Jared McFarland

I’m sensing a theme

Gotta be that 🍑

From the drawsteel community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the drawsteel community

@mattcolville.bsky.social what's your take on the interaction between Ajax dying at -350 stamina and the Troubadour's Continuity Error ability? I saw the question in this Reddit post and it made me curious

www.reddit.com/r/drawsteel/...

Oh yea montages are so good.

Are you a player or GM mostly?

What about Draw Steel makes you like it more?

Coming out of GenCon last year I was so hyped on Daggerheart. Now, after playing Daggerheart, D&D and Draw Steel for several months I’m really surprised to find myself preferring Draw Steel.

This is a great idea!

Honestly I have no idea! I think the 5e adventure goes to 11 or 12? So 5 or 6 maybe?

There are countdowns, but they are long. They have plenty of time for projects if they want.

For magic items I'm following the Draw Steel pacing guide and giving out items that seem interesting from the Heroes book and somewhat random intervals.

For loot, I haven't really gotten there yet. Because a lot of the rewards in Rime are monetary, and Draw Steel uses wealth, I plan on just upping their wealth number to 2 when they reach level two.

For all encounters I've been making them standard or hard. I use thematically appropriate opponents from the Monsters book and build out monsters until it seems right.

So far this has been enough, but it may need some tweaking over time.

Rime is mostly a sandbox, so I don't really place respite locations other than Ten Towns. Its up to the players to find their way back there safely. They may be able to negotiate safe harbor in other places, but we're not far along enough yet to have seen that.

I’ve been running Rime of the Frostmaiden in Draw Steel. We’re three sessions in and I’ve been wondering if folks would be interested in me sharing more. I’ve heavily modified the campaign for my PCs.

If you are, what do you wanna know? What format do you want?

Reshares appreciated!

🎲 TTRPG Casting Call! 🎭
The Echoverse Heist (D&D 5e): a cinematic heist in a near-future collapse is seeking 3–5 players.

📅 Filming: Feb 2026
💻 Location: Streamed on J2Ruto Twitch
🕛 Apply by Jan 19 @ 11:59 PM CST

👉 Apply here: forms.gle/Ee6YnNzw6fft...

#TTRPG #CastingCall

When I was a kid my uncle was a higher-up for WarnerBros so I got to go to the Jack Frost premiere.

At 10 years old I got to stand roughly 30 ft from Michael Keaton and Hansen.

My TTRPG year in review:

Ran: D&D (2014 & 2024); Daggerheart; Draw Steel

Played: D&D; Daggerheart; Draw Steel; 10 Candles; Kids on Bikes; Never Stop Blowing Up

Launched my blog Roll For Insight www.rollforinsight.blog

It was a great year!

How do I tell the ad companies I already backed @hellomcdm.bsky.social’s Crack The Sun so they can stop spending ad dollars on me?

I just heard about this last night and can’t wait to watch it

And that if you mix-and-match those methods, it makes everything more engaging.

The Monsters Know What They’re Doing Monster combat tactics for Dungeons & Dragons 5E

And last but certainly not least in my thread about influential GM resources, next up is:

The Monsters Know What They're Doing buff.ly/56NmKFT This really showed me that combat can be tactically engaging & different monsters will have different methods of winning combat.

#rpg #ttprg #gamemaster

It was a huge success, players loved it, and it flowed really well.

And since pretty much every campaign is in some ways a mystery, I've used it to help design the flow of information in every campaign I've run since I learned about it.

Node-Based Scenario Design – Part 1: The Plotted Approach Most published adventures are designed around a structure that looks like this:You start at the beginning (Blue), proceed through a series of linear scenes (Yellow), and eventually reach the end (

Continuing my thread about influential GM resources! Next up is:

@thealexandrian.net.web.brid.gy 's Node Based Design Series buff.ly/EU1yMZb . I got incredibly lucky and stumbled into this before trying to run my first mystery.

#rpg #ttprg #gamemaster #roleplaying

This has motivated changes in a recent campaign, and all of my players have opted-in to proactive goal setting for their characters. I can't wait to report on how it goes.

Continuing my thread about influential GM resources! Next up is:

Very recently, The Game Master's Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying (buff.ly/ntuBQAV). I am insanely excited about this

#rpg #ttprg #gamemaster #roleplaying

Similar to The AngryGM I love Matt's take on things because he seems to think a lot about "why do people play the game" and "what will be FUN at the table". It's the kind of First Principles thinking that really resonates with me.

Skill Challenges | Running the Game Episode 21: I think Skill Challenges are a lot of fun and if used well give you the ability to introduce exciting action sequences into your game that normal D&D combat isn't well-suited for. Become…

Continuing my thread about influential GM resources! Next up is:

@mattcolville.bsky.social Skill Challenges video (buff.ly/lEuTo9o). His video on how to run a compelling group skill challenge is the gold standard IMO. I refer to it at least once per campaign.

#rpg #ttprg #gamemaster #roleplaying

I almost always deviate from the suggested format, but it's a great starting point for me to get my thoughts moving. Just starting with "this scenario is a Get The Thing scenario" really helps me get a first draft down on paper.

The Practical Guide to Becoming a Great GM - Digital - How to be a Great Game Master - How to DM The Practical Guide to becoming a Great GM is the book that brings all the areas you need to know as a Game Master into a single space and shows you how to do all of it better, faster, clearer, and…

Continuing my thread about influential GM resources! Next up is:

The Practical Guide to Becoming a Great GM by Guy Sclanders buff.ly/183jIVU

The "types of scenarios" section is really good when I have writer's block. It lays out the 4 main & 4 sub-types of adventures.

#rpg #ttprg #gamemaster

He's the first person that got me to think that there's actually a craft to being a good GM that you can hone, and it takes practice and intent to do it. He thinks a lot about stuff like "what is a game?" and "what makes a game fun and for who?" as the base layer of how to design and run things.

True Game Mastery Index The True Game Mastery Series Any idiot can run a game. Trust me, I’ve played lots of games run by lots of idiots. But True Game Masters build their players’ Investment and take full Own…

First one:

@theangrygm.com.web.brid.gy Specifically, True Game Mastery (buff.ly/EFATwnV) and his True Scenario Designery (buff.ly/m5Riy9f ).

His "I'm an angry man on the internet" act is really tiresome, but his insights are really good and to me they're worth being annoyed while reading to get