The Last-Minute Spooky-Time Session

When it comes to planning a Halloween holiday session there is so much procrastination and so little time.

All Hollows Eve is upon us, and like many, we often find ourselves scrambling to create a memorable Halloween gaming experience. Costume panic and game prep panic, it all feels the same. Can we muster up a session that we can run with minimal prep that feels unique and fun?

As GMs, we frequently find ourselves facing the challenge of insufficient time to plan a Halloween session. We often resort to using scary monsters from the Monster Manual in hopes of creating a terrifying atmosphere. And the fear of inadvertently derailing our main campaign with a Halloween plot thread looms over us.

We'll borrow mechanics from popular spooky party games to inject fun and tension into our game, ensuring a swift return to normalcy in the following session.

Then, thanks to Patrons Lyla, Leprecan, and DangerousMarmalade, we've collaboratively created a spine-chilling Halloween story for a last-minute session. The story centers around an old ghostly legend of a musician who lures victims to their doom with haunting melodies. The townspeople once confronted this malevolent musician, sealing them in a cursed tomb to prevent further harm. However, the magical seal is now weakening, leading to eerie happenings and disappearances in town. We've also got some rules to layer on to this story, leading to player possession, special abilities and a horrifying showdown.

The hosts outline the rules for the session, where possession, mystery, and teamwork play a pivotal role. The possessed players must use their special abilities to make their way to the musician's coffin, while the rest of the party tries to thwart them. The game mechanic includes special abilities, possession detection goggles, and optional complexities like additional goals within the dungeon.

Special thanks to Patrons Lyla, Leprecan, and DangerousMarmalade for their creative contributions to this spine-tingling Halloween adventure. And of course to all of you who made this episode possible with your continued support. Inigo the Brave!, Adam F., Alex R., Steve A., Kuraidoscope, Skyler E, PseuArt, Blackthorne, FirstLaw, PeakcockDreams, DM Thunderbum, Marley R., Timewarp, DangerousMarmalade, No Ma'am, Michelle T, Adlerious, Chris F, The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, DM Natske, Heavyarms, Leprecan, and Will HP.

Halloween Session Rules and Guide

Session Rules for Players:
If you are winked at, you are possessed by the spirit. When the musical cue hits, you must use your ability, and try to get to the coffin as best you can to open it and release what resides inside. If you are winked at, keep it secret until the musical cue sounds or the GM directs you. You are only able to use your player character stats, movement, and special spirit possession ability to achieve your goal.

GM Steps:

• The GM secretly chooses a number on a die (appropriate to the number of players), and the players roll until someone hits it. 

• When the haunt begins, the GM secretly winks at the player who will become possessed. 

• Everyone rolls initiative. The possessed always goes first or last (if you wish to add additional tension in the first possession) in the initiative order.

• The GM provides a horrifying description as they play a musical queue for the possessed.

• The player then can look at their special ability, and can immediately use it in an attempt to get to the coffin in the dungeon, to open it. They must simply use their stats and movement, no magic or weapons, and no special abilities other than what the spirit has given them.

• If the possessed is unsuccessful at getting to the coffin, they can attempt to wink at another player to pass on the possession and the cycle starts again. The original player is no longer possessed.

• If the spirit is not making much progress after 2-3 possessions, the GM can wink at another player as the spirit learns to inhabit multiple creatures at the same time.

• When or if the players open the coffin, the spirit is reunited with its physical form. It ceases to possess anyone and gains all of its abilities on top of the creature stat block the GM has chosen.

Optional Complexities:

Player Special Ability

1. Someone from the town provides the party with one or two magically imbued goggles, that enable them to see when the spirit is passing from one body to another. In gameplay, this means that only one or two designated people can stop the possession from passing on. Meaning if they see a possessed player wink at another player, they can stop it from happening. They cannot stop it from happening to them. This functions like the detective in some versions of the game Wink Murder.

2. A one-time-use possession-detecting wand or item, used to prove the location of the spirit within a player. Once used and confirmed, it becomes inert.

Alternate Goals

1. The dungeon can have subgoals that the possessed can pursue on their way to their body. things like opening a grate or iron gate that allows some lesser monsters or minions to enter the fray. (a swarm, ooze, rats, or something in that vein).

2. There could be a physical interaction that increases/decreases the amount of fog in the dungeon. (Doors to sealed tombs, the environment inside causing fog to roll out) This way the possessed can decrease visibility, and the party can increase it.

Special Possessed Player Abilities for D&D 5e:
The special abilities are all based on concepts like extra mobility for the possessed, and restrictions on the movement and actions of the party. Things like frightening, stunning, etc. Special mentions are turning into fog and a sonic blast pushback.

Each use of an ability costs 2 actions.

1. The possessed magically teleports, along with any equipment it is wearing or carrying, up to 120 feet to an unoccupied space it can see.

2. The possessed utters a blasphemous word. Each non-undead target within 10 feet of the possessed that can hear the magical utterance must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of the possessed next turn.

