How a moral dilemma turned a mediocre battle to an engaging session

We're playing through the old X2 Castle Amber module (converting to 5e using XXX as a guide), and the party were going after the Sword of Sylaire. Note: This post contains minor spoilers for X2 Castle Amber. If this might be a problem, stop reading now and direct your GM here instead. They had met …

Preparing with situations and characters

How do you cope with the fact that players can do anything? Your carefully laid plans get ruined by the players reacting in a way you don't expect. I've had a couple of near TPKs as a result of thinking things through too carefully in terms of a particular approach from the players and not …

#RPGaDay2018: Day 13 – Describe how your play has evolved

It is still August, right? No? Oh well, I've started, so I'll finish... Well, I've had plenty of time for my play style to evolve, but my "play" has always been as a DM. I started in the early 80s as a teenager with the Basic set, quickly expanded to include Expert, Companion, Master and …

#RPGaDay2018: Day 9 – How has a game surprised you?

Part of https://www.facebook.com/RPGaDAY/ I've got two different answers here. For the first one - my first session with the group I dropped in the swamp really surprised me because they were so much more interactive than any other groups I've experienced before. They were talking to the NPCs, asking questions, interacting. A couple of them even …