Role Play Chat

It's a long one this week! We talk about character death and how to make it fun. Character death doesn't have to be a bad thing, in fact it can be the most dramatic and memorable part of a table top roleplaying game, so let's make the most of it! Enjoy! Chris and Mat. -————— Role Play Chat is a biweekly(ish) podcast where your hosts Chris and      Mat sit down an...

Can one room be considered a dungeon? And if so, what does that mean? Chris and Mat take a dive down the rabbit hole to chat about what makes a sprawling dungeon fun to play in, and how or if that can be translated into one room. Enjoy! Chris and Mat. -————— Role Play Chat is a biweekly(ish) podcast where your hosts Chris and     Mat sit down and take deep dives into...

We tackle one of the age old discussion topics, character alignment, and analyze the good and the bad. Despite this topic being one we consider to be discussed often, it was fun to dissect and we come up with some alternate systems for you and your players to integrate into your games.  Enjoy! Chris and Mat. -————— Role Play Chat is a biweekly(ish) podcast where your hosts Chris and &nbs...

Playing Video Games can generate habits in tabletop players. In this week's discussion we dissect the good, the bad, how to make the most out of those habits and what to do to make improvements!    Enjoy! Chris and Mat. -————— Role Play Chat is a biweekly(ish) podcast where your hosts Chris and   Mat sit down and take deep dives into #ttrpg related topics (such as &nb...

Want to improve roleplay and collaborative story telling at your table? We did too, so we tried to build a system we could use to help structure our roleplay in a way that also facilitated being gift giving, preluding and collaboration. In this week's episode we walk you through the system we have been using: Roleplay Tasks. We also discuss improvements and other variations we are eager to explore...

After having played in a game that was run by someone who is normally a player at our table, we decided to dissect the occurrence and found some interesting benefits to having players Game Master a tabletop roleplaying game. Especially if it is for someone who is regularly their Game Master.  Enjoy! Chris and Mat. -————— Role Play Chat is a biweekly(ish) podcast where your hosts Chris an...

Today we talk (mainly) to the player, in an discussion around narrating your character's actions, expression and other non verbal elements. There are loads of benefits to doing this 3rd person narration and it can be used in a variety of ways to set yourself up for great role play with other players.  Enjoy! Chris and Mat. -————— Role Play Chat is a biweekly(ish) podcast where your hosts...

We continue our discussion with the one and only Brennan Lee Mulligan in this week's Deep Dive. Last time we were discussing adventure building and improvisation. If you haven't had a chance to listen to last week's conversation I highly encourage you to check it out before diving into this episode. This week the conversation continues on the topic of improvisation and jumps to comedy before makin...

One of the central components of a Tabletop RPG is the adventure. These segments of a campaign can be as long or as short as you like and often times offer up a good opportunity for GMs to propel the narrative forward by using components of your player character's past or future objectives.  We are also excited to be joined by the one and only Brennan Lee Mulligan in this week's Deep Dive. You kno...

Add more dimension to your adventure by giving it a THEME. Be it a D&D game or any other TTRPG using a central theme helps keep a thread throughout your sessions and can be used as inspiration for content. Role Play Chat is a Podcast where your hosts Chris and Mat sit down and chat about #ttrpg (such as #DungeonsandDragons, Fates,   Warhammer or Call of Cthulhu) a...

Failure is a big part of playing D&D or any other TTRPG. Missed attacks, botched stealth checks or failed social interactions with NPCs happen all the time. The potential for more serious failures, like the loss of a player character are also always lurking just around the corner. Theses failures or the potential for failure however shouldn't take away for your game, infact it should enhance i...

Combat is a core pillar in most TTRPGs. Even in games or systems that are role play heavy, combat encounters often play a critical role in the game as a story telling tool or method of confrontation. To make combat fun, engaging and entertaining, we have found that the forum of the combat, the environment if you will, is just  as important as why or who the party is fighting. In this week's e...

