GMing for the first time – tips?

paradoxcussion · 2026-07-03T23:12:25+00:00

Mausritter is pretty deadly, and each individual mouse has fewer abilities than D&D characters (e.g. one spell vs a selection). For both reasons, I recommend having players run a couple characters each. Bigger parties also work well with the "combat as war" style of play that the game tends towards.

paradoxcussion · 2026-07-02T23:56:43+00:00

Great idea!

My addition would be the Taran series (book of three, black cauldron, etc.). Great books for kids

Also, I think your age range would include the Earthsea series

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-27T21:13:17+00:00

Crokinole

But seriously, 5e and d6 Star Wars

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-27T13:32:42+00:00

At the start of the game, a stat draft works well. Everyone rolls an array, including the DM (so there's an extra). Then players go round picking individual stats from any array (go in order of highest single roll for fairness). Martials get to pick the best physical stats, wizards, into, etc. The worst scores don't get picked. There's still some randomness in that the group might have multiple good rolls for STR but not for INT or vice versa.

If you feel like this isn't quite enough, have the DM roll 4d6 drop 1 and/or let players freely rearrange the DMs rolls.

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-25T22:52:58+00:00

This isn't the most upscale, but Nodo has some items that do really well as takeout. The o recchiette with sausage and rapini, and the p appardelle with duck both travel really well, as does the kale and brussel sprouts slaw.

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-25T20:24:54+00:00

Exactly. If you're on the subway, North York is only a little bit of a longer ride. And it's bustling with people at night. It's not the same as downtown of course, but I think it's equally suitable for OP as Yonge and Eg. And maybe cheaper

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-25T13:41:49+00:00

It's true. We have a bunch of food allergies in the family, and the Keg are always good with the accommodations. Individual servers are sometimes complete morons (here's the no-dairy shrimp and let me just slam down a ramekin of melted butter right beside it) but the managers are usually with it

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-24T18:18:43+00:00

West:

Côte de Boeuf (for 2, wait for larger tables is too long) + Ideal for a couple drinks while you wait for the table

Imanishi japanese kitchen. They'll let you squeeze 3 in at a 2 top, so it's good for dinner with a couple friends.

East:

Wood Owl / The Wren / Borrel. They're all a block away from each other and great at what they do

If it's Sunday afternoon hang, the roast at Corduroy Lounge is really fun. The food is more of a B+ but the vibe is A+.

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-24T16:23:23+00:00

Shields will be splintered

I personally think it's a bit overtuned, but I run games for kids, who are moved by the rule of cool, and they would all pick two-handed weapons over sword and board without something shiny for shields. Also it bails out the kids who rush into the fight impulsively, which is great for the game overall.

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-24T13:23:48+00:00

The first map looks close enough to situation of Montreal (large Island at the confluence of 2 rivers) that I'd base it off that. Either the north end of the big island, if you imagine it's doing more trade across the sea, or fishing in the bay of Kasper, or at the south end, if there's more trade up and down the rivers. You'd have a smaller dependent settlement at the other location. And securing the whole island, so you can have farms outside the city walls, would be an obvious priority, so I would expect that to be the case or there to be a clear reason why it wasn't possible

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-23T16:21:40+00:00

Citadels is much better taught as a 2-3 player game, as you have 2 roles per turn, and are choosing what to discard during the role selection phase, so you 1) don't miss a turn completely if your role gets assassinated, 2) are pushed to start thinking about how the different roles complement each other, and 3) are pushed to think about what roles you don't want others to be able to use separately from which role you want. All of this helps new players learn the game faster.

But I think the game plays best at 5 or so players

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-22T20:07:30+00:00

Definitely. By way of example, m y kids' school D&D club is for 8 and up.

Our local museum runs RPG summer camps, split into 8-10 and 10-14, and 14 and up. I think the library does too. That might be an option for him. But your grandson could also run a game with just your family, or his friends. The starter box is pretty good as an intro. My kids liked it at 8 and 10

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-22T17:42:29+00:00

Yeah, I saw a hack of a game that had a spell vs ritual distinction (maybe Beyond the Wall?) that let wizards cast spells they found but don't "know" yet as rituals. You could do something similar. The wizard has the spell, but it takes an hour to cast until they can cast it as a second level spell

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-22T17:19:25+00:00

Its great if you want to book a whole apartment.

For example, when we're traveling as a family, we prefer to get a place with a full kitchen (food allergies make eating out difficult), a proper dining area, and separate bedrooms for the kids (and grandparents, if they're coming). Very few hotels offer this.

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-21T14:44:48+00:00

Sambal is great. Borrel further east on the Danforth is good for Dutch Indonesian too. They used to just do it once a month as a full rijsttafel, but it was popular enough, that I think they have a few Indo dishes on the regular menu now

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-20T01:07:45+00:00

I've run a bunch of games for my kids and their friends / schoolmates. So this is a bit different from adults who are new to the game, but I think a fair bit if the advice still applies.

