Skull RPG: Game Masters Tell Your Story

Hey Storytellers,

Have you ever had your players make a decision that removed a key room, NPC or story element? The thing that many people forget is you are literally the only one that knows where that element was supposed to be.

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com

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

Here is an example: You plan out a mini-boss on the 5th floor of the dungeon. But your players decide to stone shape a wall and if you kept the map as is they would avoid this mini-boss entirely. 

Some game masters will just give up on their mini-boss fight they spent an hour or two creating, but that isn't the best option.

Instead, change the map so that now the hallway they "found" leads to the mini-boss and your time isn't wasted.

Other tips like this are in the episode.

Hello Storytellers,

Foreshadowing is hinting toward a future event. There is a proper way to do this and if done poorly when you drop your big reveal your players are completely lost.

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 see if you hint at what you want to reveal your players will start to guess at what is happening. That doesn't mean you make it obvious, but like in GRRM Game of Thrones there are numerous hints about Jon Snow's father isn't who he thinks it is.

Compare that to the deathly hallows in Harry Potter and there was little foreshadowing for most of the elements there. So it felt like it came out of nowhere and was likewise disorientating.

Hey Storytellers,

After you drop the hook for your players also drop clues for where they could go in the story. This allows you to allow for them to have choices (no railroads), while not having a full sandbox environment.

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com

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

I like to give 3 or 4 different choices for the players to follow after the initial hook. Then they can follow one of those if they wish or come up with a different choice. But because I have prepared (at least initially) where the story will be heading I can pivot for their requests.

Clues come into play because I like to add an air of mystery to most of my stories that last more than several game sessions. Sure it is fine to have the dungeon crawl or quick one-off, but overall I like to drive the game thematically if I can, and giving players clues helps me to do that.

Hello Storyteller,

Welcome to part 4 of 4 of running a horror game with a killer picking off a cast of characters.

In this episode we finish with the rest of the cast and cover the first 5 days of who is murdered and casting suspicion on other NPC's.

The key is to drive all of the murders to the last one. The brash wizard on Day 21. During the middle of her spell she is killed and this sets the village back three weeks in the past to repeat the same events until the players kill the monster.

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com/resources - check out the resources page for a downloadable pdf with the NPC's and monster you will need for your D&D 5e game. No email needed.

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

In the last part of our 4-part episodes we will conclude with the remaining NPC's as well as the first 5 days of who gets murdered and how. Check out the episode and also the resources page for more.

Hello Storyteller,

Welcome to part 3 of 4 of running a horror game with a killer picking off a cast of characters.

In this episode we will show you how voices, inflections and verbal ticks could be used to distinguish between NPC's. You could also do this with props, like hats, physical mannerisms, etc.

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com/resources - check out the resources page for a downloadable pdf with the NPC's and monster you will need for your D&D 5e game. No email needed.

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

In this first part, we create NPC's for use in the game. They will be used to help move the players knowledge forward. They will be killed and suspicion will fall on them. Check out the episode and also the resources page for more.

Hey Storytellers,

Having an intriguing villain is critical for running a game in the horror genre, but especially true for the killer horror genre. The killer needs to be able to get in and out of places quickly, or unseen.

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com

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

Well the Pashisha from D&D 5e fits the bill with a slight change - the flesh eating demon really loves humanoid brains. 

Each victim is killed in a different way, poison, tiger or wolf attack, stabbing, pushed from a wall, but each and every one of them is missing their brain.

The Pashisha can turn invisible and polymorph into a couple of different animals. If you want more of a challenge you can have multiple Pashisha's or see that they dwell with other creatures and could have a lair.

This is great for lower level characters as the challenge rating of the 5E Pashisha is just 3. But you could give is some additional levels to make it harder if your players are higher level.

Hello Storytellers, 

This is a four-part video where we will walk you through setting up a multiple game session horror story where a killer is hunting down NPC's one by one. It has mystery, intrigue and horror. If the players aren't fast enough time itself will reset and they will live the events again until they can stop the killer from resetting time. 

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com/resources - I have the killer's stats and NPC's names, brief character sketches, and the first 5 days of who is murdered. All free - no email required. Get the free 

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

Now back to the story. In this episode, we will detail out the scene. A small village in a valley surrounded by mountains. This allows you to have a closed-loop scenario. Once the players are in the village they have walked into a pocket dimension. Only a plane shift spell would free them, so this is best for characters of lower levels. 

Hey Storytellers,

Killer horror is what most people think of when they think of the horror genre. This is where you have a group of people (teens or young adults typically) that are being stocked by a killer (think Jason, Freddie, Scream, etc.).

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 these movies there is typically one lone survivor and that wouldn't work well for an RPG gaming group. Instead, you will learn how to incorporate this into a group.

Also stay tuned to the next 4 episodes as we will help you plan out an entire game session (probably 2 - 4) with a scene, a killer monster, a cast of NPC's.

I think you will enjoy using this killer horror in one of your games.

Hey Storytellers,

Nothing is more frightening in horror than children. If you haven't watched Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House (season 1) it is worth it. So much horror deals with children in some shape or form.

Learn more at https://skullrpg.com

Get the free Tell Your Story course here

What happens if you turn this on its head? What happens if your gaming group is asked to help a woman put to rest the ghost of a child? 

We will explore changing each ghost in your RPG to function as spirits of the dead do in the show Supernatural. There are rules to properly dispatch a ghost. 

And if your group determines that those rules don't work then what is left? What about a demon that can take on the appearance of a ghost child to invoke pity and fear? And those are the emotions it feeds upon.

 Come down the rabbit hole for a good story idea that you can use this week.

Hello Storytellers,

There are only two types of NPC's: those that are forgotten and those that are remembered. Sadly, most storytellers have forgettable NPC's. That is a shame because with a little work (and not a lot truly) you can create 1 - 3 NPC's that the players could love or absolutely hate. 

This brings your game to life. Now I am not advocating that EVERY. SINGLE. NPC. should be remembered, but the ones that are helpful to your players should be. The ones that are recurring should be. The ones that you might want to kill much later for dramatic effect have to be.

Listen to find tips and tricks from using different voices or accents to props if you can't modulate your voice to make your NPC's stand out.