10 Favorite Game Master Tips for Pathfinder / D&D
Whether you’re playing Dungeon & Dragons 5e or Pathfinder, here are my top 10 tips to engage your players and make your game run smoother! I’ve been GMing for over a decade, used to run a 12 players game for 2+ years, and have run an RPG publishing studio for a 10 years and here are some of my favorite tips (in no particular order).
1. Failing Perception Checks
Don’t tell people they fail Perception checks, just give them other information.
“I roll Perception to search for traps.”
“You notice an odd crack on one of the floor tiles.”
(And they actually missed the Perception check and cautiously avoid that suspicious looking, mundane, crack.)
2. Unique Enemies Distract Players
Players go nuts when you describe one enemy as being special or different, even if they are the same monster. For example, if your players are facing 3 giants you’d normally describe them as such: “Three menacing giants with cleavers close in on you, brandish weapons and giving you hungry looks.
Now using this rule, you’d do this: “Three menacing giants with cleavers close in on you, brandish weapons and giving you hungry looks. One of them has blue warpaint on and a horsehair plume atop his…