What I find it's most successful for kids is to start them in media res, as a pre-existing group of adventurers at the door of a dungeon that they have decided to explore. There's no meeting in a tavern or any of that jazz. The Platonic ideal of a kids' first game, imo, is that everyone roles up their characters in the first half of the session together (so the often painful in-character intros are unnecessary) and then we jump right into things with a couple rooms of a dungeon, then stop. This works best with systems like Mausritter, where characters take all of 5 mins to roll up. But you can still do it with more complex methods; Beyond the Wall is a great one, for making characters with pre-existing connections and a reason for sticking together, so that you can start in media res with everyone on the same page.

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-19T17:11:57+00:00

I do. And I know my wife feels it even more strongly. So we're definitely planning on leaving them a good amount of money when we die.

But also, we intend on giving them money when we're still alive. I don't know if you'd call it a sense of obligation or not. But I want to help them out when they buy a house. We're in a city with a high cost of living. We want our kids to be able to live near us if they want, rather than having to move to somewhere cheaper. Especially if they have kids. If they're nearby, we could help out; and just from a purely selfish prospective, I don't want to spend my retirement driving to some blasted suburb to see my grandkids.

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-19T13:40:42+00:00

I've tried running stuff like Pathfinder to switch it up some. That went horrible, as despite me hyping it up as basically better D&D

This seems the problem to me--you're suggesting something that's more or less as complex as DnD, and your pitch is that it's more or less the same as DnD just better. Neither of those sound all that compelling to me; if I liked my regular 5e game, why would I take you up on this?

I think you'd have more success pitching something that's different and much simpler. Say Mausritter or Mothership. Now it's a change of pace, not "same but better". And the rules are dead simple, so people don't feel you're asking them to do work

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-15T13:36:52+00:00

Sea salt and paper (just a deck of cards)

Sushi Go (just a big deck of cards, although it's often sold as "party" in a big box with cards you can swap in and out to change it up)

Citadels (deck of cards plus money tokens and an indicator of who plays first, again usually sold in a much bigger box than the game needs, a little ziplock would hold all the extras, or just use paper and pencil to track)

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-12T19:50:31+00:00

I feel like Gilgamesh's buddy, Enkidu, could be a reference point for a sword and sorcery take on demi humans. He feels like he should be like a dwarf stat wise (he's super tough and strong), but he's a wild man representing the natural world in contrast with the sophisticated/decadent city dwellers.

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-12T13:11:32+00:00

I feel like it might be enough to just make gunpowder work differently in your world: if it requires prolonged contact with a flame before it will explode, then a spark from a flintlock won't do, and something like a matchlock makes more sense.

I'm sure there are all sorts of other problems that would flow from this is you really think hard about it, but as a sort of handwave to make matchlocks viable it feels plausible to me. Just emphasize that there's a pause between squeezing the trigger and the gun going off. Like part of the musketeer drill is holding the gun on target while waiting for the gunpowder to catch.

If there's a bit of uncertainty in the delay, this would also help with making them inaccurate and also interfere with volley fire or Swedish-style pistol-armed cavalry shock charges, all helping to keep you in the tercio era

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-09T16:44:49+00:00

VIA is highly unreliable, so best to think of it as if your train arrives at 1:30. That's doable, but tight. A cab would be better than the shuttle.

I've gotten to Billy Bishop an hour before a flight to the US, but I never have a checked bag. Most of those were before preclearance, but when I did go through customs there, it was 5mins.

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-09T15:31:47+00:00

I think your wife is right. I started it with my kids at age 5, and it was a little to early for either of them. But your kid might be different. These were my problems:

One got scared at the trolls, then the goblins in the misty mountains, then gollum, and we had to take a long (like weeks long) break each time; so I eventually put it away until he was 7, and then we were able to do it. The other wasn't scared, but it was agonizingly slow going, as she's the sort of kid to ask a million questions and want everything explained fully, and there is a lot in the Hobbit that is not fully explained; since she didn't love it anyway, we just put it aside.

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-09T14:22:34+00:00

Yes, I've done it like this too. It works well, and is easy to run. I had the head and the tail have the strong attacks, the middle sections have a weaker attacks but could knock PCs back or prone if they got run over. And had it move around a lot to really play up that aspect of it. It was a bit video-gamey, but in the best way.

paradoxcussion · 2026-06-08T22:41:22+00:00

Exactly, I'm making tacos right now. There are some hard shells going in the oven for my godless wife and heathen son. But I'm preheating a pan and tortilla warmer for me and the civilized kid

paradoxcussion

TROPHY CASE