Skull RPG: Game Masters Tell Your Story

Hey Storytellers,We started this channel in Sept 2020 and since then we have received 3000 downloads. That is really good for not advertising this channel and just getting organic reach.Because we do pay a premium for podcast hosting, publishing to numerous channels and helping iTunes audio quality we are switching over to just YouTube because of the costs.We noticed that as of 3/22/21 we have about 11 - 14 people that regularly download our material. For those of you that do this - we thank you. We would love for everyone to switch over to follow us on YouTube.SkullRPG.com/YouTube will get you there. We have tripled our subscribers in the last month and have good engagement in our comments. We would love to see you over there as well, liking, commenting, giving video suggestions, etc.Thanks,Dwight and Jacob Scull

Hey Storytellers,Sometimes you have a great idea but it isn't connected to anything at all, nor do you always know how to scale it up to use in a larger context.Visit https://www.Skullrpg.com to see what books, free courses, and other resources are available for you and your gaming needs.In today's episode, we cover how Olson Scott Card did this for Ender's Game and how you can do it as well in your tabletop RPG game. 

Hey Storytellers,Have you ever noticed why most D&D / Pathfinder games occur in a place with definite boundaries?Visit Skullrpg.com to see what books, free courses, and other resources are available for you and your gaming needs.In this episode, we talk about ways to get out of places with definite boundaries and how the gaming mat has limited D&D to 2d combat that requires walls to work really well.

 Hey Storyteller,Creating a fantasy race can be daunting. Are my players going to be in this race? Are they trying to save this race?How does this race fit into the larger campaign? Do they worship different gods? Who are their heroes, villains, economic structure, language?Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KIn this episode, we boil this down to the basics and it won't take you forever to create a fantasy race that has enough information to play your campaign.Subscribe for more dungeon master tips and tricks. We post 10-minute videos 3 times a week.

 Hey Storyteller,Creating a fantasy city can be daunting. Do you need a map? How many store owners and types of stores do I need to have created? What about guilds / factions / temples? Do I need to know what the tech / magic limit is for this city? Where do I even begin?Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KIn this episode, we boil this down to the basics and it won't take you forever to build out a city that has enough information to play your campaign.Subscribe for more dungeon master tips and tricks. We post 10-minute videos 3 times a week. 

Hey Storyteller,Creating a fantasy kingdom can be daunting. How many people do you need to create? Do you need to flesh out one or more temple systems? What do you do about the economy or leadership or any number of things?Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KIn this episode, we boil this down to the basics and it won't take you forever to build out a kingdom that has enough information to play your campaign.Subscribe for more dungeon master tips and tricks. We post 10-minute videos 3 times a week.

Hey Storyteller,After reading many fantasy series it feels like in order to start a campaign some people feel like they have to recreate the Silmarillion. But do you?Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KWe would say only have as much mythology as you feel you need. If your players will be heavily involved in the fallout from the past myths / gods and goddesses / demi-gods / etc.Subscribe for more dungeon master tips and tricks. We post 10-minute videos 3 times a week.

Hey Storytellers,We have moved to posting every Monday/Wednesday/Friday.To finish up our how to play an RPG in ____ era. We turn to the modern era or the clay era. Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KThe current age of humanity is the clay era of humanity according to Greek Mythology. After the gods have destroyed humanity several times they finally landed on clay and blood (flesh and blood) because we were controllable. Playing an RPG in this era is common for any D20 Modern game, World of Darkness, even futuristic games like Shadowrun / Star Wars (which was a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, but I digress) / Cyberpunk would be considered clay era or age unless they were the pinnacle of all technology until the end of time and then that would be golden era or age.In this episode, we discuss how setting an RPG in this age differs from the last three we have covered and generally give some ideas on how to play in those worlds.

Hey Storytellers,We have moved to posting on Monday / Wednesday / Friday.The Silver era or age can be explained this way. Atlantis (golden age) has just fallen. The survivors have landed, scattered across the world. They don't have the technology or maybe even raw goods to bring Atlantis back but compared to the primitives they are now living among they are like gods.Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KSo they band together and create the great civilizations Greece and Rome and conquer the world with new technology and strategies, but it is nothing like what the power of Atlantis could have done if they wanted to. But sadly, those days are gone.The old Atlantians (or those with the knowledge) are known as demi-gods throughout history and their works are told, but only from a person with no knowledge of how they were able to accomplish what they did.Disclaimer: We don't believe in Atlantis but this gives you a great idea of Gold vs Silver Eras.

