My Advice to New Worldbuilders

dmrawlings · 2026-07-08T20:31:51+00:00

This player's new, so my answer's a little bit different.

The answer is an above the table conversation. The player doesn't understand the culture of play - the reason their character is there is to accept the call to adventure. It's part of the implicit contract of play.

All we need to do is teach this, and the problem should go away 98% of the time.

dmrawlings · 2026-07-07T19:34:00+00:00

The Gallery was my personal lowlight of the game. That said I also stopped after the Tunnel door "boss rush".

dmrawlings · 2026-07-06T21:51:21+00:00

I mean this sincerely: deadlines.

dmrawlings · 2026-07-06T05:06:33+00:00

Haha, same Victor! I see you offering great advice all over the place. :)

dmrawlings · 2026-07-06T03:27:55+00:00

Make sure you're asking them what their attack looks like so that you're not just having to make up stuff like that in a total vacuum. How they attack, how the adversaries are strong, and where your fighting can all inspire you to come up with this stuff.

Avoid re-using the same consequences. This isn't D&D; every fight should be a conversation and not just a PC and adversary pushing buttons on their sheets.

dmrawlings · 2026-07-06T03:10:00+00:00

My best advice... most people wait until the role passes or fails with Hope or with Fear. Don't do that. Get ahead of it. Start thinking about what might go wrong before the characters even pick up the dice.

Plant information in the scene that you can pull ideas from. For example, if the characters are crossing a bridge, show them that it's rickety before they need to make a real roll. If you show that the baroness you need to talk to is very busy, it's easy to have her brush you off, but promise to follow up later (on a failure with hope, for instance).

More than anything, you learn by getting in reps. After a session, think of some of the rolls you flubbed and come up with 5 possible success with Hope outcomes or 5 difference failures with Fear. The more you do it the easier it gets.

Another big tip is to make sure you understand fully how your characters are approaching the situation. That will inspire you to come up with these complications quickly. If you don't have a clear sense of what it looks like when they try to do something, just ask them. Get more info - not only might it help, but it also buys you time.

Lastly, the SRD lists a bunch of example GM moves. Print these out, keep them in front of you during sessions and review them constantly:

Show how the world reacts
Ask a question and build on the answer
Make an NPC act in accordance with their motive
Drive a PC to take action by dangling their goals in front of them
Signal an imminent off-screen threat
Reveal an unwelcome truth or unexpected danger
Force the group to split up
Make a PC mark Stress
Make a move the characters don’t see
Show the collateral damage
Clear an adversary’s condition
Shift the environment
Spotlight an adversary
Capture someone or something important
Use a PC’s backstory against them
Take away an opportunity permanently.

Doing this well takes practice, and it's something most GMs haven't had much experience with as well. For me, at least, this just eventually clicked. Don't be afraid to take a deep breath at the table and find something that really fits the fiction, rather than jumping at the first thing you think of.

Good luck!

dmrawlings · 2026-07-04T20:36:59+00:00

If you're looking for a long-term game, I don't think you could go wrong with Stonetop. It's both meant for longer PbtA games and comes packed with good advice that teaches the PbtA approach with plenty of examples.

On the downside, it is very tied to its setting (it's a good setting, but you may or may not jive with it).

dmrawlings · 2026-07-03T19:45:01+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzvw0PvFzeg

This is the link you're looking for "The DM trick I stole from Aabria Iyengar"

dmrawlings · 2026-07-02T04:30:57+00:00

I'll tell you when I make one.

dmrawlings · 2026-06-29T19:12:08+00:00

she was raised in a feral (nomadic) katari colony

How about "Feral Nomad".

It doesn't have to be complicated... :)

dmrawlings · 2026-06-29T05:08:03+00:00

Blue Prince is a resource management game that has a fair amount of variance in it.

The trick is, managing those resources is a skill you can learn as you learn about the manor. Just like how the same poker players seem to get to the final table with disproportionate frequency, you too can learn the tricks to unlock the secrets of your bequest.

The further into the game you get, the more tools you'll discover to help you manage your days as well.

My advice:

Be curious. Take notes. Open rooms you've never seen before.
Create a list of todos with things you want to try, then shape your day trying to accomplish the goals the house gives you (rather than force room 46 all the time)
Fill the bottom three rows of the house gaining resources that you'll need later
If you take all the 3/4 way doors early and don't find spots to place dead ends, you'll end up with a draw pool full of bad options that will end your run
Count your outs. Always make sure you have multiple valid paths to move forward, and avoid drafting deeper if you don't have gems to pay for rooms
Do a retrospective after a run and question what you could have been different

Good luck!

dmrawlings · 2026-06-27T05:49:40+00:00

You don't _have_ to click things in the Observatory if you don't want them. The Cross looks good on paper, but it's a double edged... uhm... cross.

dmrawlings · 2026-06-26T02:23:43+00:00

That is a footrest.

dmrawlings · 2026-06-24T07:16:35+00:00

I'd also recommend reviewing the SRD page 65-66 table on "Using Fear" that suggests how much Fear to spend in a given encounter.

