I know people vary in their acceptance of AI, and I have my own concerns, but I've been using NotebookLM lately and really enjoying it. You include sources into a notebook and it adds the content into a model. I add episode recordings into a notebook and it provides stunningly good summaries, and also answers questions about the content very well. It isn't perfect, and occasionally you have to correct it (especially names), but it has proven to be very useful for helping me to remember things that happened 100+ episodes ago.

Does anyone have a favorite approach to running interrogations? I don't think I have ever run one or played in one that felt like it went well. The players ask a bunch of vague questions expecting lore dumps from a minion. I need something less detailed than a long uncomfortable RP back and forth and more than "you interrogate him for 20 minutes and discover that he really dosn't know much."

Feel free to read the background below, you'll see I took many of your suggestions (had to simplify some for my beginner level GM thought processes) but this is the current status: The adventuring group has gone ahead through a time portal about 100 years with the help of the time staff. The time period they are in is a grim setting, Moander has huge influence and power there although details are light on that right now. Once there they learned that the Paladin's grandfather has likely been kidnapped by the Revenant Occupation from the custody of the Temporal Authority (time cops). The Revenant Occupation (RO) is a group of dwarves & elves who want to purify their race, part of it is they put forth they want to eliminate time travel. The players don't know though that they actually just want time travel for themselves and that is why they kidnapped the grandfather, the idea being to sacrifice him to try to access this magic in a ritual. They believe they know where the grandfather is but have heard that he is safe temporarily. The group became extremely suspicious of the time cops (I wasn't expecting that), so they are working on infiltrating them by becoming recruits and getting more information. They've also realized they don't have much money so they took up an offer to battle in an arena against psychic, mutant, dinos. I'm planning to have them hopefully win some gold and a dino egg as a prize and see where they go with that. (I unconsciously realized I got this idea from dungeon crawler carl) My thought is that as they infiltrate the time cops they will find spies there from the RO and could get more info on the grandfather and time travel in general. They will also learn about how I'm framing time travel in this campaign, I might have gotten this idea here, more that time travel creates different universes so you can't go back in time and change things. I'm afraid of keeping track of things if stuff gets too bonkers with that. They'll learn this in the training process as recruits.

Hey, gang! Thought I’d start a separate discussion about putting NPCs in danger, and other ways to raise the stakes of a combat (or other) encounter. Monster of the Week has “bystanders,” although not much advice on using them in ways that aren’t heavy-handed. Tips? Ideas? How have you used bystanders or recurring NPCs to raise the stakes?

Most game adverts have a description of the setting or story. As I prep advertising for a new in-person game, I was working on some draft language to promote a proactive game... Here is what I have so far, I would love edits and feedback. "I am putting together a group for an emergent campaign using Fishel & Fishel’s Proactive Roleplaying and Collaborative Campaign Design frameworks. The basic concept of an emergent campaign is that the plot emerges as the player characters pursue their own goals and the world reacts to their actions rather than the plot being outlined or written by the GM (or a publisher) ahead of time. Ginny Di made a nice 13min video about Proactive Roleplaying if a video format is helpful to understanding the concept." EDIT: With Tristan's suggestions: "Are you looking to join a friendly, in-person, long-term campaign where character goals shape the story and the plot emerges through gameplay instead of being planned by the GM?" followed by "In this campaign, the players will use their characters’ beliefs and motivations to write actionable goals that overlap with those of other players and the goals of factions. This overlap creates tension and obstacles as the characters pursue their goals and the world reacts. The campaign plot will emerge gradually as the characters make choices on how to pursue their goals and grapple with their flaws and internal struggles (the GM is not outlining or planning a plot). Tristan and Jonal Fishel described the framework of Proactive Roleplaying as distinct from more traditional reactive play, where the BBEG is doing something bad and the characters react to thwart their plans. If videos are more digestible for you, Ginny Di made a nice 13min video discussing this concept."