Hey Storytellers,We are moving to a Monday / Wednesday / Friday publishing schedule at this point. We hope that lets you catch up and listen to each episode as they land.In today's episode, we talk about most of the RPG's we play. This is the bronze era using a Greco-Roman Mythology understanding of humanity. Your players are exploring a world that has fallen from the Golden and Silver eras. There are wondrous items, spells, and/or technology that cannot be recreated (or at least as easily as they used to be).Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

Hey Storytellers,Two episodes ago we talked about the different eras of games using the Greek understanding of creation. So there were the golden, silver, bronze, and clay ages of humanity. Today we explore playing a game at the height of magic or technology that your world will ever see. Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/ Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KThe golden age or era is one of the hardest to play an RPG in because your characters are literally becoming the legends of old. There are no ruins of value because the stuff of value is literally being created each and every day.These are usually higher-level campaigns (or a lot more points in a GURPS system).Listen for even more tips.

Hey Storytellers,I don't know about you but when I first tried to write my own adventures as a Dungeon Master for D&D 3.5 I thought I needed a world map. The same was true when I tried my hand at GURPS.Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/ Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KBut what if I told you that that may be the worst way to start a campaign?Instead, just draw what is needed. If starting at first level or low level or local adventure just start out with everything they may possibly encounter at those levels.So if you need a map it doesn't have to be more than 3 days journey in any direction and contain things like "abandoned mine" or "woods" or "larger town will name later."So don't feel like you have to design the entire world and then drill down because frankly after reading a ton of fantasy novels we feel like that is a requirement, but for gaming you can go the other way.

Hey Storytellers,In today's episode, we cover different eras as an overview. Using the Greek understanding of Golden, Silver, Bronze and Clay age of Humanity we talk about this in RPG terms.Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/ Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KWhat does that mean? Great question.A Golden Age adventure means that your world is at the pinnacle of magic / tech / etc. Most RPG's don't take place here.Instead, most take place during a bronze age of heroes. This allows the players to explore old castles (now turned into dungeons because of time) for ancient relics.Listen to the episode to learn more.

Hey Storytellers,In one of my campaigns, I wanted to tell a story about the players hunting down a particular villain. I didn't want this game to last more than about 8 months of real-time and I didn't want to spend a year of in-game time that didn't connect to the overarching storyline. So what did I do? Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/ Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KSince we were playing GURPS I gave them 30 points to spend on whatever they wanted and told them that we would be fast-forwarding the game a full year in the calendar. They had done side quests and other things in that year that didn't correspond to the story, but they would still get experience for it.I could do the same thing in a D&D or Pathfinder game by giving 2 - 3 levels and saying the same thing.Listen to the episode for even more examples of how to accomplish this.

Hey Storytellers,In our last episode, we covered if you should use traps or not. One really nasty thing to do is to incorporate them into a mini-boss encounter. Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/ Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KIn this episode, we talk about using things like a pit trap, poison darts, or even worse types of traps to have the enemy do battlefield control and potentially take out one of the front line melee fighters out of the fight for a while by dropping him/her down a 20-foot hole (with or without spikes).

Hey Storytellers,Do you need traps in your RPG? Do you need to create a dungeon where every room somehow has a 20,000 GP trap designed to kill your players?Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/ Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KThe answer to that is it is up to you. If you want to be trap heavy then tell your players they will need someone that can handle that task.If you don't have traps then you should tell your players that traps will not be that central to the game, but may come up from time to time. I.e. you don't need a character dedicated to it but some skill would be helpful.

Hey Storytellers,Sometimes in the middle of a conflict, you realize that your players are running through it too fast. So what do you do about that?Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/ Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KIn today's episode, we cover how to scale up or down your conflict in order to make it interesting. This may mean you fudge a die roll to avoid fully killing a player, or it may mean that backup for either side comes out of an unopened door or unexplored hallway.

Hey Storytellers,In today's episode, we will cover how to scale the challenge rating of your encounters (up or down) depending on the players around your table. Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/ Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KLet's face it, if you have a min/max player and they are in their element (like killing one monster) then you need to move the challenge rating of that monster up (maybe 2 or 3 levels).Or you have a player trying a new type of character and they aren't using half of their good abilities yet. Well, then you may need to move the challenge rating down for them.Sometimes, you have both of these players (and others) at your table so what do you do?Listen to find out.

Hey Storytellers,Eventually, you may be ready to make your own custom RPG adventure and even campaign. This entire podcast is dedicated to helping you do just that and if you already make custom RPG's then our podcast is designed to give you more tools or maybe a way of using your current tools in a different way. Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/ Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

Hey Storytellers,The next step to running a premade is learning how to string together one-off adventures if you want to run these cheaply either from free adventures on the internet or with some patreons dedicated to these.Check out our newest book - Human NPC's: 84 Complete NPC's for 5th edition to use in your RPG in minutes:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TCKRZTM/ Check out our first book - 19 RPG Adventures for Game Masters to Run in any TTRPG: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2KLearn how to string many of these together easily in a somewhat coherent story