Author Archives: Vanillabean

Campaign of the Month August 2026: Star Trek: Excalibur

Read on to discover how a group of roleplayers from “Down Under” become the officers on the last voyage of the USS Excalibur on her final mission into the “Shackleton Expanse”, encountering new life and civilizations, including Romulans and Bluegill, in the seemingly endless quest into outer space.  Let GM IanHoulihan and his crew guide you to boldly go where the Federation has never gone before in STAR TREK: Excalibur…

First off, feel free to tell us about the person behind the GM screen.  Where are you from?  What do you do aside from gaming?  Alter Egos?  Life partners?  Family?  Where can we interact with you on the internet?   

Firstly, it’s an absolute honour just to be considered for this award. I’ve been part of the Obsidian Portal community for many years and being recognised alongside so many talented GMs is genuinely humbling.

Away from the GM screen, I’m a proud dad to five boys (all now 16 or older), partner to the incredibly patient Kerry, and human servant to two Cavoodle fur babies. We call Brisbane, Australia home, and life is usually a balancing act between family, work, gaming, and finding the occasional moment to breathe!

My tabletop journey began back in 1984 when someone introduced me to Top Secret. That one game opened the floodgates. Before long I was exploring Basic D&D, Rolemaster, and eventually the Star Wars Roleplaying Game by West End Games—a game that sparked a lifelong love affair with RPGs. Since then, I’ve played more systems than I can count, including Star Trek Adventures, and was fortunate enough to contribute professionally by writing for Legend of the Five Rings and Genesys under both Fantasy Flight Games and Edge Studio.

Gaming has also taken me beyond the table. I had the privilege of serving as Event Manager for the very first PAX Australia and later running Gen Con Australia in 2008 and 2009—experiences that gave me an even greater appreciation for the incredible gaming community.

When I’m not rolling dice or writing adventures, you’ll probably find me spending time with my family or out on the water paddling Waka Ama—traditional Polynesian outrigger canoeing—which is a fantastic way to clear the mind after plotting the latest campaign twist.

If you’d like to chat RPGs, worldbuilding, or just say hello, you can find me on most social media as @gmhooly. I also hosted The Forge: A Genesys RPG Podcast. While the show is currently on permanent hiatus, I’m always happy to talk shop with fellow gamers online.

The whole design aspect of your campaign is immediately obvious from the introduction to it on the landing page, so let’s start with that.  What inspired the design aesthetic, and how did you go about setting it up.  What tools did you use, etc.

The design was inspired almost entirely by Star Trek: The Next Generation. Since my Star Trek Adventures campaign is set during that era, I wanted visitors to feel like they’d just stepped onto the bridge of a Galaxy-class starship. The LCARS interface is instantly recognisable to Star Trek fans, so it felt like the perfect way to present information. Rather than simply decorate the page, I wanted the interface itself to become part of the experience, making players feel like they were accessing a Starfleet computer.

To build everything, I use the Adobe Creative Cloud suite almost exclusively. Every panel, button, icon, and graphic element is custom-designed to fit the campaign. Once the artwork is finished, it’s a matter of figuring out how to make it all work inside Obsidian Portal.

The funny thing is that I’m far from being a web developer. My HTML and CSS knowledge is almost entirely self-taught, learned through countless hours of experimentation, breaking things, fixing them, and occasionally celebrating when something finally worked! Whenever I hit a wall, the amazing Obsidian Portal community on the forums and Discord has always been there with advice, ideas, and encouragement.

In many ways, the page has evolved just like the campaign itself. Every new feature taught me a new trick, and every challenge pushed me to learn something new. It’s been a wonderful creative journey that’s still evolving every time I update the site.

Tell us a bit about your players.  How long have you been playing together.  Describe your typical gaming session.  Online or In Person?

One of the things I love most about this campaign is the people around the table. While I have a bit of a rotating roster, there are six core players who have been with me since the beginning. They range in age from 19 all the way up to… me, at 55! It’s a fantastic mix of personalities and gaming experience, from complete newcomers to seasoned veterans, and we have a great balance of genders at the table as well.

We first came together just over a year ago through the Northside Adventure Gamers Association here in Brisbane—a club I helped establish to bring tabletop gamers together. While our regular games happen at the club, we also run additional sessions outside of club nights. Partly that’s because I’m a shift worker and can’t always make Thursdays, but mostly it’s because my players keep asking when the next mission is!

Our regular sessions are played in person every Thursday evening from 6:00 pm until around 10:00 pm. I deliberately structure the campaign like a modern Star Trek television series rather than a collection of standalone adventures. Each “season” consists of around eight to ten interconnected missions, with individual adventures usually unfolding over one to three sessions. That approach lets us tell bigger stories, develop the characters over time, and sprinkle in mysteries and plot threads that might not pay off until much later.

The best compliment I can give my players is that they’re completely invested. They laugh, debate impossible moral dilemmas, celebrate every victory, and occasionally surprise me by solving problems in ways I never expected. As a Game Master, that’s exactly the kind of table you hope to have.

Your BIO page on Obsidian Portal indicates that you are involved in both STAR TREK and PATHFINDER games.  Do you have any thoughts on the differences between role playing in Fantasy and SciFi scenarios?  Are there any differences in designing your page/campaign?  Do you notice any differences in the way people play these two types of game?

I think the first difference people notice is the visual style. I like every Obsidian Portal campaign to have its own identity, so I design each page to reflect the genre and tone of the game. A Pathfinder campaign should feel like opening an ancient tome or a weathered map, while my Star Trek campaign is built around the clean, futuristic LCARS interface from The Next Generation. The campaign page is really an extension of the world the players are stepping into.

From a Game Master’s perspective, though, the biggest difference is scale. Fantasy campaigns tend to be geographically focused. Even if the world is enormous, the adventure usually unfolds within a kingdom, a continent, or a well-defined region. Science fiction opens the door to an almost limitless playground. Every star system can have its own culture, politics, technology, and environment, so worldbuilding becomes galaxy-building. Instead of detailed regional maps, I spend more time creating planetary overviews, sector maps, and notes that help each world feel unique.

I also think the two genres encourage different kinds of roleplaying. Fantasy is familiar—castles, dragons, taverns, and magic are concepts most players can picture immediately. Science fiction often asks players to buy into a specific vision of the future. Even franchises within the genre can feel worlds apart. Star Wars embraces mythic fantasy wrapped in science-fiction aesthetics, while Star Trek leans into exploration, diplomacy, and at least the appearance of scientific plausibility. As a result, Star Trek players often find themselves solving problems through teamwork, ethics, and creative applications of technology rather than simply drawing their weapons.

