Really fun video. Getting a consistent group together is probably the hardest part of running a game. If you can enjoy a game with even as few as one or two players, that can work well.

I use a few tricks to keep groups going:

• Have six full-time players.
• Have two "on call" players – these are players who are interested but might not be able to commit regularly and are willing to jump in when a spot is open.
• Run with as few as four. This means it takes five people cancelling before you can't run a game.
• Run at a consistent time each week.
• Run shorter games – I go for 3 hours.

That's helped me keep multiple groups going for ten years with one group consistent for about 20 years.

As a guy who used Twitter extensively for more than a decade and had over 40k followers, I can tell you it went from a great place to promote one’s RPG work to a terrible place just about overnight back in 2020 or so – just about the time users focused on algorithmic sorting of tweets over the timeline.

I was lucky to get 400 people to click a link and maybe one would buy something. Engagement was shot.

Luckily I found the social media platform of the future – email! It’s a network I control, can move to the service of my choice, and lets me directly connect with those who expressed interest in what I make.

I’m glad I started building up my email list a few years ago. It takes time but it’s worth it.

I feel like a lot of creators on Twitter simply can’t let go even though the network isn’t the same as all anymore.

WHO DARES SUMMON ME!

I think they’d work fine. You found the icons on gameicons?

These are awesome!!

I usually try to drop in one scene or situation along the way usually at the site of a notable landmark. You can roll randomly for the landmark and maybe two groups. Maybe they’re fighting. Maybe one group already beat the other group. Maybe they’re friendly. Just a situation to expose something about the world and it’s history and people.

You can also use it as an opportunity for campfire tales. Ask each player ahead of time to think about what their character thinks of what they’ve done so far and where they’re going. Have each player share their thoughts during a long rest along the journey.

Finally, if the characters are traveling anywhere with risk you can define some traveling roles like who is scouting, who is trailblazing, and who is provisioning. Have them roll checks on these jobs to give you some interesting ideas about what might happen along the journey.

Nice to see some love for Owlbear Rodeo!

Thanks so much! It's actually a pretty exciting time with the Mastodons and Lemmys and blogs and podcasts!

I also resurrected https://dndblogs.com as a way to bring blogs back together again.

You can still have an evolving story happen and it’s not about the player building that story. But the story results from the choices they make in the situation you present.

More here:

https://slyflourish.com/letting_go_of_defined_encounters.html

I wrote up my best tips from a wide range of DMs here:

https://slyflourish.com/top_advice.html

If I had to have just one it’d be:

Be a fan of the characters. Be on their side. Focus your prep around them. Help them look awesome. Avoid “gotchas” that characters would have picked up on but players missed.

Yay! Thank you!

Love it!