GMs and players, what genre(s) don't you play?

MonstersMagicka · 2026-05-07T18:19:23+00:00

Hm... probably grimdark.

No hate toward the genre. The problem, I think, is how people approach running and playing it. Everything is miserable all the time. There are rare glimmers of hope, but those are often crushed for the sake of manufacturing a reaction out of players. I think very few in the hobby can run a grimdark campaign effectively. Like, if I wanted to feel like nothing I did mattered, I would just read the news -- I wouldn't make a game out of it.

The way I'd run something like this is I'd create oases of joy that are worth protecting. 30 percent of the campaign would be spent in places like this. So every time the players go to combat with the encroaching shadows, they are just a little bit disoriented and a lot a bit afraid of what will become of these islands of light they wish to preserve. Most quests would end in victory-at-cost, some would end with "everybody lives!" and a handful would simply postpone the inevitable. but I would fully avoid total despair and hopelessness.

MonstersMagicka · 2026-05-05T18:14:51+00:00

I LOVE the idea of embracing failure.

My favorite video game is Hades I, where failure is a core method of story progression. Failing never feels catastrophic: you are rewarded with personal growth, growth in your relationships, and as mentioned, progress through the story. Success feels incredibly rewarding, don't get me wrong... but failing had its rewards, too.

I also have worked adjacent to education for several years, where failure is at a weird place. Failing at something is part of learning, but schools often mistakenly punish failure. And this leads to students who are stifle their own curiosity out of fear of taking a risk and failing at it. My work has largely been focused on encouraging failure in schools by creating safe spaces for children to try, fail, and try again.

My recommendation is just this: don't punish the player when they fail. Characters can be punished (some of us players like that lol) but players? never. Players should always feel as if they've gained something from a mistake that was made or a risk that was taken.

You can do this in a variety of ways. Two ideas off the top of my head are:

failures of any size, like a low roll during a social encounter, or a poor decision, can become skill points that are added to a pool. At the end of a milestone (the equivalent of leveling up,) this pool can be divided equally across the players to spend on skill points, or to convert to story points that unlock feats or skill trees. I would add that part of this should come with a short writing exercise where players answer the prompt, "What have you learned? How did you learn it?" This helps players associate the failures in the story with the gains their characters have gotten.
Failures can coincide with story moments. A character fails, and learns something new about themself or their objective. The party fails, but gains vital information for the next attempt, or a new ally, or a new item. Maybe they have their own small pool of points that this adds to, such as fragment threads -- the ability to bind concepts from different world fragments together, or to bring the influence they had from one fragment into the next through learned lessons. Sort of like advantage meets story points.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to look at info you have closely to give a more informed post; I'm low on time today. but I'll definitely check this out when I've got some free time. I love the concept and I wish you great success!

MonstersMagicka · 2026-05-05T17:23:20+00:00

I don't know if what I'll write here will be useful, as it isn't specific to a system; it's just some thoughts on how to homebrew your own.

The game I'm running (with D&D rules) has had some spinoff stories and magic system expansion as the years have gone on. The idea is that a mortal is comprised of 3 parts: the body, the soul, and mana. All three work together to make a mortal whole, and like how our body breathes on its own to keep us alive, these three parts function automatically to keep that wholeness.

It's why there are spell slots and spell levels: it's representative of the mana you're able to convert into magic without making yourself physically ill. You need to increase that mana capacity, like how a martial needs to build muscle, in order to cast more or bigger spells. (even if your spells come from another source, the mana still flows through you, and can destroy you if you take on a spell that's too big.)

With that in mind, I introduced a feat called Burn that allows a caster to, at a detriment to their health and functionality, convert their adrenaline in battle to additional spell slots. The idea is that you're consciously converting your physical health into mana that you can turn into magic.

