Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

the, from, to, of, on, campaign, how, bocoloid, southern, edge, posts, search, this, blog, storyteller, oracle, delphi, running, rpgs, without, controlling, story, encounters, in, motion, designing, evolving, random, tables, steering, ship, what, learned, changing, course, mid, freedom, having, less, osr, lessons, brandonsford, no, more, pulling, punches, one, brutal, changed, my, game, mastering, forever, moving, west, marches, adventures, red, caravan, and, run, your, own, setting, up, thieves, guild, archive, report, abuse,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (77), and (38), more (15), 2025 (13), that (12), for (11), with (10), they (10), had (9), from (9), read (8), players (8), other (8), time (7), apps (7), email (7), pinterest (7), facebook (7), get (7), link (7), like (7), one (6), was (6), player (6), new (6), have (6), are (6), over (6), #campaign (6), table (6), tables (6), post (5), comment (5), game (5), what (5), all (5), often (5), dice (5), this (5), may (4), systems (4), who (4), them (4), their (4), about (4), style (4), how (4), where (4), but (4), maybe (4), running (4), encounter (4), june (3), posts (3), started (3), thing (3), character (3), through (3), another (3), after (3), dungeon (3), decided (3), guild (3), knew (3), run (3), lot (3), friends (3), were (3), which (3), found (3), will (3), west (3), marches (3), group (3), include (3), several (3), rpgs (3), roll (3), ran (3), games (3), just (3), magic (3), sheet (3), has (3), when (3), use (3), worm (3), random (3), encounters (3), april (2), july (2), august (2), 2026 (2), cult (2), set (2), great (2), until (2), went (2), party (2), got (2), barely (2), playing (2), orc (2), bandits (2), surface (2), into (2), thieves (2), know (2), wasn (2), out (2), first (2), setting (2), many (2), others (2), years (2), open (2), same (2), reading (2), blog (2), either (2), system (2), forbidden (2), lands (2), exploration (2), die (2), each (2), your (2), own (2), comments (2), dungeons (2), punches (2), two (2), long (2), made (2), rolls (2), our (2), changed (2), freedom (2), you (2), look (2), ends (2), moves (2), combat (2), less (2), whenever (2), some (2), way (2), want (2), his (2), majesty (2), megadungeon (2), during (2), days (2), sense (2), behind (2), lore (2), without (2), advance (2), strange (2), creature (2), story (2), toward (2), oracle (2), fate (2), happens (2), bocoloid (2), southern (2), edge (2), report, abuse, february, march, archive, powered, blogger, while, ago, experimenting, faction, hierarchies, inner, circles, secret, handshakes, sort, rising, ranks, shady, rules, access, levels, promotion, rites, going, insane, betrayed, executed, test, anything, luckily, stepped, brilliant, pivot, big, warrior, getting, sick, paying, tolls, endless, stream, thought, join, instead, already, discovered, headquarters, joining, would, cheaper, than, constant, extortion, thus, opportunity, opened, slow, initiation, local, far, point, very, fleshed, controlled, underground, level, toll, play, ttrpgs, always, curious, trying, gming, realized, enjoy, most, sandbox, campaigns, gradually, let, railroading, preparing, narrows, path, take, eventually, surrender, gods, been, felt, perfect, fit, gaming, putting, together, using, usual, expanding, came, different, chose, ideal, resource, management, loved, uses, abstract, track, supplies, rations, water, arrows, torches, etc, represented, d12, d10, day, relevant, rol, moving, adventures, red, caravan, ttrpg, journey, dragons, 5th, edition, played, fudged, pulled, softened, outcomes, nearly, ever, died, everyone, happy, safe, fun, predictable, kind, death, really, failure, best, then, joined, veteran, gathering, clear, beginning, fudging, lost, mine, phandelver, starter, module, mostly, second, session, everything, hell, goblin, boss, stealth, ambushed, goblins, dropped, wizard, immediately, hobgoblin, leader, rolled, natural, downed, member, flee, dwarven, cleric, used, hold, off, enemies, bought, pulling, brutal, mastering, forever, might, sound, counterintuitive, fewer, powers, skills, features, actually, crunchier, pathfinder, faced, situation, press, buttons, available, magical, power, solves, puzzle, only, engage, activities, proficiency, doing, talking, because, charisma, feeling, board, repeats, contrast, simpler, deadlier, solutions, aren, ingenuity, interaction, environment, hear, advice, videos, making, interesting, encouraging, interact, terrain, kick, shove, crates, having, osr, lessons, brandonsford, start, usually, personal, goal, step, comfort, zone, grow, try, experiment, homebrew, mechanics, explore, type, haven, mastered, yet, earlier, year, led, challenge, previously, failed, satisfying, tried, before, pandemic, barrowmaze, intense, quickly, became, repetitive, series, unfortunate, deaths, involving, bottomless, pits, gave, wanted, make, engaging, designed, modular, space, rearranges, itself, return, thematically, dreamlike, realm, shaped, colossal, feeds, desires, dreams, adventurers, shifting, layout, reinforced, dream, logic, pla, steering, ship, learned, changing, course, mid, key, tool, inject, unpredictability, life, megadungeons, wilderness, truly, create, illusion, living, breathing, world, need, well, crafted, dry, lists, 