In my 5e game I have 4 different types of note takers, the traditional minutes taker, the a bag full of memos note taker, a journalist (mix of sketching and writing) and a scrapbooker. I want to add in things that are relevant for each style of notes. The writen note takers are easy to accommodate for as I'm used to the minetes and memo styles. It's the more creative notes I have ideas for. My ideas are: picture puzzle clue rewards for my scrapbooker Symbols and marks for the journalist to sketch down Is there any idea you guys have?

(N.B.: I'm not asking for a debate on the utility or necessity of Safety Tools in RPGs) A question for RPG players and GMs: I'm building a new Safety Tool similar to the X-Card but with a wider range of message. (The X card is a clean, direct, non-verbal way of communicating a single, important piece of information. In the case of the X Card, it's "Stop everything right now") There are some other similar safety tools out ther. The X-Card was expanded to include "N" ('please fade to black'), and "O" ('everyone OK?'). What sort of things might you want to communicate to a GM (or have communicated to you) in a way which doesn't necessarily interrupt a scene? And -- I can't believe I have to say this -- but they don't necessarily need to be bad things. Here are some examples: - "Can we take a break after this?" - "Proceed with Caution" - "I enthusiastically consent to this, even though my character seems to be hating this" - "I have a rules question"- - "More of this, please!" - Think of it like a semaphore or an ideaogram. It's a way to communicate a potentially complex idea in a single moment. What sorts of things do you want to be able to communicate to your GMs?

Working on developing my first campaign. Looking for general advice on how to tie it all together, have appreciate the advice I have received so far but I feel like I needed to make some sort of general plot concept to start to look into those resources more. This is long so no need to read or reply but if you have the time and interest I appreciate it! I mostly want to know if my general plot actually makes sense in some way outside my own mind! Started with Dragons of Stormwreck Isle DnD starter set with the idea of having a time portal appear at the end. PC’s include Paladin Aasimar-goal is to find his grandfather (or more likely information) who was allegedly carried away from the island by a dragon a long time ago Tabaxi Rogue-No clear goal yet but following the will of Bast, ((ancient Egyptian goddess of home, domesticity, fertility, childbirth, and protection)) was suggested here to help her find a powerful form of catnip Sword-wielding human Wizard-being chased by a Wizards guild because they don’t like him pursuing training in sword fighting etc. Guild is called The Trust of the Song Warlock with a patron called the Deity Moander, which I’m just learning is an actual deity in DnD materials. Warlock wants to find some dirt on his patron so he can no longer be manipulated by him. How can you find dirt on a deity? Or am I missing something? Can they just kill him in a future time period? Sorcerer-occassionally when he rolls on the wild magic table he gets pulled to the elemental plane, so he would like some type of power to stop doing this. and/or maybe learn additional wizard magic more easily. The idea is they have just defeated a dragon (in a clifftop observatory) that wanted to perform a magic ritual during a celestial event, they have gotten rumors of some type of time portal potentially opening up during this event. So the next scene would be they’re in the observatory with the dead dragon, and they see the celestial event cause the observatory and telescope to glow and they see someone appear holding a large staff. This is a wizard human named Ebeneezer holding a time staff (I found online has certain stats etc.)

Hey folks, Like most Accountability Posts this is a bit of a Humblebrag. I have a lot going on and I believe the meme tells you all you need to know about how my brain works. Like many of us, I get super-excited about something and drop everything I can to work on that...until the next cool thing comes along. Fortunately/unfortunately for me, my brain sees a lot of opportunities and creates a lot of exciting ideas. What tools and techniques do you all use to both manage your time and to prevent the shiny new thing from keeping you from finishing the shiny but slightly less new thing? My list will give you some idea of the differing scales and timelines for my projects and commitments -- and that doesn't stop me from looking for/creating new thing... **Short Term, with Deadlines:** - Prep for my bi-weekly Old Gods of Appalachia Role-Playing Game (Unofficial) on Startplaying; post notes in @Jonah Fishel's follow-up question from Friday's coffee convo - Appear on ZealZaddy's Paperbag TTRPG Gameshow (dress/tech: April 7; 1st live: April 21) - Play Blades in the Dark (Wednesdays in April) - Charity game of "Eat the Reich" on Friday, April 17 (Session 0 on Tuesday 4/14) - Finish the *new* adventure I'm running at Concoction (May 29) - Refresh the other games I'm running there; refresh my classes - book my flight to GenCon; find a roommate for the con. - finish enough of the Cypher supplement I'm writing to give away a preview of it on Free RPG Day (June 27) - edit the interview with Jayson Elliot about ModCon (ModCon is May30) **Short term, no deadlines:** - put an Eat the Reich adventure up on Startplaying - Ad hoc "Expanse" for Rachel Savicki - Schedule teaching sessions for Cypher System Gaming and Old Gods of Appalachia on StartPlaying - contact a couple of local gaming stores about scheduling one-shots - Reach out to Phil Wert and Ron Meischker about how I can help with P.A.G.E. - more content for video channel **Medium term, with deadlines:**

Hey, gang! Thought I’d start a separate discussion about putting NPCs in danger, and other ways to raise the stakes of a combat (or other) encounter. Monster of the Week has “bystanders,” although not much advice on using them in ways that aren’t heavy-handed. Tips? Ideas? How have you used bystanders or recurring NPCs to raise the stakes?