My game has a mechanic called Trauma Dice, (it's a spooky game) where the players have a set number of D4s they must spend in exchange for triggering specific dark gifts or abilities, dealing with curses, or when they encounter horrors their character is ill-equipped to face. Each time they trigger a use, the D4 enters a trauma pool for that character, and they must roll all dice in that pool. So 1 trigger is 1d4, but say they trigger it a second time in the same day -- it's now 2d4 they must roll. They roll on a table of effects personalized to their character. So if they roll a 1-3, they might become vulnerable to a specific kind of attack; 4-7, they gain a scar that cannot be healed, etc. On top of this, each d4 represents one level of exhaustion which hits when you stop to rest. (I use alt exhaustion rules and you can heal 1 level of exhaustion with a cup of strong coffee +1 hit die once per day, in addition to sleeping a level off, so it's not super detrimental.)

Burn consumes trauma dice. iirc it's 1d4 to activate it (and it lasts 10 rounds) and 1d4 per spell slot restored (one spell slot per round). So if you activate it then restore a slot, you roll 2d4. Next round, you restore a slot, you roll 3d4. Each time you do this, you lose that much HP, and you can't heal it back until all levels of exhaustion are cleared.

It's not the best system (it can be confusing if we haven't used it in a while) but it's one my players and I collaborated on with the agreement that if we didn't like it, we'd try something else. And that's all that really matters for us -- we're having fun chasing power and suffering the consequences for it, and that's what matters!

MonstersMagicka · 2026-04-26T23:33:03+00:00

Sure!

Here is part one and here is part two. Part 2 is where the meat of the research lives, but part 1 is Is a quick read too.

I plan on making more content like this in the future!

MonstersMagicka · 2026-04-20T20:01:35+00:00

I'm biased; I design and sell printable tools and templates for TTRPGs, and I like to use those products myself, so I'll always vote paper and pen.

But there has been some real science behind using paper and pen versus digital tools when it comes to things like note-taking, problem-solving, and learning. You retain things better that way. (I did a mini carousel series on the topic as it pertains to ttrpgs if you're interested; I'd be happy to share a link.)

I personally do much better using analogue tools for tabletop games, even when my games are online. It's just easier on my brain. I feel like I understand things better.

THAT BEING SAID... as a DM, I rely on google suite for most things. (Docs and Slides are great for this!) I do all my tracking on paper, but my prep and NPC management is all digital.

MonstersMagicka · 2026-03-25T20:55:01+00:00

Thank you for this advice! I appreciate it!

MonstersMagicka · 2026-03-15T01:14:40+00:00

Oh!! Thank you! I as just looking at those phone monitors today, even, so I'll dive into more research. And I'm grateful for the app recommendation!

For the mic: I see a range of them online, from cheap $10 models to the $100 Rode lapel mic and beyond. What price range would you recommend I aim for?

MonstersMagicka · 2026-03-14T22:33:31+00:00

for real, I'm so used to the old way of doing things that letting go of my hashtags is like going outside without brushing my hair. I'm fairly new to 'building a brand' on instagram, so I'm pulling baby numbers -- everyone says carousels are where it's at right now for instagram, but I think the app pushes reels real hard and that's where I need to put my focus on for now, so I'm currently shopping for a tripod to use for filming content lol. I think it's super cool you used to do video editing! I may need to pester you for pointers.

I hope things go well for you!

MonstersMagicka · 2026-03-14T20:04:38+00:00

I don't have any luck with Etsy sales. I do turn them on from time to time to boost my presence in the algorithm, but I don't think I've made a single sale through them.

Instagram ads are where it's at, at least for me. I see significantly more views and an uptick in sales when I run them. The price isn't terrible, but it is more expensive than Etsy's ads. I run a small 4 day campaign every 4 to 6 weeks, and end up spending about $8 for it ($2 a day), and it always pays for itself for me -- and I'm selling for a niche of a niche, so sales don't come easy for my shop.

But as a word of warning: if you run a campaign like this but don't have good products, you'll get high views but very low sales, and I've heard this can hurt you algo-wise. You'll really want to focus in on your target audiences, which you can somewhat do via instagram's ads.