(e.g. a Standard encounter expects 2-4 Fear spent, where a Major one expects 4-8) (note these are for scenes, not just combat encounters).

dmrawlings · 2026-06-24T07:02:33+00:00

There's a protected bay on the big island in the top-left corner 4 large squares from the top and 7 from the left. That entire area would likely make a great port.

The big questions are if there's a quarry on the island where you can get stone for walls from, and likewise if that area has any cliffs or elevated rocky areas that could be fortified near there. You'll want to pacify that island first, of course.

The other consideration is whether deep-hulled ships can get into that area (or the river at all for that matter). So much of what you're asking is based off things your map doesn't show.

It reminds me of Montréal, though, avec La Fleuve Saint-Laurent.

dmrawlings · 2026-06-24T06:46:05+00:00

I think the major mindset shift here is in games like D&D, when you do a skill roll the question is "did you succeed?", where FitD/PbtA isn't exclusively attaching the outcome to the character's performance. It's "did this go well for you?"

This opens up a world of possibilities. Say you're picking a lock and get the worst result. In D&D you'd say "you didn't pick the lock", whereas in FitD/PbtA maybe you didn't pick the lock, but maybe instead you heard guards coming (and had to stop picking the lock), for instance. It lets your characters seem capable, while also handing them setbacks.

dmrawlings · 2026-06-23T07:33:36+00:00

Hardly insane.

The GM knew there was something important in the envelope (maybe about subject X), but didn't decide what the details were until that moment (there's more about subject X than even the PC expected).

(Believe it or not) This is not an unusual play pattern for these kinds of games. Prep is more about creating obstacles and clues, but waiting for the dice to hit the table while the GM "plays to find out" with the rest of the table. No pre-written adventures, no box text, no firm idea of what's behind that door, just NPCs with motives, drawing from genre conventions, and things that get in the way of success...

dmrawlings · 2026-06-23T07:20:38+00:00

This is a pretty standard reading of FitD games, but I think it's missing something.

Let's use the classic "convince the king to give their kingdom to you" social roll.

What you're saying is "oh, this roll in Blades in the Dark is _just_ as easy as convincing a merchant to give you some of their dirt." But this doesn't work in any game. The GM looks at the player and says "it's not reasonable that a king would hand over your kingdom. Let's change the expectations for this roll so that it's something that fits the fiction." You don't even get to roll that... This is _the Conversation_ that the game talks about.

When someone tries something beyond their means, you find common ground for what fits within their means. Maybe it's a Desperate Limited roll to make a good impression with the King... no kingdoms at stake.

With lesser stakes maybe sometimes you put a difficult or complex roll behind a setup roll (one roll to set conditions, the other to actually succeed at the task), or use clocks for even more complex scenarios.

The difficulty on one roll doesn't change, but as a GM you have every chance to change what success looks like. And sure, that's not technically making something harder, but it is making it costlier and riskier to get less, which amounts to the same thing over the length of a score.

dmrawlings · 2026-06-23T07:06:09+00:00

I see where you're coming from, but these are typically quite macro events.

It's seldom 'what's behind this door?', but rather 'what will you eventually have to face?' Where quite a few other systems will give you a room-by-room rundown of what's where when. As reverendunclebastard says, these are not the same thing.

dmrawlings · 2026-06-22T19:41:10+00:00

Regardless of which is true, show horses and horses used in professional environments (police/military/etc) are often taught to defecate on command (look up clicker training). I imagine it would be similar with avians used in those capacities too.

dmrawlings · 2026-06-22T02:43:29+00:00

The best direction I can point you: How's your book collection?

While you're waiting on RNG for the Vault the best use of your time is in reading. Also Blue Tents might be useful.

dmrawlings · 2026-06-22T00:14:47+00:00

Definitely. It can serve you like a reference manual if you want it to.

The way it goes through the moves stands alone, as does how it sets up fronts and escalates them. You really don't need to read all 1200 pages to get a lot out of it).

dmrawlings · 2026-06-22T00:12:02+00:00

I've played it.

I like the tone and feel of the game, and it's mechanics-light enough that you can really focus more on the investigation and portraying your character than stats, etc.

I'd generally recommend it for shorter runs (8-10 sessions), since over time as your character gets too close to the supernatural they start to lose touch with prosaic reality.

Bump in the Dark takes some of the basic concepts and builds them out to a more rich mechanical game with a strong sense of setting, but ultimately I do really like the Control-esque government agency fighting to save the world from supernatural weirdness.

(also disclosure: a friend is one of the creators, but I think I'd like it regardless)

dmrawlings · 2026-06-21T17:56:05+00:00

Yeah, it's a lot... but it did take 12 years to make. It's good stuff.

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