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Game Master's Laboratory
422 members • Free
39 contributions to Game Master's Laboratory
22d •
Intro
Hi! I'm Michelle. I've been playing TTRPGS for over 10 years at least. In my first DnD group, we would swap turns being the DM. I love worldbuilding and collaborative storytelling. I have some ideas but not really anyone to implement them with. I'm not looking for a group though, lol. I'm in too many already. I am curious to learn from other DMs. Nice to meet you all!
2 likes • 21d
Hi Michelle! Welcome! If your schedule permits, try to hit one of the Friday day or Wednesday night coffe talks -- it's a bunch of GMs around talking about issues, ideads, new games, and anything else that comes to mind. I've had a lot of fun attending them!
24d •
GenCon 2026 Megathread
GenCon is upon us! This thread is for organizing social and gaming meetups for everyone who will be in Indy for GenCon this year. If you'll be attending this year, post in this thread! Let us know what you're playing, what you WANT to play, and connect with other forum members who will be there this year. See you all there!
2 likes • 24d
Hi folks! Most of my games are sold out, but I will be doing demos in the Monte Cook Games room on Thursday 10-12 and 4-6 and Saturday 4-6. There is also room in my “Fear Itself” master class which is Friday at 11 and Saturday at 1 I do have some odd scraps of free time here and there. Anyone up for breakfast on Thursday? What are people doing Sunday post Gen Con?
1 like • 24d
@Briggs Schneider I hope to be doing this next year! (that is, demoining my new TTRPG)
29d •
Draw Steel's Codex
Sort of a gushing post, in case anyone wanted to try Draw Steel. I've used a lot of VTTs. More than I should have haha, I struggled through Roll20's free tier for many years, messed around with Owlbear Rodeo, and spent many hours tinkering with Foundry modules. I even attempted running sessions in tabletop simulator (which I strongly encourage most people to never do! We lost a lot to an accidental tableflip) I got a free copy of Draw Steel's Codex, made specifically for that system, because I backed the game when it crowdfunded. I finally got around to using it, and man, I wish every VTT was like this haha, so much useful stuff. The game tracking things are nice, but it also has extremely good music management, UIs, rolling features, and built-in mapmaking that has just always made me dread using other options. AND it has community modules that are free and plug into anything. The mapmaking in particular---I love my story RPGs, but a big reason I shifted away from more tactical ones was because I ran many of my games online, and maps were just such a miserable chore, especially a few years ago. It's very easy in this one, it tracks verticality, and it tracks game rules! If you lay down brush on the map, the VTT knows it's difficult terrain. It's a little gamified for a lot of my RPG games, but when I'm in the mood for something tactical, I really like it. Just thought I'd throw this out there in case anyone was looking into it/finds it interesting. Anyone have their favored VTTs, or games to play online? I'm returning to primarily online games now that I'm out of college, so I'm brushing up on my virtual RPG skills haha
0 likes • 28d
Maybe I'm confused... is"Codex" a purpose built VTT designed for Draw Steel? Or is it a set of files and uploads designed for a specific VTT?
Sep '25 •
Book Recommendations
So I recently finished reading through Jonah and Tristan’s role playing book as well as Return of the Lazy DM. Both excellent reads by the way and you should check them out as a game master, but does anyone suggest other books on running games?
1 like • 29d
I'll go out on a limb and say that I read "Lazy DM" and didn't care for it, but I could see how it could appeal to a lot of folks. It's not that I disagreed with him, I just didn't get anything really new out of reading it. That was better than my reaction to "Arbiter of Worlds" by Alexander Macris, which actively pissed me off to the point that I was yelling at my Kindle ;-) It was long enough ago (and I've blocked enough of it) that I can't actually give details about what I didn't like -- which I know makes this a less than useful review -- but, boy, do I remember how much I disliked it ;-)
Jun 8 •
Evening, all. How the hell do I get my players to care about doing anything?
I run games at my local high school. So, so many of the players (students) just sit in front of me and stare at me with dead eyes. These kids are good kids, too! And I don't want to fall into the boomerism of "kids these days are addicted to their phones", but it's like none of them even want to do anything, they just wait for me to say something, try and make a Marvel-esque "zinger", and turn the game into a shitty comedy routine. I gave them a goal, I gave them like 10 different places to go or people to talk to, just as a beginning, and they didn't do anything. The campaign is ending tomorrow, but does anyone have advice for next year's game?
0 likes • 29d
So... actions have consequences. The party has been told to deliver the healing herbs to Johan, the village elder. The party also -- after some deliberation -- takes one of the slower routes, say the Mountain Pass. Maybe while going through the mountains they see a pack of spotted wolves at a distance and one of the players decides a spotted wolf pelt would look really cool over their armor, so the party spends half a day tracking and killing a wolf. It takes them longer to arrive than planned. They arrive and ask around for Johan, eventually they're pointed to an overwhelmed-looking young man, barely out of his teens. The party says "/You're/ Johan? The village elder?" and, fighting back tears, the young man says "No, he was my grandfather. He died of the plague this morning". The implication being if the party had been faster, he'd still be alive. Serious stuff... but if you take it seriously they will too. Don't be afraid to have their Boss slap them down. The boss explains the mission, "the people of Burkham are very sick", and some snarkmeister asides "Yeah...sick of living in a crappy little village". Have the Boss call them out. Be careful to direct your comments to the *character* and not the player -- "Sir Andor -- you think this is a joke? Friends, Andor thinks those who live in a nearby village are punchlines and not people. They.Are. Dying. Andor. And you call yourself a paladin...". Make sure it's not the GM slapping down a player, but one character talking to another -- and maybe at the end of the session check in about bleed.
1 like • 29d
The real world does bleed into game sessions and vice versa. One of the ways that happens is that the characters of people who like each other outside the game tend to gravitate towards one another in game, which can leave other players feeling like they're on the outside. I run one-shots at a local tavern, but I like to encourage as much RP as possible. A tool I use there and in convention games is to hand out cards (I have this printed business card size but you can just use slips of paper) which talk bout connections or attitudes between the characters. The first player looks at their slip of paper which reads "This person saved your life a month ago". I ask the player which character saved their life and how. They spin a little backstory and write the name of the character who saved their life on the back of the card. Now, the person they selected looks at their card which reads "You used to play cards with this person but you think they cheat" and they select a character. We go around the table until every character has a connection to someone else at the table. I don't let anyone have two connections until everyone has at least one (sometimes the math is funny). Similarly to the plot guidelines above, this technique now gives players (and characters) something to work off of, rather than feeling the vastness of all possibility overwhelming them with choices.
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@alex-newman-4563
System agnostic evangelist here to make TTRPGs better fo players and GMs. Decades of xps ;-)
Active 7d ago
Joined Mar 7, 2026
Boston, MA
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