3. The possessed fixes its gaze on one creature it can see within 10 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw against this magic or become frightened for 1 minute. The frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a target’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to the creature’s gaze for the next 24 hours.

4. The possessed uses its Paralyzing Touch: Melee Spell Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 10 (3d6) cold damage. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

5. The possessed magically transforms into a whirlwind of fog, moves up to 60 feet, and reverts to its normal form. While in whirlwind form, the creature is immune to all damage, and it can’t be grappled, petrified, knocked prone, restrained, or stunned. Equipment worn or carried by the creature remains in its possession.

6. The creature blasts all backward with a musical toot. Each creature within 10 feet of the possessed must succeed on a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw or take 13 (2d6 + 6) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone. The possessed can then hovers up to half its movement speed.

Let the King Be King ft. Ollo Clark

Status can inject intense drama into roleplay, too bad it's not only in the hands of the GM.

Ever wished your tabletop RPG sessions felt more like epic 'do-or-die' tales and less like casual dice-rolling? Well, in this episode, our friend Ollo delivers us a golden key to unlock another level of immersive storytelling and roleplay. Character status, both internal and external, is that roleplay key, but the players are the ones who hold it. 

Status is the secret ingredient that powers those intense in-game moments, where powerful NPCs truly command respect and spine-tingling fear. Ollo Clark, Creative & Art Director for Escape Plan Games, joins us to reveal the status concept's power and how to apply it to our tables.

First, we break down the distinction between internal and external status and why it matters. You'll learn how to play with the dynamics of low and high internal status on the fly. Referencing Succession to Game of Thrones, Ollo shows us how to broadcast status in creative ways.

For GMs, we discuss how to respond when players act brashly towards powerful NPCs and reveal the rewards and consequences of their actions. When to get players to buy into this fiction (hint, it's ASAP). How to create your own system for determining how the world responds to your players status and discuss ideas for how status affects the world around them.

Then, for players, discover how the power of status can shape your character's internal standing, easing roleplay and character decisions. While status is rarely a game mechanic, it might just be one of the most important roleplay secrets you'll learn. After all... actors have long been subtly using it to draw us into their drama.

Sign up to get notified for the launch of Blood, Rum and Thunder by Escape Plan Games.

Follow Ollo Clark on Twitter

As always, thanks for all of you! Our wonderful Patrons who made this episode possible.
Inigo the Brave!, Adam F., Alex R., Steve A., Sigma, Kuraidoscope, Skyler E, Deadman, NinjaDuckie, PseuArt, Blackthorne, FirstLaw, PeakcockDreams, DM Thunderbum, Marley R., Timewarp, DangerousMarmalade, Zach G., No Ma'am, Michelle T., Adlerious, Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., DM Natske, Heavyarms, Leprecan, Will HP

Simply Prep Flawless Encounters

Bring your best ideas to life, and bring unforgettable encounters to the table.

Everyone celebrates. For the last hour, they've been struggling against incredible odds, flipping between moments of triumph and dastardly setbacks. Finally, they've emerged, battered, shocked, surprised. The group collectively agreed that this session was wild. This is the scenario that we, as GM's, strive for.

These great moments are created on the foundation of well-designed encounters. But encounter prep is hard to get right every time. It's easy to forget something or miss the mark. We've done it in nearly every imaginable way. From those mistakes, and with the help of our patrons, we've created a system that streamlines great encounter prep. It's system agnostic. It has a broad definition of encounter. It's as thorough as possible while only including what is absolutely vital.

In this episode, we're going to explain our encounter-building system. Then we'll use it to create a satisfying final encounter for the adventure we have been creating this season, titled "Corruption in the Temple of Trials".

In The Extra-Dimensional Gateway, we look for inspiration for this encounter. Pulling on the pieces of media suggested as inspiration by patrons for the adventure in our episode "Session Zero to Story-Driven Dungeon Crawl", we hone in on some of their most powerful scenes. From Lord of the Rings we appreciate the tactical stages used in the Battle of Helms Deep, and the thrilling environment as the fellowship escapes from Moria. We then consider an amazing example of a social encounter from Stranger Things, where Eleven goes toe-to-toe with her mentor figure, Dr. Brenner.

In The Proving Grounds, we create our encounter. It is everything we wanted to capture, in a concise, useable package. It contains escalations so that tension stays sky-high, it has stakes beyond the life of each PC, it leaves space for plenty of heroics, and it lets us stay flexible and reactive to the player’s choices.

The Encounter Building System Blank

As always, huge thanks to the patrons who made this episode a reality:

Inigo the Brave, Adam F., Alex R., Steve A., Sigma, Kuraidoscope, Skyler E., PseuArt, Blackthorne, FirstLaw, PeakcockDreams, DM Thunderbum, Marley R, Timewarp, DangerousMarmalade, No Ma'am, Michelle T, Adlerious, Chris F, The Senate, Lucas D, Lyla G, The GM Tim, DM Natske, Heavyarms, Leprecan, and Will HP.