Playing a tabletop RPG with your partner can be one of the most enjoyable pastimes imaginable for folks who enjoy playing Dungeons and Dragons as much as us, but it does come with it's share of trade-offs. In this episode we discuss the pros and cons about playing a roleplaying game with your partner, touching on topics such favoritism, coaching players, shepherding players and immersion. Do you e...

A big part of a Game Master's job is to do prep before a game. Some love it, others dislike it. Where do you fall? In this week's episode Chris and Mat talk about what we like about game prep, the kinds of things we prep and dive a little into the philosophy what is we think is needed for us to optimize our play.   Role Play Chat is a Podcast where your hosts Chris and Mat sit &nbsp...

If you ask most Dungeon Masters, Game Masters, or Players, one of the joys of the fall is running or playing in a Halloween themed game. Spooky, scary, horrific or silly Halloween games can take many forms and can be inspired by so many things in media.  And that is one of the things that makes it such a great theme - it's flexibility!  In today's episode Chris and I discuss what makes a...

Being a Dungeon Master or Game Master can be taxing. Despite being loads of fun, sometimes finding the balance between running a fun game, managing prep time and our daily lives, this wonderful hobby of ours can feel like it adds stress and anxiety into our lives. In this week's episode Chris and I take an introspective look at the things that cause us stress or anxiety in our games, then we share...

We've all done downtime or timeskips to zoom past a few days, weeks, or months, it's a needed part of the game. Helps with a number of things like pacing, character leveling up, etc. but is there  a way to do timeskips while also adding opportunities for roleplay? Yes! Yes there is a way, and in this weeks episode we talk about a strategy we've employed recently to conduct a timeskip while al...

Box text, written dialogue, bullets or monologues, we've all written or read some form of prepared text in our tabletop RPG but finding the right time to use it to make the most of it can sometime be tricky. In this weeks episode we talk about our experiences with prepared text as both a GM and as a player and go over what makes it good, great or cumbersome based on the circumstances. Role Pl...

The famous session zero, although not technically part of your adventure it is a highly recommended piece of the puzzle. I'd say most Game Masters agree that  the session zero is valuable, but why? What makes it great, what elements to we like to include in our session zero and what do we recommend! Listen in to this weeks episode as we dive deep into the topic. Role Play Chat is a Podca...

Striking the right balance between challenging and enabling your players is a needed skill for Game Masters in the hobby. Building challenges for players builds up tension, creates payoff but do it too much and you risk to frustrate the people around the table. Creativity shines and narrative goes in fun and unexpected ways if you enable your players, but again, if you do it too much your world wi...

NEW LISTENERS CAN START HERE. Welcome to season 2 of Role Play Chat. In today’s episode we talk about a roleplay concept Chris &I have been considered for quite some time now: Preluding. This concept, targeted to intermediate table top players and game masters alike, it will allow you to make roleplay more personal, fun and helps you set up really dramatic moments in your game. Role Play Chat is a...

That's a wrap! Of season one I mean :)  Chris and I take a look back at the journey we have taken up until now and talk about some of our favorite episodes this season. We also discuss some of the big take aways of the episodes we are the most proud of.   We also look into the future of the show and brainstorm some ideas of content we are looking forward to talk about in season 2 wh...

We share with you how to engage your players in an end of game debrief. Although simple, these out of game discussions between players and game master provide a number of opportunities for you and the players or your #ttrpg campaign. We chat about: -  What exactly we mean by the End of Game Debrief? -  The types of questions we've had success asking? -  What to expect from your tabl...

In this episode, we will share with you the powerful concept of Gift Giving in #ttrpg. This subject is close to our heart and can be a crucial aspect to creating space for great Roleplay moments at your table. We chat about: -  What is being Gift Giving ? -  What function does it serve? -  How to do it? -  Where & when to incorporate it in your game? -  Tools to start...

In #TTRPGs, most party eventually end up managing some kind of HOME BASE. It could be a keep where they raise an army, a temple to honor a god, or even a tavern to gather people and rumors. In any case, having a headquarter or stronghold has a lot of benefits for your gaming experience, but it also brings its fair share of challenges. In this episode, we give our thoughts on THE EFFECT OF HAVING A...