Up Your RPG - Helping you up your roleplaying game: Recent Episodes
Up Your RPG
Each week we discuss a different topic that relates directly to tabletop role-playing gaming. You’ll hear unbiased, and sometimes biased, discourse among passionate people from our show, and around TTRPG world.
Our cast is a group of gamers with decades and decades of experience. We’ve been playing since the days when gaming with pencils, paper, and dice was cause for ridicule. We’ve put tons of time in, and have made all of the mistakes. We’re sharing our gaffs and glories to help you have richer role-playing experiences.
Every episode will contain nuggets of knowledge that players and GMs alike will be able to incorporate into their own games. Whatever ruleset you’re into, from D&D to Call of Cthulhu, from Savage Worlds to Blades in the Dark, you’ll walk away from each show with something useful.
Whether you’re just starting out with roleplaying, or looking to make a switch, picking the right TTRPG for you can be daunting. There are hundreds of amazing titles to choose from. What are the most important aspects to consider when selecting your next system?
Problem solving is at the heart of any great tabletop roleplaying game, both for GMs and players. Coming up with a smart solutions on the spot is challenging and rewarding. How can we foster more creativity at the table, and is it possible to be too... creative?
We really appreciate ridiculous humor in our TTRPG session. We also value the serious, and sometimes emotional, moments that come with character development. How do we balance those opposing styles of play, and what happens when one inhibits the other?
Sometimes we paint ourselves into corners. The randomness of dice rolls can permanently alter plot lines. Player decision can unintentionally break a GM's narrative plans. How can we get out of self-dug holes, and how can you avoid digging them in the first place?
We all have our own personality traits, quirks, and even biases. Whether we're aware of them or not, our past experiences play a role in how we, well, role play. In most cases they help us add richness to our TTRPGs, but in some instances they can hold us back, or worse.
Did your players one-shot your carefully constructed big bad? Did they find a creative, but maddeningly simple solution to an obstacle? Did they uncover a major plot twist at the beginning of a story, or even worse, step into a huge plot hole? What do you do now?
Unless you're playing a module with a fairly straight-lined path, some narrative threads are likely to get dropped in any TTRPG campaign. Does that damage the story? How can you pick up those threads again, and do you need to?
Many GMs feel they need to lead the table, manage the narrative, that the enjoyment of the players is on their shoulders. This GM-in-charge philosophy is not only a challenge to collaborative story telling, it’s discouraging to new GMs, and leads to anxiety.
Moving from a traditional RPG table to a truly collaborative role playing experience is a journey. How do you know you're on the right path? There are some mile markers that can help guide you, and some potholes to avoid.
The biggest time-vacuum for any GM is pre-game preparation. Getting ready for a session can take hours, but how much time is too much? Is it ever OK to come in cold and wing it? We'll talk to our two super experienced GMs to get some perspective.
In this episode, we'll tackle a topic many players and GMs really struggle with. We want to get as invested in our characters as we can, but how do we do that, knowing there's always a significant risk of the personality we're portraying, dying... often violently.
This episode is part two of our player autonomy mini-series. In this episode we'll ask the question, "When, if ever, is it OK to diminish player autonomy?" It's a common occurrence in TTRPGs, and many groups don't even realize it's happened.
This episode is the first of a two-part series on player autonomy. Today we're talking about out of game restrictions, specifically how players' creative choices can be limited before they even get to the table, and is that a bad thing?
In this episode, we're starting off season two with a core concept of our philosophy on Up Your RPG. We believe that role-playing games are a long-form narrative process, created by GMs AND players, building a story from both sides of the table.
In this episode, How Up Your RPG, effects us. What are our personal takeaways after 11 episodes of this show, and how has creating this podcast impacted us, both as RPG players and as GMs?
In this episode, more metagaming. As an adventuring party, it's easy to fall into a pattern of decision-making based on skill numbers, rather than our characters' personal abilities. How can players move toward traits and away from stats? And how can GMs help that process along?
In this episode, a few of our personal favorite RP moments. Collectively, we've got decades of table top gaming experience. We're going recount some scenes that were significant to us, and see if we can pinpoint the source of their role-playing magic.
In this episode, character trait or trope, is your hook hokey? So, you've given your new character a certain pattern of speech, maybe an accent, or even a catch phrase. These can really help you jump into that personality, but they can be too much, or in some cases even annoying. Where's the line between character device and story derailment?
In this episode, managing difficult moments. Last week we talked about how to create conflict among characters. Today, we'll discuss how to handle those times when in-game tension leads to turmoil at the table?
In this episode, creating narrative conflict. Arguably the most important element of any story is conflict. How do we, as players and GMs, develop authentic tension between players and NPCs, and even among players, without hindering progress.
In this episode, staying in character during combat. In most RPG systems combat mechanics tend to take us out of character, as our attention is draw towards tactics, and away from narrative. How can we remain more character-focused, when the fighting starts?
In this episode, getting into character. You've found an inspiration, created a backstory, and plugged in numbers that make sense. Now how, and when, do you take on the personality of this fictional person you've created?
In this episode, we're dipping our toes into the deep pool of metagaming. It will certainly be a regular topic on this show, but to kick it off, we're continuing the character creation theme and discussing min/maxing. What is it? Is it always bad, or can it be useful? How can GMs discourage it, and work with or around overly optimized combat.
In this episode, we're continuing to talk about character creation. Today we’re discuss building characters with weaknesses, and how flaws can help improve role playing, both for players and for GMs.
In this episode, we're talking about something that almost all players and GMs deal with some point, if not frequently... and that is finding inspiration for a character. It's a process that I personally really enjoy, and I'm super excited to discuss with today's panel.
In this episode building dynamic backstories, for both player characters and NPCs, that won't box you in allowing for growth throughout a campaign, and encourage improv and more dynamic decision making.