Confidently Plot Your Classic TTRPG Adventure

Use a simple system to unlock story-driven sessions

Homebrew adventures. The unlimited freedom to follow the fun wherever it leads. The ability to create thrilling sessions time after time, following the path that the party feels driven to follow, and feels satisfied in doing so. This is what we want for our table.

But there are so many ways to miss the mark. And we've missed it plenty. We've run meandering campaigns, spent hours on game prep only to not use it, or have just confused ourselves. Had cool ideas we didn't know where to put. We've seen our tables lose interest, stop roleplaying, and start making decisions they aren't excited about based purely on the numbers on their character sheets.

Well, we've solved all that with a simple storytelling structure. This episode breaks it down, puts it to use, and shows you how you can use it to cut down prep while playing the best games. In The Extradimensional Gateway, we revisit the inspirations for the adventure we are creating for this season, The Temple of Trials. Indiana Jones, The Goonies, and Stranger Things, among others, will be our guides to coming up with an awesome adventure. In Kinship Camp, we go through the eight steps of our story circle, Inspired by Dan Harmon, and modified by us for TTRPGs. Listen to how it works as we create our adventure, hopefully taking some inspiration for your own. In each step, all you need to do is answer a few key questions and think of some logical encounters that could take place.

In The Extradimensional Gateway, we revisit the inspirations for the adventure we are creating for this season, The Temple of Trials. Indiana Jones, The Goonies, and Stranger Things, among others, will be our guides to coming up with an awesome adventure. In Kinship Camp, we go through the eight steps of our story circle, Inspired by Dan Harmon, and modified by us for TTRPGs. Listen to how it works as we create our adventure, hopefully taking some inspiration for your own. In each step, all you need to do is answer a few key questions and think of some logical encounters that could take place.

In Kinship Camp, we go through the eight steps of our story circle, Inspired by Dan Harmon, and modified by us for TTRPGs. Listen to how it works as we create our adventure, hopefully taking some inspiration for your own. In each step, all you need to do is answer a few key questions and think of some logical encounters that could take place.

The Simple Story Structure: Simple Story Structure Template

As always, huge thanks to our patrons for making this episode a reality.

Inigo the Brave, Adam F., Alex R., Steve A., Sigma, Kuraidoscope, Skyler E., Deadman, Ninja Duckie, PseuArt, Blackthorne, First Law, Peacockdreams, DM Thunderbum, Marley R., Timewarp, Dangerous Marmalade, Zach G., NoMaam, Michelle T., Adlerious, Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., DM Natske, Heavyarms, Leprecan, and Will H-P.

Four Corners of Corrupted Foes

Unleash the thrilling villainy of your party's perfect opponents.

Want a faster route to planning out the major players in an adventure? Something that focuses you efforts like a laser, and results in a living, breathing world? In this episode we use the four-corner opposition method to create rich, dynamic antagonists for our adventure.

Trying to cook up awesome villains can be tough. Many failed approaches were attempted before we found this one. We've spent ages crafting what felt like the perfect villain, only to have them not really resonate. We've jammed all our "baddie" ideas into one mega villain, only to have it feel disjointed and out of place. We've read tomes of lore from different settings, just to have none of it feel quite right. With this approach, we now outline a handful of awesome, custom opposing forces in the time it takes to listen to this episode.

In The Sanctum of Scholars, We review the player characters that our patrons Dangerous Marmalade, Leprecan, and Lyla G. helped come up with. We then figure out what parts of them we can expand upon, and what real world knowledge we can use to inspire our stories antagonists. The discussion covers snake-oil, cult leaders and controlling parents.

In The Conspirator's Conclave, we massage all that into three exciting antagonists. Starting with the ideas of control and manipulation from our characters, we give each corner a differing opinion on these, and use our inspirations to guide the details. We come away with a temple leader that is absolutely awful, a couple of followers that illustrate his evils while providing plenty of chaos of their own, and a terrible monster that the temple has been manipulating in secret for generations.

Previous episodes that use Four Corner Opposition:

Create Conflict with Four Corner Opposition

As always, huge thanks to our patrons for making this episode a reality.

Inigo the Brave, David P., Adam F., Alex R., Steve A., Sigma, Kuraidoscope, Skyler E., Deadman, Ninja Duckie, PseuArt, Blackthorne, First Law, Peacockdreams, DM Thunderbum, Marley R., Timewarp, Dangerous Marmalade, Zach G., NoMaam, Michelle T., Adlerious, Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., DM Natske, Heavyarms, Leprecan, and Will H-P.

Session Zero to Story-Driven Dungeon Crawl

Want to ensure your TTRPG campaign is a success? Start with successful session zero. In the first episode of our first official season, we provide a complete guide that will help you give your players a game they'll love. Whether you use it as is, or just snag a few new ideas, you'll hear us talk through it and use it to establish the foundation for a new adventure.

