading list.
The graphic novel Whiteout is a classic for its spare visual presentation and tight writing. But it also provides inspiration for gamemasters.
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Society
In the 1980s, lack of information shaped how gamers and non-gamers perceived the hobby.
People are drawing the wrong conclusion from an opinion piece in Christianity Today .
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Resources
These days there are dozens and dozens of tabletop RPG podcasts. But you can also find inspiration in other places.
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