I'm curious if anyone has any game related, but not game tips or tricks to share.

For example my group has a group chat we use for D&D memes and for scheduling our games. Recently I started dropping session recaps into the chat a day or two before the next game so I don't have to answer a bunch of questions when we start the session. The group also entered a city and I started dropping rumors, lore and info about the city into the chat, a few days before the session, so the group could make informed decisions, and I didn't have to play out every encounter with an informant, and they had time to decide what plot hooks they were interested in without taking up game time. I drop this stuff as gifs with a yellow background so they are easy to find on the chat. So far my players have responded very positively towards these changes.

Anyone else have any tips or trick that might make life a bit easier?

I keep an index card box full of index cards filled in with things that may come up in session so I don't have to think of them on the fly.  NPCs, locations, names, loot, monsters and enemies, and other things that I think are good ideas that don't yet have a slot in my game prep are all ready to go should the session go in a direction I didn't anticipate.  In terms of loot, I can just hand a card to the player.

I use a large dice tray at the table.  Everyone uses it and only rolls in the tray count.  If a player reaches into the tray to get his dice before I read them then it's a failed roll.  Funny enough, this actually leads to a much happier table.  The one time I had a guy object to this rule, he was run off by the other players before I could even argue with him.

I never roll dice as a GM for combat.  I pick a player to roll monster attacks for me.  This had lead to more dead PCs but also increases the perceived fairness of my games.  More recently, I have been converting systems I use to be player facing; a defending player rolls against a static attack score rather than the monster rolling against a static defense score.

I use a note taking software called CherryTree for adventure building and session prep.  It is a hierarchical note taking app with cross-linking functions.  Here's the github page: https://github.com/giuspen/cherrytree

I make cheat sheets for games I run.  Usually I make two; one for the steps of PC creations and another for combat.  The combat one has all the bonuses, modifiers, conditions, movement rules, and turn structure so that it's easy to reference.  Lately, a number of publishers are adding these to the core books so I am grateful I don't have to  spend hours combing through the books to do it myself.  (Miss a modifier and and give a cheat sheet to a player, I dare you.)

I'll second the index card method.  When I used to run Champions as an open table at the FLGS, I kept a ton of semi prepped items in a stack so I could pull location details and reinforcements as needed.

Quote from: BadApple on January 19, 2025, 12:30:03 AMI never roll dice as a GM for combat.  I pick a player to roll monster attacks for me.  This had lead to more dead PCs but also increases the perceived fairness of my games.  More recently, I have been converting systems I use to be player facing; a defending player rolls against a static attack score rather than the monster rolling against a static defense score.

Playing on a VTT with the everyones rolls visible to everyone has the same effect, the players accept bad luck much better when they know its fair (and it easier for all of us to know the super-lucky die rollers are actually super-lucky and not pulling something).

Back in in the Oughties I was running homebrew Gamma World using the legendary (or infamous) Phoenix Command system. I found delegation of duties helpful.

I put the gunslinger PC's player in charge of calculating odds of hitting, and he put the necessary tables into his gaming folio.

Another player I put in charge of the hand-to-hand damage tables.

A third player I charged with running an NPC for me. (Interestingly enough, it was a spy from a distant empire . . . and the player told me that he had been thinking about running a character who was a spy from a distant empire!)

A fourth player I charged with running another NPC for me.

It works smashingly, except the one fellow had trouble grokking the HTH tables, but hey, we worked it out anyway.

1) The "Chronicler" player -

 In at least two or more campaigns I have had a player who takes notes on what is going on in game session - often to cover when I can't write things down because I am role playing an NPC.

Sometimes the player wrote it up "in-character", other times it was more straightforwad note taking narrative.
 My most recent campaign the person keeping the 'log' was also playing the Chief Communications officer for the starship.

2) Where are the characters , "Miniatures" if we end the session in a cliffhanger? More than a couple of times I had to end a game session on a 'cliffhanger' in the middle of combat or interesting action because my players had a limited azmount of time.
SO,...we would have someone take a photo or two on their smart phones of just 'where' everything was placed on the flip at or other chart, then e-mail me the pictures. That way at the start of the next game session we had a photo reference to put the characters and NPC advbersaries back in the same positions. (Also terain, like riuins of ancient alien civilizations...)

- Ed C.

Thirding index cards.

I always source a genre-appropriate name list for my own use before every campaign.

I had one good campaign after deciding I wouldn't cancel sessions, I'd always run for any number of players down to one. I had my bluff called a couple of times for groups of 2-3, but they were good sessions in their own right, and in the long run that built in to a full house weekly. Not with all the starting players, but the ones who left drifted off rather than got kicked, or got guilted. Works better for some campaign premises than others though; mine was a dungeon-heavy OSR game.

Once I get PCs, player-generated contacts/allies/rivals, and my own major NPCs and factions I put all of them across the top and side of a spreadsheet grid. Then at every intersection I fill out their relationship, starting with what players gave me and making something up or rolling reaction for the rest. Not that they literally all know each other, but if nothing else I'll put down something they might both be after, whether competing or cooperating, or just how they'll initially react. I thought it might be too "busy" but really, since I never get around to bringing everything out in play it's a useful prompt for me.