Our session zero guide is the result of many failed attempts. We know what it's like to struggle with campaigns that don't quite fit the party, players who aren't engaged, lackluster storylines, and failed dramatic reveals. That's why we've gathered the expertise of many others and combined it with our own experience to create a resource that will guide you through an efficient, enjoyable, and thorough session zero. One that prioritizes safety, comfort, and story in one fell swoop.

In the Extra-Dimensional Gateway, we take a look at the results of our season 1 session zero that we had with some of our patrons. Starting with some pop-culture inspirations that they provided, we discuss how we can incorporate those into an adventure. It's a sprinkle of Goonies on top of a pile of Indiana Jones, with a little Stranger Things on the side.

In First Step Tavern, we use those inspirations to do some light worldbuilding and character creation, all a part of the session zero guide. We end up with a community thriving on tourism and healing waters, and some heroic characters that are going to come in to solve their problems. If you're a patron you can access the Notion workspace that will evolve into a full adventure as we make our way through the season.

Session Zero Guide: Complete Session Zero Structure — Hook & Chance (hookandchance.com)

Character Creation Guide: The Complete Character Development Guide — Hook & Chance (hookandchance.com)

As always, huge thanks to our patrons for making this episode a reality.

David P., Adam F., Alex R., Steve A., Sigma, Kuraidoscope, Skyler E., Deadman, Ninja Duckie, PseuArt, Blackthorne, First Law, Peacockdreams, DM Thunderbum, Marley R., Timewarp, Dangerous Marmalade, Zach G., NoMaam, Michelle T., Adlerious, Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., DM Natske, Heavyarms, Leprecan, and Will H-P.

Planning a World-Ending Monster

Bring the shock, awe, and depth to gargantuan beasts that they command.

We all desperately crave the boss monster moment. When we pull out the miniature bigger than our heads and slam it down on the table. The players go wild. One of them is screaming while ripping out chunks of hair. One is vomiting in their dice bag in the corner. One is lighting the map on fire. You sit back and cross your arms, a satisfied grin creeping across your face as the chaos grows.

Okay, maybe that’s a little much.

But in order to get this kind of grand reaction, there’s a little leg work we have to do. If we don’t, people will get a little excited. Then they’ll run up and start swinging. Then 4 hours later, they strike it down. Or, maybe you made it real tough, in which case they can’t hurt it, get frustrated, and die. Also not fun. In this episode, we cover some planning you can do to ensure your boss-monster fight lives on forever as an epic moment.

In Moradin’s Forge, we start with why. There are three main scenarios of incredibly large monster fights that identify why we would include them in our games in the first place. They can exist on their own, or in succession if you use the monster as an entire adventure or campaign. With each, we discuss themes, approaches, and key moments.

Scenario 1: It’s a force of nature - “Don’t fight, just survive”

Scenario 2: It’s impossible odds - “Your attacks aren’t effective… but there might be a way”

Scenario 3: It’s a terrifying obstacle - “It’s powerful, but with your powers combined”

Then we get into a checklist of elements to include in your prep for maximum impact.

1. Create a ticking clock

2. Identify the party goal

3. Define the collateral

4. Define the devices for success

5. Define the alternatives and choices

6. Intro your scale

7. Plan for approach

8. Define the tactics, environment, and stakes of combat stages

With that, you should be pretty well equipped. If not, join us for our next episode where we drill down into the story beats and combat stages of each scenario, so you have no shortage of inspiration for your own nasty giants.

As always, huge thanks to the kaiju-sized support of our patrons for making this episode a reality.

Steve A., Sigma, Kuraidoscope, Skyler E., Deadman, Ninja Duckie, PseuArt, Blackthorne, First Law, Peacockdreams, DM Thunderbum, Marley R., Timewarp, Dangerous Marmalade, Zach G., NoMaam, Michelle T., Adlerious, Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., DM Natske, Heavyarms, Leprecan, and Will H-P.

Tame Your Game with Ticking Clocks

Keep the pacing where you want it, give the story stakes and apply pressure as needed with one simple framework.

Incredible concepts for games can be ruined without a few key details. Open-world "sandbox" games can leave players feeling lost and unmotivated, meandering through locations. Epic storylines can be swept away because the player characters didn't seem to care. Hours of game prep can be lost from players not realizing how compelling that direction could be. Grand finales can feel like math class. With just a few key details these problems vanish, and games can go as smoothly as we imagine they will when we're preparing for the big night.

In this episode we go through a system we use to get a handle on pacing, add or relieve pressure, and establish ticking clocks when we need them. Use it when you have an idea for the story you want to run and reference it during your games. You'll be able to strike the balance of keeping things on track while still allowing the player characters to drive. Slow down or speed up the story based on how much pressure you apply. Allow for diversions, but focus direction when you know it's needed.

In The Strategy Stateroom we get into the specifics. The five basic steps are: find the stakes, foreshadow, pressure, danger now, and the end. You can find all the details in a PDF guide with blank spots so you can use it in your games.

Check out the free downloadable PDF Ticking Clocks: Resources — Hook & Chance (hookandchance.com)

As always, huge thanks to the support of our patrons for making this episode a reality.

