Sam Tillis
@stillisgaming.bsky.social
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📥 165
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Your friendly neighborhood professional Game Master.
https://startplaying.games/gm/stillis-gaming
pinned post!
At final count, I ran 428 RPG sessions in 2024. Granted, some of those were 1 hr afterschool games for kids. I pound out four 75 min sessions in a row most Saturdays. Then again, others were 9 hr marathons, so it all balances out. Hi. I'm Sam. I'm a Professional Game Master. Follow me for stories.
over 1 year ago
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My local game store just gifted me this stack of books, so I guess it's officially time to start rebuilding my D&D 3.5 collection...
2 days ago
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Me: I should really try to finish playing Baldur's Gate so I understand the past 3 years of nerd culture. Also Me: [reinstalls 2000-era PC classic "Majesty: the Fantasy Kingdom Sim]
7 days ago
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When your D&D players have 3 options for where to go next: -The place that continues the main plot -The place with a character-driven side-plot -The batshit crazy place they have no earthly reason to visit ...you might as well not even prepare for options 1 and 2. 🙃
28 days ago
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I overused em-dashes before it was uncool.
about 1 month ago
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Op. Always forgetting to self-advertise. "Midnight in the Garden of Chrome and Fog," my character-limit busting cyberpunk RPG actual-play, starts its second season this evening at 7pm! You better believe things are gonna be **weird** for the holiday...
www.twitch.tv/vanalosswen
about 1 month ago
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What a horrifying item to find at the bottom of my to-do list, with no memory of how it got there.
2 months ago
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The existence of "Rogue State" as a geopolitical category implies Barbarian State, Bard State, Cleric State, etc., and we haven't spent enough time grappling with this as a community.
2 months ago
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I don't know if this stands up to scrutiny, but some quick&easy drinking contest rules for D&D: it's just blackjack, but your character's Constitution score is the limiter (instead of 21). You can stop drinking any time, but whoever has the highest number less than or equal to their Con score wins.
2 months ago
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My response to that one specific faction of Star Trek: Lower Decks and Starfleet Academy haters.
2 months ago
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Not gonna prepare for D&D adventures ever again; just gonna use this:
2 months ago
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I've said it before and I'll say it again: the main skill for being a professional DM is not storytelling ability, not understanding rules systems, not doing funny voices or balancing group dynamics. It's a tolerance for sending scheduling emails.
2 months ago
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Spending today coming to terms with how my very, very mature gaming group starting their new 1690s pirate campaign is going to handle the word "pinnace."
3 months ago
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Every once in a while I feel a pang of D&D 3e/3.5 nostalgia. If you're like me, my friend Ben has just listed a game that I think will appeal to you mightily.
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Join Heroes Across Time - Discord / Roll20 - Dungeons & Dragons 3/3.5e | StartPlaying Games
A Viking raider, a weary American Revolutionist, and a scholar from Mars University (2371) wake up in a world that shouldn't exist. Their bodies are altered, their memories are fractured, and they are...
https://startplaying.games/adventure/cml1h2a9r0008jx04waz4e35s
3 months ago
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It was inevitable, perhaps, that my D&D party would start referring to svirfneblin and svirfs, and that that would immediately degrade to smurfs, but what an absolute humiliation for one of my favorite D&D species.
3 months ago
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reposted by
Sam Tillis
Seamus Conneely of Cannibal Halfling Gaming
3 months ago
Five Tiers of RPG Publishing Hasbro’s annual earnings came out this week, so I took a look. It is truly staggering how much Wizards of the Coast has changed the company since they were acquired; when looking at unadjusted earnings the Wizards of the Coast and Digital Games division was the only…
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Five Tiers of RPG Publishing
Hasbro’s annual earnings came out this week, so I took a look. It is truly staggering how much Wizards of the Coast has changed the company since they were acquired; when looking at unadjusted earnings the Wizards of the Coast and Digital Games division was the only one that turned a profit in the entire company. Not only that, but Wizards is responsible for roughly 47% of the entire company’s revenue and over 90% of all revenue growth over the last year.
http://cannibalhalflinggaming.com/2026/02/11/five-tiers-of-rpg-publishing/
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One of my deficiencies as a DM is that most of my NPCs are mostly reasonable most of the time. I feel as if that's not true of all people in the real world—some people are really quite petty and spiteful in self-defeating ways—but I have a hard time channeling that into my games.
