Resources

No Game Master works alone. Every campaign is assembled from borrowed techniques, half-remembered stories, useful tools, conversations with clever people, and at least one idea rescued from a source no one else at the table has read.

This page collects the resources I return to when I’m preparing games, thinking about adventure design, reviewing books, or looking for a fresh path through familiar territory. These are personal recommendations rather than a comprehensive directory. I use, read, watch, or subscribe to the resources listed here and believe they offer something worthwhile to Game Masters, players, readers, and creators.

The collection will continue to grow as I discover new voices and useful instruments for my cabinet of curiosities.

Note! All the listings below are alphabetized and not ordered by any preferred ranking.

Podcasts

These are the shows I subscribe to for conversations about tabletop RPGs, fiction, creativity, publishing, and the strange machinery beneath memorable games…or even for some fun actual play of my favorite TTRPGs.

Some focus on practical advice. Others offer interviews, criticism, actual play, industry discussion, or ideas worth carrying back to the table. Inclusion means I find the podcast consistently interesting, and not that I agree with every opinion expressed beside its flickering studio candles.

• d4: D&D Deep Dive — Colby Poulson explores character creation through carefully constructed, mechanically effective builds designed to remain fun at the table. It is a useful resource for players who enjoy understanding how abilities interact—and for Game Masters who want a clearer view of what optimized characters can actually do.
• Dungeon Master Diaries — Matt Bruner and Jody Kropholler discuss Shadowdark and other RPGs through events from their recent sessions. The emphasis on what actually happened, rather than what ought to happen in theory, makes the show a useful source of practical lessons that can survive contact with players.
• The Eldritch Lorecast — News, design discussions, and advice for players and Game Masters from Ben Byrne, Dael Kingsmill, Shawn Merwin, and Todd Kenreck. The hosts bring different perspectives to the table, making the show a useful way to follow the hobby while hearing its ideas tested in conversation.
• The Glass Cannon Podcast — An actual-play show that combines immersive campaigns with sharp improvisation and the easy antagonism of friends who have rolled dice together for a very long time. Its campaigns offer plenty to study about character chemistry, comic timing, tension, and the unpredictable rhythms of play. In my humble opinion, the BEST actual play network out there.
• Grumpy Dungeon Masters — A panel of experienced Dungeon Masters gripes its way through rules, worldbuilding, troublesome mechanics, industry news, and familiar problems such as the party splitting up yet again. Beneath the curmudgeonly title is the pleasure of hearing veteran GMs compare scars, solutions, and strongly held opinions.
• The Lazy RPG Podcast — Mike Shea offers RPG news, product spotlights, listener questions, and practical preparation advice, including recordings of his own campaign prep. The show’s great virtue is its focus on doing the work that matters and leaving the ornamental ritual components on the shelf.
• Mystery Quest — Tom Clark and a rotating company of players explore horror, mystery, and comedy through a variety of roleplaying games. Its shorter adventures and changing systems make it a particularly good cabinet of examples for atmosphere, scenario openings, and introducing players to unfamiliar rules.
• Mastering Dungeons — Game designers and RPG veterans Teos Abadía and Shawn Merwin examine D&D news, products, business, and design. Their discussions are especially valuable when I want to look beyond whether a rule works and consider what it encourages, where it came from, and how people may experience it at the table.
• Ship of the Dead — Limithron’s voyage through pirate-themed games, OSR and NSR play, adventure design, creator interviews, and lessons learned at the table. It is especially useful when I want practical ideas accompanied by a strong point of view and a little salt spray.

YouTube

My favorite channels covering tabletop roleplaying games, adventure design, Game Master advice, books, reviews, and related creative pursuits.

The useful corners of YouTube contain far more than product announcements and ranked lists. These channels offer thoughtful criticism, practical demonstrations, informed recommendations, or distinctive perspectives that can change how we read and play.