Kuraidoscope, Skyler E., Deadman, Kirk T., Ninja Duckie, PseuArt, Blackthorne, First Law, Peacockdreams, DM Thunderbum, Marley R., Timewarp, Dangerous Marmalade, Zach G., NoMaam, Michelle T., Adlerious, Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., DM Natske, Heavyarms, Leprecan, and Will H-P.

How to Defend Your Lair ft. Keith Ammann

Give adventurers the most thrilling challenges as they obfuscate, infiltrate and appropriate.

Returning with another literal book full of wisdom is Keith Ammann. He's bringing the same strategic brilliance that he's brought to monster and player offense to base defense. It creates games that feel grounded, flexible, and full of potential. Most of all, it gives you the tools to create the lair of anyone or any monster you can dream up. We love it, and we think you will too.

In The Strategy Stateroom, Keith takes us through the steps to create a great lair. They include security assessments, deterrence strategies, trap usage, prisoner treatment, and bushels more. You'll get at least a dozen ideas you can implement in your next game from these steps, we promise. Pure gold. We even learn a couple of tidbits about Keith's design process, if that tickles you.

• If you want the full breakdown, pick up the book How to Defend Your Lair by Keith Ammann at How to Defend Your Lair — Spy & Owl (spyandowl.com).

• If you want more of Keith Ammann's thoughts and projects, follow him on Twitter: @KeithAmmann

• And if you've somehow missed his incredible blog: The Monsters Know What They’re Doing - Ready-to-Use Tactics for D&D 5E

Using Tropes with Intent ft. Paige Ford

Lean into the story shortcuts that will deliver powerful moments for your characters.

The group of adventurers pledging themselves to a dangerous mission...The guttural clicking of a monster stalking the party...A passing shadow that clues the party to look up, its source an enormous red dragon. All tropes! All Incredible moments! We were once resistant to the power of tropes, until we realized that you can't avoid them, and that they're actually a useful tool for running games. They're a shorthand that gets everybody into the moment because we all have a meaningful reference point. For this episode we have the talented Paige Ford joining us! She's used her favorite tropes, mostly horror and romance, to write a delightful plethora of gripping adventures for different TTRPG systems.

In The Strategy Stateroom, we cover the steps to using tropes to best effect in TTRPG's. First, you want to find the tropes that present themselves in the story and characters at the table. Next, identify their strengths, and explore how you can subvert or twist them. Finally, explore their themes, and pull as much roleplay potential out of them as possible.

In The Heroes Stage, we learn more about Paige's origins, skills, and gaming perspectives, and how they contribute to the romantically horrific, or horrifically romantic, adventures she creates.

Follow Paige and find her work:

Website: Paige Ford (paigefordgaming.com)

Twitter: OnePaigeRPG (@DnDnPaige) / Twitter

Tavern Tales: Tavern Tales | Escape Plan Games

Rules of Engagement ft. Heavyarms

Craft great games for your group by using rules that work.

Every rule should engage. That's the episode. Playing D&D can feel like you're constantly getting buckets of rules tossed in your face, and you're trying to sort out which ones matter. Then there are rivers of homebrew. How could we possibly know what's good, and what's trash? With the question "Does it engage?", which is what our incredible guest Heavyarms is here to help with. He's created some of the most useful supplements we've ever touched, including The Armorer's Handbook and The Alchemy Almanac among others.

In The Strategy Stateroom, we look specifically at how to assess rules when considering them for your game. Within the three steps of Capture Inspiration, Consider Intent, and Watch for Red Flags we learn practical advice but also so much about game design from the perspective of a pro.

Then we go to The Heroes Stage where we learn more about Heavyarms. He talks about the problems in games that inspire his work, his process, and what might be coming down the pipe in some distant future. Find Heavyarms' work and thoughts:

Website: Heavyarms | Raise your Game

Twitter: heavyarms (@heavydoesntmiss) / Twitter

And as always, huge thanks to the support of all of our patrons for making this episode a reality.

Pseu Art, Blackthorne, FirstLaw, PeacockDreams, DM Thunderbum, Marley R., Garr the Pirate, Timewarp, DangerousMarmalade, Zach G., NoMaam, Michelle T., Felix R., Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., Ty N., Heavyarms, Erik R., Aldrost, Leprecan, Will H-P.

Pacing like a Producer ft. Roz Young

Learn the sorcery that attunes you to your group's energy, molding its ebb and flow with intent.

Ever find yourself scrambling to hit the gas, or notice that something is getting stale, but you just can't tell what? Well, this episode is packed with techniques that will keep everyone on the edge of their seats. The wisdom comes from the experience of our incredible guest Roz Young, the masterful storyteller of Ready to Roll, a boundary-pushing actual play YouTube series.

In the Strategy Stateroom we explore two major steps to improve pacing. The first is to think in acts, and helps prepare for a consistently engaging adventure. The second is to think in scenes, and Roz shares all kinds of perspective shifts from her varied fields of expertise that helps keep every moment feeling unrestrained, yet on track.   

