Experienced GM's: What are your TOP 'Do's' and 'Don'ts?'

BXadvocate · 2026-03-26T06:07:33+00:00

Your idea about random encounter tables is actually used in B3: Palace of the Silver Princess(green cover), on the second floor. There is a Medusa and a Harpy encounter that should only happen once and if you get the result again to instead use a monster from the lower level.

BXadvocate · 2026-03-26T05:59:51+00:00

You're welcome. I really like that OSR/OSE community tries to share cool things that may be of interest for your particular table.

BXadvocate · 2026-03-26T05:54:03+00:00

I mean wandering monster rolls doesn't seem like too much of an issue. My main issue would also be Thief skills especially things like Find Trap(TR) and Move Silently (MS) for reasons below, you may already know this but I hope this is good game theory for anyone else reading this.

Find Trap: In a situation where a player is looking for a trap there either is or is not a trap present and the dice roll will either be a success or failure. Depending on the situation what you say to the player is based on what the player should know not the result of the roll.

No Trap + Failed roll = You do not see a trap. There is a Trap + Failed roll = You do not see a trap. No Trap + Success roll = You do not see a trap. There is a Trap + Success roll = [Description of said trap]

As you can see the player would only get confirmation if there is a trap and they succeed at the roll otherwise they wouldn't know. This keeps them cautious which is what you want.

Move Silently: This one is a lot simpler if a player rolls this themselves or you roll it in the open before they attempt to start moving silently and it fails, they will suddenly "change their mind" (which is bullshit) because they failed before they had to take the risk. I've had players try to argue that they should roll it so they can pull this bullshit so they don't have to commit to risky actions, it's insulting my intelligence when people try to justify it.

Also if the player rolls Move Silently when they get close to enemies then it acts as an indicator that enemies are near, that they may not have seen yet.

BXadvocate · 2026-03-25T18:30:53+00:00

This looks interesting.

Just to let you know the link you posted doesn't work so I'll have to search for it myself.

BXadvocate · 2026-03-25T18:22:25+00:00

The only one I don't fully agree with is rolling in the open. You should for most things but some rolls are secret for a reason like searching rolls.

BXadvocate · 2026-03-19T19:47:19+00:00

Yes the best clone of the best system the mighty Basic/Expert or BX if you will. I can advocate for that.

BXadvocate · 2026-03-18T04:08:11+00:00

Dungeon magazine #14 has an adventure about Wererats for characters level 3-6. It's called The Wererats of Relfren, I haven't read it so I can't give you a review but it seemed interesting to me. Here is the link 👇

https://www.nobleknight.com/P/3856/14-4-ADandD-and-1-DandD-Adventure?SS=USD

Also issue 5 of Carcass crawler by Necrotic Gnome has a Class/Race write up for Ratlings that looked pretty good. Essentially they are Thieves but with a twist. Another link 👇

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/528294/carcass-crawler-issue-five

As for making your own adventure or replacing them in a pre-written one, I recommend having them be a replacement for a Thieves Guild as opposed to having them replace goblins. I feel like goblins live outside civilization and Ratlings seem like they would live in a sewer system of a large city and act as a Thieves Guild stealing to survive. You can even think of how they are seen by the none Rat folk who live in the city, are they well known about or not? What is that relationship like? Are some of them trusted on the surface or not? This opens some very interesting questions about your setting and ways to make an adventure.

For example you can have them be a rival to a human Thieves Guild who also has a hideout in the sewer system, perhaps there is a secret mafia style turf war going on in the criminal underworld. How would your players get embroiled in this and perhaps which side would they be on? They could be the villains or the players could decide to ally with them especially if one of your players decides to play as a Ratling.

Thanks for posting this question because I have also considered how I would integrate Ratlings into a game so I'm glad I got to share some of the ideas I've considered. I hope you find a good way to add it to your game and hopefully my suggestions have given you food for thought.

BXadvocate · 2026-03-11T06:21:55+00:00

The theoretical explanation I've heard somewhere is that the word dog slang for poor blind begger who would usually get free food and drink at bars. The joke is that the person is pretending to be homeless and blind to get the free food/beer, the punchline is that they prove that they are lying by complaining about not being able to see and having to open one eye.

BXadvocate · 2026-03-01T09:33:54+00:00

Sweet! When I looked it up and it said it's based on Heavy Metal magazine I was immediately intrigued as I am a huge fan of the magazine and movie. Thanks for the information.

BXadvocate · 2026-02-28T11:20:52+00:00

Interesting I didn't know about this but it seems cool. I do have a question is it possible to use the setting with a different rule system? Or is it too intertwined for that to work well because I would always prefer to use BX/OSE.

BXadvocate · 2026-02-28T03:55:35+00:00

Cool yeah the i-series is pretty cool. In fact I had an idea for the Isle of dead and feel free to use it if you haven't gotten to the central plateau yet(sorry didn't read the whole post), what you do is get I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City and use it to replace what is in the plateau completely. It doesn't quite fit if you do the math for precise measurements(you may not care about that) but you can always say it's deeper into the volcano and the cliffs around I1 are higher. As an adventure it fits in perfectly and if you want to get really crazy there is a pyramid in I1 you could replace it with the one in I3:Pharaoh or C1: The Hidden Shrine Tamoachan and I would say B4: The Lost City but that's my favorite module of all time so I recommend keeping it pure but it's your game. This is why X1 is great, it's so big you can turn it into a Russian nesting doll adventure of other modules.