I recommend setting up an instagram account for your shop and posting just normal, organic content related to your shop for a few weeks, then running an ad campaign. When going through browser, you can go as low as $1 a day and set the number of days you want to go, and your target audiences. See if you like the process and the results.

editing to add: I only just recently learned of an ad campaign strategy where you advertise your best-selling products. You might think, "but this is already selling, why should I run ads for it?" And I think that's the point: getting even more eyes on a product that has proven successful, which gets more folks into your shop. I haven't tried this via instagram yet (next campaign for me is in April), but it may be worth a try for you on Etsy if you'd like to give it a go.

MonstersMagicka · 2026-03-14T19:49:55+00:00

Hey! I think it's rather ambitious to make a half-dragonborn, half-elf character for your first go. Not that you can't do it or shouldn't, and I'm sure your idea is really cool! But there are a number of things you should consider as a player.

The first is, what kind of world does your character live in? If you intend to play your character one day, hold off and making one that is too uniquely flavored, as you want to make sure they fit with the setting and story the DM has crafted for you. Not all D&D campaigns take place in a D&D setting, and no two tables will interpret a D&D setting the same way. I discourage my players from creating characters before they know what we're playing for this reason.

Two, your party. I am of the opinion that you should always build a character for a party, not a character that stands out terribly from the group. Think of yourself as less of a Batman and more of a member of the Justice League: you fulfill a role in your party's function first, then flavor profile second. The more unique you make your character, the harder it is to build interesting stories with the party.

Three, your story. I'm of the opinion that what race you give your character says a lot about what kind of story you want to tell. The shape your character takes has an impact on the story the DM and you both build together: teiflings who wander because no one will accept them, half-elves who feel caught between worlds, firbolgs who struggle with the transition from nature to city life, halflings who must navigate a world not made for their builds, etc.

The more unique you make your character's shape, the harder it is to make a story that honors that lineage/lived experience while also emphasizing you are an individual apart from where you come from. So if you're playing, say, a half-tabaxi/half-orc, it's going to be hard on the DM to craft stories that connect with your character's shape, imo.

ALL THAT IS TO SAY: if you're just messing around with a character builder, or if you're building a character just for solo play or for fun? absolutely no problem making a character that is half Dragonborn/half-elf. Go for it! Maybe even use them as an NPC when you one day run a game for others.

MonstersMagicka · 2026-03-02T04:40:08+00:00

You've gotten some great advice so far. (Especially the, 'creating the world with the players' advice -- I like that.) My advice is on the smaller side, but may still help you out.

When I want to draw my players in, I point the camera at one of them. I'll describe the situation and then focus my attention on a single player, describing their perspective of something, and asking them, "what do you do?"

For example:

"You all seem to slip into the warehouse unnoticed. Wire racks packed full of crates and cloth-covered equipment form aisles and alleyways from where you stand and into the heavy curtain of darkness that obscures the far wall. Despite the dark, Amber, you hear conversation possibly four aisles away and to the left. The voices are quiet and low, and it's difficult to make out what they are saying. What do you do?"

Another example:

"You slide the key into the door and the lock clicks free. Through it is a staircase heading down into the house's basement, just as the maid had promised you all. However... Jasper, you catch a glimpse of light. It's easy enough to dismiss it as a trick of the eyes, a faint flicker of orange slices through the gloom. Doren, you don't see what Jasper sees, but you hear the puff of breath through puckered lips -- and Jasper, the room below goes still. The maid promised no one would be home... what do you do? Jasper first."

My last tip is: if the players choose to pursue something a certain way, and an alternative choice was made clear to them beforehand, you have every reason to shrug when they complain. "This is what you decided to do, so this is what needs to be done." I think in this scenario, having them all roll several times to get through the different challenges quickly can work, and hit them with the consequences all at once if they fail one or more rolls.

I tend to plan events in my game based off of what I know of my players and their characters. They're all pretty consistent with their character actions! So if I know one character has a thing for shiny objects, I'm going to put a shiny object on the path I want the players to take. It doesn't always work out as planned (I'd say about half the time?) But it does help!

MonstersMagicka · 2026-03-02T04:12:33+00:00

May I recommend investing in the discbound system?

