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.

The Secret to Purpose-Driven Villains

Craft complex antagonists for unforgettable adventures

The final showdown. After smashing aside all the diversions, mental games, tricks and traps, the party has caught up to the villain. They've been forced to face their demons along the way, made sacrifices, but have finally earned the chance to end the villains reign of terror once and for all. That's the kind of villains we want to bring to the table. And in this episode, we're discussing our best techniques for doing just that by creating a charismatic, manipulative father figure villain for our adventure, Corruption in the Temple of Trials.

To create a villain that is not only a powerful character, but is useful in your game isn't easy. They need to be bad people, but obviously not so bad they cross boundaries. They need to be fun to hate, but in a way the players feel compelled to stop, rather than laugh at. And they truly need to be custom-built, because as great as Darth Vader is, he's a great villain for Luke Skywalker and his pals, not for Indiana Jones. Our process is to look at our player characters, determine themes and threads we want to pull at, consider any inspiration points, and fill out our NPC generator with a villain in mind. In The Extra-Dimensional Gateway, we bring up three great villains to inspire our concept. Hans Landa of Inglorious Basterds offers us a ruthless monster under a disciplined, polite exterior. Rhas al Ghul of Batman Begins provides a great model for a mentor, mixed with an "ends justify the means" mentality. Finally, Joseph Seed from Farcry 5 gives us the mindset of a zealot that believes himself the only one capable of shepherding his people to a better life.

Then, in The Conspirator's Conclave, we start to fill out our NPC creator. We get into the nuances of how we plan to introduce this villain, the light version of his "origin story", and his goals. Then we make sure we have some elements from our mystery guide, like a fleshed-out plan for the party to stop, and other suspects for the villains' crimes that might throw players off the scent.

How we build NPCs: NPC Creation in Stages

How we build mysteries:

D&D Mystery Simplified I: Worldbuilding — Hook & Chance (hookandchance.com)

D&D Mystery Simplified II: Story Beats — Hook & Chance (hookandchance.com)

D&D Mystery Simplified III: The Details — Hook & Chance (hookandchance.com)

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.

Crafting Homebrew Horrors for Your Heroes

Create monsters that'll turn those characters into heroes.

Some of the best moments in a game come from when a brave party of adventurers stares the worst conjurings of your imagination in the eyes and says "Not today, death!" Especially when the monster feels unique, like it's come into the world just to face down these heroes, and even manages to shock and delight the players. In this episode, we show by example how we go about achieving exactly this.

It's a simple process that's taken time, and learning lessons the hard way, to develop. We've discarded techniques like scouring through thousands of monsters trying to find that *perfect* fit, or spending way too much time learning the math behind rulesets in the hopes that it will unlock some kind of magic shortcut. Eventually, we realized the best, and fastest, way to make those horrifying moments pop is to create a simple monster that fits the story, rather than finding a complex one that doesn't.

In the Sanctum of Scholars, we get some inspiration for this season's main monster. We're cooking up a predatory creature that has evolutionary stages, yet seems eternal. To find ingredients, we turn to the terrors of the ocean waves. We cover the way a tiny blue dragon harvests venom, the life cycle of a glowing jellyfish, and the daring culinary adventures of a simple fish.

In Lamashtu's Breeding Pit we take our monster through the stages of horror, detailing its horrific evolutions and unique abilities. All the ideas are derived from the player characters we know it'll be fighting, as well as the many inspirations we've collected up to this point. We come away with something that we couldn't be more excited to run.

Horror Roleplaying Guide

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.

Build a Likeable NPC in Stages

Quickly populate your world with meaningful characters that the players need to know.

NPC's are the tool of a GM. They are how you draw the players into your world, they're how you communicate with them, they're expressions of all your plots and schemes and worldbuilding. They're entertaining, they hold secrets to uncover, they allow great roleplay, and work together to create suspense! Easier to just say they do everything. So we better make 'em good. We offer our NPC Creation Guide in order to do just that.

We've solved a lot of our previous stumbling blocks with our NPC creation guide. No more hours spent tweaking the perfect badass outlaw that's absolutely crucial to the plot, only to have the party push him off an airship just to watch them fall. No more disastrously named and conceived NPCs that force you to throw out all your prep, as the party now wants to make them ruler of all the lands. Just what you need, when you need it.

In The Sanctum of Scholars, we get an idea of the NPC we will build in this episode, starting with why we want them in our game in the first place. Running with our concept of "A child that needs protection and moral guidance so they can know how to handle their new powers and responsibilities", we crack open a couple of psychological concepts to inspire them. The first is the theory of psychosocial development from Erik Erikson, which helps us put this kid firmly in the middle of an identity crisis. The second comes from It's Not All About "Me": The Top Ten Techniques for Building Quick Rapport with Anyone by Robin Dreeke, which gives us a few ideas for how to make sure the party likes them.

