James and Chuckie talk about one of the most underrated GM skills out there — making NPCs that your players actually give a damn about. Chuckie's got a gift for this stuff. The voices, the dialogue, running full conversations between characters — James has been wanting to pick his brain about it for a while, and this episode is the result.

✨Pro-Tips✨

1. Props, even imaginary ones, are Chuckie's go-to trick for snapping into a character fast. Give your NPC a tie, a pair of glasses, a way they fidget — and suddenly you've got someone to play. He tells the story of Cockroach, from his Vampire: The Masquerade campaign. Sophisticated guy. Always adjusting the tie.
2. You don't have to do the voices! Seriously. If you can't do accents, don't. Tell the table someone has a deep southern drawl and their brain fills it in for free. That's the Welcome to Night Vale trick — the audience's mind canon does the heavy lifting. The catchphrase is a prop too
3. Trust yourself. Start with motivation and let the character build in real time. If you commit to it and you're having fun with it, your players are going to want to come back.

Happy Canada Day buds, get out there and give'er!

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Chuckie is off causing rambunction in Ann Arbor, so host James Austin Currie is joined by returning favourite and expert GM, James Gordon Ross, neither of whom, despite having three names, are serial killers.

In this episode, the bois dive deep into the machinations of the Big Bad. Whether you're running a globe-spanning cosmic horror campaign or a politically charged city-wide game, handling your main villain effectively is what separates a good game from an unforgettable one.

✨Pro-Tips✨

1. Pacing and "Setting the Clock" Balancing urgency without driving your players into paralyzing paranoia is incredibly tough. Ross compares pacing to canoeing: it requires constant, subtle course corrections. If the players are dragging their feet, remind them of the time limit ; if they're rushing past great roleplaying opportunities, ease off the gas.
2. Building a Skin-Crawling Villain The best villains are a dark mirror of your player characters. By letting a campaign "cook" for the first 15 to 20 sessions with low-level monster hunts , a GM can observe what the players truly care about and tailor the ultimate villain to target those specific moral values and vulnerabilities.
3. The "Barely Succeeded" Illusion: Always make your players feel like they just scraped by. Spin the narrative so it feels like their clever tactics completely caught the villain off guard, even if you planned it that way.
4. Poking the Party: Use dream sequences, bizarre realizations of cosmic horror, or eerie, untraceable telegrams to subtly pull your players back onto the main plot without heavy-handed railroading.

One of Us...One of Us....

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Don’t take a quiet player personally. If they're showing up to your table, they want to be there. As a GM, your job isn't to force them into the spotlight, but to figure out why they’re quiet and give them the space to step up when they’re ready. James and Chuckie break down the different flavors of silent players you'll meet at the table:

• The Unsure Player: Common in convention one-shots. They love the idea of the game but are hit with immediate "deer in the headlights" syndrome when looking at a complex character sheet.
• The Tired Player: They might just be exhausted after a brutal work week. Give them some grace.
• The Overshadowed Player: The shy player who tries to speak, but gets drowned out by the louder, more dominant personalities at the table.

1. Instead of asking a quiet player what they want to do, ask them to help build the world. Next time they walk into a shop, ask the quiet player to give you one physical or social description of the NPC behind the counter. It builds instant ownership.
2. Give Them a Purpose: In a campaign setting, weave the player's backstory directly into the main plot. James recalls an ETU campaign where a quiet player completely transformed into a party leader after discovering his character’s family lineage of vampire hunters.
3. Roll First, Describe Second: When a quiet player hits a successful roll, step back and ask them, "In your head, tell us what just happened." It hands them the narrative reins and builds massive confidence.
4. Be the Table Moderator: If you see a player physically shrinking because a louder player cut them off, hold up a hand and say, "Hold on a second, let’s hear what Joe was going to say."
5. And way more yapping on this topic

Support the Show: Check out the Good GMs Patreon to help the guys buy a coffee (and maybe a new, less squeaky chair for Chuckie).

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