One of my favourite moments at the table is when the players start throwing around technobabble. They don’t need to be real engineers—they just need enough confidence to say something like, “If we reverse the ocular focus of the tachyon emitter…” and suddenly everyone buys into the moment. Those are the scenes that make Star Trek feel like Star Trek.

System-wise, I enjoy both Pathfinder and Star Trek Adventures immensely, but I’ve found my tastes have evolved over the years. These days I’m drawn to games with lighter mechanics that get out of the way of the story. I still love tactical depth, but I value systems that give players the freedom to be creative and give me the flexibility to say “yes” more often than “check the rulebook.”

Please outline the basic mission of your game aboard the U.S.S Excalibur.  Where are you taking your players?  What are they experiencing?  Are you just travelling and discovering, or is there a firm goal/destination in mind?

At its heart, the campaign is about exploration. The players are the senior officers aboard the USS Excalibur, an aging Constitution-class starship embarking on one final mission before retirement. That premise gives us everything that makes Star Trek special: exploring strange new worlds, making first contact with new civilizations, solving scientific mysteries, and occasionally saving the Federation from threats nobody saw coming.

The campaign is set at the beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, using the Shackleton Expanse as our playground. It’s a fantastic setting because it’s largely unexplored, giving me the freedom to blend established Star Trek canon with original worlds, species, and mysteries while still feeling true to the universe.

Although every mission tells a complete story, there’s always a larger narrative unfolding beneath the surface. Our first season centered on the return of the neural parasites from the infamous Season 1 episode, “Conspiracy.” It began as a series of seemingly unrelated adventures while everyone learned the system, but the clues gradually revealed a conspiracy that had spread throughout the Romulan Star Empire. The season culminated in a classic Star Trek moral dilemma: should the crew forge an uneasy alliance that would leave the Romulan Empire enslaved, or commit genocide against the last surviving members of the Bluegill species to end the threat forever? Watching the players wrestle with that decision was one of the most rewarding moments I’ve ever had as a Game Master.

Now we’re in our second season, and the stakes have become even greater. The crew has uncovered evidence of an ancient race of world-builders whose descendants believe they are the rightful inheritors of the galaxy. Their ambition is nothing less than to rebuild their lost empire and subjugate every civilization across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. It has become a story of exploration, archaeology, diplomacy, political intrigue, and the occasional starship battle, while still leaving room for those wonderfully strange Star Trek episodes where the crew encounters something no one could possibly have predicted.

That’s really the philosophy behind the campaign. The destination is never just the next planet—it’s the next mystery. Every mission should leave the players asking the same question that has driven Star Trek for nearly sixty years: What’s waiting beyond the next star?

How do you deal with combat situations?  You would obviously have ship to ship contact, but I presume you have person to person contact on planet surfaces, etc.  Does the STAR TREK game offer different combat systems for each type of contact?  Do you use any homegrown systems?

One of the things I really enjoy about Star Trek Adventures is that combat isn’t the centrepiece of the game—it’s simply another tool for telling the story. The system supports both personal combat and starship combat, but both use the same underlying mechanics, making it easy for players to move between away missions, diplomatic encounters, and ship-to-ship engagements without feeling like they’re learning a new game each time.

Compared to many tactical RPGs, combat is intentionally more abstract. Characters move through narrative “Zones” rather than counting squares on a grid, which keeps the action flowing and encourages cinematic thinking over precise positioning. That feels very true to Star Trek. The best moments aren’t usually about eliminating every opponent—they’re about buying enough time to rescue civilians, disabling an enemy ship without destroying it, or finding a creative solution that avoids a firefight altogether.

I haven’t found much need to introduce homebrew combat rules because the system already does a great job of supporting the kinds of stories I want to tell. Instead, I focus on bringing the scenes to life. I design and 3D-print many of our miniatures after creating the characters in Hero Forge, and I’ll often create maps when the scene benefits from a physical representation. While I’m perfectly happy running theatre of the mind, I know some players engage more deeply when they can see the environment and where everyone is standing.

Ultimately, like everything else in the campaign, combat serves the story. If the players can talk their way out of a battle, outwit their opponent with science, or negotiate a peaceful solution, that’s often a far more satisfying outcome than simply winning a firefight. After all, that’s the Star Trek way.

All of your characters seem to have a distinct type of image?  Where do you get these from?  Are the pictures original artworks?  Tell us more.

The artwork has evolved alongside the campaign. In the early days, I used Hero Forge to create sample characters and used those renders as their portraits. They did the job well and helped give every NPC a distinct identity. More recently, however, I’ve switched to AI-generated artwork to create portraits inspired by the style of Star Trek: Lower Decks. (I can almost hear your readers collectively groan at the mention of AI!) For me, though, it’s been an incredibly useful tool. With a campaign featuring hundreds of characters across multiple species, it simply wouldn’t be practical—or affordable—to commission original artwork for every single one.

The important thing is that the portraits aren’t there to replace artists; they’re there to help my players instantly recognise a character and make the world feel more alive. Having a consistent visual style across the entire campaign makes a huge difference to immersion, and AI has made that achievable in a way that wasn’t possible for me before.

That said, if this were a commercial project, I’d absolutely want to work with an artist. There’s no substitute for collaborating with someone who can take your ideas and bring them to life in a truly unique way. But for a private home campaign, AI has allowed me to create a cohesive visual identity that enhances the experience for my players without putting an impossible strain on my wallet.

At the end of the day, whether it’s a Hero Forge miniature, an AI portrait, or a commissioned illustration, the image is there to serve the same purpose: to help the players remember the characters they’ve met and make the universe feel like a living, breathing place.

The campaign seems to have been running for over a year.  Have the players/characters remained basically the same throughout or have things changed a lot?  How do you feel they (and you) have developed along with the Campaign?

Like many club games, the first few months were a little fluid. The Northside Adventure Gamers Association offers a wide variety of games, so it’s only natural that players occasionally try something different when another campaign catches their eye. By the end of our second mission, though, we’d found our core crew, and they’ve been together ever since.

Looking back, the biggest change hasn’t been the roster—it’s been everyone’s confidence. We were all learning Star Trek Adventures at the beginning, and like any new system there were plenty of moments spent checking rules or looking things up. Now the mechanics have become second nature, which means they rarely interrupt the story. The rules have faded into the background, exactly where I think they belong.

As the Game Master, I’ve evolved as well. Along the way I’ve created player aids, reference cards, and quick-action guides to make the game flow more smoothly. Those little quality-of-life improvements have helped keep the focus on the narrative rather than the rulebook, and I think they’ve made everyone more comfortable trying creative solutions.