• Bob World Builder — Approachable advice, experiments, reviews, and reflections aimed at helping people have more fun with tabletop RPGs. Bob’s calm, good-humored approach is especially welcome when the hobby’s usual discourse starts rattling its chains.
• DnD Shorts — Energetic explorations of D&D rules, character options, lore, and unexpected mechanical interactions. The videos encourage players to understand the game’s possibilities and then become gleefully creative with them.
• Dungeon Craft — Professor Dungeon Master offers experienced advice about faster rules, dangerous adventures, campaign design, terrain, and alternatives to conventional D&D. Professor DM’s channel always gives me concrete principles to test at my own table.
• Dungeon Dudes — In-depth guides to character building, game mechanics, roleplaying, adventure design, and worldbuilding, alongside the Dungeons of Drakkenheim actual-play series. The channel is particularly useful when I want an organized examination of how D&D’s moving parts fit together. Drakkenheim is also one of the best 5e third-party supplements available.
• Ginny Di — Advice for becoming a better roleplayer, storyteller, Game Master, and tablemate, delivered through practical guides, sketches, music, and character-focused exercises. Her work pays welcome attention to the social and performative skills that rulebooks often leave lurking between the lines.
• Joseph R. Lewis — A working adventure writer’s examination of locations, encounters, layout, research, and the decisions involved in turning an idea into usable game material. This is an excellent channel for anyone interested in the craft of writing adventures for publication or for the hungry chaos of a home table. He’s also written some of the best adventures of the last decade.
• LichHouse — Reflections on Shadowdark, old-school play, classic adventures, campaign conversions, and lessons drawn from actual sessions. The emphasis on what happened at the table gives the advice weight, and occasionally reveals which seemingly sound ideas were eaten in the first room.
• Pointy Hat — Animated, exuberant essays that reconsider D&D classes, creatures, settings, and familiar fantasy conventions. The channel is a rich source of playful reinterpretations, often accompanied by material that can be carried directly into a campaign.
• Power Word Spill — Kelly explores practical tools, props, preparation methods, encounters, campaign ideas, and unusual ways to improve D&D sessions. The channel has a knack for turning clever experiments into things a Game Master might actually use, and the positivity is charming!
• Questing Beast — Ben Milton reviews adventures and systems from the OSR, post-OSR, and wider independent RPG scenes while discussing the design principles behind them. His close examinations are valuable both for discovering games and for seeing how presentation, procedures, and information design affect play.
• Quinn’s Quest — Elaborate, funny, and unusually thorough reviews of tabletop RPGs. Quinns examines not only rules and presentation but the experience a game promises, whether it delivers, and which groups might enjoy opening the box. There’s alto the Quinn’s Quest guarantee…he actually plays all the games he reviews!
• Todd Kenreck — Interviews with designers and prominent members of the D&D community, along with rules discussions, book previews, live reactions, and advice for players and Game Masters. Todd’s access to creators makes the channel especially useful for hearing how games are made and what their designers hoped to accomplish.

Thought Leaders

Blogs, magazines, forums, newsletters, and other places where people seriously discuss tabletop RPGs, books, criticism, and adventure design.

“Thought leader” can sound like someone has arrived carrying a polished brass title they awarded themselves. Here, it simply means a person or community whose work helps me examine old assumptions, discover new techniques, and think more carefully about what happens at the table.

These sources may not agree with one another – or with me! That is part of their value.

