Homebrew! We're gonna start with a one-shot using the book's improv one-shot page, then go into a campaign frame I'm working on.

If all players do this, not only do the games run smoother, but that hopefully means I've instilled good habits for them when they go to other GM's tables.

Know your character sheet and basic rules, and get a copy of the rulebook. These are the biggest ones for me. GMing uses a lot of mental bandwidth and trying to keep track of PC's stuff adds a lot to it. Sure, my job is to facilitate play, but that doesn't mean I play for you.

It's basically like only reading Harry Potter or only playing Skyrim. At the end of the day, this medium as a whole has been a huge lifeline for me and I wanna act like it. The ability to run a game well has basically become a litmus test for my mental health state.

Especially after playing VtM and SWFFG a while back. While I still enjoy running DND, and being able to run it basically in my sleep at this point is valuable, I feel that if you only run/play DND, you don't like playing TTRPGs, you like playing DND specifically, and I don't want to be like that.

The Kingdom Hearts soundtrack has some fantastic boss tracks, Forze del Male is a personal favorite.

There's only one outcome."

This gives players a way to still have tension without people living in constant fear of players' more combat-focused characters every time an argument happens among characters. I think it gives opportunities for different kinds of tension other than "if the Bard and the Barbarian fight,

To a patron, but we also have to think about the table. The talk I give about PvP in my games goes along the lines of: "if you're gonna do it, everyone involved has to be on board. If not, it's a roleplay scene only."

I'd revisit what it means to be evil in your campaign in a roleplay sense. To me, the best way for evil characters to work in any party is for them to be evil on the party's behalf, which I think is what went wrong here. I know it's evil to be self-serving, such as sacrificing a unicorn

Names. No matter how catchy the name, it'll leave my head if I don't write it down. I also keep notes about what lore the players took a liking to when creating their characters and what they resonate with throughout the sessions so I can build off them in the future.