My Storytelling Guide Companion

My players asked me how I ran my games and what made them work, so I wrote a book. Then they asked for specific examples and ideas, so I wrote another one. This companion to My Guide to RPG Storytelling goes deeper into creating in-game crises, with lists of example scenarios and twists. The second half covers using voices, mannerisms, and archetypes to create NPCs, including some of the most memorable NPCs from my own games and what made them work.

- My Guide to RPG Storytelling - I've been role-playing all my life and I've run a lot of well-received campaigns. My players asked me what made my games work and this book is the result. This isn't a rulebook for any gaming system, but it's a how-to for my style of creating memorable NPCs, planning games, and engaging with your players. - Foreword, by Erica Lindquist - On Storytelling - Before the Game - Building Your Story - Running Your Game - Players & Player Characters - Problems - Rules & Mechanics - Setting & NPCs - My Storytelling Guide Companion - My players asked me how I ran my games and what made them work, so I wrote a book. Then they asked for specific examples and ideas, so I wrote another one. This companion to My Guide to RPG Storytelling goes deeper into creating in-game crises, with lists of example scenarios and twists. The second half covers using voices, mannerisms, and archetypes to create NPCs, including some of the most memorable NPCs from my own games and what made them work. - From Dream to Dice - I've written two other books (so far) on my tricks and tools for running table-top role-playing games. But now it's time to put those tools to the test – making an actual RPG campaign. Right here, right now, on the page. So let's do this! I'll start with the seed of a story idea, go through world-building and character creation, then expanding that basic plot out into scenes, combats and crises. This is an up-close, behind the scenes look at how I make a game. Then I'll run the campaign for my group. The second half of this book details what went right, what went wrong, how I kept the game moving and my friends entertained. From the dream that inspired me to the dice hitting the table, this is how I run an RPG.

I’ve been role-playing all my life and I’ve run a lot of well-received campaigns. My players asked me what made my games work and this book is the result. This isn’t a rulebook for any gaming system, but it’s a how-to for my style of creating memorable NPCs, planning games, and engaging with your players. - Foreword, by Erica Lindquist - On Storytelling - Before the Game - Building Your Story - Running Your Game - Players & Player Characters - Problems - Rules & Mechanics - Setting & NPCs

Whether you’re trying to communicate a vision, sell an idea, or inspire commitment, storytelling is a powerful business tool that can mean the difference between lackluster enthusiasm and a rallying cry. Addressing a wide variety of business challenges, including specific stories to help you overcome twenty-one difficult situations, Lead with a Story gives you theability to engage an audience the way logic and bullet points alone never could. This how-to guidebook shows readers how powerful stories can help define culture and values, engender creativity and innovation, foster collaboration, build relationships, provide coaching and feedback, and lead change. Whether in a speech or a memo, communicated to one person or a thousand, storytelling is an essential skill for today’s leaders. Many highly successful companies use storytelling as a leadership tool. At Nike, all senior executives are designated “corporate storytellers.” 3M banned bullet points years ago and replaced them with a process of writing “strategic narratives.” Procter & Gamble hired Hollywood directors to teach its executives storytelling techniques. Some forward-thinking business schools have even added storytelling courses to their management curriculum. Complete with examples from these and many other high-profile companies, Lead with a Story gives readers the guidance they need to spin a narrative to stunning effect.

After three years of writing for The RPGuide, we’ve talked a lot about running and playing role-playing games. Thank you for listening for all these years! This is a collection of our best and favorite articles from all three years of RPGuide posts. It includes three volumes of Loaded Dice, each one covering a year of our ramblings. There are sections on Storytelling, plotting and pacing your game, non-player characters (NPCs), game rules and mechanics, and advice for players to create characters and then play them in a team sport like RPGs. Whether you’re new to role-playing games or have been gaming for years, come learn from our mistakes and take advantage of our experience. Most of the posts included in this boxed set build on the ideas that we set out in our first guidebooks: My Guide to RPG Storytelling, My Storytelling Guide Companion, and From Dream to Dice. You don’t need to read them, but it might help.

After two years of writing for The RPGuide, we’ve talked a lot about running and playing role-playing games. So this is a collection of our best and favorite articles from the second year of RPGuide posts. This volume of Loaded Dice has sections on Storytelling, plotting and pacing your game – including romantic arcs – more about non-player characters (NPCs), juggling game rules and mechanics, and advice for players to create characters and then play them in a team sport like RPGs. Whether you’re new to role-playing games or have been gaming for years, come learn from our mistakes and take advantage of our experience. We recommend reading at least the first Loaded Dice, but also consider My Guide to RPG Story­telling, My Storytelling Guide Companion, or From Dream to Dice.

Don't simply show your data—tell a story with it! Storytelling with Data teaches you the fundamentals of data visualization and how to communicate effectively with data. You'll discover the power of storytelling and the way to make data a pivotal point in your story. The lessons in this illuminative text are grounded in theory, but made accessible through numerous real-world examples—ready for immediate application to your next graph or presentation. Storytelling is not an inherent skill, especially when it comes to data visualization, and the tools at our disposal don't make it any easier. This book demonstrates how to go beyond conventional tools to reach the root of your data, and how to use your data to create an engaging, informative, compelling story. Specifically, you'll learn how to: Understand the importance of context and audience Determine the appropriate type of graph for your situation Recognize and eliminate the clutter clouding your information Direct your audience's attention to the most important parts of your data Think like a designer and utilize concepts of design in data visualization Leverage the power of storytelling to help your message resonate with your audience Together, the lessons in this book will help you turn your data into high impact visual stories that stick with your audience. Rid your world of ineffective graphs, one exploding 3D pie chart at a time. There is a story in your data—Storytelling with Data will give you the skills and power to tell it!

A five-time Moth GrandSLAM winner and bestselling novelist shows how to tell a great story — and why doing so matters. Whether we realize it or not, we are always telling stories. On a first date or job interview, at a sales presentation or therapy appointment, with family or friends, we are constantly narrating events and interpreting emotions and actions. In this compelling book, storyteller extraordinaire Matthew Dicks presents wonderfully straightforward and engaging tips and techniques for constructing, telling, and polishing stories that will hold the attention of your audience (no matter how big or small). He shows that anyone can learn to be an appealing storyteller, that everyone has something “storyworthy” to express, and, perhaps most important, that the act of creating and telling a tale is a powerful way of understanding and enhancing your own life.