The What’s Going On document contains the NPCs, background, motivations, and events that would occur in the session, if the characters did not intervene. In this episode we talk about this document, how to use it, the variations it comes in, and how it can help your tabletop roleplaying games.

• Misdirected Mark Productions Patreon
• Misdirected Mark Productions Twitter
• Misdirected Mark Productions YouTube Channel
• Encoded Designs itch.io page
• Never Unprepared Audiobook

Lore is the backstory to your setting. You could have zero lore or a novel worth of the stuff, but no player will care unless it comes into play within the game. But the question is how do we get players to care about our lore? This episode talks about six tips for accomplishing this. Tune in, enjoy, and let us know how you make lore matter for your players. Best way is in the comments over at our YouTube Channel.

• Misdirected Mark Productions Patreon
• Misdirected Mark Productions Twitter
• Misdirected Mark Productions YouTube Channel
• Encoded Designs itch.io page
• Never Unprepared Audiobook

Evil Organizations are a staple of action adventure stories. They’re expansive, multi-headed groups that heroes fight against again and again. The villains are many, the schemes are devious, their reach is long. Today we’ll be going over Evil Organizations as adversaries in your campaigns, what they consist of, why we might want to use them in our games, and how they can oppose our PCs.

Enjoy this next instalment of our adversary files and tell us about your favorite at the Misdirected Mark Forums.

• Misdirected Mark Productions Patreon
• Misdirected Mark Productions Twitter
• Misdirected Mark Productions YouTube Channel
• Encoded Designs itch.io page
• Never Unprepared Audiobook

Regardless of the game, players and GMs have a tendency to get hung up on randomizers. The D20, the dice pool, the card flip. You know. The randomizer. They’re important but they’re just one part of a whole game system. On this episode of Misdirected Mark we talk about those other mechanisms and procedures, take a look at ways for us to understand them, and then use that knowledge to help us play better games.

Enjoy the show and tell us your thoughts on our discussion of mechanics at the Misdirected Mark Forums.

• Misdirected Mark Productions Patreon
• Misdirected Mark Productions Twitter
• Misdirected Mark Productions YouTube Channel
• Encoded Designs itch.io page
• Never Unprepared Audiobook

Phil, Bob, and Jerry discuss making the most of using the narrative device of flashbacks in your games. Enjoy the show, and tell us your thoughts on flashbacks at the Misdirected Mark Forums.

• Starting with the next episode on July 5th, Chris Sniezak returns to the co-host chair of the Misdirected Mark podcast! For more details about Chris’ return, please see this news post.
• As of Jun 28th (the day this episode drops), the Misdirected Mark podcast is taking a break from live streaming and moving to a recording-only format for a few months. Stay tuned for announcements about the return of the live show. In the meantime, episodes will still be released weekly wherever fine podcasts are found.

• Misdirected Mark Productions Patreon
• Misdirected Mark Productions Twitter
• Misdirected Mark Productions YouTube Channel
• Encoded Designs itch.io page
• Never Unprepared Audiobook

Phil, Bob, and Jerry return to the Adversary Files to discuss another type of adversary for your games, the Faction. Enjoy the show, and tell us your thoughts on factions at the Misdirected Mark Forums.

• Check out Bundle for Buffalo, an Itch bundle of video and roleplaying games raising money for the victims and survivors of the mass shooting in Buffalo, NY.
• Lifted Vol. 1: Indomitable, a Primed by Cortex supers RPG, is on Kickstarter through Thursday, June 30th.

• Misdirected Mark Productions Patreon
• Misdirected Mark Productions Twitter
• Misdirected Mark Productions YouTube Channel
• Encoded Designs itch.io page
• Never Unprepared Audiobook

Phil, Bob, and Jerry discuss giving and receiving feedback, why it’s important in your game, how to give it, and how to receive it. Enjoy the show, and tell us your thoughts on feedback at the Misdirected Mark Forums.

Happy Pride!

• Misdirected Mark Productions Patreon
• Misdirected Mark Productions Twitter
• Misdirected Mark Productions YouTube Channel
• Encoded Designs itch.io page
• Never Unprepared Audiobook

Phil, Bob, and Jerry discuss the bad (and the good!) about “railroading” and linear plot design. Enjoy the show, and tell us your thoughts on railroading at the Misdirected Mark Forums.

• Lifted Vol. 1 on Kickstarter through Thursday, June 30th.
• GM Mastermind at gmmastermind.com and podcatchers everywhere.

• Misdirected Mark Productions Patreon
• Misdirected Mark Productions Twitter
• Misdirected Mark Productions YouTube Channel
• Encoded Designs itch.io page
• Never Unprepared Audiobook

Phil, Bob, and Jerry welcome game designer and head of Gauntlet Publishing Jason Cordova to discuss tips and techniques for running mysteries in games and in particular to examine the design of Jason’s cozy murder mystery game Brindlewood Bay, on Kickstarter now! Enjoy the show, and tell us your thoughts on in-game mysteries at the Misdirected Mark Forums.

• There will be no Misdirected Mark live show on May 17th or May 24th and no new podcast episode on May 24th or May 31st. The live show will return on Tuesday, May 31st, and the podcast will return on Tuesday, June 7th.
• Check out the bundle “RPGs for Reproductive Justice” currently on DriveThruRPG.
• Mutants in the Next, an expansion for Mutants in the Now, is now live on Kickstarter and will be crowdfunding through Friday, June 10th.
• Brindlewood Bay is crowdfunding on Kickstarter through Monday, May 30th.
• You can follow Jason at @jasoncordova6 on Twitter, and follow the Gauntlet at @GauntletRPG on Twitter or check out the website at gauntlet-rpg.com for games, podcasts, their online gaming calendar, and more! You can hear more of Jason on his OSR podcast Fear of a Black Dragon.

• Misdirected Mark Productions Patreon
• Misdirected Mark Productions Twitter
• Misdirected Mark Productions YouTube Channel
• Encoded Designs itch.io page
• Never Unprepared Audiobook

[Content note for this episode: after the intro, Phil brings out his famous soapbox and rants about politics in the Lobby, so if you’re not into it, you can bypass the Lobby and skip to 5:18.]

Phil, Bob, and Jerry discuss the benefits and management of session recaps to help out your long-form gaming. Enjoy the show, and tell us your thoughts on session recaps at the Misdirected Mark Forums.

• Jason Cordova, designer of Brindlewood Bay and head of Gauntlet Publishing, will be the guest on the show live streaming on Tuesday, May 10th at 8 PM U.S. Eastern time on the Misdirected Mark Twitch channel. The episode will drop on the podcast feed and the Misdirected Mark YouTube channel on Tuesday, May 17th.
• Brindlewood Bay is crowdfunding on Kickstarter through Monday, May 30th.
• Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game is crowdfunding on Kickstarter through Thursday, May 26th.
• Mutants in the Next, an expansion for Mutants in the Now, is launching on Kickstarter soon. Check out the campaign page to be notified!

• Misdirected Mark Productions Patreon
• Misdirected Mark Productions Twitter
• Misdirected Mark Productions YouTube Channel
• Encoded Designs itch.io page
• Never Unprepared Audiobook