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Game Master's Laboratory
241 members • Free
46 contributions to Game Master's Laboratory
Oct 8 •
New Book, OUT NOW!
We are unbelievably excited for the launch of the second book in the Game Master's Handbook series, and follow-up to the Proactive Roleplaying book: The Game Master's Handbook of Collaborative Campaign Design! This book walks GMs through planning and executing full campaigns, from a full Session -1 system to kick things off to finishing every arc in a satisfying conclusion. We are so, so, so proud and grateful to share this with you, and we can't wait to hear what folks think! You can find it on Amazon (link below) or with all major book retailers, so check what's available near you! We can't wait for you to read it! We'll have more news for you soon, so keep an eye out! Thank you all again for being a part of the journey, and we'll be chatting with you a ton in the coming days. There's an invitation to this lab in the book this time, so we're expecting a few new friends in the coming weeks. We can't possibly convey to you all how grateful we are for the welcoming, helpful, and kindhearted people here, and we trust that vibe will continue as we meet new folks. Talk to you soon! Tristan https://www.amazon.com/Masters-Handbook-Collaborative-Campaign-Design/dp/1964487048
2 likes • Oct 12
Getting a copy today
Sep 30 •
Open License Systems
So I am working on collecting all of the sublicensable RPG systems I can. My goal for 2026 is to write as many hacks as possible. Planning on making lightweight versions with low/ not art and making them Pay What you want. These are the ones I have so far. Powered By The Apocalypse, Forged in the Dark, Carved From Brindlewood, Penned to Good Society, and Year Zero Engine. Do y'all have any suggestions for other games are built with open licensing in mind. Bonus if you can list both a game like this and your favorite spin off from that game!
0 likes • Sep 30
I'd have to check the specifics, but Eclipse Phase had a creative commons license. I think the main restriction was no selling what you made. I lot of really cool stuff was made under it. Hacks for Fate and Gumshoe, adventures, daily blogs.
Sep 9 •
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 • Sep 11
@James Willetts I've read through some of it. It's a solid book collecting the best essays from his site.
0 likes • Sep 30
@James Willetts I've read through Mothership's Warden Handbook and it's really good. One of the most beginner friendly OSR books and neatly lays out adventure design and note taking.
Sep 25 •
Handouts!
“And my top game mastering tip is… Handouts! I love handouts!” - Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan. Post your cool handout experiences and ideas here!
2 likes • Sep 29
If I had more time and energy in my live I'd make lots of handouts for my games. For a pre-made adventure handout, The Dracula Dossier is my favourite. The players start the campaign with access to an annotated copy of Dracula that contains all the plot hooks for the campaign. Pelgrane Press puts so much effort into their handouts.
Jan 8 •
Finding Players: How do you build your gaming group?
Hey, gang! I think in the old forum I started a thread on this, and I'm flexing my chops getting this Vaesen game going, so I thought I'd revive it here in 2025. Post your tricks to finding players and building your perfect gaming beast here!
1 like • Sep 21
@Ryan Childs Patience and lots of social energy. I went through trying to build a stable online group during the pandemic and had some success. •spread your net wide. Anywhere you can post an advert for your game, do it. Have them all feedback to a source that's easy to keep track of. •have a shared space for your players, probably a discord server. You'll have to put in work keeping it active until enough people join and get comfortable with one another •keep at it. Your gonna have many games fall apart just due to the nature of online play. Try to keep the good players around and send them info on any upcoming games
2 likes • Sep 21
@Ryan Childs I've had some luck with Reddit's LFG subreddits. Forums like RPG.net are good places to post or on a dedicated space for a particular TTRPG. Most companies run a discord server to connect players. I prefer discord as there's are enough features and bots to customize a server to my needs and most people playing online use it. I don't know Skool's features well enough to say if it's a good place for hosting games.
1-10 of 46
Active 38d ago
Joined Aug 9, 2024
Ottawa, ON
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