Skull RPG: Game Masters Tell Your Story

Hey Storytellers,

Going to jump right into this. Jacob found a resource that will allow you to very quickly plan out a dungeon, castle, natural cave WITH traps and monsters for your AD&D / D&D 3.5, 4.0, or 5.0 game. Does the same with Pathfinder and then some more generic RPG's as well.

Simply an amazing resource for game masters.

Listen to the episode and go to our resources page for more information.

 Check out our resources page for the link (and others): https://skullrpg.com/resources - check out the GM Tools section.

Check out our courses for Game Masters: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/

Check out our new book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

Hey Storytellers,

Do you need some good high-quality maps? Well here are some maps from one guy that are free (for now) if you need a forest (like one million square feet of a forest).

Check out our resources page for the link (and others): https://skullrpg.com/resources - check out the GM Tools section.

Check out our courses for Game Masters: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/

Check out our new book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

Hey Storytellers,

Going back to game mastering 101 we want to cover the four aspects of a game session.

Check out our courses for Game Masters: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/

Check out our new book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

There are three levels of an RPG: Campaign, Story Arc and Game Session. I have a free course (see the first link above) for thinking of your RPG like a Play.

The game session is basically roughly 3 - 6 hours long or the time it takes your players to play one (maybe two) games. So we meet every other Friday with two groups and each is blocked off for about 3 - 4 hours. 

So in that 3ish hours you will need to have the following four items in your game.

1) Hook - get your players into the adventure

2) Options - don't railroad them

3) Confrontation / Challenge - typically a fight with a mini-boss, but could be a puzzle or other sort of challenge with no fight

4) Conclusion - some sort of closure for the players, but could be a cliff hanger, start of a vendetta or other type of conclusion.

Give this one a listen for more ideas of how to use these effectively and then add small twists to each.

Hey Storytellers,

We have been teasing out how to create a death room for your final confrontation between your players and the Big Bad Guy or Gal (BBG). Of course, you can use this for any minor boss that warrants this type of treatment as well. Think of this as the room where your players go in a video game to confront a minor or major boss fight.

Check out our courses for Game Masters: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/

Check out our new book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

To set this up look at your game mat and figure out where the BBG will be. Then draw in any pillars or things to hold up the ceiling. These can be used to provide cover for the thugs protecting the BBG. Then setup choke points and traps.

Remember about battlefield control spells as they can be useful to move the players into areas they don't want to go through.

Listen to the episode for more ideas on how to setup a death room for the boss fight.

Hey Storytellers,

There several different types of spells. The most notable is the easiest to explain: Damage Spells. Basically, a spell that causes you to look for a ton of dice and inflict loads of damage. But there is another type of spell that is more effective in killing players and creatures alike: Battlefield Control Spells.

Check out our courses for Game Masters: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/

Check out our new book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

What is a battlefield control spell? This is a spell that changes how everyone has to use the battlefield (cave, room, etc.).

If you cast an entanglement spell at the entrance your enemy is coming through you will slow and potentially even stop them all in their tracks which will allow your ranged fighters or other damage spells to do even more damage as your enemies are stuck.

The same is true with walls, clouds, and other things that change the landscape and terrain of the area you are fighting in.

Another type of battlefield control spell is typically against individuals that lock them down for a round or more.  Examples of this are charm, sleep, dominate, banish, and other spells that take one or more of the enemies out of the fight. Some of these may only be for one round but others could last up to a minute. Having your biggest fighter trying to talk both sides down because he doesn't like seeing his friends hurt each other is not only comical it is taking the fighter out of combat.

Listen to the episode for ways to use battlefield control spells as a game master to make your encounters more challenging but much less deadly. 

Hey Storytellers,

Today we will cover some uses of the Dungeons and Dragons 5e Hallucinatory Terrain spell. This spell is basically a 150-foot cube illusion that lasts for 24 hours - so have your big bad cast it every night before bed to gain the spell slot again.

Check out our courses for Game Masters: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/

Check out our new book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

Your big bad (or minor villain that has this) can cast it outside to change how the terrain looks. It can't change the look of a building can't be changed.

So create natural cliffs or water or other feature and hide things in it. Create pit traps and cover them with illusionary grass and watch the hilarity.

More ideas in this episode - give it a listen.

Hey Storytellers,

After the amount of murder your players do on a regular basis, they should be caught for it just once right? And to add insult to injury what if they are caught for a murder they actually didn't do?

Check out our courses for Game Masters: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/

Check out our new book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

There are two ideas in this episode but I am only going to tell you about one of them. What if the innkeeper ends up dead after your players check into the inn.

So they check-in and the next morning there isn't anyone there.

They don't think much about it and leave only to be hunted down by some NPC's of equal or higher rank for the murder of the innkeeper.

Now the players have to solve a mystery to clear their names. The town might take their equipment and weapons from them to ensure they will stay put for their trial, but allow them to investigate with an NPC watching them.

Listen to the episode for more ideas to play in your game session tonight.

Hey Storytellers,

This story idea is that an entire town makes its money from adventure tourism. What is adventure tourism? Well, it is where a town develops around a famous "killer" dungeon.

Check out our courses for Game Masters: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/

Check out our new book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

A "killer" dungeon is a dungeon known to kill adventurers. Thus they come in droves to "beat" the dungeon, of course.

This dungeon has a nasty trap at the bottom of it: a group of mindflayers. So if you are good enough to get to the bottom of the dungeon a mindflayer (or an entire slaving group) is waiting for you. They have also dominated the village folk above to not say anything and let them know when especially powerful adventurers are coming.

Listen to the podcast for more ideas.

Hey Storytellers,

If you haven't noticed sometimes being a good game master means coming up with crazy ideas and here is one for you to try out. We call it the apathy vampire and it can be a template you through on any type of creature. The template should basically go on a lower level challenge rating than the players because this ability is great.

Check out our courses for Game Masters: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/

Check out our new book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

How does an apathy vampire work?

Simple, any time a player needs to make a move or action they need to roll the appropriate saving throw.

To move it should be a strength, dexterity or constitution save (whatever is higher) starting with a 5. Every time they make a successful save increase the next save by 5 for the same action. So move to engage - save with a 5 check. Move again (even a 5 foot steep) it is now a save with a 10 check. Until they can't move.

Same with swinging a sword or casting a spell, as it gets harder and harder to take actions against this apathy vampire template. 

Listen to the episode for more details.

Hey Storytellers,

Continuing the theme of running multiple characters in different timelines this concept is a little easier to pull off.  Your campaign can have three acts but each act is a different set of characters in a different timeline.

Check out our courses for Game Masters: https://skullrpgbooks.vipmembervault.com/

Check out our new book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

I ran a campaign that utilized some interesting concepts from either The Black Tapes Podcast (http://theblacktapespodcast.com/) or Tanis (http://tanispodcast.com/) both are worth the listen though I liked The Black Tapes better. 

The campaign I ran was about a demon that was being summoned in modern times and my players played a group of investigators.

Then in the next act we went back to ancient Greece and the demon was running rampant on the planet during this time, but the players sealed it away for their first characters to keep it sealed.

Then the third act would take them back to prehistory where they would be responsible for unleashing the demon into the world in the first place.

Listen to the episode for more ideas.