The characters themselves have also grown in ways I hadn’t anticipated. Star Trek Adventures encourages players to reflect on their experiences through personal character logs, and those stories become part of their ongoing development. Rather than simply gaining new abilities, the characters evolve because of the choices they’ve made, the people they’ve saved, and the impossible decisions they’ve faced. Their Values change, their priorities shift, and they become more rounded officers because of what they’ve experienced.

For me, that’s been the most rewarding part of the campaign. We started as a group of people learning a new game. Over the past year the players have become the senior staff of the Excalibur, and I think everyone around the table feels that difference. 

Who updates your Adventure Logs?  Do you all engage in this activity?

I handle the main Adventure Logs, but they’re only half the story.

Before each mission, I’ll write the official mission log in the style of a Starfleet Captain’s Log or senior officer’s report, complete with custom graphics and a portrait of whichever character is narrating that entry. It’s my way of presenting the episode as though it had just aired.

The players then add their own Character Logs as comments beneath the main entry. I absolutely love reading these because they’re written from each character’s perspective. One officer might focus on the ethical dilemma they faced, another on the scientific discovery, while someone else is still annoyed that there wasn’t a Romulan conspiracy facing the crew this episode! Seeing the same events through different eyes adds another layer to the story and often reminds me of moments I’d forgotten had such an impact.

The best part is that Star Trek Adventures actively encourages this style of play. Character Logs aren’t just flavour text—they tie directly into character growth. Players can reflect on how events have changed their characters, revisit or challenge their Values, and connect those moments to their ongoing development. The Adventure Log becomes more than just a session recap; it becomes part of the characters’ personal histories.

It’s one of my favourite features of the campaign because it keeps the story alive between sessions. By the time we sit down for the next game, everyone has already had a chance to step back into character, reflect on what happened, and think about where their officer is headed next.

Have there been any particularly memorable sessions?  What happened?  Why was it memorable?  In what way?  Feel free to include comments from your fellow players in this description.

When I asked my players this question, the overwhelming response was simply, “All of it.” As flattering as that was, however, I insisted they give me something a little more specific!

One moment that came up repeatedly was a confrontation deep in the Engineering Section of a derelict Federation Starship with a Romulan officer who had fallen under the control of one of the neural parasites—the Bluegills, for those who remember the Next Generation episode “Conspiracy.” The encounter became a frantic balancing act, with half the crew desperately trying to shut down the warp core while the rest fought the possessed Romulan in brutal hand-to-hand combat. It perfectly captured Star Trek at its best: solving a scientific crisis while trying to survive an impossible situation.

Another favourite was the climax of our first season. The crew discovered a hidden Bluegill stronghold built around an ancient Arconian Gate—a canon piece of Star Trek lore that’s essentially a Stargate. It was there they confronted the Mother, leader of the Bluegills, in a spectacular final showdown. One of the players jokingly suggested that the insect swarms should suddenly have wings. Rather than saying no, I spent some Threat—the Game Master’s narrative currency—to make exactly that happen. The laughter quickly turned into panic, and it’s become one of those legendary “You remember when…” stories that still gets brought up around the table.

Several players also mentioned their first meeting with Morgana, an enigmatic being with powers reminiscent of Q. She has become one of those villains that players love to hate: always manipulating events from the shadows, always seeming to know more than she’s willing to reveal. She’s woven deeply into the mythology of the campaign, and every appearance leaves the crew with more questions than answers.

For me, though, the most memorable session happened only recently. The crew discovered an ancient alien data archive connected to the same civilisation as Morgana and unknowingly activated it aboard a Federation starbase. As the station’s computer systems were slowly taken over, a fragment of the archive infiltrated the Excalibur itself. Suddenly the party was split between two simultaneous crises—half trying to save the starbase while the other half fought to regain control of their own ship.

As a Game Master, those sessions can be terrifying. You’re constantly cutting back and forth between two groups, trying to make sure everyone stays engaged and gets their moment to shine. But that night, everything clicked. Every player had a chance to be the hero, nobody dominated the spotlight, everyone built on each other’s ideas, and the whole table felt completely invested from beginning to end.

Those are the sessions I remember most—not necessarily because of the explosions or the villains, but because everyone around the table was telling the story together. When your players are still talking about those moments several months later, you know you’ve created something special.  

Okay, as a last question, we always ask for the GM’s “pearls of wisdom”.  What GM insights can you offer the community this month?

If I could leave GMs with just two pieces of advice, they’d be these.

The first is simple: be your player characters’ biggest fan.

That doesn’t mean making things easy. It doesn’t mean pulling punches or handing out victories. It means genuinely wanting the heroes to succeed because their success creates the most memorable stories. I think too many Game Masters still fall into the trap of treating the game as “GM versus the players.” I’ve never found that particularly satisfying.

Instead, I try to say “yes” as often as possible. Sometimes it’s “Yes, and…” Sometimes it’s “Yes, but…” The important part is that I’m looking for ways to reward creativity rather than shut it down. My job isn’t to beat the players—it’s to create situations where they get to do something extraordinary. I want my players to walk away feeling like they just watched the best episode of their favourite TV show, and they happened to be the stars.

The second piece of advice is about preparation.

People often ask how I can improvise so much or adapt when the players head off in a completely unexpected direction. The truth is, I rarely prepare locations—I prepare scenes.

A scene doesn’t care whether it happens in a starship corridor, an old Scottish tavern, or an abandoned mining colony. It’s simply an interesting situation with interesting people, a conflict, and a purpose. Once the players decide where they’re going, I look at my toolbox of scenes and ask, “Which one belongs here?”

That approach has two huge advantages. First, the players feel like they’re driving the story because they genuinely are choosing where to go. Second, I get to be surprised as well. Instead of forcing my ideas into a predetermined sequence, I get to discover the story alongside my players. After more than forty years behind the screen, that’s still one of my favourite parts of being a Game Master.

At the end of the day, that’s what tabletop roleplaying is all about. The players don’t remember perfectly balanced encounters or beautifully organised notes. They remember the moments when everyone at the table looked at each other and said, “Did that really just happen?” If you can create those moments, you’re doing it right.   

Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure September 1st, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!

Campaign of the Month June 2026: Dungeons of the Multiverse

Come with us and GM Nogame as we explore the lore of the forgotten What Was from the fallen realm of Terra Viss in this month’s Campaign of the Month: Dungeons of the Multiverse

Taking place in Justonia, Dungeons of the Multiverse has been an ongoing campaign for the last year and a half that features long lost technology, perilous puzzles, Bearcrabs, and plants made of meat!

Where are you from?

Our group entirely is from Milwaukee WI, playing locally every week-ish, depending on schedules.

How did you get into gaming?

I was raised in a family which facilitated classic board games which quickly dovetailed into more advanced board games, RPGs, and TCGs.

Do you have any hobbies or projects that you are working on?