Then we go to the Heroes Stage to learn more about Ready to Roll and what makes it extraordinary, from their rich world, to their cast of actors, to their vignettes, where they recreate key scenes from the game with an entire team of professional filmmakers. We're talking beautifully detailed sets and fully imagined costumes here. You'll think you're watching a movie.

Follow Roz Young

 on twitter: @squirrelsofdoom

on twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/roo_zilla

Check out Ready to Roll on YouTube or on their website.

A Study in Spectacular Sentient Items

Roleplay powerful, otherworldly items that draw the party deep into their mysteries.

Ever thrown in a sentient item, thinking it would be an epic fantasy moment, only to have it become a joke? Or forgotten? A forgotten joke? Nothing worse. In this episode, we get into how to avoid their pitfalls and what you can do to unleash the many wondrous powers they give not just the heroes of your story, but you as the DM.

We also discuss The Beasts of the Dissonance, an incredible new resource for dark fantasy loving DM's.

In The Strategy Stateroom, we go through five steps we use to bring out the best in our sentient items.  

1. Give the item character. 

   Starting off with our Character Planner, we talk through some unique options that make sentient items shine. 

2. Decide how it communicates. 

   The item's method of communication can have a huge impact on the game. 

3. Give it a relationship with its wielder. 

   The most powerful thing about these NPCs is the story they create with their champion. 

4. Use its values to create a character arc. 

   Using 4 corner opposition, we can figure out some potential directions their story can take. 

5. Pay off the relationship in the end. 

   Giving it a tangible goal and a boon of some sort for its wielder upon completion is a way to ensure it's never forgotten and to give that player something to look forward to.  

Then we head to The Temple of Inspired Hands where we highlight Beasts of the Dissonance,  an incredible Kickstarter beginning April 19th, 2022. It's a visually stunning bestiary packed with 40 new dark fantasy monsters, a new class that can summon and control these monsters complete with five subclasses, rich lore, and STL files for 3d printing these terrifying beasts so your table gets right into the horror. We love the theme, its easily navigable layout, the unique new monster abilities that help create tension and encourage roleplay, and of course, the detailed 3D printing files! Too often we have to represent some wicked creature with a giant toad, and it just doesn't land right. Now we've got it all.   

Check it out and support it here. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grinninggod/beasts-of-the-dissonance-5e 

As always, huge thanks to the support of our patrons for making this episode a reality.

DM Thunderbum, Marley R., Garr the Pirate, Timewarp, DangerousMarmalade, Zach G., NoMaam, Michelle T., Alan E., Felix R., Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., Tyler G., Ty N., Heavyarms, Erik R., Aldrost, Leprecan, Will H-P.

Show, Don't Tell ft. Ollo Clark

Bring moments to life in a way that inspires roleplay, not rules referencing.

Those great sessions that are packed with character moments, epic fights, and emotional highs seem almost magical. Well, this episode unlocks a piece of that magic. We talk to Ollo Clark from Escape Plan Games all about how the storytelling concept "show, don't tell" can apply to all the elements of TTRPG's, and help us encourage those memorable moments.

In The Strategy Stateroom we go through Ollo's four filters he uses to create great descriptions.

1. Purpose. What do I want my players to feel or experience?

2. Action. Can I do it with action instead of emotive language?

3. Sensations. Can I use sensations instead of descriptions?

4. Meta. What can I do outside of the fiction to emphasize the moment?

Next, we use these steps to think about how we would introduce some NPCs, monsters, locations, and weapons starting from some great prompts from a few of the show's patrons, which they gave us on the Hook and Chance discord.

Then we go to The Heroes Stage to learn more about Ollo's journey to becoming a Creative & Art Director, how his education in literature and acting has influenced the way he runs games, and some of the innovative features that Tavern Tales Volume I brings to the world of 5e supplements. Check out Escape Plan Games - eplangames.com

Follow Ollo on Twitter @jackbnimble42

As always, huge thanks to the support of our patrons for making this episode a reality.

Marley R., Garr the Pirate, Timewarp, Nico Y., Zach G., NoMaam, Michelle T., Alan E., Felix R., Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., Tyler G., Ty N., Heavyarms, Erik R., Aldrost, Leprecan, Will H-P

Create a Cult Mystery

Craft compelling mysteries with your cults that will surround and confound your party.

If you listened to our last episode, you've got an original cult to grip your players with their twisted, dastardly plans. Well, now it's time to play out those plans. And it's not always easy to prep for a game that needs to give players a plot to unravel, horrifying cult activities, and a captivating villain to lead the way. There are so many missteps that can quickly derail the tension and terror you want to build in these games. That's why in this episode we explore how to use a collection of our resources to create a cult mystery horror adventure by making one ourselves, and we're pretty excited about how it turned out. It's got shadow demons, brood mothers, dark rituals, and more!