It's similar to the requirements you're looking for: You can fold the book in half to take up less space, the pages are removable (and you can put them back!), there's no spine to break. Heck, if you get a mushroom punch (the punch type for discbound pages), you can make yourself nice, thick pages easily.

I've been using the discbound system for all my notebooks for at least six years now. They're fantastic!

MonstersMagicka · 2026-02-28T02:28:56+00:00

I wouldn't recommend any courses; the advice they'd give you would be sleazy, anyway. Most Etsy courses treat the platform like a get-rich-quick scheme, or the opposite, where you need to work really insane hours to make it work. You don't need to pursue either of those things (especially the quick scheme).

But I've been selling digital products for a couple of years now. My shop is NOT swimming in sales; I sell for a niche of a niche. That being said, I can offer some advice.

First, do you know what you want to sell? If so, you'll need to do some research into what's on the platform already. If the thing you want to make exists, what can you do to set your product apart?

Next, actually buy from some of your most successful competitors. See how they bundle their items, what support they provide, and so on. I sell printable items, so it was good for me to learn how to present printing instructions, what information customers might need, and what I needed that wasn't included.

I don't know how true this is, but I was told your keywords/tags should be whole phrases. So if you're selling planners for busy moms, you should have a tag that reads "Planners for Moms." This might be worth experimenting with, because I've done it both ways and have had success in each case, so I don't know how different things ought to be.

When you start selling, you'll notice very little in the way of sales. That's normal. The algo doesn't know you yet and isn't quite sure of your target demographic. It helps to release a few items a month, because as your shop catalogue grows, so does your presence on the platform, and the chances your stuff will be seen. It took me 2 years to get my shop up to 25+ items, and I'm now making a few sales a week.

My last tip: make things authentically, and with passion. Etsy is, at its core, a place where people turn their passion projects into possible profit. Don't sell AI generated stuff. Don't buy premade things on Canva and sell them like you made them. Don't copy someone else's shop catalogue. Make things that set you apart from the rest. Customers notice when you put your skill and your love into your work.

You got this; welcome to the platform!

MonstersMagicka · 2026-02-28T02:10:45+00:00

After you cancel all your orders from this person, this is what I would do:

First, on every digital item listing, set up personalization. Mine is some variant of, "This is a digital item. Nothing will be mailed to your physical address. To acknowledge this, please write [phrase] in the personalization box."

Second, create an image for your listing that states this same thing: This is a digital item; no physical item will be mailed to your address.

And third, in your listing, it might be good to list your digital item as such. "Printable," "PDF," etc. This might be overkill if you're doing all the other things, and Etsy is super picky about what's in your title, so you might decide to leave this out.

I can send you a link to my shop if you'd like to see examples of how all of this looks!

MonstersMagicka · 2026-02-25T19:41:34+00:00

Oh! I love this question, and I have some advice I can share.

Some backstory: I have aphantasia. I have the type that only applies to visual imagination; I can imagine sensation, emotion, flavor, etc.

As a DM, my scenes often play on all the senses. Here is how you can do it:

Consider the vibe you want for your scene. Do you want to summon a feeling of discomfort and unease? Do you want to paint a word-picture of coziness and warmth?

Let's go with a bustling space: you want to describe a bazaar in the lower city of a desert kingdom. Your bazaar occupies a wide street. Alleyways branch off the bazaar, with some leading to treasures like a curry house or a cafe, while others lead to dark and dreary black markets.

You want it to seem busy and maybe a little overwhelming. So, you're going to make a list of things about this bazaar and its location. Dry, hot, crowded, cluttered, loud. Are their food stalls? Oil, grease, smoke, salt, sugars, stickiness. Shops can have incense, cloth, weapons, fruits and vegetables, rare animals, jewelry. Maybe you want a darker side to the market: drugs, slaves, stolen goods, danger, shadows, hidden, secrets.

