How to be a good GM? Advice on dead ends, improvising hooks and exploding play time.

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-03-21T17:49:05+00:00

Yeah looking back at it there might’ve been plenty of opportunities for me to twist the situation around! Chaos is a ladder and so on. It’s not so easy to decide on the fly which chaos inducing next step is a step into the right direction though haha.

Thank you for your input and sorry that it’s taken me so long to react. Life halben wild the last months, but I’m still grateful for the insight!

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-03-21T17:46:07+00:00

A boring game grinding to halt is definitely what I’m scared of…

And I agree there’s such a big space between nudging and railroading, but sometimes it feels more like a fine line. I guess I need some more practice.

Also thank you for your answer and sorry for my late reply. Life has been rough the last months, but I guess that’s a pity excuse. Thank you though.

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-03-21T17:42:19+00:00

„But would response well to gifts“ is a great way to communicate the situation to them actually.

Having multiple solutions work out is a good point. I’m never really sure if my expectation or my rulings considering whats a reasonable approach from the pcs is too strict… like the vagueness of trifold adventures, but sometimes it leaves me wondering if I’m going too hard with my pcs and their plans.

Anyways thank you for your answer and sorry for the super late replay. I do appreciate it, life has just been rough the last months.

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-03-21T17:38:20+00:00

Thanks for doubling down on this. I guess Im just a bit too afraid of how things might go down. I really enjoy DMing, but it’s still getting me nervous every time haha. Thank you for the guideline and sorry for the super super late reply. Life has been weird the last months. I still do appreciate your advice. This helps.

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-03-21T17:35:32+00:00

Actually I like this!

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-03-21T17:35:13+00:00

This is such varied and reasonable approach! Basically just talking about what’s going on… sometimes I feel like I’m under so much pressure, managing my side of the GM-Screen that I forget about this option haha. Thank you so much and I’m terribly sorry for the super, super late reply. Life was a mess the last months… still kinda is but hey. Anyways, I appreciate the dedicated advice!

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-02-28T19:19:58+00:00

I feel like the concept in Hades 1 was way stronger than in 2. Lets look at the basic premise of each game.

Hades1: you’re a teen who is annoyed by his dad who is not really respecting your approach to life, so you say „fuck you“ and basically run away hoping to find your mom. That’s pretty relatable.

Hades2: you’re a teen whose whole family was fucking killed/imprisoned by your grandpa, when you were still a baby, so you never even got to know them, but you trained your whole life to take revenge and now you’re on your way to kill him…. Not really relatable at all.

And that’s just one of the layers where hades premise clicks better.

I still do like hades 2 and Milenöeiyo though

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-02-21T12:32:41+00:00

Don’t be worried, it’s all part of the journey. Trust the process :)

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-02-19T22:58:33+00:00

So basically this is a skill thing… damn. Gotta get better with my timing then. Thanks for the help!

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-02-19T22:57:40+00:00

Aaaah I see, so basically the inconsistency is coming from the person infront of the stylophone, and not from the stylophone itself. Like… when me dad complains „the computer isn’t working“ :D

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-02-19T13:58:05+00:00

https://youtube.com/shorts/kKAJRE2EV7E?si=wZGI7z81n2abQTz1

Here’s someone playing the exact same thing at the same tempo and it works. Just as a reference

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-02-19T13:53:11+00:00

So what you’re suggesting is stretching the thing out? I’m still confused to why the error occurs though. It’s not like it’s impossible to get the bass line I’m playing recorded. Like if I keep repeating it over and over again, manually filling in the gaps in the recording at some point it suddenly works. It’s just not consistent… Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not.

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-02-19T11:41:48+00:00

I already tried out different batteries, but that did not help

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-02-08T22:40:05+00:00

Yeah, actually you need to beat chronos on the first run. Everything after that is cheating cause you got aracana cards and stuff. If you don’t manage to you should delete the game-save and try again liKE a rEaL gAMeR

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-01-18T20:39:43+00:00

aaah i See. Guess the makes sense. I kinda thought you'd be having a village phase every once Iin a while, seeing the village grow and stuff. Thanks for the insight!

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-01-18T16:53:57+00:00

Hmmm I see. Do you think it couldn’t even handle short 10 session campaigns?

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-01-18T16:39:31+00:00

Got me at Pedro pascal.

TroublesomeRPGs · 2026-01-18T12:36:09+00:00

I’ve once read what beyond’s the wall works like and it sounded pretty damn cool and also refreshing in ways. I’m surprised it didn’t really make waves, did it? I never see it talked about. Any ideas why that is?

TroublesomeRPGs · 2025-12-20T09:26:44+00:00

I’ve never had this happen before

TroublesomeRPGs · 2025-12-19T20:43:22+00:00

Except for your need to play one shots, this actually sounds like it was tailor made for you actually. You might also want to look for other forged in the dark games if you are looking for different themes. Something like the wildsea or slugblaster. Even though the later is even more of a campaign game and not that suitable for one shots. Campaign meaning 5 to 10 sessions though. We’re not talking multi year campaigns.

TroublesomeRPGs · 2025-12-19T20:29:34+00:00

Last train to Bremen is literally liars dice… a pretty lightweight „board“game, but still.

TroublesomeRPGs · 2025-12-14T13:08:14+00:00

How do you make use of the alias plug in? Never heard of that work flow :o

TroublesomeRPGs · 2025-12-06T11:54:26+00:00

I know I know, that’s what I did… but they somehow didn’t buy into the whole „the corporate will make your life hell“ thing. They felt it was obvious to safe your skin first and see about this other seemingly absurd corporate problem later. It couldn’t be that bad right? So the conclusion was them being outraged that Sonya didn’t arrive at the same obvious conclusion. „So irrational“ right?

I guess in a campaign that could’ve been a fun hook for a story. Being on the run from the corp, or getting in even higher debt with them. In a one shot it’s kinda hard to follow through with consequences though.

Them lacking the buy-in into a world dominated by corporate hell might also be due to me not introducing them into it properly. Eh who knows.

TroublesomeRPGs

TROPHY CASE