In Kinship Camp, we create an adventure that culminates everything we talked about in previous episodes:

• 27. The Bones of Horror I

• 28. The Bones of Horror II

• 29. The Bones of Horror III

• 69. D&D Mystery Simplified I: World-building

• 70. D&D Mystery Simplified II: Story Beats

• 71. D&D Mystery Simplified III: The Details

• 136. Cult Based Mysteries

Don't worry, listening to them all isn't crucial to following this episode, but we do hope it inspires the creation of your own adventures. To use the free resources that came out of these episodes, be sure to check out our resources page.

As always, huge thanks to the support of our patrons for making this episode a reality.

Marley R., Garr the Pirate, Timewarp, Nico Y., Zach G., NoMaam, Michelle T., Hentenius, Alan E., Felix R., Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., Tyler G., Ty N., Heavyarms, Erik R., Aldrost, Leprecan, Will H-P

Essentials to Crafting a Diabolical Cult

Create fantasy cults from the roots of reality to inject morally twisted delights into your game.

D&D cults have some entertaining details, to be sure. Chanting, robes, and funky daggers are fun for the whole family. But what we've always run into is that beyond this, they're simply another group of evildoers that must be stopped, most likely with a mace to the face. But when we take a look at real cult-like behavior, from the charismatic leaders to the psychological manipulation they use to induct the innocents of your world, they become a force to be reckoned with. Your party is going to need not only their most explosive abilities, but their most cunning words, their most deceitful tactics, and their heaviest moral choices. The real-world details in this episode come from the books Cultish by Amanda Montell and Cults Inside Out by Rick Alan Ross.

In The Strategy Stateroom we go through a complete approach you can take to building up your own cults.

1. Determine a theme and nefarious goal

   This is usually what’s included in our existing cults. We’ve got a dragon cult that wants to summon a mega-powerful dragon. Whatever fits your game.

2. Create a Charismatic Leader

   Cult leaders are typically likable and kind on the surface, but deeply manipulative and sociopathic underneath. We talk about the many tools of influence your cult leader might use.

3. Create some cultists

   Adding a few cultists with differing opinions on the whole operation gives your players everything they need to take the game in whatever direction they want.

4. Design a culture

   You can follow along with our free culture creator, detailed in Episode 60 - Worldbuilding with Culture Creation, but there are a few specifics we discuss that will make your cultish cultures pop, including their initiation tactics.

5. Focus on the Details

   There are a few things you can add to make your cults truly stand out. Language is one of the biggest. Consider a few specific phrases your cults uses to distinguish themselves.

Then we put it all together and come up with a solid start for a cult in Travis’ fiend-filled campaign world. It’s called Children of the Steadfast Cathedral, and it’s led by a most charming devil.

As always, huge thanks to the support of our patrons for making this episode a reality.

Marley R., Garr the Pirate, Time Warp, Nico Y., Zach G., No Ma'am, Michelle T., Hentenius, Alan E., Matthew T., Felix R., Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., Tyler G., Ty N., Heavyarms, Erik R, Aldrost, Leprecan, and Will H-P.

5 Steps for Memorable Taverns ft. Escape Plan Games

Never have a dull moment again in the taverns of your world.

We've all sat down in the tavern, only to not know where to go next. As GM we've accidentally described the blandest, most cookie-cutter fantasy drinking hole, and can't conjure up an NPC that does more than asking "what're ye havin'?" while everyone looks around, hoping for something to engage with. Well, that's why Mike Pisani and Colin Heffernan from Escape Plan Games join us in this episode to bring us techniques and tools to create more dynamic and inspiring taverns.

In The Strategy Stateroom, we cover five elements to include in all your taverns.

1. Theme the Tavern.

   Starting with a unique premise helps the place come together, and gives you something to draw off as you create more.

2. Create three unique NPC's.

   Coming up with at least three contrasting individuals that feel deeper than their job titles, that are created from your theme really helps bring the place to life.

3. Get Players Invested

   Giving the party stakes in the tavern gives you something to play with, or, y'know, threaten. Letting players set up a stand to sell their adventuring loot from, or letting them literally invest in the tavern's success make the players lean in.

4. Create Entertainment Options

   Providing interesting mini-games and events allows players to engage on their own agenda, and create fun where they want it.

5. Kick off the Adventure

   The tavern exists to be the starting point, so you have to make it a great start!

Then we go to The Heroes Stage to Learn more about Colin and Mike, Escape Plan Games, and their newest supplement Tavern Tales Volume I. It's an incredibly rich and detailed body of work surrounding a tavern titled A Trip Away. It includes everything you could ever need and some things you didn't know you needed for your next pit stop. It has NPC's, adventures, magic items, tavern games, a full menu, and shady dealers, to name a few features.

Check out Escape Plan Games - eplangames.com

Follow them on Twitter @eplangames

As always, huge thanks to the support of our patrons for making this episode a reality.

Garr the Pirate, Time Warp, Nico Y., Zach G., No Ma'am, Michelle T., Hentenius, Alan E., Matthew T., Felix R., Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., Tyler G., Ty N., Heavyarms, Erik R, Aldrost, Leprecan, and Will H-P.