2d6, wolves, 4d6, spiders, favorite, examples, offers, rich, paragraphs, filled, sidequests, flavor, however, find, too, prep, pre, prepare, worked, also, killed, improvisational, personally, prefer, beyond, phenomena, bits, weird, occurrences, reflect, tone, ecology, region, being, explored, method, curre, motion, designing, evolving, watching, quinns, review, stonetop, thinking, tabletop, mainstream, master, imagined, director, narrator, organizer, characters, actors, major, revelations, planned, drifted, away, come, see, writer, weaver, capable, glimpsing, few, steps, ahead, figure, screen, consulting, shaman, omens, scattered, bones, walk, forest, next, town, hat, road, consults, nothing, something, appears, storm, tears, camp, night, doesn, happen, hit, says, storyteller, delphi, controlling, search, skip, main, content,

Text of the page (random words):
bocoloid from southern edge skip to main content search this blog bocoloid from southern edge posts from storyteller to the oracle of delphi on running rpgs without controlling the story get link facebook x pinterest email other apps may 20 2026 watching quinns review of stonetop got me thinking about how my way of running tabletop rpgs has changed over time in more mainstream games the game master is often imagined as a director or narrator the organizer of a story where the characters are actors and the campaign moves toward major revelations planned in advance over time my own style drifted away from that i ve come to see the gm less as a writer and more as an oracle a weaver barely capable of glimpsing the players fate a few steps ahead the gm is a strange figure behind a screen consulting dice and random tables like a shaman reading omens in scattered bones the players walk through a forest toward the next town w hat happens on the road the gm rolls on an encounter table and consults fate maybe nothing happens maybe something appears maybe a storm tears through the camp during the night but the gm doesn t know what will happen either until the dice hit the table the roll says the post a comment read more encounters in motion designing evolving random tables get link facebook x pinterest email other apps august 03 2025 random encounter tables are a key tool to inject unpredictability and a sense of life into dungeons megadungeons and wilderness exploration but if we want to truly create the illusion of a living breathing world we need well crafted tables the days of dry lists like 2d6 wolves 4d6 bandits 5 spiders are behind us one of my favorite examples is forbidden lands which offers rich encounter paragraphs filled with lore sidequests and flavor however i find them too long to use at the table without prep when i ran the game i had to pre read and prepare encounters in advance this worked but it also killed some of the improvisational magic for me as a gm personally i prefer encounter tables that go beyond combat i like to include strange phenomena bits of lore and weird occurrences that reflect the tone and ecology of the region being explored when i do include creature encounters i use a two table method one for the creature and another for their curre post a comment read more steering the ship what i learned from changing course mid campaign get link facebook x pinterest email other apps july 13 2025 whenever i start a new campaign i usually have a personal goal as a gm some way to step out of my comfort zone and grow maybe i want to try a new system experiment with homebrew mechanics or explore a type of setting i haven t mastered yet earlier this year that led me to his majesty the worm and with it a challenge i had previously failed running a satisfying megadungeon i had tried before during the pandemic running barrowmaze for a group of friends over several intense days it quickly became repetitive and after a series of unfortunate deaths involving bottomless pits we all gave up on it this time i wanted to make it more engaging i designed the dungeon as a modular space that rearranges itself whenever the players return to the surface thematically this made sense the megadungeon was a dreamlike