Post Index

TPK often stands for Total Party Kill, but a dreaded term in gaming, but I want to take it back. Here I try to think critically about how we think about gaming. If this if your first visit here, welcome, and you should read the first post, where I try and get some terms straight. If you’re looking for something more in depth, you can find all TPK posts past, present, and future here on this page.

GM Advice

If you’re a GM, read these. If you’re a player, get your GM to do it. GM posts are concerned with what it’s like behind the screen, and how the GM can make the game better.

Player Advice

We can improve the game from the other side of the screen too. Thinking about these kinds of things can lead to a richer experience for everyone in the group.

Ilderan Tales

These are the updates to the wiki for Jim’s D&D games, a mix of setting information and player reports.

At My Table

One of the phrases that comes up a lot in any GMing discussion is “At MY table,” or “Another GM I played with did…” And I think that’s valuable, if occasionally rankling. These are some things I do when I GM, why I do them, and why I think they work well.

Ethics

Roleplaying is a co-operative and complicated activity. There are power imbalances, trust, and multiple dimensions of interaction. With all of this going on, it pays to think a little harder about how we treat each other both in game and out of game.

Ideal GM

Thinking about what we would hold to be ideal can help us focus on the ways in which we can improve, so the Ideal GM is perfect in every way imaginable, and she has things she can teach us.

TPK

It’s a useful acronym for all kinds of things.

Setting Specifics

One of the things I really love about GMing is worldbuilding, and here is where I want to explore some specific elements of how we think about it when we do it.

D&D

D&D is my main game of choice,  I occasionally write posts gear specifically toward it, which you can find here.

History Hooks

History is a great source of adventures and the events, places, and peoples of the past can bring a lot to our games.

Vale Tales

Updates to the world of Ryan’s game will be found here.

Good Idea/Bad Idea

A discussion of concepts that are keepers, and concepts that aren’t.

TPK Talk

Every week we discuss share links on interesting gaming things, follow #tpktalk on Twitter to get the skinny.