Hey, these are just some ideas

You’re missing 2 of your regulars to your [insert day] game. Do you cancel? No. You are a pro GM hard up for money in this hellscape economy. You have one shots available for such an occasion and you’ve already told your players. You’ve prepped and uploaded whatever assets you need and you’re just waiting for this to happen.

Here are my favorites (in no particular order). Buying these through my links helps support me (affiliate link), so that’s cool of you.

Without further ado:

The best fucking one/few shots ever made and/or just what Friday has played and thinks is good

One Night Strahd is a labor of love between my friends Jake & Adam who developed this to be played in one 12-16 hour sitting, sometimes between 1 or 2 parties. This is a short campaign and might be better suited to run your group for holidays or extended periods between longer campaigns. It is meant to be highly replayable, however, as the two major paths vary the experience by a lot! Did I mention its twice the size of the original module?

The writing is fantastic and the visuals are captivating. It’s worth the $18 and it’s laid out in such a fabulous manner that it’s no wonder that it won an ENNIE for best e-book.

“Precise and messy as a vampire bite, One Night Strahd (ONS) delivers the spectacle and catastrophe of gothic horror as a consistent and fast-paced short campaign for D&D 5e. It condenses and remixes the 200+ hour campaign of Curse of Strahd into a replayable adventure weighing in at 525 pages with 150+ illustrations, 12 maps, 16 encounters, 27 new magic items, and 60+ quick-play charts. With careful attention to the design of exploration, combat, and role-playing opportunities, our goal has been to make something for every DM and every table. After three years of extensive testing, we’re proud to share this explosive adventure with you.” – DMs Guild description

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/376774/One-Night-Strahd/rss.php?affiliate_id=2822085

Uncaged: Goddesses is perhaps the prettiest and most unique anthology book I’ve ever purchased. I love my physical copy and the digital copy is great for making running an online game easy.

Most of these Tier 4 adventures are great for theater of the mind games. I especially like the Theros themed adventure involved Pharika and have run it many times to great effect. What’s more? Players love playing one shots in Tier 4 just to try busted combos. Let them.

“Each adventure in this massive 297-page book centers around an evil- or neutral-aligned goddess from the Faerûnian pantheon in Dungeons & Dragons, as well as the Fury (Eberron), Mother Night (Barovia), and Pharika (Theros). Many of these goddesses have been featured in past D&D publications, but rarely do these stories explore the goddesses’ histories, conflicts, and goals. In Uncaged: Goddesses, the goddesses finally get to shine.” – DMs Guild description

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/382873/Uncaged-Goddesses/rss.php?affiliate_id=2822085

Shore of Dreams is a fantastic Tier 2 adventure featuring fun elemental adversaries and themes. It has a wonderful puzzle, too. The combat can be brutal, so be aware of that! But it’s just a fun one shot, aint it? Well – it might be a two-shot for many tables, there’s a lot in here.

Especially good for campaigns set in Forgotten Realms that want to veer off the coast from Chult. It has hooks to include elements of Princes of the Apocalypse if that’s your jam. I ran this for stream with my friends BethTheBard, Legal Kimchi, Sebastian Yūe, and my pro GM friend Katie!

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/232354/Shore-of-Dreams/rss.php?affiliate_id=2822085

Do you love space? Do you love horror? You’re going to get a lot of mileage out of Coriolis.

Last Voyage of the Ghazali is a fantastic introduction to the system. If you’re unfamiliar with Free League games, they’re D6 oriented with some mechanics around stress, etc. They’re great! Feed that space itch for some of your players when you have a short table. If the table loves it, there’s enough in here to fill 3-4 play sessions but you can run it on a shorter timetable if that suits you better. Bonus points: This directly feeds into the long-term campaign Mercy of the Icons as a prequel, too.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/258590/Coriolis-Last-Voyage-of-the-Ghazali/rss.php?affiliate_id=2822085

That’s all for now! Let me know if you enjoy these type of newsletter send-outs and I’ll build more lists like this in the future.

Dollars & Dragons Podcast

This time I talk to someone more on the business side of tabletop with Kelly DeWindt, the CEO of Tabletop Town. We discuss marketing, copywriting, what a C Corp is, and her company!

Sorry for the delay in posting this – I’m waaaay behind.

Link:

https://www.tabletop.town/

If you’d like to support the podcast and keep it free, please consider joining my Patreon. It helps pay my editor!

https://patreon.com/isfriday

Your darkest desires enabled

Vineyard RPG: SMUT is an adventure campaign book providing Game Masters as well as curious players with thrilling, safe, and fun intimate encounters. Included are adventures, encounters, and stunning art of our Vineyard RPG villains, plus exciting new monsters. This book can be used in duet games with a GM (1-on-1), solo play (read, roll dice, and see the results!), or play by post (text play).

If you’re horny or a monster fucker – Please fill out this survey if you are interested in Vineyard RPG: SMUT. An anthology of adventures featuring Vineyard villains and/or other monsters. I’ll be writing our demo for the anthology book this coming year.

https://forms.gle/suh6Ba6usHJh8Xnu5

As we are building our team to tackle this challenging venture, I want to share some of our preliminary details:

• We have recruited some of the most skilled and popular porn artists in the world.

• Our leadership and tentative contributing team all have experience with sex work or creating inclusive porn.

• Our goal is to develop content that can be enjoyed separate from your campaign or incorporated into it so that a relationship (or situationship) is formed between your PC and the NPC.

• Options for presentation include solo play or play by post because a GM may not be comfortable running a duet game but still want their player to enjoy the content.