realm shaped by a colossal worm that feeds on the desires and dreams of adventurers a shifting layout reinforced the dream logic in his majesty the worm pla 2 comments read more the freedom of having less osr lessons from brandonsford get link facebook x pinterest email other apps june 21 2025 it might sound counterintuitive but the fewer powers skills and features your character sheet has the more freedom you actually have as a player in crunchier systems like d d 5e or pathfinder when players are faced with a situation the first thing they do is look at their sheet and press the buttons they have available they look for the magical power that solves the puzzle they only engage in activities where they have proficiency and often the same player ends up doing all the talking just because they have a 8 charisma it ends up feeling more like a board game where each player has their set moves and just repeats them in contrast in simpler and often deadlier systems solutions aren t found on the sheet they re found in player ingenuity and interaction with the environment you ll often hear advice in 5e videos about making combat more interesting by encouraging players to interact with the terrain kick over tables shove crates use el post a comment read more no more pulling punches how one brutal campaign changed my game mastering forever get link facebook x pinterest email other apps june 08 2025 like many others i started my ttrpg journey with dungeons dragons 5th edition i ran games i played in games and i fudged a lot of dice i pulled punches i softened outcomes for nearly two years i ran a long campaign where no player character ever died everyone was happy it was safe fun and predictable we all kind of knew that death wasn t really on the table just failure at best then i joined a new table one run by a veteran dm i knew from magic the gathering he made one thing clear from the beginning all my rolls are in the open no fudging we were playing lost mine of phandelver a starter module with a mostly new group in our second session everything went to hell the goblin boss had a great stealth roll and ambushed us several goblins dropped our wizard immediately the hobgoblin leader rolled a natural 20 and downed another party member we decided to flee my dwarven cleric used magic to hold off the enemies and bought time for the other 6 comments read more the moving west marches adventures on the red caravan and how to run your own get link facebook x pinterest email other apps may 19 2025 i have a lot of friends who play ttrpgs and many others who were always curious about trying them after years of gming i realized that what i enjoy the most are open sandbox style campaigns over time i gradually let go of railroading and over preparing which i found often narrows the path players will take eventually i decided to surrender to the will of the dice gods at the same time i had been reading a lot of blog posts about west marches and it felt like the perfect fit for my gaming style so i started putting together a west marches style campaign using my usual group and expanding it to include several friends who were either new to rpgs or came from different systems for the system i chose forbidden lands which is ideal for exploration and resource management i loved how it uses abstract dice to track supplies rations water arrows torches etc represented by a die d12 d10 d8 d6 each day players roll the relevant die and if they rol post a comment read more setting up a thieves guild get link facebook x pinterest email other apps april 13 2025 a while ago i started experimenting with faction systems in my game cult hierarchies inner circles secret handshakes that sort of thing one of my players had a character who was rising through the ranks of a shady cult and i had set up rules for access levels and promotion rites it was going great until he went insane betrayed the party and got executed i barely had time to test anything luckily another player stepped in with a brilliant pivot he s playing a big orc warrior and after getting sick of paying tolls to the endless stream of bandits in my dungeon he thought what if i join them instead he had already discovered their surface headquarters and decided joining would be cheaper than constant extortion thus a new opportunity opened up the orc s slow initiation into the local thieves guild what we know so far at that point the guild wasn t very fleshed out all i knew was that they controlled the first underground level of the dungeon they run the toll post a comment read more more posts powered by blogger archive may 2026 1 august 2025 1 july 2025 1 june 2025 2 may 2025 1 april 2025 1 march 2025 3 february 2025 5 report abuse