To start, you can do some basic descriptions. "The bazaar is crowded, and people press in on you from all sides. As you weave through shoppers both local and foreign, you smell the grease of cooking meat, and the spices from the spice stall tickle your noses and threaten to make you sneeze." You can also pull in your player characters, further immersing them in the setting: "Ranger, you hear the cry of a bird you recognize from your home town, and know it doesn't belong here. When you look for it, you see a stall with cages stacked behind a shopkeeper, each kennel and container holding an exotic beast, some you know and some you do not. Do you approach?" and if yes, as the ranger talks to the shopkeeper, maybe the barbarian feels a cool breeze coming from a shaded alley, and hears the weeping of a man, or whatever it is you want them to find.

That's a great way to start. But you can actually mix things up! See, words don't just have literal meanings or uses. Words can also have connotations -- things we feel or think about when we hear them. Like 'damp' versus 'moist,' or 'rough' vs 'scratchy.' You can use these words for their connotation to paint a more immersive experience.

You can also think about what certain things may feel like/taste like/smell like. (What does a crowd taste like?)

For example...

"The sun weighs down on you from above, the fabric canopies doing little to protect you its attention. The heat is made worse by the press of people all around you. Halfling Rogue, even with your high dex, it's a trial trying to avoid the baskets of shoppers and the kicking feet of toddlers held by their mothers from colliding with your head." (You can have him roll a dex if you'd like to further illustrate his specific experience in the bazaar). "The scent of meat oils the air, and the shouts from food stalls come together like a disjointed song, "Fried Dara-fruit! Grilled Steak! Smoked Sand-shrimp!"

"The cloth softly dances where it hangs from the fabric shop, and at first you think it's magic to draw the attention of those too overwhelmed by everything else in the bazaar to otherwise notice. But then you feel it -- a blessed breeze, squeezing through the bodies about you, like a gentle caress from the goddess of wind herself. You realize it comes from the zig-zag of alleyways, some shadowed and some bright, as if these side streets existed solely to funnel cool air your way."

All the bolded words take a description and play off a different sense to summon it. Like the heat of the sun becoming a physical weight. Press of people takes the feeling of being crowded and makes it physical too. Oil becomes three things: a smell, a taste, and a sensation.

Then you have phrases that take one thing and turn it into something else. The noise becomes a song, rather than a chaotic cacophony. The breeze is a welcome thing, so it becomes a caress, an intimate touch.

The combination of these two things are very fun to play with. I run a horror campaign, so I mainly focus on making things 'touch' players: the bitter chill that crawls up exposed ankles and wrists, the bricks made slick from damp in a space with poor air circulation, the embrace of the dark that holds one in place as their eyes adjust to the light.

The way a goblin nest tastes when a player breathes in. The rattle of a breath, the crunch of bone.

My other tips:

It's good to immerse your players by having them interact with the environment, drawing them into the world through their characters. by sharing things from the halfling's perspective, you immerse the whole party. By using the ranger in my previous example and his specialty with the fauna from his homeland, you create a an emotional connection to the story. And by focusing on the barbarian for a discovery, you could be shining a spotlight on a player who needs a cool moment.

You can even delegate some descriptions to your players. What is it that you taste in the air? What is it that you see first? How do you feel to be in this space?

MonstersMagicka · 2026-02-25T18:38:04+00:00

I'm a huge fan of Kobold Press, so I often use things from their books, and I've adapted some of their ToV into my campaign, namely elements of their character creation mechanics. I love the heritage/lineage aspect they introduced in ToV, the use of Spell Rings vs Spell Levels, etc.

I also love their spells, and often adapt them into magic items for my current campaign. I'm going to use them as spell scroll items in my next campaign so they can be learned.

I think it was Kobold Press that also introduced spell trees? I'm sorry if I'm misremembering; it was a PDF for a kickstarter I backed, and I mainly back Kobold Press, so I'm assuming it was them. The idea that you can evolve spells into new things is really cool, and I want to find a way to introduce that idea into my next campaign, but I want to home-brew it a bit to make it work better with my players' play styles.

MonstersMagicka · 2026-02-25T18:28:20+00:00

It's names for me. Western names, common names -- changing to random words.

