Traps are a  staple part of many RPGs, especially those in the fantasy dungeon crawl gene. There’s the classic pit-trap, the rolling boulder and my personal favourite, the “Stairs that turn into a slide with something nasty waiting at the end”. The more you use trapped locations though, the less effective they become, as players/characters start to get suspicious and check everywhere. Whilst this may be fun for some, it can make the game sessions drag on and on until everyone gets bored and the GM stops using them.

But, rather than trapped location, why not start using trapped ITEMS? Now, this doesn’t mean a trap that is set off when you pick up an item, although there is nothing stopping you from using that...

Now the upload issues have been sorted, here’s the details on this week’s pdf and the weekly round-up

Equipment Maker – Pizza

Everyone who goes on an adventure uses equipment. Without it, their adventuring days would come to a halt quite quickly.

This includes food and drink, something that, in one form or another, every life form requires to survive.

This special edition of Equipment Maker covers pizzas and is done for a bit of fun. But, the question does arise – do you dare eat what is suggested?

Inside this special edition of the Equipment Maker series, you’ll find tables to help you decide on…

• Size – How big is your pizza?
• Shape – Circular, square or something else?
• Base – From the standard base, to bagels and more – (d100 table with repeating options)
• Sauce – What sauce is on the pizza? (D100 table)
• Cheese – What cheese will you have on this pizza? (d100 table)
• Toppings – For many the main part of the pizza, what is on it. (D100 table)
• Side dishes – What else are you going to have with your pizza? A dip, a salad, garlic bread or something else? (d100 table)

Available now at –

DrivethruRPG

Very soon available at – 

Open Gaming Store and Paizo online stores soon (store links)

For some reason, I am having issues with uploading to drivethru at the moment – Have tried three times and keep getting the same series of errors. Can’t do anything until this is sorted. Will try again later of if i am told it is fixed. Don’t panic, things are ready to be published, just a technical fluff-up by looks of things.

GMC Body Language

Phil Nicholls blogs at Tales of a GM, where he writes about narrative gaming, faster prep and more story. He is currently running a HeroQuest Glorantha campaign in a home-brew setting. Phil has written for Johnn Four’s Roleplaying Tips newsletter and produced a selection of self-published pdfs.

This essay is taken from the archives at Tales of a GM.

http://talesofagm.com/

My weakest area as a GM is my portrayal of GMCs. Thus, the most relevant part of the comprehensive Guidance chapter of the Sparks RPG by Jason Pitre was the GMC advice. This essay expands upon Jason’s suggestions.

Spark RPG

Spark was designed by Jason Pitre, and published by Genesis of Legend Publishing in 2013...

The idea for this list came to me this morning after have a minor sneezing fit. Allergens are surprisingly common, especially in the modern world. For the most part, they are treatable, but for some of us, they can be deadly and put us in a hospital or worse.

Disagree with this list? Think something else should have gone on it? Post in the comments section or on the social media platform you saw this article.