Tag Archives: GMing

Teaching storytellers: recipes, ingredients, how to cook

Posted on by Henry

How do you go from “Running a game of D&D sounds fun” to “I have some idea of what to do”?

You could do what I did: play enough RPGs at an early enough age that you don’t remember  feeling daunted by or awkward about the transition from playing to running games. I figured running games was just what you were supposed to do. I paid attention to how my siblings ran games, and I tried to replicate that.

That obviously won’t work for most people. They could try the adult version, playing lots of games run by other people until they have some idea of what to do themselves, but what if they don’t have a good play group? What if they want more tools?

What other entry points can we (the RPG community) offer? What resources and pitfalls should we and new storytellers be aware of?

When I think about resources and pitfalls here, I think of ingredients and recipes. Roleplaying game materials are strong on ingredients; RPG books often include lots of “what” and “who” and even “where” to use in your stories. But these materials are often weak on recipes, and they certainly don’t teach you how to cook; they don’t offer much “why” or even “how”.

Without understanding the “why” and “how,” what is a would-be storyteller to do? How can we help new storytellers learn the why’s and how’s of the art of storytelling?

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Why you tilt the camera, Spider-Noir, 6/4/26

Posted on by Henry

I’ve been enjoying watching Spider-Noir with Ley.

I was adamant that we should watch in black and white. Ley was willing to follow my lead. After finishing the first episode we spoke again about whether the show would look as good in color, and they said “No, it’s art.”

It’s not hard to find people who agree with this position online. I happen to think it’s the right one. I’d heard that the show was filmed with black and white in mind, and that seems obvious to me on watching it.

I wanted to be sure, though. I went through different scenes, rewatching them in color. I admit, the color version looks good too! Working in black and white obviously has a cost; I kind of like knowing that Robbie is wearing warm and punchy reddish hues in episode one, and I wouldn’t have known that without going back to check the color version.

But the black and white version sings. Yes, the color version looks good, but it’s a different kind of good—and I’d argue that the color version isn’t the right kind of good for this show. The team that made Spider-Noir knew what they were doing when they shot for black and white. 

That raises some questions though. Clearly, reality isn’t black and white. The filmmakers aren’t working with purely black and white source material. How then are they getting such incredible results?

Like Ley said, it’s art. It’s art, and a lesson in the importance of knowing one’s craft and intended genre. How can we apply that lesson beyond film?

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Collaborative worldbuilding cont., deferred exercises 3/12/26

Posted on by Henry

I’ve deferred my Love/Hate connection experiment for at least one more session. I could do this differently; I could use that experiment now to improve my players’ understanding of their own PCs, as well as bettering my understanding of their relationships with the rest of the setting. I deferred that experiment yesterday because I wanted to get a session of play under our belts, whet my players’ appetites, that sort of thing. That went well. I think it was a good choice.

Now I’m holding off because I suspect…

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Collaborative worldbuilding for a new game, 2/26/26

Posted on by Henry

I started a new game this week.

Our prior GM is a freshly minted parent. He’s currently in the land of absolute sleep deprivation. Having been there not too long ago myself, I’ve offered to take over with a new game (at least for some of the time).

I’m taking the opportunity to experiment with new ways to build connections between PCs and the setting. I’ve written about at least one of those ideas before. I’m taking things a step further by starting the group even earlier in the world creation process.

We began with a collaborative setting creation session. We’ll be playing Worlds Without Number from Kevin Crawford, and I want to use WWN’s general setting concept… but I want the players to have a hand in how our particular slice of the world feels. I want them to influence what direction our Latter Earth takes.

Alongside that…

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Does your game need more carrots?

Posted on by Henry

The carrot is more effective than the stick. That’s especially true when running a game. In fact, failing to give your players enough carrots might cause them to lose interest and stop playing. But what makes a good carrot?

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Love/Hate: Priming your game with NPCs & Groups

Posted on by Henry

In our own world, there are people we love and people we hate. Our feelings about others might be distant or dispassionate, or they might be personal and urgent. Sharing a love for the people of a neighborhood, a country, a sports team, or a gang is a quick and easy way to bond with someone else—as is sharing a hatred.

As storytellers, we can use this.

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Goofs vs Feels: The Emotional Tenor Of Your Game

Posted on by Henry

You’ve all made your PCs. You’re all ready to dig into a big game. This time, you think, the game will be serious and deep, full of emotional complexity and resonance. And then someone makes a bunch of fart sounds, Boblin the Goblin is the only recurring non-player character and he’s obviously a joke, and your biggest emotional payoff is a PC’s binge-drinking celebration of their big gambling win.

You want a serious game full of big feels. You get a goofy game full of jokes and idiocy. The heartfelt depth and emotional bleed you came here for are nowhere in sight. Why? And how can you change that?

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How to make deep NPCs

Posted on by Henry

Are you tempted to make every NPC in your game a deep and complex character?

Don’t.

I love creating and playing NPCs in my games, and it comes easily to me. Part of this is because I’ve done improv theater—lots of improv theater. But mostly it’s because I use a few basic guidelines when I’m coming up with NPCs.

Since I apparently haven’t written anything about making or running NPCs since that article about naming them from over a decade ago, I figure this post is overdue.

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Authorial Power in RPGs, quick thoughts

Posted on by Henry

There are many ways to play TTRPGs. As long as you’re all having fun you’re doing it right.

It’s easy, however, to stumble over one’s assumptions. Mismatched assumptions about creative control, who’s taking narrative initiative, and what to expect in play are a quick way to sour your fun.

This is a tangent from the “social skills of storytelling” series, working from two inspirations:

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Building Consent (in RPGs)

Posted on by Henry

Consent is vitally important to RPGs (especially horror RPGs), yet is often taken for granted. Often, consent’s building blocks—trust, plus shared social expectations, desires, and goals—are only analyzed after something has gone wrong and the illusion of agreement is broken. I don’t think anyone needs to constantly check for consent at every new moment in their games, but you can save yourself some anguish if you establish those building blocks before playing.

Why do I think consent is so important in RPGs?

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