Listen to our three-part special on beginnings, middles and ends in roleplaying games. We discuss how to start your game off with a bang, keep up the pace and create an ending your players will talk about for years to come.

Beginnings, Middles and Ends

Beginnings: We open with some advice about planning a one-shot or campaign, drawing in the player characters and starting off play with a bang.

Middles: We continue with a look at how to keep up the pace and build tension in an ongoing game.

Ends: We wrap up the series with thoughts about deciding when to end a game, creating a memorable ending and what to do after the game is over.

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias Podcast

This post is designed as an introduction to The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, a Call of Cthulhu podcast.

We feature regular episodes about Call of Cthulhu and other roleplaying games, as well as horror films and weird fiction. The focus of the podcast is always on tabletop RPGs, and our discussions of films and stories feature segments about using elements of them in your games.

The three hosts, Paul Fricker, Matthew Sanderson and Scott Dorward, are all writers who worked on the new edition of Call of Cthulhu as well as many other roleplaying games.

Other Episodes

If you like what you hear, we recommend sampling some of our more recent episodes next.

Making Combat More Interesting. Focusing on Call of Cthulhu, we discuss how to keep fight scenes in roleplaying games from becoming dull and mechanical.

The VVitch. Our look at The Witch, the hit horror film of 2016. As well as discussing the film itself, we pick out elements that you can use in your games.

Running Published Campaigns. Using published RPG material can save time, but it still requires a special kind of preparation. We talk through techniques for doing so in this episode.