Skull RPG: Game Masters Tell Your Story

Hey Storytellers,

This is perhaps my favorite genre that most game masters only think works in a modern setting: Running a heist. Heists just aren't for the Ocean's Eleven or Shadowrun RPG games. You could have a heist in your D&D / Pathfinder / Vampire: The Masquerade / or any other RPG game you are running.

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com

Get the free Tell Your Story course here: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1047566/?action=signup

In this episode, we will break down how to run a heist in a high fantasy world like D&D or Pathfinder.

The basics are simple, your players need to obtain something that is highly guarded by people, traps, and magic. How they get by each obstacle is something that we will cover as well. Taking a premade map (or making your own) of a castle, tower, or dungeon and labeling each area to fit your game needs is where you start. Then on a separate piece of paper (or chart like excel or google sheets), you list out what is guarding that location and how the players may get around it. And what happens if they fail by a small margin or by a large margin.

Hey Storytellers,

Chase scenes are a stable of the movie genre. You can have the heroes (players) giving chase to track down a suspect after they flee from a building. You can have the heroes being chased by something too big to kill. Or you could play a chase scene out as a long game of police versus serial killer. Each clue giving them the ability to get closer or further from finally catching the perp.

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com

Get the free Tell Your Story course here: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1047566/?action=signup

You can also use this same mechanic in a drinking game at the local bar. Some races will get bonus saves versus poisons (alcohol). Or flip the chase on its head. Play a chase scene as a battle of wits and strength like was done in Sherlock Holmes (with Robert Downy Jr). 

Regardless of you want to play a chase give us a listen for ideas on how to execute these ideas in your RPG.

Hey Storytellers,

There are times when you want to explore different guilds or factions in your RPG. Every good conflict needs at least two parties, but by developing 3 or 4 different factions in your world.

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com

Get the free Tell Your Story course here: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1047566/?action=signup

Giving flesh to your different factions allows you to build a world that is more real. One side is working against another. Players potentially hired by one or more for jobs or spying. By having 3 or more factions or guilds that have motives and goals of their own you will be able to create small or large conflicts and move your story along. You will also have the ability to do doublecrosses and backstabbing with these groups and your players.

Hey Storytellers,

If you listened to the last 6 episodes you can see that there is a lot to keep track of if you want to tell a cohesive RPG Story from end to end. If you wanted to capture everything you were going to do (even if planning just a day before hand) it would be hard to keep it all together.

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com

Get the free Tell Your Story course here: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1047566/?action=signup

This is why I developed the Just Enough Planning workbook and course. To give you a quick and easy way to keep track of everything in your game. It is modular so that you can expand it as needed to encompass a game lasting a month to one lasting over a decade.

Bonuses include over 100 maps, 3000+ NPC names (hundreds categorized by gender and race - human, elf, dwarf, orc), unique monster names (for that dragon or huge spider that really needs a name), legendary names (for your big bad or epic hero or loot), tavern name generator and a location name generator (with ways to change the names to show time is passing in your world). Whole thing available to listen on audio as well.

You can get that here: https://skullrpg.com/just-enough-planning-course/

Hey Storytellers,

In this episode, we examine how to transition to your last plot and the ultimate conflict. We also cover how to end your campaign in a way that allows you to safely leave it and move onto a different story or explore the world again with a new set of player characters, but maybe 100 years into the future.

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com

Get the free Tell Your Story course here: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1047566/?action=signup 

Then the group can decide if they want to play in the world shaped by their previous player's actions (both good and bad). 

This type of storytelling allow for character and player growth, as well as allowing the game master access to much of the world building they have already done.

Playing a game that might last over generations can be really enjoyable if done correctly and this episode will cover some ideas on how to pull that off.

Hey Storytellers,

In this episode, we build on the past 4 episodes to show you how to transition between your first and second acts (or subplots) in the RPG campaign we have been building out together.

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com

Get the free Tell Your Story course here: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1047566/?action=signup 

Knowing how to transition between major plotlines while teasing out your major conflict, big bad, and big reveals is a skill that will pay dividends for years to come.

If you don't foreshadow any information any big reveal you have will fall flat. We will talk about what things need to be foreshadowed, when and how so that your players will start to hear and remember things. Good foreshadowing can't be one throwaway line but rather a series of events that hint at the same thing. The reveal explains the motivations for why the event is happening the way it did.

Hey Storytellers,

Building off of the last several episodes we are going to talk about the hook and plan out the first 1 - 2 game sessions in this episode to give you a feel for how that could work in your game.

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com

Get the free Tell Your Story course here: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1047566/?action=signup

If you have never planned out a game session before this a great episode to see the overall view of that process that we use. There isn't a "correct" way to plan a game session and each person has their own method and I am teaching you mine in hopes that you could listen to these episodes, be able to come up with a story, conflict, major plot, 3 acts (or subplots) and individual gaming sessions to run with your group.

Hey Storytellers,

The worst feeling in the world is having to come up with an important name on the fly.

Here we name our places and important NPC's for the RPG campaign we are building.

We used our Fantasy Location Name Generator and pulled information from our 3000+ NPC names.

You can get this today for $3 by going here: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1047466

I have it in PDF as well as a Google doc - both are yours with the short online course that walks you through how to use the generators and the resource.

Hey Storytellers,

The problem with creating a compelling story is that over time you forget the way to connect the individual gaming session to the overall story you wanted to tell months ago.

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com

Get the free Tell Your Story course here: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1047566/?action=signup

The way to fix this is to drive to the main plot, but the way to make sure you do that is to break that plot up into 3 or more subplots. Each subplot will tell a complete story but build in such a way to move the story forward.

This helps you to create your individual gaming sessions because you know that you have 9 - 12 gaming sessions to tell this entire subplot's story.

Thinking in terms of plots and subplots or in terms of a play with 3 acts and 12 scenes in each act will help you to drive your campaign forward with purpose.

If you want more information on that please pick up my free Tell Your Story course here: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1047566/?action=signup 

Hello Storytellers,

Many people have issues coming up with good ideas to build a campaign off of. In this episode, we tackle four ways you can use to come up with good ideas for your next RPG.

The easiest way to get a new idea is to take an old idea and twist is a little bit. To be fair, one could argue that there are no truly new ideas anymore, just changes on a common theme.

So take media that you consume or have consumed. That could be books, podcasts, tv shows, movies, YouTube videos, or whatever else I might be missing. You will take ideas from here and tweak one a little. Or combine two or more ideas.

Another way to do this is to look at older RPG books (that are probably cheap used or can be found...) and take their ideas for worlds and history. 

Or you could choose to play in someone else's world, but not with the heroes they are used to. A lot of the LOTR video games do this. As do the Star Wars games. You play in a familiar world, not as the people you know.

For the next 6 episodes, we will be creating a game from scratch and walking you through how to come up with the idea, the conflict, the subplots, the game sessions (ideas for the first five anyway), the transitions between subplots, and more. 

Subscribe so you don't miss out on an entire game planned out for you almost end-to-end.