In Orrick's Landing, we explain how our NPC Creation Guide works while putting it to work on this character. We come out the other side with a wise, confident kid that's naive to how the world really works. At only 12, she can be found going about her many temple chores while having a thrilling conversation with her best friend Candle. After greeting the party with a friendly gap-toothed grin, she asks for help finding everyone she's ever known.

NPC Creation Guide

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.

Creating Conflicting Cultures

Draw the party in by designing an original world they want to be in

Want to work up a corner of your world that feels rich with history, friendships, rivalries, and details that all kinda make sense? Something that makes the party curious, and allows you the space to improv more at the table, while keeping it all connected? That's what we're talking about today, with the help of our culture creator.

It took a while for us to come up with this approach. We've tried using factions and cultures from books as written, but that's a gamble. Either a player picks up the thread, or that whole group fades into the background fast, and you have to scramble to find something they engage with. We've tried creating our own from absolute scratch, which leads to quick and dirty stand-ins for real-world cultures that bring retrospective shame, or endless rabbit holes to try to figure out a thousand details that will never come up.

In The Archives of the Ancients, we look at a few points of historical inspiration, based on some ideas that came up in our first episode of this season, "Session Zero to Story Driven Dungeon Crawl". The conversation covers the grandeur of the baths of Caracalla, the hurried mess that was The Banff Springs Hotel, and the unusual medical history of snails.

In Founders Square, we build out two cultures that occupy the same geographical location using our culture creator. First, we consider the party values. Then we create two sets of opposing values for the two cultures. After peppering in our inspirations, they quickly take on a life of their own.

Culture Creator: Culture Creation Guide

Nudibranch (magic color slug) Image: Nudibranch

Previous Episodes that feature the Culture Creation Guide:

Secrets of the Firbolg

The Modron Mathematical Mayhem

The Modron Metaphysical Motivation

Creating Holidays for Your Homebrew

A Meditation on Elves

Menacing Mind Flayer Culture

Building a Curious Tabaxi Culture

Create Gods and Religions with Ease

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.

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.

Beware the Basilisk

Unleash terror at your table by harnessing the petrifying potential of this legendary beast.

The Basilisk. A violent, monstrous lizard that can turn you to stone with a glare. While fun at first glance, this monster betrayed us. The first time using it turned into a panic, when we realized how immediately and irreversibly deadly they can be against a fledgling party of adventurers. “Wait, petrified? Like, for good?” Not only that, but they come across like a beast to just plop in front of the party for slaying. But wait! Turns out there’s plenty of lore and real-world inspiration we can use to turn these scaly brutes into battles to remember.

In this episode, we run through inspiration and frameworks to create a compact horror adventure around the Basilisk.

In Archives of the Ancients, we discuss what could inspire our adventure. First, we turn to the animal kingdom. Since a lot of legends claimed that the basilisk was snake-like, we dive into cobras to see what they can offer. Then we check out some of the absolutely ridiculous legends about basilisks, involving the capital punishment of roosters, mirror suits, and more. We finish off by briefly discussing Stoneman Disease to see if that can inform our adventure at all.

Then we roll along to Lamashtu’s Breeding Pit. Here we fold all of the previously discussed inspirations into our simple story structure to lay out a concept, followed by our horror guide to layer it with tension and details, both downloadable at Resources — Hook & Chance. In the end, we have an adventure outline we’d be excited to run, where the party has to contend with superstitions, con artists, basilisk broods, and unexpected abilities.

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

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.

Running a Monumental Monster

Create the climactic, complicated chaos your party craves with much less effort.

Ever throw down a giant nasty monster only to have the most memorable moment be when you couldn’t figure out the hp math for a minute? Without the party even realizing this was supposed to be the fight? We’ve been there.

The last episode introduced our method of running massive, world-ending monsters in a way that feels complex, with frenetic action, epic scale, and lots of collateral damage. In this episode, we take that format and flesh out three scenarios of different scales. Hopefully, it helps your next gigantazord to be that much more intense.

In Kinship Camp, we give three complete examples. Each starts with a unique purpose for using a boss monster. We run through the full scenario, complete with obstacles, setbacks, and choices the party must make, then break it down to show how we got there with our template.

Scenario One: Force of Nature.

The party's goal is to survive a Cthulhu-like cosmic horror as it rises from the sea while mitigating as much death, destruction, and mind control as possible.

Scenario Two: Impossible Odds.

The party quickly learns that they aren’t powerful enough to fight a tarrasque outright, and have to find a clever solution to overpower it in an arcane-powered desert city.

Scenario Three: Terrifying Obstacle

Demonic forces led by a lord of chaos threaten a city. The party has to use all its strength and teamwork to put a stop to it before it brings its ghoulish army into our world.

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

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.

The Great Homage Heist ft. The GM Tim

Learn to weave your favorite elements of stories together into your greatest game yet.