Our group has been playing games and other hobbies for nearly two decades and in that time have participated in countless RPGs/games. Current future plans include some warhammer 40k, a continued campaign within the world of Justonia after this arc ends, and some board game design projects. The creative process of all of these things is what we truly appreciate!

What is your favorite snack on game nights or when you are prepping for the next game session?

Dott’s pretzels are hands down the go to snack of choice followed closely by the off brand twizzlers from Kwik Trip (local gas station). Any sort of random gummy candies work too. We are big snackers as a group so pretty much anything goes, other than nasty Doritos! Abomination of chips…

What is your favorite part of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition?

Character creation is my favorite part of 5th edition. Flexibility in starting choices fits well with growth potential of the leveled character too. The mastery of each weapon type was a nice change, giving each weapon a reason to take it versus something else.

What would you change about 5th Edition, if anything?

The game itself allows for adjustment, flexibility, homebrew, and overall freedom to do whatever GM/players wish to do! The game is a tool to deliver a storyboard, how you use the tool is up to each member.

What does prep time look like for your typical gaming session?

Prep time for my sessions is all week long and between everything I do. I replay the last session and think of plot hooks the players engaged with or mentioned that they would like to persue. Leaving open opportunities for the players to explore as they see fit, never forcing a direction. It takes a while to create open ended avenues to prepare for the wild adventures.

Tell us a bit about your players:

The play group consists of my brothers, shockingly have known them my whole life, two friends from elementary school age that we grew up hanging out our whole lives, and one friend that I met as a coworker. The whole group has been participating in this friday night gaming going on nearly 20 years now.

Where does your group play?

Week to week this can change but the primary location is my basement since I have established it as a recording studio.

What makes the Big Damn Heroes special?

The Big Damn Heroes are a ragtag team of champions from diverse cultures all around Justonia. Assembled together by the High Council to go and save the people from the events happening. This is typical theme of a RPG group, but the difference is that each player has a pivotal role to play in their own story arcs and the combined story. Working with the players to ensure they all are different, important, and vital to the overall story keeps everyone engaged.

What sort of theme does Dungeons of the Multiverse have?

To summarize the feel, I would lean to comedy drizzled with mystery. My play group uses the game as an escape from work, life, problems so it’s a great time to laugh and let loose. The mystery elements let me paint fun and vivid settings and events though. One of my players referred to our campaign as a High Fantasy of Guardians of the Galaxy!

Tell us more about the world of Justonia:

Justonia is a world that we collaboratively developed during a previous campaign of Wicked Ones, each taking turns creating cultures. We are still slowly encountering new things that need to be worked on and fleshed out. The whole theme is a fractured world flooded after an event years prior. The flooding has developed a lot of nautical effects to take a priority in evolution. Lots of shells and aquatic abilities exist throughout the wildlife and species. Magic is a lost training among the world, so wizards are rare if present at all. There are people that have innate gifts and it’s just natural, but not something taught or learned. “What Was” is a lost technology that is how most magical effects are justified within our world!

Vaetmons, Arcane Academy seems to be an interesting place to seek out answers and adventure. Tell us more:

Development of this Academy is something I spent time on since the beginning of this world building. How do I create and tie magic into this world that magic is unknown in? This secluded academy within the sky which has been present since who knows when! It fit the world so well!! Then what makes it special, the library is actually a dimensional rift throughout different pages in a book. Turn to a page in the front book, then enter the rift to transport to a collection of books and knowledge based on the page that was open.

Why Bearcrabs?

A very common troupe that our group thought was starting adventuring party encounters a bear in the woods. What would that look like in our world?The shelled creature the size of a bear, but with an aquatic feel…Bearcrab. A half sentient culture that are massive, protected creatures.

What is the weirdest form that What Was – Desperation has taken?

Utilizing it’s ribbon like strands it once formed a greatbow in the need to secure a victory at range. The wielder and it have a pure bond that allows the needs of the wielder take form.

Describe the most memorable moment from Dungeons of the Multiverse so far:

I decided to turn this question over to my playground to get their responses on the matter. The players came back with two events of note. First was my use of Formula D as a tool to facilitate a race the party encountered. I made up some rules and gave the racers new actions they can take on their turn but ultimately played a board game with their D&D characters as the pilots! The second noteworthy event was doing our haunted mansion adventure while utilizing levers from the RPG Dread.

Without giving away too much, can you tell us about some of the adventures that the Big Damn Heroes will face in the future?

The current path the heroes are on will lead them to the last specter, the group is well aware of this. The culmination of the story arc has some mystery elements that will tie pieces of the story together! I am hoping to have some shocked moments and surprises that the players will truly enjoy.

How difficult was it to set up your cameras and microphone to record your sessions, and how much time do you spend editing those videos?

The cameras, microphones, streaming software, and overlays just take a lot of modifications and adjustments to get them to work correctly. As far as editing, we don’t do that! We just are rough, crude, and real. If people don’t like that, I’m sorry!!

Dungeons of the Multiverse has a Youtube channel. How has that experience been?

The channel hasn’t taken off yet, mostly because of Youtube’s algorithms that uploads have to happen multiple times a week to get a priority. Since we have full time jobs that don’t leave us in front of computers to do editing, shorts, or other additional uploads, we just don’t!

How did you hear about Obsidian Portal, and what do you find the most helpful Obsidian Portal feature to be?

I googled campaign tracking services and did my research on multiple options. The options offered on Obsidian Portal fit our needs the most so I tried it, and loved it! The wiki style pages, linkable to each other is what I love the most. Adventure logs, npcs, and other wiki pages do a great job to develop our world and log everything we have done.

As a final question, we always ask for the GM’s “pearls of wisdom”. What GM insights can you offer the community this month?

Listen to your players, take in feedback and ensure the story is collaboratively being told. Just because you’re the GM, doesn’t make it your story! Everyone involved is providing their time and energy, so make sure the appreciation is shown.

Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure July 1st, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!

Campaign of the Month April 2026: Alien

My mommy always said that there were no monsters – no real ones – but there are. It only took us a little over two thousand years to find them in the cold dark of space, where no one can hear you scream.

Our Campaign of the Month for April pushes us down the frightening and lonely space lanes of 2189 through the eyes of the crew of the USCSS Sherwood as they encounter MU/TH/UR, Weyland-Yutani’s better worlds, and, of course, the iconic Xenomorphs in Adoraith’s awesome Alien Evolved campaign setting.

First off, please tell us about the person behind the GM screen. Where are you from? What do you do aside from gaming? Alter Egos? Life partners? Family? Where can we interact with you on the internet?

