CHAINMAIL: 02.04.2024

Random GM Tip – Matryoshka Search Technique - The Alexandrian

A rare Alexandrian post that slipped past my study. I really like this one. It's short but sweet. The general premise is that when your players roll search checks, like a Perception check in 5E, instead of just revealing to them exactly what they find, reveal to them an actionable clue that points to the grand reveal. If the player searches for traps, instead of saying "you find a pit trap", reveal something like "the 4 tiles in the center of the room are devoid of the dirt and grime found throughout the rest of the room". Their check revealed to them new information that they can explore further.

On Worldbuilding: Place Names — countries, cities, places - Hello Future Me

You guys seem to love content that revolves around naming stuff. I get it, naming locations, characters, monsters, etc is hard. Here's another YouTube video from one of my favorite channels talking about why locations are named the way they are, and how you can create the same names for your places.

Landmark, Hidden, Secret - DIY & dragons

This piggy backs off of the Alexandrian post from above. This blog post is about a hierarchy of information you can follow in your games that easily tracks what your players find initially with no effort (landmark), what your players find by exploring a bit deeper (hidden), and what your players find when they utilize a skill or pay a cost of some kind (secret). I'm going to be using this in some dungeon designs going forward to help organize information distribution.

I hope these resources inspire you! If you haven't already, the best way to stay up to date with everything hothead related is to join the discord. See you next week!