Preparing for playing roleplaying games is a is known burden for Game Masters. Ginny Di recently featured a video explaining her problems with GM burnout, and I’ve personally experienced similar things. As have my friends who run campaigns. I don't really have a solution for this, but I can explain what I do more of these days. And that is “five minute prep” games. I have two skills that I use for running games on five minutes of prep, which are using random generation and improvising. Random generation is maybe as expected, using encounter tables and adventure tables (such as those found in the 2400 micro games). What I typically do is create a pitch for a 2 hour session, which are typically simple jobs made complicated. This only takes a minute to roll up, usually, which sets the basis for the session. Following that, I set up a location that most importantly must feel real. Improvisation comes in when the game is running. Typically I describe locations in a grounded manner that

I’m preparing to run a Roadside Picnic’ish setting soon using 2400 . There’s one of Jason Tocci’s microgames that already cover this type of setting, but I want to make some additions on top of that. The idea is to run a realtime campaign for a quarantine zone set in the year 1983.  Picture by Tobias Wahlquist , used with permission. I changed the advancement rule to match the pace of the campaign, so the notation for the character creation is slightly different too. In typical 2400 games, the skill level is expressed in dice notation.  Advancement: You can advance your skills by training a number of weeks equal to your Skill Total (add together all skill ranks) + the next rank. Advancing a skill rank grants a better skill die: OPERATORS Choose a speciality.  BUNKER RAT: Advance (rank 1) any two skills from Climbing, Navigation, Running or Stealth. Take one good outdoors outfit and choose between fair camping gear or climbing gear.  FIGHTER: Advance (rank 1) any two skills from Hand-

This post is my attempt to lay bare how to play a roleplaying game using FKR methods. I will presume no prior experience. Actually, I will presume you don’t even have a roleplaying game. It’s alright, you won’t need one. Mind you, this post is still just a brief overview. Each of the topics I cover here are just barely scratching the tips of their respective icebergs.    Dreams by Rogier Hoekstra via Pixabay. Image used with permission. How to roleplay First off, roleplaying is not acting. It is not stage-play. Instead, it is about saying or doing things that you would do given a role. That’s it. It might even sound familiar, like play pretend. What you and your friends at the table will be doing is using roleplay to set up an ongoing fiction or narrative. When you roleplay, you are basically addressing the ‘facts’ that are in the fiction. Depending on your role, you could change or add facts to the fiction. If you’re in a room with a sarcophagus, you might want to examine some things

On November 6th 2022, I participated in a megagame called Den of Wolves. A megagame is a live roleplaying game where in this case 43 players got together to play a game where a ragtag fleet had to escape the onslaught of the Wolf fleet. Den of Wolves is definitively inspired by Battlestar Galactica, where one outdated warship is tasked with defending the remnants of mankind, in the form of a ragtag fleet,  and finding the path to Earth.  The Fleet in Battlestar Galactica. (Image by NBCUniversal, fair use)

The following are intended for use in a playtest campaign set in Netherlight, an Into the Odd expansion I’m working on. Netherlight takes the adventurers to the stars in magical spaceships, exploring alien worlds and crossing into the shadowy dimension of the Nether. In these odd places, the characters may find new gear and artifacts. 

The following is for my Netherlight project. It's meant to give a vibe of some populated worlds you could find in the setting. Feel free to join my discord , where I post more regular updates on the project.  The Galaxy The Galaxy is vast. There are as many worlds as you can imagine. Some are settled, while many more are unexplored.  The Galaxy is old. Humans have built their cities for millennia. Each world has legends and myths. The Galaxy is thriving. Explorers and traders set out every day. Diverse spacecraft ply its expanse.  Image generated by Midjourney AI.