Roleplaying
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Caught in the Rain, a Solo Mystery Roleplaying Game
Caught in The Rain is the new game that I am developing and it is my attempt at solving the difficulty of playing a mystery roleplaying game as a solo player. Whether it is group play or solo play, the general consensus is mystery campaigns or adventures in roleplaying games are challenging or time-consuming to… Continue reading
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How to Write a Backstory for a DnD Character
To write a backstory for a DnD character, you should avoid writing a detailed recount of their life and instead opt to describe a few key events or relationships. This can improve the colloborative storytelling component of these games and provide you with enough character flkexibility to help you enjoy the game more consistently. In… Continue reading
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How to improve player engagement in roleplaying games using questions
Questions help us communicate and understand each other and we can use them to improve the engagement of our players in our roleplaying games. By asking the right type questions of our players, we can establish a scene more quickly or drive a narrative forward. The type of question we ask depends on the reason… Continue reading
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Cognitive Load Theory in Roleplaying Games
Cognitive load theory is the idea that our working memory is imposed by the complexity and distracting elements of new information before we start to make connections. In roleplaying games, complex and distracting elements of new information can result in a loss of player engagement. In this post, I briefly describe cognitive load theory, how… Continue reading
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Using Playing Cards in Roleplaying Games
Using playing cards in roleplaying games can provide a different feel to a game than dice do. Playing cards can be used to support the drama in the narrative mechanically by leveraging the memory of deck and I have been enjoying my time exploring the different approaches to using playing cards in the roleplaying games… Continue reading
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PILGRIMON: A Pokémon inspired RPG Devlog 1
PILGRIMON is a game I recently made for the TTRPG Pokémon jam on itch.io. In this post, I ramble a bit about how I began to develop the early version currently available for download and discuss my design decisions and next steps for the PILGRIMON project. PILGRIMON Themes Several other Pokémon roleplaying systems exist with… Continue reading
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Frame Scenes in your Roleplaying Games with the Inverted Pyramid
The inverted pyramid dictates that we start with the most important information and for framing scenes in roleplaying games, this is the purpose of the scene. I frame this as a question within the context of the wider narrative or world and use every player decision to drive the scene towards a conclusion. By doing… Continue reading
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Planning and Running my Roleplaying Campaigns
There are four major components to my roleplaying campaigns that support me in planning and running them. When I sit down to plan a series of bad jokes campaign for my group I always start with the big question. This is the focus of the campaign, and it is what I tell my players when… Continue reading
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Preparing for a Game as a Player
Preparing for a roleplaying game session is not just for the game master, players should do it too. Regardless of the type of game you are playing whether that be a dungeon crawling game in which bad players tell others what to do or some emotional journey where you learn about just how damaged your… Continue reading
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Hyper Dynamic GM Tools Do Not Empower Players
Dynamic adventures are more engaging than static adventures but dynamic GM tools can be problematic. Continue reading
About Me
An ARPIA award-winning Australian tabletop roleplaying game designer.
Find MY GAMES on itch.io or DrivethruRPG.com

Top Posts
- How to improve player engagement in roleplaying games using questions
- Frame scenes in your roleplaying games with the inverted pyramid
- Cognitive load theory in roleplaying games
- Kaiju generator
- How to write a backstory for a DnD character
- How to create a NPC for your RPG campaigns
- How to play a solo RPG (Ultimate Guide)