My wife and I live in New Orleans with our dog Maggie. We have 4 kids, but they have all grown and moved on to bigger and better things. Aside from gaming, most of my free time is spent indulging in everything that New Orleans has to offer. Music, food, art, and festivals are a constant in the Big Easy.

I do have a couple of “professional” social media accounts that I used to peddle my 5e adventures and supplements. They can be found on Instagram and Youtube as The Pickled Dragon. I still pop on weekly but don’t post nearly as much as I used to. I had a few bestselling 5e books that can be found on Amazon, Drive Thru RPG, and the DMs Guild. Kelsey Dionne (of Shadowdark fame) and I wrote a monster manual together called the Monstrous Lexicon. The Days of Blight trilogy (DMs Guild) was another series that I was particularly proud of. Around 2021 I took a step back from publishing to focus on my home game and the things that made me happy.

Your campaign is set in the Alien Universe. What was it that fascinated you with this setting enough to create and run a campaign in it? Was it the roleplaying game from Free League itself, or is there a deeper underlying fascination with the expanded franchise? What’s your favorite movie from the franchise that inspires you the most?

Alien was one of the first movies I remember seeing when my dad took the family to a drive-in double feature. The body horror of a parasitic creature smothering the victim but keeping them alive to incubate its young, still shakes me to the core. Follow that up with the horrific birth of the alien and you have the literal stuff of nightmares for years to come.

I have tried to recreate the alien experience several times starting with Star Frontiers in the mid 80s. I took a stab at designing the xenomorph for DnD in the 90s with AD&D 2e. It wasn’t until DnD 3.5e that the design really coalesced into something that was inspired by rather than pure rip off of the xenomorph. By the time 5e rolled around, I was happy enough with the design of the hive demon to include it in the Monstrous Lexicon.

Free League’s Alien RPG perfectly captures the experience in gruesome detail. They have created one of my top 3 favorite games of all time. I love that the system is fairly rules light and easy to learn. The rules are elegant and can facilitate a faster pace of play (Aliens) or be used to create an atmospheric horror experience (Alien). My absolute favorite mechanic is the stress dice. What a stroke of genius.

My favorite film of the franchise really depends on my mood. The first two films are far and away, the best of the collection. However, Alien and Aliens are very different movies. For a slow burn suspenseful sci-fi horror experience I go to Alien. Aliens scratches that itch for the sci-fi blockbuster action film with a dash of body horror.

Tell us about your players and your typical gaming sessions. How often do you play? Online? Tabletop? Who does what in any typical session?

My players and I meet at my place every Sunday from 1 to 6. I have tried online gaming a couple times and just couldn’t get into it. In my opinion, the essence of the roleplaying game experience is human interaction which goes beyond simple conversation. There is no substitution for the tactile feel of dice, miniatures, a hug, handshake, the celebratory high five, and the all-important breaking of bread together.

I will let my players speak for themselves.

Scott – I’ve really enjoyed getting to play Alien RPG with Matt and the
rest of the crew. I usually play fantasy RPG’s so this game was brand
new in a lot of ways for me as I journey into space. One thing I love
the most is the “panic” dice. Your stress response can either fuel you
or have you fall apart under pressure, masterfully mimicking fight or
flight. Space travel was really interesting and had me thinking about it
in the real world. Distances are vast and injuries are real; there’s no
magic and death is always around the corner. Alien is a top tier RPG and
I’d definitely recommend it for a thrilling Sci fi game.

Courtney – I’ve enjoyed jumping into a new system between longer
campaigns. I was initially concerned that I’d be a bit lost since I was
not well versed in the lore, but most of the events from the movies are
classified or only rumored. We watched the first two films as a group
which also got us into the world with the right lingo and vibes. I’ve
been playing Dr. Beatrice Mott, a young xenobiologist straight out of
university. I wanted a palate cleanser from playing a barbarian, but I
didn’t know how lucky I would be with shooting my service pistol after a
short training session with one of the marines. ‘One Shot Mott’ is
racking up kills at a faster rate than my barbarian ever did. Another
surprise is how much fun it is to be tech savvy, even if it’s just
make-believe. I can’t wait to see if any of our characters survive this
campaign. I tend to get attached to my PC’s over time, but we knew how
likely a TPK would be this time around. If she must go, I hope Dr. Mott
has a glorious end.

Jeremy – I’ve never played Alien before and to be honest, I tend to not
really get into Table Top games where the PCs are closer to real life
humans than not and get pitted against entities that can easily squish
them. I went into the game expecting we had good potential to TPK in any
given encounter much like people got squished and tossed around in the
movies. I settled on trying to be a space mechanic that enjoyed
conspiracies and had his own literal tin foil hat just in case. I tried
to be a coward in the beginning for survival while also aspiring to be a
Colonial Marine. Events eventually led my character to mentally just
being done with anything alien or alien-involved scientist related (saw
his in-game ‘Buddy’ die to a face hugger and then survived an alien grab
by punching and screaming until the team arrived).

Alien’s Stress/Panic system has been enjoyable for me in helping to
shape my character and add to roleplay overall. Out of character, I
accepted Stress Dice as super powers all the way up to my character
panic freezing every action. It was fulfilling to test limits in a new
system and see how things would develop or occur. Even started offering
Coffee in game to party members that pushed their own stress (it adds
more stress heh).

Despite my initial expectations of easily squishable, the Alien system
does a good job with character options (given you survive a few sessions
for EXP) to build into enhancing one’s survivability and/or
intractability with the world around them.

Tell us more about the crew of the USCSS Sherwood! What roles do they play, and how do each of the players contribute to their game personalities.

I do love the assortment of characters the players have brought together. My group has always been excellent at filling in the gaps of their party composition without sacrificing roleplaying. Just as an example, our last DnD campaign ran four years without a dedicated healer. Anyway, the crew of the Sherwood.

The captain (Gordi Boudreaux) and lead engineer (Hooper) were both NPCs which actually gave me a ton of flexibility when orchestrating the storyline.

Courtney plays Dr. Beatrice Mott, a fresh out of college xenobiologist looking to kick start her career. Ms Mott was a little shy to start but her confidence quickly grew as the Sherwood was plunged into corporate intrigue and sabotage. Her nickname, One Shot Mott, was earned when she managed to shoot and kill a facehugger as it was hurdling through the air at her captains head.

Scott plays Phil Baxton, a colonial marine gunner with a heart of gold. His strong belief in the general good in people has been challenged but remains strong after witnessing what corporate strongmen are capable of doing in the name of the bottom line. Perhaps, his faith was bolstered by the terribly grouchy Hooper sacrificed his life to save Phil.

Joe plays Kipp Sanchez, a true believer in the Colonial Marine ethos. That was until he learned that Weyland Yutani was the de facto commander of the corps. After learning of Captain Demien Brackett’s splinter group of marines actively working against WY’s effort to weaponize the xenomorph, he ceased sending colonial marine command covert messages on the activities of the crew.

