Player characters are the focus of role-playing games, but they’re not the only ones with plans and designs. NPCs — both allies and…

Earlier this year Erica and I realized that we have autistic tendencies, and likely full-blown autism (though this is still awaiting formal…

I grew up reading Asimov — or at least having his books read to me by my incredibly nerdy mother — so when I saw Ada Powers’ three laws of…

When I Storytell a game campaign, I aim for a cinematic experience — or novel-tacular, take your pick. I play with tropes and archetypes…

Erica and I talk about crises a lot, and we’re always trying to improve them. As a quick reminder, crises are extended skill check scenes…

In my current game, Five Dragon Trap, I have an NPC of the kind I don’t use a lot — he’s wacky. Kooky NPCs often slide right into…

So your campaign is running up to the climax at last, you’re sitting down for the final session of the game and the party is about to face…

If you’re running a game from a module, then the module gives you everything that you need for the first session of game — and the rest of…

There are a lot of resources for Storytellers, from modules and rulebooks to advice manuals and blogs — like this one. A significantly…

In almost any RPG campaign, you’ll have a single group of players and then a vast world populated by non-player characters (NPCs). Unless…

Run-of-the-mill NPCs are fairly easy. Give them a simple quirk so that they’re not identical to every other non-player character, and…

Any game’s NPCs (non-player characters) are a vital resource. They are the antagonists and the allies to the player characters, they…