• The Alexandrian — Justin Alexander’s extensive collection of Game Master advice, scenario structures, remixes, reviews, and campaign resources. Articles such as the Three Clue Rule, Node-Based Scenario Design, and Jaquaying the Dungeon provide clear procedures for building adventures that support investigation, exploration, and meaningful player choice.
• The Angry GM — Long-form RPG analysis delivered through a deliberately abrasive persona and an impressive supply of censored profanity. Beneath the performance is careful thinking about adjudication, narration, encounter design, rules hacking, player investment, and the practical responsibilities of running a game.
• Arcane Eye — Guides for D&D players and Game Masters covering classes, spells, feats, adventures, products, and character options. It is a useful reference when I need a focused explanation of a rule or want to understand the practical strengths and limitations of a player-facing choice.
• Gnome Stew — A long-running, multi-author blog devoted to playing, running, and creating tabletop RPGs. Its many contributors bring different games, experiences, and philosophies to subjects including preparation, improvisation, campaign management, table relationships, and the ordinary complications of keeping a group together.
• Goblin Punch — Arnold K.’s storehouse of inventive monsters, strange settings, compact rules, adventure-design principles, and wonderfully gameable oddities. The ideas are often grotesque, funny, and immediately interactive—the sort of material that makes players poke the dangerous object despite every available warning.
• Grumpy Wizard — Travis Miller writes about sword-and-sorcery fiction, classic fantasy adventure gaming, house rules, campaign play, and the traditions that shaped the hobby. It is a useful meeting place between the fiction that inspires fantasy games and the procedures that make those worlds playable.
• M.T. Black Games — Articles, rules, generators, reviews, design observations, and collections of interesting discoveries from adventure designer M.T. Black and fellow contributors. The blog moves comfortably between immediately usable game material and reflection on the craft and business of making RPGs.
• The Monsters Know What They’re Doing — Keith Ammann studies monster statistics and abilities to infer how those creatures might behave in combat. The result is ready-to-use tactical guidance that helps encounters express a monster’s nature instead of reducing every opponent to a sack of hit points with teeth.
• Papers & Pencils — Tabletop thoughts, theories, procedures, and play reports with a strong interest in old-school and player-driven games. Its articles on encounter tables, dungeon creation, factions, traps, and preparation offer tools designed to generate play instead of prescribing a plot.
• Roleplaying Tips — Johnn Four’s enormous archive of practical advice for adventure building, campaign organization, encounters, NPCs, storytelling, and Game Master preparation. It is best known for the Five Room Dungeon method, but the deeper shelves contain decades of compact ideas ready to adapt.
• Save vs. Total Party Kill — Ramanan Sivaranjan’s old-school RPG blog covers games, design, play culture, reviews, and the broader conversation surrounding the hobby. Its archive combines personal experience with an alert eye for interesting work elsewhere in the RPG blogosphere.
• Sly Flourish — Mike Shea’s extensive library of practical advice for running great games with efficient, flexible preparation. The Lazy Game Master approach concentrates effort on material that helps at the table while leaving enough empty space for player decisions to matter.

Digital Tools

Software, platforms, and online tools that make it easier to prepare, run, organize, or play tabletop roleplaying games.

This collection includes tools for campaign management, virtual tabletops, maps, notes, character creation, random generation, writing, and other practical work. A tool does not need to do everything to earn a place here. It needs to solve a real problem well.

• 5E Coin Converter — Stephanie Ortiz’s straightforward utility converts D&D currency and divides a hoard evenly among party members. It answers the ancient question, “How much does everyone get?” without forcing the entire table to perform arithmetic while the rogue quietly revises the totals.
• Alchemy RPG — A cinematic virtual tabletop built around scenes, atmosphere, music, and story-driven play. Alchemy is a strong choice for games that benefit from evocative presentation without making tactical maps the center of every encounter.
• donjon — An immense collection of random generators and reference tools covering dungeons, adventures, encounters, treasure, settlements, calendars, names, science-fiction worlds, and more. When preparation leaves an inconveniently blank space, donjon usually has a button that will put something strange in it.
• Dungeon Alchemist — Mapmaking software that uses procedural tools to furnish rooms, place lighting, and rapidly produce polished environments for print or virtual tabletops. It is particularly useful when I know what sort of location I need but do not wish to position every chair personally. The developers specify that its current room generation does not use generative AI or large language models.
• Dungeondraft — A focused battle-map creator with tools for terrain, walls, caves, lighting, objects, and VTT export. Its clean workflow makes it useful for producing deliberate, customized maps without requiring the artistic training of a court cartographer.
• Foundry Virtual Tabletop — A powerful, self-hosted virtual tabletop with support for hundreds of game systems and an extensive ecosystem of community modules. Foundry rewards groups that want control, customization, automation, and the ability to tailor their digital table to the campaign.
• Kobold+ Fight Club — An encounter-building tool for assembling, filtering, balancing, and generating groups of monsters for a particular party. Its calculations are useful as a starting point, though no difficulty label can account for brilliant tactics, terrible dice, or the wizard deciding that today is the day to conserve every spell slot.
• LegendKeeper — A collaborative worldbuilding and campaign-management platform combining linked wiki pages, interactive maps, timelines, whiteboards, and controlled player access. It is especially good for campaigns whose locations, factions, secrets, and historical grudges have outgrown a sensible collection of notes.
• The Homebrewery — A free Markdown-based editor for creating polished, Fifth Edition–style documents in a live preview. It is an accessible way to turn homebrew rules, subclasses, monsters, adventures, and other creations into shareable PDFs that look as though they escaped from an official shelf.
• Watabou’s Procgen Arcana — A collection of free procedural generators for cities, villages, dungeons, caves, buildings, regions, and other useful maps. The results can serve as finished play aids or as raw material to alter, annotate, and repopulate with things that should not be living beneath the local bakery.