3 months ago
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Introduced a loveable robot NPC to my teens game as a potential ally; they immediately called it "clanker" and destroyed it. Interesting cultural shift, there.
3 months ago
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Gonna see how long it takes my Spelljammer players to notice that I'm just taking them through a beat-by-beat remake of The Mandalorian.
4 months ago
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Wish I'd taken a photo of the new kid's D&D character sheet, where she listed her class as "Rogue" and her subclass as "Goth Baddie." 10/10 A+ no notes.
4 months ago
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This is very specific, but I love the feeling of going into prepwork for a D&D session knowing *exactly* what I need to prepare and roughly how long it will take. Sometimes half the work is figuring out what work you need to do; happily, today is not that day.
4 months ago
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I'm a professional Game Master. *My* GM, who is *also* a professional GM, has just launched a new campaign. By the transitive property, if you like me, you'll like him even more, so you should check this out:
startplaying.games/adventure/cm...
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Join Breaking Coruscant (A Star Wars Tale) - Discord / Roll20 - Blades in the Dark | StartPlaying Games
The Emperor is dead. The Empire has fractured. Yet the Rebel Alliance is still far from victory. Over a dozen Imperial warlords each command more ships and men than all the Rebel Alliance combined. Ac...
https://startplaying.games/adventure/cmkbw32vo00yhi204hz9kser3
4 months ago
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There were plenty of good, useful things I could have done this morning instead of working on my tongue-in-cheek James Bond RPG, but here we are.
4 months ago
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I know I'm going to regret thinking this—I've burned out on the system before—but I could really run some Traveller RPG in 2026 if I could find someone to pay me to do so.
4 months ago
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Hey look! It's this game I worked on, spotted in the wild at Geeky Teas & Games, a highly recommended game store in LA.
4 months ago
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I apologize for nothing.
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The Stupidest Dungeon I've Ever Designed
Or, why you should hire a professional DM
https://buttondown.com/stillisgaming/archive/chicken/
4 months ago
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I have made a popular comment on a famous person's post, and unlocked hidden knowledge about how bluesky notifications work.
5 months ago
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@vermooouth.bsky.social
sent this to me, and now I send it to you. All lovers of words should read this.
jsomers.net/blog/diction...
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You’re probably using the wrong dictionary « the jsomers.net blog
https://jsomers.net/blog/dictionary
5 months ago
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Gonna have to learn more about chicken anatomy than any (non-rural) man may know in order to write this truly bizarre D&D one-shot...
5 months ago
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On Session 100 of an online-only D&D game, we find a way to meet in person, and I build them a deconstructed dungeon out of tarot cards. (For those who recognize some of what's happening in the second image; yes, I am scrambling two influences together.)
5 months ago
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This is an objectively perfect piece of writing.
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'Cloud Dancer': A Measured Response
Regarding Pantone's decision, and so on, and so forth
https://johnpaulbrammer.substack.com/p/cloud-dancer-a-measured-response
5 months ago
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When one of your teen D&D players designs a flumph cosplay.
5 months ago
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When I was growing up, these pamphlet-sized adventure booklets were essentially my introduction to D&D adventure modules. I don't know that they were any good, but I'm immensely nostalgic for them. A link, in case anyone finds themself needing to buy me a present...
www.ebay.com/itm/20567214...