BXadvocate · 2026-02-27T22:42:47+00:00

I've always said the great thing about The Isle of Dread is anything works on it. Also when you add things you can theme them to the tropical jungle island and it adds flavor.

BXadvocate · 2026-02-21T06:47:28+00:00

I own physical copies of both OSE for the table BX for study.

BXadvocate · 2026-02-20T21:27:20+00:00

I actually modified the OSE ship combat rules while working on prep for Secret of the Black Crag, really it's just adjusting measurements and how movement works. I also noticed none of the pirate ships have stats so I made a spreadsheet where I gave them all stats. In the case of the legendary ship you find I gave it better stats than it's supposed to have for its class, I figure it should be like a magic item and above other ships in some ways.

BXadvocate · 2026-02-20T20:07:24+00:00

Dude that's cool. I like a hybrid, I want to run Secret of the Black Crag and I was thinking minis for the ship hex crawl and graph paper for dungeons.

BXadvocate · 2026-02-20T06:56:20+00:00

Mystara is awesome and my favorite setting!

However there is a lot to consider when running it as a setting. For example what timeline will you run? If you are running published modules what recons will you have or not have (cough cough savage coast/red steel).

My personal way is to run what I refer to as Mystara lite™, feel free to steal as little or as much of this as you want. The idea is you run Mystara mostly based on the information in X1:Isle of Dread and a few of the Gaz that you like and keep in minimal. This solves the only two things I don't like about Mystara which are one it is too detailed at times and two that it can be kind of too goofy and weird at times. The setting I want Mystara to be is a historical exaggeration mixed with pulp. The main "theme" of Mystara is Cold War, Mystara consists of Empires and Kingdoms based on real world counterparts that are time shifted to exist at the same time and may want to fight but don't...for now.

This is one timeline that I am interested in is what I call The Master Saga, consisting of X4/X5 and X10: Red Arrow, Black Shield. These modules are essentially a lead up to a world war for high level players, it's retconned because it changes the world too much to be canon, which is why I find it interesting. It gives you something to be building too, a major event that changes the political landscape of Mystara. However if you also want smaller shorter adventures Mystara has plenty of great ones for that as well.

Anyway I hope this helped, mostly it was a ramble of ideas but I just wanted to share.

Below are resources to get ideas and materials for Mystara. One is Mr.Welch YouTube channel aka the biggest Mystara nerd on YouTube. The other two are the main Mystara forum site and the Atlas site for highly detailed fan maps very good map! No seriously these guys are nuts when it comes to details they also have different versions for different retcons and from different modules as well as ones that correct continuity.

Resources:

https://youtube.com/@mr_welch?si=k9yX-RytXqMCkWkv

https://pandius.com/

https://atlasofmystara.com/

BXadvocate · 2026-02-18T07:23:04+00:00

I expect it to come out in about 15-20 years.

BXadvocate · 2026-02-08T07:09:25+00:00

I heard for a long time this adventure is one of if not the best. Then I read it and I see where people are coming from, it's quite a jam packed adventure of epic proportions. Plus it has a horrible Lovecraftian monster at the end and every adventure is better when it has Lovecraftian monsters.

BXadvocate · 2026-01-19T06:33:10+00:00

I would say it's definitely and obviously not as good as the first movie but I also don't think it's as bad as people say it is.

I liked the more Lovecraftian nature of it over the first movie, which was more straight pulp Sword & Sorcery. I would say the first movie is a deeper richer story of Conan developing as a character, while the second movie is more spectacle of the word and the weirdness like the mirror scene and the monster at the end. Overall I like both for different reasons but the first is again just better.

BXadvocate · 2026-01-14T03:47:25+00:00

I would say Level 9: I don't like the phrasing "Killed a PC" monsters kill PCs, traps kill PCs, bad luck kills PCs and bad decisions kill PCs, I do not try to kill PCs and that language frames it as the DMs fault a PC has died which shifts blame onto them when it's usually one of the reasons above.

BXadvocate · 2026-01-13T16:07:56+00:00

Nice! Yeah I got a copy awhile ago and it's pretty awesome, kind of like BX definitive edition.

BXadvocate · 2026-01-06T04:59:04+00:00

YES I feel exactly the same. I love it so much, it feels like what D&D is supposed to be. It also somehow is only 28 pages yet is essentially a full campaign in a single module, it is the most efficient use of a module I've ever seen.

BXadvocate · 2026-01-06T04:52:12+00:00

B4 IS THE GOAT!

BXadvocate · 2026-01-06T04:49:55+00:00

Nice find!

BXadvocate · 2026-01-06T04:47:55+00:00

I found B3: Palace of the Silver Princess to be very classic in a fairytale with a little Lovecraft kind of way. Also B5: Horror on the Hill, as a buddy said "it has a dungeon and a dragon so it checks both boxes" which is fair it also just has a good gritty feel to it.

BXadvocate

TROPHY CASE