The Tragic Backstory Made Useful

Make your tragedies matter to your character, the party, and the story.

Have you ever felt the backstory pains that we used to? This was our strategy: We write an elaborate backstory full of murder, mystery, and utter loss. We imagine telling our friends around the gaming table, hearing their "oohs" and "aahs" as their minds are blown by our creative genius. Then we get to the game and realize that it's probably inappropriate to give a half-hour monologue about how Goretrax the dragon emperor tricked us into shooting our family into the sun. And so the backstory is forgotten. To top it off, we play a character that exists completely separately from the backstory we labored over! Well, since then, we've grown and considered how the tragic backstory can not only be interesting to the party but create incredible moments for our characters.

In The Strategy Stateroom, we lay out what we think are four crucial questions about your character. Their answers will bring their tragedy into the game in the best way. We dive into each of them in the episode and talk about specifics that will help you get the most out of them.

• What is the source of your character's trauma?

• What is your character's path?

• How does your character's trauma manifest?

• How does your character's trauma get resolved?

Then we go to The Extra-Dimensional Gateway to talk about the traumatic backstories of Iron Man and Arya Stark to see what we liked about them, what we can borrow, and how they differ.

Moral Dilemmas Made Meaningful

Haunt your party with moments where they'll always wonder if they made the right choice.

Playing good vs. evil games is great! You get to take down baddies, fighting your way towards ultimate and definitive justice! Morality, though? That's a whole different kind of fun. For the role-player, it’s the fun of putting a character through the trenches of what defines them. For the DM, it’s turning the party into a group of philosophers, debating the best path forward, and accepting its consequences. That's why in this episode we break down moral dilemmas, and figure out a way to build them up so we can present the most powerful, customized problems for our party.

In The Strategy Stateroom, we talk through three steps you can take to end up with a great dilemma.

1. Determining two factions and values to pit against one another.

2. Adding in competition, stakes, and the price of inaction.

3. Balancing and complicating the choice, so it's as meaty of a dilemma as it can be.

Throughout, we oversimplify some real-world ethical concepts for the purposes of game design. Seems wrong as I type it out, but we did it. Here they are for reference:

Ethical Frameworks:

• Utilitarianism. The net pleasure of the outcome

• Kantianism. Universality. If everyone did it, would it be ok?

• Care ethics. Our relationships, and caring for others.

• Virtue ethics. The virtue of the self

Ethical Fallacies:

• The law informs ethics

• Morality is subjective

• The fallacy of sincerity

Then we jump into The Extra-Dimensional Gateway to talk about a few of our favorite moral dilemmas in video games, and how we can use them to inspire our games.

As always, huge thanks to the support of our patrons for making this episode a reality.

Garr the Pirate, Time Warp, Nico Y., Zach G., No Ma'am, Michelle T., Hentenius, Alan E., Matthew T., Felix R., Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., Tyler G., Ty N., Heavyarms, Erik R, Aldrost, Leprecan, and Will H-P.

Creating Holidays for your Homebrew

Celebrate holidays in your games for the same reason we celebrate them in real life: when you just need a break from all the action.

Special celebrations can be a great addition to your games. You can use them to flesh out and ground your cultures. You can use them to add to the backstory of a character. You can use them to insert some truly bizarre events that wouldn't otherwise fit. Weirdly, you can even create traditions in your games that your players are excited to come back to! The possibilities are many, and this is why we wanted to cover how to create great holidays quickly.

In The Strategy Stateroom we cover four steps that lead to consistently good holidays:

1. Know the Culture

We've gone into depth on how to create a culture, and every meaningful holiday is deeply rooted in the culture that created it. You can download our one-page culture creator and start from there, but at the very least, think of a couple of values that define the culture you've got in your game to work from.

2. Create the Origin Story

Every holiday has the legend of how it began. It's hard to talk about them without their origin stories.

3. Create a Behavioral Shift

In what way does the entire attitude of those within the culture change leading up to the holiday? In most of Canada, we encourage goodwill leading up to Christmas, and spookiness leading up to Halloween.

4. Create Interactive Traditions

This is what the party can actually do. We cover all kinds of real-world inspirations in the episode, but this is a great opportunity to play through some fun competitions with unique prizes.

Then, in The Temple of Inspired Hands we talk about what we've done with this podcast, and what you can expect in the near future. We're super grateful to be a part of the discord community that has formed around this podcast, and it's a blast to see the ideas that come up in that group. We are taking December off, partly to plan for the next year of this podcast, partly to do real-world holiday stuff, but in the meantime patrons can find a bonus episode of all of our screw-ups over the last year on our Patreon. An outtakes episode. And barring any bad news, we'll be planning to attend Winter Fantasy in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, so if you find yourselves there, come by and say hi!

As always, huge thanks to the support of our patrons for making this episode a reality.

Zach G., Greg Greg, Michelle T., Hentenius, Alan E., Matthew T., Felix R., Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., Tyler G., Ty N., Heavyarms, Erik R, Aldrost, Leprecan, and Will H-P.