NPCs
Make the Most of Mirror Parties
Mirror parties are a convenient reflection of the player characters. Throw them into a tabletop campaign to force your players to consider who they really are and what they want.
guides
Lore & Mortar
Lore & Mortar #3: Gods and Faith
Before you start sketching out complex pantheons, consider the fundamental questions of divinity in a tabletop context.
city
Fixing Intracity Travel
Going from A to B within a TTRPG city can be engaging, but you need to choose your goal carefully.
music
How to Prep Music for a Tabletop Session
Everything you need to know about preparing music in advance of a TTRPG campaign.
Lore & Mortar
Lore & Mortar #2: What to Ignore
Don't overburden yourself when designing tabletop settings! Know what you can safely ignore when building your worlds.
Lore & Mortar
Lore & Mortar #1: What Do They Eat?
Figuring out what your NPCs eat will help you answer auxiliary questions about how your setting works.
world
The Gameplay Value of Frontiers
Where to place an adventure matters. A frontier is the perfect setting for tabletop campaigns.
city
How Borough Bound Designs an RPG City
From ideation to final edits, here's the full process Borough Bound uses to create tabletop settlements. Please steal our ideas!
music
Use Weirder Tabletop Music
An unexpected music choice can immediately invigorate a TTRPG encounter and dramatically alter how your players conceptualize the scene.
music
Looping Tabletop Music: The Do’s and Don’ts
Should you loop each track when you're scoring a TTRPG campaign? The question is more complicated than you might suspect.
design
The Hub-and-Spoke Dungeon
The hub-and-spoke dungeon is easy to design, easy to explore, and filled with unpredictable nonlinearity.
guides
Justify Tabletop Combat With Genre
If your party won’t engage in violence, consider tweaking the genre to make combat seem more reasonable.