This is a non-exhaustive tour of how I run games. I might make more posts like this in the future. I don’t think of this as a practical guide, but more of a reflection of how I think I run games.  Me, preparing for a session. Illustration by Bert ! Prep If I’m preparing for a session with new players that I don’t know well, I typically start out with some safety talk. Lines and veils, X Cards and such are features I make available. These are great to prevent uncomfortable or harmful experiences in play.  I think things through. Usually I do this whenever my brain has idle time. I might be in the shower or on a hike. What I think about are where the players might want to go, what kind of encounters there might be,  and what other events might influence the session. Thinking through these things once makes it easier for me to recall and run in sessions later.  I also map out places by making node graphs. I think they are more flexible and useful than gridded maps. I do...

In this post, I’m going to outline some ideas for how to handle campaigns when it’s difficult to get the same players at the table consistently. You have probably seen the memes. Maybe experienced it first hand yourself how hard it can be to schedule a game.  What I offer is by no means a silver bullet, but it may make things easier to run. And of course, none of this is necessary if just one of your players will miss the session. This is more relevant for those who have several players missing. The first thing to tackle is… Linearity For many it is a foregone conclusion that whatever follows in the next session should be in continuation from the last session. But is that really necessary? In my mind, it isn’t. It may be at odds with consistency, but it hasn’t surfaced often as a problem in my games. Put a pin in that - One Shot Mentality What benefits are there to non-linearity? Let’s say you have a group that is crawling through the tomb in Winter’s Daughter and your group stops ...