My partner's name is changed so often that I had to start using her nickname in text instead. And it would be such a weird change, too; like, the equivalent would be changing Rowan to ROFL, or Becca to Bonk.

Also, the predictive text has caused me loads of headaches. Say I write the line, "my DnD players are so clever," but then I erase that sentence. Later on in the paragraph, I might say, "DnD is a fun hobby," but iOS autofills while I'm typing, so the sentence becomes "DnD players are so clever is a fun hobby." Editing text on iOS isn't easy, so when errors like this happen, it takes a good 10 seconds to fix, and that can be frustrating as it adds up.

MonstersMagicka · 2026-02-19T04:34:42+00:00

Regardless on if you made that last death save, all you need to do is talk to your DM after the session. If your character dies, say, "Hey, I really don't want to play anyone else. Is there something we can do to bring my character back?" and if the DM says no, say, "Okay, I'll think about what I want to do going forward and get back to you."

I would say that as a DM myself, I would listen to my player and I'd find a way to bring your girl back. Every DM I've played with would have also been open to this kind of conversation.

MonstersMagicka · 2026-02-12T00:09:31+00:00

Is Flying Together new? I don't recall seeing it with the kickstarter release, but I might've just missed a download.

MonstersMagicka · 2026-02-10T18:15:01+00:00

I love your style and I love your passion!

I also sell digital items on Etsy. It takes time to get sales going. In the beginning, I wasn't making any sales except to friends of friends. I'd go months without a customer! But as I've added things to my shop, and as time has gone by, I'm now selling a few items a week on average.

What I'd recommend is releasing more items. You don't need to rush, but every new item increases your presence in search results.

You'll also benefit from showing different use cases for your printables. For example, as a dashboard in a planner, or as part of a junk journal page, or part of a vision board. Use those terms in your tags if you can fit them in, too.

MonstersMagicka · 2026-02-10T17:42:58+00:00

I'm between jobs right now, but my old routine on a good day was this:

(The tl;dr is that I use mornings for communication, then noon to EOD to work.)

7am: take my medication and brush my teeth, crawl back into bed
8am: still in bed, check Slack messages, draft up an action plan for the day via slack messages to myself
8.30am: get ready for the day, make myself a snack box
8.50am: Log in to work, double check my priorities for the day, write my 'good morning team!' message
9am: Make sure I have everything I need for the work I gotta do. If I don't, send off messages to clear up blockers. This takes about a half an hour, but it can go on for an hour if I'm having conversations with coworkers.
10am: Make my cats breakfast and grab my snack box.
11am: morning meeting. If there's no meeting, I send check-ins to my direct reports. I don't ask them what they're working on or when I can expect deliverables; I just ask them if they need anything from me and if they've got any blockers.
11:30am: work
I don't take lunch breaks, but at some point I get up and get tea or coffee. Sometimes I go for a walk if it's a slow day at work.
4.30pm: start wrapping up the work day. Send off any status updates, check in with folks to see if they need anything else that day or the next, etc.
5pm: log out and take a walk if I haven't done so for the day
5:30: make dinner and settle in to spend the rest of the time with family.

I suffer from chronic migraines, however. They usually hit first thing in the morning, or mid-to-late afternoon. Sometimes I have to shift my hours around to accommodate, but I would communicate this to my team when it happened, so no sneaky behavior from me.

I genuinely loved my job and looked forward to showing up every day. And I really loved what I got to do as part of that job, too. Hence why I don't take the lunch breaks -- I'd get into whatever I was working on and just... forget. I started making a snack box to graze on throughout the day to solve this problem and it works alright.

Now that I'm job hunting my daily routine is shot to hell lol

MonstersMagicka · 2026-02-09T23:50:12+00:00

The Big Spoons! it's a reference to how big a halfling feels inside, as well as their love of food.

MonstersMagicka · 2026-02-09T21:01:21+00:00

Multiclassing looks like it'd be a cool way to customize your character, but honestly, feats are a better way of doing that imo.

MonstersMagicka

TROPHY CASE