David asks – I’ve been running a campaign with a group for a little over a year. For the majority of them this has been their first exposure to pen-and-paper games, so I have spent a lot of time teaching and reteaching terminology and mechanics in our sessions. This has slowed the pace of the …

Von asks – How can I break up with my DM? I’m about 18 months into a weekly campaign and my life is just getting too busy. I still have time to play but it is starting to feel like more of an appointment than a hobby. Von, regardless of how you extricate yourself from …

Mike J. asks – I’m running a Traveller campaign, and the party is the crew of a spaceship. I had planned to have them get involved in a big interplanetary war and eventually come face to face with the big bad of the campaign. Unfortunately, the party has no interest in joining this war or …

Colette asks – Hi! I’m DMing a campaign for three friends, and one of those friend’s girlfriends is interested in joining. I like her and think she’ll be fine, but I’m having trouble thinking up a way to work a completely new character into the story. For reference – this is a D&D 5e game …

Tim asks – I currently play a wizard in my D&D 5e campaign. Folks listen to our game so the advice I am looking for is – what are some fun things to make your wizard feel truly magical. He is incredibly talented but with a good heart so figuring out better and flashier ways …

Claudio asks – My players and I are in the middle of a long campaign. There are five players in the group and the rest of the campaign is probably going to deal with three of them primarily, since the other two have more or less resolved their character’s storylines. The characters themselves don’t really …

Beth asks – I’m in a campaign with a GM I generally like, but one thing he does is really grating. Whenever we’re in combat and he’s rolling for an enemy, he’ll curse if he rolls a miss or a critical failure. That is, he’ll roll for an enemy, that enemy will whiff and his …

Max asks – I’m running a short adventure for some friends, some of whom know each other well and some who haven’t met each other. All of them are experienced role players. How do I minimize awkwardness and maximize fun? Building rapport among gamers that haven’t yet gamed together is an important part of any …

Beth asks – I love being a GM and I want to challenge myself. I’d like to use the D&D 5th edition rules but create my own world to run a campaign in. What advice could you offer on how to build it? Building a world from whole cloth can an incredibly fun and deeply …

Ben asks – What is the silliest or most absurd rule that you enforce as a GM? Ben, let’s first define “silly.” There are plenty of bad or cumbersome rules (see my column about encumbrance), but I tend to categorize them as “crappy” instead of “silly.” Silly and absurd, for me, have positive connotations when it comes to …