Publishers

These are the publishers and creative studios whose catalogs I return to for ambitious settings, useful Game Master material, memorable production, and games with a clear idea of what they want to do at the table. I may not love every title they release…no publisher’s vault is entirely free of mimics! Even so, these are the books and games that have earned them a place in the Library.

• The Arcane Library — Kelsey Dionne’s home for concise, highly usable adventures and Shadowdark, a fast and dangerous fantasy RPG built around exploration, consequential choices, and old-school tension. Shadowdark stands out for making its principles visible in play: real-time torches, compact character abilities, quick rulings, and a constant incentive to press deeper despite the obvious wisdom of going home.
• Chaosium — The publisher behind Call of Cthulhu, a landmark horror RPG about investigators confronting mysteries that may be understood but rarely overcome without cost. Its emphasis on investigation, fragile protagonists, and accumulating psychological pressure makes it an enduring source of lessons about clues, atmosphere, pacing, and the value of monsters that cannot be solved through ordinary violence.
• Free League Publishing — A Swedish publisher known for evocative settings, striking books, and game systems designed around a specific experience. My favorites include the accessible fantasy adventure of Dragonbane, the folkloric investigations of Vaesen, and the beautiful, dangerous wilderness of Symbaroum. Each gives its world a distinct identity while providing procedures that help that identity survive contact with the table.
• Kobold Press — A prolific publisher of monsters, adventures, settings, and advice for Game Masters and designers. The Tome of Beasts series is invaluable when familiar bestiaries have become a little too familiar, while books such as the Kobold Guide to Gamemastering and the Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design gather practical essays from experienced voices across the industry.
• Limithron — Luke Stratton’s studio produces maps, digital tabletop material, nautical resources, and PIRATE BORG: a rules-light, art-heavy game of cursed seas, undead horrors, desperate scoundrels, and regrettable quantities of rum. The game’s random tables, naval rules, vivid presentation, and enthusiasm for sandbox play make it useful well beyond its own dark Caribbean waters.
• Son of Oak Game Studio — The studio behind City of Mist, an urban-fantasy detective game in which ordinary people embody legendary figures while investigating a city veiled in supernatural secrecy. Its tag-based characters and cinematic mystery mechanics make identity, sacrifice, and competing personal truths part of play rather than material confined to a backstory.
• The Gauntlet — A publisher and gaming community responsible for Brindlewood Bay, the darkly cozy mystery game about elderly members of a book club solving murders while uncovering an occult conspiracy. Its mystery system refuses to hide a predetermined solution behind the screen, allowing the players’ clues and theories to create an answer through play. That makes it a fascinating study in collaborative investigation.
• Tuesday Knight Games — The publisher behind Mothership, a science-fiction horror RPG in which vulnerable crews confront hostile environments, corporate indifference, alien terrors, and their own mounting panic. Its fast character creation, accessible percentile system, exceptional information design, and deep catalog of compact adventures make it a masterclass in creating pressure without burying the Warden beneath unnecessary rules.
• Wizards of the Coast — The publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, including the revised fifth-edition rules commonly called D&D 5.5e. The current edition remains my preferred version of the hobby’s sprawling common language: accessible enough to gather a wide range of players, substantial enough to reward mechanical curiosity, and supported by a vast ecosystem of settings, adventures, tools, and third-party creations.

Note About These Recommendations

Everything listed here is selected according to my own interests and experience. Inclusion is not a claim that a resource will suit every table, and it should not be interpreted as an endorsement of every statement, product, or practice associated with its creator.

If you make or know of a resource that belongs somewhere in these stacks, you are welcome to suggest it through the contact page. I cannot promise inclusion, but I am always willing to examine another suspicious volume.

Note – None of these are affiliate links.