You consume a story. Maybe a movie, or book. You love it. It speaks to you. It moves you. You want to jam it into your games, but how do you jam in the things that captured you? The things that matter? Throw in a character with a bullwhip and a fedora, you're not going to have what made Indiana Jones great.

On the other hand, perhaps you are running dry on inspiration. Your mind, like ours, can act as a sieve that retains nothing of value. When it comes time for game prep, you slap at concepts like "monster" and "quest", hoping that something happens. In this episode, we hope to help you create a font of inspiration that matters to you, and never runs dry.

Join us and The GMTim in The Temple of Inspired Hands. We go through a sampling of questions he has designed to extract the most from fiction that inspires us. They help extract what matters from the story, or scenes, or characters that we want to capture in our games.

Then we step into Moradin's Forge to discuss the Appendix Lit book club. The GM Tim has created a list of fantasy/science/speculative fiction books that represent culturally diverse and queer authors. Find more information, including the books and the questions: Appendix Lit: A Gamer's Inspiration Book Club - The GM Tim.

Alter Preceptions of Alter Self

The fine print of Alter Self can create conflict in your game, but with some specificity, it can be the best spell in your arsenal.

There are some odd addendums in the spell description of Alter Self. The challenge of using this spell for both GMs and players is that the rules as written confines us from the places where our imaginations naturally go. What a pain. With some minor clarifications and gentle relaxing of the rules, we can find some middle ground that both sides of the table can love.

In the Kinship Camp, we'll look at some of the tricky language in the spell description and provide some more concrete clarifications that remove the source of conflict when using one of our favorite sorcerer, wizard, and artificer spells. Then of course, we go to some weird and wild places when imagining what could be done with this must-have 2nd level spell.

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

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., Ty N., Heavyarms, Aldrost, 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

Secrets of the Firbolg

Adventure deep into the heart of Firbolg territory, and come out with ideas that will make them more intriguing, surprising, and above all, useful for your games.

The Firbolg represents an archetype that's been around a long time, and is a blast to play—the gentle, nature-loving giant. Like most player options, however, there's a few traps to fall in if we don't consider their potential. Firbolgs are more than just the cultural equivalent of druids. And they can offer so much more than cliches about hippies or becoming the "shaggy" of the group.

We start in Kinship Camp, where we build a culture based on the basics of Firbolgs that we like; they're a selfless offshoot of giant culture. We give them some values and beliefs to build off of then get into the details that will make them useful for our games. We come out with an elusive, territorial community that truly works with the life that surrounds them in creative ways, from multi-purpose fruits to symbiotic relationships. They hold secrets that a group of adventurers might one day seek. In exchange for said secrets, the Firbolg do not seek material trade, only for you to prove that you deserve them.

Then we head to Grandma B's Schoolhouse to learn about the real-world history of the Firbolg people. They were the third group to settle Ireland, according to The Book of Invasions, and had to put up with a lot in order to get their piece of the Ireland pie. We focus on Sreng, a Firbolg champion with some pretty epic lines of legend that could very well inspire your next hero. Who else has slain 150 warriors on his way to fight his enemy's king?

Special thanks to those who joined in our monthly patron discord hangout about this episode, lending their great ideas: Dangerous Marmelade, Leprecan, Mycofish, and No Ma’am

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

NinjaDuckie, Pseu Art, Blackthorne, Firstlaw, Peacockdreams, DM Thunderbum, Marley R., Garr the Pirate, 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, Aldrost, Leprecan, and Will H-P.

Metal soundtrack provided by TeknoAXE

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

The Revenant Revival

Relentlessly pursue revenge against the party in the most delightful way with this dreadful undead.

Revenants capture a particular genre of monster, and we love it. They have been represented in the great slashers in the form of characters like Jason and Michael Meyers. No matter how many times you think you got 'em, they're back and angrier than ever. And as a GM, nothing sounds more fun than chasing the party with an undead foe that, no matter how many times you blast to bits or behead, will just keep coming.

But to use them in a satisfying way, as always, we need to do more than plop them into a session. They risk being a boring fight that just turns into a chore every time they come back from the dead. That's why we go through three stages of a revenant adventure that will hit all the right beats to terrify and delight your table.

In The Strategy Stateroom we create a loose adventure using three stages. The first is building up The Horror, creating tension and suspense until the revenant directly confronts the party. Then we go through The Haunting, during which the revenant changes tactics and causes mayhem and destruction from a distance. Finally we get to The Mystery, where the party has to figure out how to kill it for good and face it for a final showdown.

Check out the old radio horror story we referenced in this episode, He Who Follows Me

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, Dangerous Marmalade, Zach G., NoMaam, Michelle T., Felix R., Chris F., Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W, Ty N, Heavyarms, Erik R, Aldrost, Leprecan, and Will H-P.