Jeremy plays Rufus Barker, the assistant engineer (roughneck), coffee aficionado, and stress magnet. Hooper and Rufus were best buddies who were both avid conspiracy theorists. Of particular interest was Robert Morse’s account of the Space Beast and his encounter with a woman named Ellen Ripley. To say that there is not enough tin foil for his hat would be an understatement, but he might just be onto something!

Amariah plays Amber, professional stowaway and kid with no home. Amber has lived a very tough 10 years but finds joy in the small things. Her rainbow bright doll is among her favorite possessions and believes that the 20th century doll will make her rich if she can find the right buyer. In the meantime, she is content to chain smoke her Pall Malls and offer sarcastic barbs at the worst possible time.

How closely does your game adhere to the canon of the movies and ttrpg? What embellishments have you added? I noticed that you have added several corporations into the mix of those from the core manual that I don’t recognize! Tell us a bit about what inspired them.

I love the canon lore of the Alien Universe and made it a point not to do anything that would contradict or change the underlying story. There is a website that shows all movies, graphic novels, and even video games that are officially canon to the Alien Universe. Fortunately, I already owned nearly all of the material and went back to reread everything. I pulled concepts, story lines, and ideas that I thought could have gone so much further and ran with it. If I were to ever run a long-term campaign of Alien RPG, I would want that to be the Alien Earth War series. This incredible collection of comics and graphic novels is not canon, but the setting would make a great campaign!

All of the corporations I have on the page come from the canon material found in movies, graphic novels, and video games. As a GM, I want to make the game as immersive as possible so I wrote down every detail I could find.

Your campaign has a captivating retro-80s sci fi design, appearance and feel. What tools did you use in setting things up? What advice can you give for new GMs who want to do what you have done?

I love the low tech feel of the original Alien film. That is the esthetic I wanted for the Alien campaign page. I used Adobe Premier Pro to create the GIFs and Adobe Photoshop for the images. Getting a free font that was close to the Alien font was difficult, but I eventually tracked it down. Overall, I took the stance that less is more and ran with it.

There are probably easier ways to do the design of the page, but I am familiar with Adobe products which is why I went in that direction. I would say use the tools you are comfortable with and focus on making the information accessible to your players. I have seen some beautiful websites that are a trainwreck to navigate. Start with accessibility and then adjust to make it pretty.

You post several of your play videos to YouTube in your adventure logs. I find them very instructional in learning more about the game’s mechanical aspects! Were they meant to be such?

Honestly, the videos are just a fun way to remember the events of the session. Any educational benefit they provide is completely accidental!

Okay, as a last question, we always ask for the GM’s “pearls of wisdom”. What GM insights would you like to offer the community this month?

I am a huge proponent of homebrewing just about everything. I love to create new aliens, talents, and abilities that the players do not have access to or knowledge of. RPG’s has been around for 50 years and there are very few surprises coming out of published material.

I also love the fact that Alien RPG is not a D20 system. There are some brilliant mechanics, like the stress dice, that would brilliantly fold into other games. Don’t be afraid to adopt, adapt, and combine different systems to make your game unique.

Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure May 1st, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!

Campaign of the Month February 2026: Mystara

It’s a deadly world when you are a band of adventurers entering frozen caves in search of the Tree of Life. Traps, tunnels, caves, frozen snow, monsters, chambers and violent terror.  Learn how one group handles these dangers as we discuss the February 2026 Campaign of the Month, Mystara, with Game Master Tandamar.

First off, feel free to tell us about the person behind the GM screen.  Where are you from?  What do you do aside from gaming?  Alter Egos?  Life partners?  Family?  Where can we interact with you on the internet?   

Not much to tell, I live in Idaho but have lived many places over the years, I play bass guitar aside from gaming.

Tell us a bit about Mystara, the world where your player characters live out their lives, carving out their story.  It seems quite large, and also seems to incorporate many regions.  Do the party travel much, or do they stick to certain regions.

We use the original Gazetteers for Mystara, mostly by the book but I have some of my own lore added.

Your campaign is a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.  What version are you using and what guided your choice in this?

As it says on the homepage we use BECMI with a few house rules, been playing it since 83 but started playing D&D in 81.

Tell us about your players and your typical gaming sessions.  How often do you play?  Online?  Tabletop?  Who does what in any typical session?

I am a forever DM, we play every Sunday and have for around 10 years, players come and go but we have a few who have been there from the beginning.  We use Discord for voice and Tabletop Simulator for visual.

There seem to be quite a few Non Player Characters set up in the campaign, and many of these seem to be dead.  Is your campaign particularly dangerous, or are there any other reasons?

BECMI is deadly as written, some are players who had to leave the game.  Others are just dead PCs.  I keep them on there as a record of our past.

Your campaign has many maps in the Maps section – more than can be found on most Obsidian Portal sites.  How important are these to your campaign?

Maps are important to any campaign.

Who writes the adventure logs for your campaign, and how important are they to the flow of the campaign?  The more recent ones have a nice image detailing treasure gained?  Whose idea was this?  Do you aim to continue the trend?

I started writing the logs but one of our players has taken that role.  Yes, we intend to keep the logs going as they are.

You have chosen to use the Items section in your campaign and yet only have a few items listed so far.  Do you intend to expand on this.  How useful do you feel it is for your players.

Yes, we will add more items as we see fit.  The player writing the current logs does these as well.  We have only just started using it so its usefulness has yet to be determined.

Have you or your players had any favourite moments in the campaign so far?  What have been the most exciting encounters, discoveries, etc.?

“Leading Imperial Legions in battle” Matt

“Yeah, when we were in Castle Mistimere and got stuck with no way out, until we ran into Bargle where we thought we had him.”  Bryan

One of my players PC was bitten in half by a young black dragon, we still talk about it.

How far in advance do you plan your campaign?  Is it a basic outline or are events all well defined?  Without giving the game away to your players, are there any future events you are particularly looking forward to?  You can be as cryptic as you need to be.

I have things outlined but I didn’t go too detailed.  The current game is on the brink of a war with the players playing a role in how it will end.

Okay, as a last question, we always ask for the GM’s “pearls of wisdom”.  What GM insights can you offer the community this month?

I don’t give advice usually, but everyone has their own idea on how to run a game, but the best I can give is what I have learned from the 45+ years of playing, don’t plant too far ahead, player will always find ways to screw up your plans, not intentionally, but you will find they will have ideas you as a DM never thought of.  Learn to improvise ana always have a plan B and C.

Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure March 1st, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!

CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR 2025- WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

FIRST PLACE: Our February 2025 winner, Abersade with their campaign Stream of Kairos!!

SECOND PLACE: Our August 2025 winner, Leonidas300 with their campaign A Manifestation of Chaos: Extinction Event!!

Congratulations to the winners! We are honored to have you as a part of our amazing community. Please expect to be contacted by OP staff in the next week to connect you with your well-earned prizes!!

It’s the time of year again to celebrate some of the best and most creative members we have the great pleasure of highlighting every month! Now we have the task of deciding which of our celebrated Campaigns of the Month will reign supreme as Campaign of the Year 2025!

This year, we are doing things a little different, but we still need YOUR help in deciding!

The Process: A chosen COUNCIL will vote using predetermined categories, and the public vote will be added to this to create the winner.

Categories will include:

– Portal Overall Presentation
– Portal Graphics and Appearance,
– Portal Content,
– Portal Ingenuity,
– Popularity (Public Vote).

The Details:

Public voting will open Monday December 1st ,  is open to ALL, and will close Monday December 8th. The winner will be announced on Friday December 12th. Check Obsidian Portal, Facebook and Twitter for further details. 

The Contenders: 

– January 2025: Mass Effect: Spectre’s Angels
– February 2025: Stream of Kairos
– March 2025: Age of Conan: The Rise of Yig
– April 2025, Department 7: Crescent City
– May 2025: Nightfall
– June 2025: Shadowrun Returns
– July 2025: Adoraith: Out of the Shadows
– August 2025: A Manifestation of Chaos: Extinction Event!
– September 2025: Broken Shield
– October 2025: Mike Brock’s Mummy’s Mask Campaign
– November 2025: La Compagnie du Dragon Blanc

The Prizes:

This year we have amazing prizes From Paizo, Frog God Games and Limitless Adventures! 

1st Prize: 

– Paizo: Digital copies of Starfinder Player Core and Starfinder Murder in Metal City (a deluxe adventure for first level characters)
– Frog God Games: $200 Digital Store Credit 
– Limitless Adventures: PDFs of their Limitless Encounters, NPCs, Monsters and Non-Combat Encounters 
– Obsidian Portal- 1 Year Ascendant Membership

2nd Prize: 

– Frog God Games: $100 Digital Store Credit 
– Obsidian Portal- 1 Year Ascendant Membership 

Campaign of the Month October 2025: Mike Brock’s Mummy’s Mask Campaign

Delve deep into the land of Osirion following an intrepid group of adventurers called The Desert Guardians as they discover hidden treasures in the Tomb of Akhentepi in this Pathfinder Adventure perpetuated by GM coastiemike and his team of table top role players as they explore Mike Brock’s Mummy’s Mask Campaign.

First off, feel free to tell us about the person behind the GM screen.  Where are you from?  What do you do aside from gaming?  Alter Egos?  Life partners?  Family?  Where can we interact with you on the internet?   

I have been playing some iteration of RPGs since 1976 with my first ever GMing experience in 1982 when I ran one player through a short Star Frontiers campaign.  I really delved into GMing D&D/AD&D in 1985 while in high school.

I have also been lucky enough to work in the gaming industry when I oversaw the organized play program for Paizo from 2011-2015 with some help from a ton of amazing volunteers from around the world, many who I am still lucky enough to call friends.

I am originally in Georgia though work has moved us various times to Seattle, New Orleans, Reno, NV, and back to Georgia. I also spent time in Indianapolis, San Francisco, Connecticut and Miami when I was in the Coast Guard.

Aside from table top gaming, I paint 28mm minis for my campaign, as well as at the request of my players to match their PCs.  I have a pretty extensive Reaper Master Paints collection and have a dedicated paint workspace.  I also enjoy hunting, backpacking, and traveling.

My wife and I have been together for 22 years and have two awesome children and three amazing grandchildren.  

I don’t have a big on-line presence but I am occasionally on facebook.

How would you describe your Campaign in a nutshell.  Tell us a bit about the adventure group known as The Desert Guardians and their adventures in the Osirian city of Wati.

How long has your campaign been running and what made you choose Pathfinder as your gaming system?  Are you using Pathfinder Version 1 or Version 2?

We started this campaign in February of 2024.  We are using Pathfinder 1^st Edition.  When Paizo had it’s Dragon and Dungeon Magazine publishing ended, they created Pathfinder.  I had renewed my subscription to both magazines for three years and was offered to change it to the adventure path subscription. I absolutely loved D&D 3.5 and the progression to Pathfinder 1e was a no brainer.  We have stuck with it every since and have not considered switching to second edition as everyone seems to be having fun with PF1.

Please tell us something about your average gaming sessions.  How often do you play?  Online or Tabletop?  What is your gaming group like?

We are currently on a bi-weekly schedule, playing every other Wed night from 7-11 pm in our basement game room.  This is on alternate weeks of the Rise of the Runelords adventure path I am running for seven other players.  We play in person, around the table and it is an absolute blast.

Our players for Mummy’s Mask range in age from 18 to early 60s.  We have a few players who have been playing for 30-40 years, a few players with 5-10 years, and three players that this is their first tabletop experience.  This Mummy’s Mask AP is composed of four men and three ladies, a complete different experience from the Rise of the Runelords game with five women and two men.

All of my players take a keen interest in the game, providing character backgrounds that I like to weave into the storyline, and make their choices have real consequences in game.

Where have you drawn your inspiration from in creating the campaign?  Is it an existing Adventure Path?  If so, how have you added or amended it?  What other sources have been useful to you in setting up an Ancient Egyptian campaign?

It is an existing adventure path.  I have amended it by tying Legacy of Fire events into it from when we ran that AP 15 years ago.  Also, Mummy’s Mask is the jumpstart for an even longer campaign that will take the party into Planescape and mythic levels. I watched a good bit of History Channel and National Geographic documentaries, as well as documentaries on several ancient cultures on YouTube for inspiration and making the campaign world come to life. 

Most of the campaign seems to be centred around adventures in the Necropolis – in particular, the Tomb of Akentepi.  Give us an idea of some of the treasures and horrors encountered by your adventuring group, The Desert Guardians, in this hallowed place.

Book 1 of the AP centered around exploring the Necropolis.  The Tomb of Akentepi was one of three assignments the party received in the lottery to explore.  They lost one companion, a nagaji bard by the name of Serantis (and played by the same player who is running Corin now), to a Graven Guardian while exploring the Sanctum of the Erudite Eye found inside the Necropolis.  After exploring the Necropolis in book 1, they then moved into book 2 and the auction of items found by their group, as well as another 15-20 other adventuring groups.  During that auction, all hell broke loose with an undead uprising.  The party has finally tracked down the source of the undead uprising and now have entered book 3 of the AP in the Grand Library of Tephu where they are researching the artifact that caused the undead uprising and its origins. 

