Let's all be Heroes

For real. We all wanna be your hero baby.

But it takes both the players and the GM to make it happen. 

Tips for Players:

• Be interesting - dump stats in a skill that's different for fuck's sake
• Take risks - heroes don't shy away from a DC 25 acrobatics check to back-flip off of the ogre's forehead and stick the landing across the river of lava
• Look for opportunities, but don't force it. Just because you are a goddamned expert in climbing doesn't mean you can't just walk up the mountain path
• Talk to your GM (nicely), if you feel that opportunities aren't presenting themselves as much as other players. Ask how your character can be more useful in the future. Hopefully they will get the hint

Tips for GMs:

• Read players' character sheet and backstories it can be fucking painful, but will give you ideas
• Make it tough, and make it worth it. If they can never fail then success doesn't seem as sweet
• Remember, it's not about YOU. You're already a hero for putting up with all their whiny bullshit; they should give you an award just for showing up
• Plan ahead - I keep a section of notes dedicated to making sure I have planned opportunities for each character. Something like this:
• Thief: Traps @ entrance, sleeping guards, alarm can be disabled
• Wizard: ______??? (maybe add a monster vulnerable to cold dmg)
• Cleric: Can speak to the dead victims, religious puzzles to get loot

In the above example I would go back to my plot notes to see what I could do to give the wizard time to shine. Not all of the events will happen exactly as planned -- that's OK, you did your part. 

Quick and Dirty Stat Blocks

This is a follow-up to another great blog post out there. It's a great read honestly, check out the link at the bottom.

When running a gaming session, I don't need most of what is normally included in the stat block. It's just too much information when you need to quickly get your players into a batter, or when your players fuck over an NPC unexpectedly.

I wanted to share a tool to help you organize the most important information in one place:

Quick and Dirty Stat Block Template

These will fit rather nicely into the GM Plot-keeper tool and will hopefully speed up your game.

Also, a hardworking gamer, Ralph Judkins shared his abbreviated stat blocks for a shit-ton of D&D monsters: Ralph's abbreviated stat blocks. These stat blocks can be cut via snipping tool and direct pasted into your GM notes. Send thanks to ralph.judkins@gmail.com.

AngryGM - inspiration and additional reading

Tips:

1. Try to include a stat block for NPCs you plan on introducing. Trust me, if it has a name, your players will kill it.
2. Don't worry too much about including all the details - remember this tool is supposed to save you time! The original stat block will always be there if there is a rules question.

A good GM is an organized GM. Introducing the GM Plot-keeper!

For most Game Masters, there's nothing better than hand-written notes in a spiral notebook that you borrowed from the supply closet at work. 

For those few who want to be a bit more organized, I wanted to share one of my new favorite tools for be being a better GM:

GM Plot-keeper Example

This document is arranged so that you can easily organize key features to your plot with enough room for scratch and note-taking as the game progresses. 

Key features for me include:

Important Characters

Quick and Dirty Stat Blocks

Dialogue and Event timelines

I like being able to print out (sorry trees) the story and make notes as I go along. I can keep track of encounters, hit points, treasures, and most importantly, how the players fucked up my story.

Showing up with a plan is half the battle, but being able to stay organized when things go haywire keeps the game interesting and consistent between settings. 

Couple of tips when using the GM Plot-keeper:

1. I save a different file for each session. This helps prevent "over planning" as you will get a feel for how long certain plot lines will take. 
2. This tool works best when you have a structured dungeon or encounter that you want to run, but can be used to great effect with open-world situations
3. When playing a more flexible or open-world session (e.g. players are in the middle of a large city with plenty of destinations to choose from), try organizing it by location and writing detailed descriptions and opening lines for typical NPCs.
4. Having a separate page for Quick and Dirty Stat Blocks can be useful, but feel free to drop one in the body of your story as needed. 
5. Use your notes to prepare for the next session!