We’re the Demystics. We build and guide workshops and actual-play events to share how we play roleplaying games, story games, and narrative games of all sorts.

Gen Con Workshops!

Our most recent events were workshops at the premiere tabletop gaming convention in the United States: Gen Con! Many and mighty thanks to all of the attendees and hosts for these workshops.

If you’re looking for some of the literature from that event, here’s the handout from our Easy Intro to GMing RPGs session, to help you with any game at all!

Stay tuned for future events!

Ask questions.

Involve the answers.

You’re not in this alone.

Characters live in the worlds that we visit when we play. Ask characters what they know by asking the players what they think.

What senses have you served lately?

Try to include three or more senses per scene. Vary the senses you serve from scene to scene. Think about these:

Sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste, and memory

Involve other players as much as you can without stressing. Ask yourself:

• How does this look to other characters?

• What reaction does this provoke from other characters?

• When does word of this reach other characters?

How things happen matters, just like what happens matters.

Offer players two options, to draw out or inspire other options that players devise themselves.

As the gamemaster, ask yourself, and then answer:

Why are we focusing on this now? How does this serve play?

It’s okay for play to move on to the next situation that’s compelling.

Get Your Free Adventure!

Our first event saw several tables of new and experienced GMs playing the same fantasy-RPG adventure together. Afterwards, we talked about what happened, how, and why—comparing the lessons we learned along the way through actual play, now that we had the adventure in common.

This adventure, written and designed by Will Hindmarch, is still free to download (PDF at Dropbox) for your own play and experimentation.

Have at it!

Get the Adventure