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Lot of 6 Dungeons & Dragons Adventures Alderac Entertainment Group AEG d20 3E | eBay
Strange beasts are said to plague a small town by night. Designed for 4-6 characters levels 2-4. Designed for 5-8 characters levels 2-4. To free the land from oppression, the party must brave the mons...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/205672141467
5 months ago
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As a professional GM, for me the answer is inevitably "because that's what 90% of people want to pay me for." Always excited when I can talk a group into trying out literally anything else.
@alexandrian.bsky.social
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Thought of the Day: Why D&D?
In the past few days I've been asked several times why I still play Dungeons & Dragons.After all, I've criticized the rules, the adventures, the design, and even the company. So why am I st
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/53129/roleplaying-games/thought-of-the-day-why-dd
5 months ago
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I keep buying themed decks of playing cards. Guess I gotta start running Savage Worlds again...
6 months ago
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I will not prep for a prep-free RPG. I will not prep for a prep-free RPG. I will not prep for a prep-free RPG. I will not prep for a prep-free RPG....
6 months ago
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I run lots of D&D for kids/teens, so I have lots of STATS. Here's what the youths are into this season, re: species and class. Tiefling: 12 Dragonborn: 9 Human: 5 Elf (Drow): 4 Elf (High): 4 Aasimar: 3 Gnome: 3 Kobold: 3 Tabaxi: 3 Warforged: 3 Dwarf: 2 Dhampir: 1 Goliath: 1 Hobgoblin: 1 Axolotl: 1
6 months ago
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You can tell the adults I ran a D&D game for last night do not work in child-adjacent professions (or have children of their own) because nobody lunged across the table to throttle me when I described a small detachment up ahead of "6 or 7 enemies."
6 months ago
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My absolute favorite thing that new D&D players say to me after I DM for them, hands down, is "you've inspired me to run my own d&d campaign." Especially when it also involves bringing in their kids.
6 months ago
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When the D&D players realize that the most efficient way through the dungeon is to ignore all the doors and windows and just smash through walls. **chef's kiss**
6 months ago
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The sweet, sweet feeling of having no fucking idea how your RPG players are going to navigate their way out of *this* one... 😈
6 months ago
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Civ VII rolls out an update **on the same day** as Europa Universalis V comes out... and I have two gigs to prepare for and run. 😭😭😭
6 months ago
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The Stranger Things kids have gotta be playing like 4th edition by now.
6 months ago
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Writing email newsletters and then sharing those email newsletters on social media like its 2017.
buttondown.com/stillisgamin...
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"I Like to Watch"
…damn it Tillis, you think in this Year Of Our Lord 2025 you can subject-line a newsletter with a reference to cult-classic ‘70s film Being There and expect...
https://buttondown.com/stillisgaming/archive/i-like-to-watch/
7 months ago
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Professional proofreading is changing "cluster fuck" to "clusterfuck" in a legitimate publication because, incredibly, Merriam Webster has an entry and a strong preference on the matter.
@merriam-webster.com
7 months ago
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That terrible feeling when you've finished your D&D prep-work early, so now you've got nothing to do but wonder what you've *forgotten* to prepare for over the course of several hours.
7 months ago
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Several years later, this middle school history textbook cover of the Silmarillion is still the cleverest thing I ever created and I'm willing to fight anyone who says otherwise.
7 months ago
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I am, apparently, the single person on the entire internet who unironically enjoys playing Civilization 7. Ask me anything.
7 months ago
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Just another Thursday afternoon where I'm inventing a surf-fishing minigame for an RPG I've almost never run before...
7 months ago
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Oh! This is up! Warning: the saddest scene I have ever run as a DM, ever, happens near the end of this episode. (After quite a bit of unbridled joy, natch.)
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The One Ring: Over Hill and Under Hill 2 - The Crowned Hill
YouTube video by Quests & Chaos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eFGRN35N3E
8 months ago
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I now have three (3) different groups lining up trying to get me to run the Cosmere RPG. Guess I finally need to get into Brandon Sanderson...
8 months ago
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