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It's full of monsters. Mimic, trapper, lurker above, living hood, stun jelly, living wall, gelatinous cube, crystal ooze (in the fountain), animated objects, gargoyles, caryatid columns, golems, topiary guardians. The living monsters in particular would be good for a low-magic campaign -...

-Rope or vine - option to do some Tarzan action at the risk of falling -Strong gust of wind -Mob of people (group of drunks, block party, small festival, large religious service just getting out, a parade, etc.) -Asteroid field -Strong solar wind -Field of strong electromagnetic energy -Ship...

About 1993, when I was 12, 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (and I had been reading the Monster Manual and Fiend Folio for at least a year prior). My dad taught me and my younger sister how to play, and we had our first game with my dad's DM and gaming group. We only played about a...

I do both. I like to use a random treasure generator when I have a large hoard to fill out, but I will often place specific treasure when needed. If I have specific props, I obviously tailor magic items, and sometimes I know my players won't have time to make/buy their own, so I put something...

I learned to do low-prep gameplay in college. For several reasons, I was gaming 3-5 times a week, mostly in D&D 3.0/3.5 and Arcana Unearthed. As I had gotten in on the ground floor of both systems, I learned both very, very well. With so many games, plus a full class load and extracurricular...

My book shelf spans a whole wall, though not top-to-bottom. I have over 300 products, including the run of Dragon Magazine from the advent of 3.0 to its final issue, and a chunk of Dungeon Magazine to boot, most of Kobold Quarterly, probably 85% of all of WotC's 3.0/3.5 books (minus adventures...

One system I found that makes for a good and interesting superhero system is the Cypher System. Specifically, my players were playing a game of The Strange, which involves world-hopping in a sort of "Sliders" way. One of those worlds was New Centropolis, and the PCs were some of the city's...

Though the rules as written might technically permit someone with Leadership to gain 40 bards as followers, I would put the kibosh on having the bardic music transmitted through a magical walkie-talkie. It reeks of abusing the rules, and gives the player and the party a very large advantage. I...

I used what I called "phantom treasure" to take care of this problem. I always assumed (as I told the players) that there was more treasure in any given amount of loot than they actually saw, and that amount was used to get trail rations, beast feed, soap, lantern oil, rope, all the normal...

I am a woman, and for over half of my D&D career I've also been a DM. However, while I was just a player, I played in a few groups that had a grand total of two women between them (both of them experienced gamers who were also wives of other players). I stayed because I enjoyed the game, first...

You could also have the players find an ancient prayerbook from their church (or an earlier version of their church). In it are older prayers and rituals that have been forgotten over the years, and when the cleric uses them as part of his morning prayer/meditation, the god or goddess in...

I find the experience rather freeing, personally, because I tend to do most of my GMing off the cuff. There's a fantastic amount of inspiration from every corner of the world. If you like more structure, the cities of the Steadfast have somewhat more unifying tech (often culled from the same...

Relatively new, I think? I only started tinkering with it in the last month or so, but I know it was around for a bit before that. They also came out with a Soundset Creator, where you can add your own sounds and build your own soundsets from scratch (and share them with the community, if...

You can download Syrinscape for free, and each of the three versions (Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Board Games) comes with two free soundsets (Bugbear Battle and Witchwood in Fantasy, for example). The other soundsets do cost money, though they do offer a subscription service. Another site that does a...

There is actually a way to do that. Go on the Syrinscape website and log into your account. Go to the Campaign Manager. Then you can name a campaign and select which soundsets you're going to need for that campaign (which might just be a night). I've made several just for general purposes...

It very much depends on the system, and also the story. If I'm running a D&D-style game (I tend to run 3.5 or Pathfinder), our group tends to run those for a year or two, and usually I conclude the story around level 12-15. This is partially because the group likes to play a lot of different...

We tend to take turns taking notes. People in our group will often note down particular things of significance (vital NPCs, enemies, locations, etc.), but we also like to make sure everyone is playing with the same deck, as it were. Myself and another player trade off taking notes on our...

Alchemist class. Then use the grippli from Advanced Race Guide. Take the Toxic Skin racial trait. Use the Bogborn Alchemist racial archetype. Then take every poison-related discovery there is (concentrated poison, sticky poison, etc.) You'll be able to brew your own poison, secrete poison...

We're seeking a gamer for our group in the Quad City area. (Game takes place in NW Davenport, IA.) We're currently playing Numenera, and will be starting a new a Strange campaign soon, but we also play 3.5/3.0 D&D, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, and Savage Worlds. Possibly other systems if the group...

I allow electronics for the purposes of looking up rules, mostly. I don't want people surfing the internet, but checking up on what they need for their character during someone else's turn so they don't stop the game during combat, that's totally fine.