You have an extensive range of Adventure Logs, and it seems like you have good input from some of the players in your campaign.  How much do your team get involved in this and other aspects of the Campaign?

I award players who keep a journal a 10% bonus to XPs for the game sessions they write an in character journal entry.  Some of the players love writing their entries; others don’t enjoy journal keeping. I never force someone to write a character journal as it can be a lot of work btu like to reward players who take the time to do so.  My GM entries are more from a narrator stance.  Reading in-character journals of what they experienced helps me remember key events I may have forgotten, while also helping formulate ideas to better craft a character’s background and experiences to the overarching storyline of the AP. 

You can find both Zalina’s and Sidero’s character journals in the Wiki on our website.

Without divulging any major plots, what is your plan for the future of your central characters?

While in the Tomb of Akentepi, the Desert Guardians discovered a magical tapestry that serves as a direct portal to the River Styx as best as they can figure out.  They aren’t quite brave enough (or powerful enough) to enter just yet and have kept it a secret from all but themselves. They also haven’t divulged this info to Corin, knowing he may attempt to enter the portal to get back home back to Faerun.  Also within the past month, Zalina learned her younger sister had been kidnapped, and her parents (from Legacy of Fire AP) sent her a letter advising Zalina they were traveling to Sigil as that was the last known location they could find any information on their missing younger daughter.  Signs are pointing to, once the Desert Guardians put to bed the threat the Mummy’s Mask has presented, they may work their way towards Sigil, especially if Zalina hasn’t received any kind of update in months. By this time, we should be around 17^th-18^th level and looking towards a mythic level, Planescape campaign.

What would you say are the most useful tools available on Obsidian Portal, both in terms of Campaign Design and in terms of active playing?

The calendar is extremely helpful as it gives a full year of game days so everyone can make sure to keep their game nights free.  It is rare that we don’t have all seven players at a game as all players are invested.  The Wiki is also very helpful. Not only does it allow me to record experience points and treasure by game session to keep a running log, but it also allows us to keep a bestiary of creatures they have encountered in their adventures so they can harken back to the previous encounter for any future encounters.  The same applies to traps faced and overcome, though this is a more useful tool of the Rise of the Runelords group.  I can also use the Wiki to put general info on cities the Guardians explore so it is easy reference for players at the table.

Near the beginning of your campaign, there is mention of a rival adventure group, The Scorched Hand.  How much interaction has there been between your players and this group?  Did you plan this rival group from the beginning, and what benefits have there been to the campaign in keeping this rivalry alive?  Would you recommend the “rival group” notion to general campaign design?

The Scorched Hand was a rival adventuring group that was one of the other groups in the lottery to explore the recently opened Necropolis (at the Pharoah’s decree).  The party was assigned a location of special interest to the Scorched Hand. After the Guardians refused to relent to giving it up at the request of Velriana Hypaxes, leader of the Scorched Hand, it eventually came to a head when the Scorched Hand entered and took over the location and hired mercenaries to aid them in keeping it.  After a fierce battle, all of the mercenaries and half of the Scorched Hand were defeated.  The other two members of the Scorched Hand were released (though I suspect they may hold a grudge and the Guardians may see them again in the future).

The Scorched Hand was written into the AP from the beginning.  The party letting two of their members go after the confrontation has allowed me to write the two NPCs into the adventure later in the AP and we shall see how they end up resurfacing.  I would recommend it in some campaigns if it fits.  In other games, it doesn’t make sense to add a rival group.  It just depends on the background of the campaign and how the GM plans to interweave the two groups and their goals together.

Okay, as a last question, we always ask for the GM’s “pearls of wisdom”.  What GM insights can you offer the community this month?

I always ask for backgrounds of characters, regardless of how detailed or how little is provided.  It allows me to tie in character backgrounds into the storyline in interesting and weird ways.  When a background nugget pops up during a game, it really grabs a player’s attention and keeps them invested in the campaign.  As a recent example, through two full books and the start of a third, Sidero has had no contact with his homeland of Jalmeray or seen much in the way of goods being sold in marketplaces from his homeland.  In our last game, he saw in the crowded bazaar in Tephu, a former competitor in the grandest of martial arts competitions held in Jalmeray.  This left a quandary about whether to split the party so he could converse with the NPC or stay with the group. He ultimately decided splitting the party was a bad idea, especially in a new city.  Now, Sidero will have the thought in the back of his mind, why was that NPC here so far from home and what might he learn from that NPC.

Investing character backgrounds is always hugely important.  Not only does it pay dividends in making an interesting side story that runs parallel to the main story arch, it also gives investment into the campaign by the players and they will not want to miss a game in case their background makes an appearance.

Another pearl I like to keep in mind when running games is making sure I keep notes on loose ends that I can tie back into the storyline later in the campaign. It almost always catches the PCs off guard but I always see smiles on faces when they see their actions, or inactions, are still alive and well (or undead in some cases). They know their actions in game have consequences across the life of the campaign. 

A third pearl, I never try to tell a player no when they come up with a good idea.  Even if the DC will be tough to make, I let them at least try.  If they succeed, it is my responsibility as a GM to make sure they didn’t waste their action on something I was going to say no to all along.  Again, if it is a dumb decision, the party knows it will come back to haunt them in a future game.  But I have awesome players who don’t take advantage of the situation.

A fourth pearl, I respect my player’s time.  If they are going to be gracious enough to spend four hours every other week at my house investing themselves in my campaign, I am going to do everything possible to give them the best possible experience.   I am going to put the work in to provide the best possible experience, including maps and minis, sound effect sand background music (we have Bose surround sound installed in the game room), and visual aids and player handouts.  If the players are going to trust me to run a game, I am going to do everything in my power to make every experience memorable.  I also like to thank my players with small gifts.  They bring food and snacks and a good time to my house every other week.  At Christmas, I gifted each a custom wooden dice box with a set of dice that fit the theme of their character.  At our one year anniversary, I had artwork commissioned of their characters per their descriptions to hang on the wall of our tavern we play in.  Always appreciate your players and let them know that you value their time and investment. 

Finally, we welcome all players regardless of experience level.  In our tavern, we have a leather-bound guest book.  After a player plays one game in our tavern, they can sign the guest book in character.  This gives a running reminder over the years of the different players we have been blessed to play with. This also sets it up so if a player has a friend or family member in town for the week, we always have an extra seat at the table for the guest to play that week’s game with us.  It helps us grow the hobby and make friends who we will hopefully game with again sometime.  Always welcome guest players when you can. It will enrich your gaming experience.

Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure November 2nd, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!