• The book can be enjoyed even if you are not in a campaign or playing in a Vineyard game.

• We will have a demo adventure for you to enjoy in 2024, then crowdfunding in 2025.

Please fill out the form if this interests you. I greatly appreciate your feedback!

Dollars & Dragons Podcast

Jessica Marcrum (she/her) is an ENNIE awarded writing director and game designer. We talk about high level adventures and boy does she have the chops to deliver wisdom on how to create as a neurodivergent person. You can find her work in the Uncaged series, Arcadia, Flee! Mortals, and many more places.

Links:

https://www.jessicamarcrumwrites.com/

https://twitter.com/Miss_Jess03

https://twitter.com/UnseelieStudios

https://www.unseeliestudios.com/

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/404857/Oops-All-Draculas

https://metalweavegames.com/products/owlbear-plush

https://magpiegames.com/pages/jessica

Check out the Vineyard RPG adventure!

By popular demand, I’ve done a flip through of our adventure. Please check it out and let us know what you think.

You can check out the product page here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/458097/Vineyard-RPG-The-Undead-Gala?affiliate_id=2822085

Surprisingly, I get asked this often

When I first started out as a pro GM on Start Playing Games at the end of 2021 I maintained an incredibly “professional” vibe. Then, months later – I realized that I was dying more and more inside. I asked myself: Am I actually friends with these patrons of mine?

This isn’t a straightforward piece of advice article that you might be accustomed to from those other bloggers. It, like most things, just depends on you and your business vision. So let’s go through a quick set of pros & cons of being friendly & personable with your players as a pro GM.

Pros:

• Gossip time isn’t as awkward.

• You have more fun as a GM during the game.

• Less work dread.

• Customer retention improves.

Cons:

• More emotional investment to monitor for bleed that might harm you or them.

• Players are more inclined to cross your personal boundaries.

• You give more concessions for financial & emotional hardship.

I believe that the pros outweigh the cons in my case. I have to be a professional that monitors and establishes clear boundaries about what I am okay with. For instance: Fem GMs often deal with players who sexualize them or make inappropriate advances.

One of the ways I have avoided those awkward overly flirtatious situations has been that I now offer private erotica games. When people act this way toward me, I mention this service that I provide. It has basically eliminated unwelcome flirting for me in my community. As a result of this solution: I can have fun with those players (and get paid) in a consensual environment. Players respect my boundaries because of it and I make more money, which is great!

It can be a lot of work to manage these additional costs (cons) of being a friend to your players, but it has resulted in some of the most rewarding table experiences. I like to think of myself as a bartender, host, or gym owner – I can be friendly and caring with people while I am at work, too.

How do you tackle this? Let me know in the comments!

If you want to support my work, please check out The Undead Gala, which is on sale for $3.96 on Drive Thru RPG. It makes for a great holiday gift to your GM, too! This 5-star murder mystery adventure is the perfect introduction to The Vineyard RPG setting and campaign guidebook. You’ll even receive a coupon for $15 off your pre-order of the core book! (What a steal.)

Dollars & Dragons Podcast

This episode we have DM Steve (he/him)! He is the co-host of Asians Represent and does a great deal of community work in the TTRPG space. His contributions and freelancing work include the Unbreakable series vol. 1 & 2 and The Manual of Gainful Exercise. We talk about fitness/bodies a lot, fair warning!

editing note –
SPG Discord is now moderated actively, heh.

links:

The MANUAL OF GAINFUL EXERCISE

DM Steve’s Twitter

Asians Represent!

Wanna support the podcast? Check out our introduction adventure for Vineyard RPG!

Dollars & Dragons Podcast

This episode’s guest is Banana Chan (she/they/he)! She is a freelance designer with experience in project management, video production, and a ton of other stuff. She has work published with Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, Modiphius, Darrington Press, and tons of unique indie games (see: image below – click for Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall.)

Links:

YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@BananaChanGames

Forgery https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/forgery#/updates/all

No Context https://skybound.com/no-context

My open letter to Robin D. Laws

“However, I have found, and hope you will agree, that the narrow band [AI art] perfectly suits is a horror game about reality shifting, art history, and warped timelines.” -Robin D. Laws, Writer, Pelgrane Press

Robin,

If you haven’t heard enough about this yet, I’m here to provide you with more. I’m assuming that this registered as a “non-concern” for you, as the article is still up on Pelgrane Press’s website as of November 14th, 2023. Every designer, writer, or artist heard you slam the door shut behind yourself in this industry.

Because you are an accomplished individual in TTRPG, I find your decision to be all the more alarming and ego-centric. Forgotten is your past where you received an opportunity from someone to refine your craft. You have forgotten what it was to be a freelancer, a working person, and a decent human. You’ve completely ditched the pretense of ethics in favor of your own greed.

It’s already known in the industry amongst freelancers that Pelgrane Press’s pay is lower than basement fungi (read: substandard). Now this? Some publishers justify their low pay by expressing that they have to put forward money to “expensive IPs”, which I might understand. At least that’s an excuse and a bad one at that. You’ve abandoned all pretense.

In a way, I think that you’re brave. I’d even say that you’re a hero for corporate greed.

People like you make me sick.

signed,
Friday Strout

link:

https://pelgranepress.com/2023/03/07/legions-of-carcosa-ai-art/

Dollars & Dragons Podcast

Ginny Loveday (she/her) is the Lead Editor at Steamforged Games. She has experience with community play programs, writing for Adventurer’s League, game design, and plenty of editing.

Links:

https://ginnyloveday.com/

https://linktr.ee/ginnyloveday