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The Sticky GM
An alternative method of planning and managing resources in your
gaming sessions.
©2020 Parts Per Million Limited
Written by Peter Rudin-Burgess

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Contents
I. Why The Sticky GM ................................................................................3
II. Sticky Locations......................................................................................5
What Is A Location? ...............................................................................5
Zooming In ..............................................................................................6

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III. Sticky Personalities ...............................................................................8
So, to NPCs .............................................................................................9
IV. Sticky Encounters .............................................................................. 11

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V. Sticky Stakes ......................................................................................... 16
VI. Sticky Plots.......................................................................................... 19
VII. Sticky Questions ............................................................................... 22
No, but… .............................................................................................. 22
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No........................................................................................................... 23
No, because… ...................................................................................... 23
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Yes, but… ............................................................................................. 23
Yes .......................................................................................................... 23
Yes, and… ............................................................................................. 24
Time for Pictures! ................................................................................ 24
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VIII. Sticky Combat ................................................................................. 27

Get Organized! ..................................................................................... 27
Orient them!.......................................................................................... 29
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IX. Sticky Kit ........................................................................................ 31

Whoops! Dropped the Ball!................................................................ 31
Cautionary Tale .................................................................................... 32
X. Sticky GM............................................................................................. 33
The Planned Adventure ...................................................................... 33
Now Things Get Interesting .............................................................. 34
Dynamic Mapping................................................................................ 35
XI. Conclusion .......................................................................................... 36
I. Why The Sticky GM
I was on DriveThruRPG.com one day, and I came across the Index
Card RPG [ICRPG]. I remember reading a review about this game a
few years ago and thought it was a brilliant idea. It was entirely visual.
Cards held images for threats, challenges, and locations. One may
have a giant black tentacle monster, another a chest, a third a church
or temple. Put them together in the order that makes the most sense,

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and you have your adventure. Your imagination fills in the blanks.
During play, the cards become the actual locations, a hybrid of the

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theatre of the mind, foregoing maps and measurements and a visual
representation of where people are and what is present.
I came across the game again today, and it all looks a bit sad.
This excerpt is taken from the product description (22/04/2020)
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>>The coolest RPG community on the planet: How-to videos, online
play sessions, and the ever-expanding updates that have made
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Runehammer a GOLD best seller! This is just the beginning, so look for
tons of ICRPG content on youtube and facebook ALL YEAR.
>>Google+ Community: Join the fun as it unfolds at
https://plus.google.com/communities/113794869422304907451
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The publisher, Runehammer, is not a GOLD1 best seller. They are an

ADAMANTINE2 bestseller, but even that outstanding achievement
didn't prompt a mention.
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Besides Google+ died a couple of years ago now, but the flagship
community is still listed as G+.
It all just feels like because the game is Print On Demand3 it will
never go out of print, but the game is effectively defunct, and that is a
crying shame.

1 A Gold best seller has sold more than 501 copies but less than 1000 copies on the
OneBookShelf network.
2 An Admantine best seller has sold 4001+ copies on the OneBookShelf network.
At first glance, Runehammer's website looks to be a few years out of
date judging from the date it was last updated.
I think this is sad.
Part of what prompted that click on ICRPG in the first place was a
discussion in the Troll Lord Games community4. It was about how I
use the common post-it note as a GM aid. There are five common
colours, and it is easy to jot down encounters on one colour,

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important rules (like drowning or fire damage, that sort of thing) on a
different colour, NPCs on a third and locations on a fourth. Before
you know it, you have an entire adventure on little peel and stick

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notes.
You can stick them around the edge of your map or stick them to the
right place in your campaign notes. If you players bypass an
encounter or a really cool trap, it is unused so you can just peel it off
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and move it further down the session. When it does happen, it will
still be fresh and new to your players and their characters, but you
haven't wasted all that prep in creating it.
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The use of post-it notes does something special to your game
mastering. As you read this book, you will see that every single thing
that you write on a sticky note get used. The days of creating entire
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adventures just to have the characters stroll on by will be behind you.

You create it, offer it up, and if it isn't used, it goes back in the file to
be brought out again in a future session. You will be creating things,
locations, encounters, NPCs as discrete objects that you put down in
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the path of the character. Literally pinpoint accurate. There will be no

need to map every room, create every NPC and plot for every
eventuality. The pinpoint process should be breadcrumbs leading
your players and characters deeper into your game world.

3 Print On Demand, often called POD, are printed to order from digital files. Large
print runs do not need to be made and stored in warehouses or shipped to stores.
4 Official Discord Server: https://discord.gg/jy6us48
II. Sticky Locations
What Is A Location?
What I mean by that is how much detail do you need at any one
time? Most players are not going to retain pages and pages of setting
lore if you read it out to them in some sages monologue. You will be

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lucky if they remember the name of the last city they stayed at, even
if they burnt it to the ground. You are generally better off drip-

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feeding pieces of setting lore to them as and when it makes the most
impact.
The same is true about describing locations. If you launch into a
monologue about the architecture of the sultan's palace, you cannot
expect your players to remember which minaret was larger, the one
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on the left or the one on the right. A note that says "The kingdom to
the north is ruled by barbarian tribes. They ride white bears, and their
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raids across the border are notorious." That the players are likely to
remember.
You could reduce the regional map down to just two or more places
that the main road will take your characters. Most characters in a
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fantasy setting will probably have scant knowledge of global politics

and even how far away places are. You could use a blue sticky note
for every major junction in a planned journey. On each note is a
description of the options and just a line or nugget of information
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from the character perspective about the place. 'There is a fork in the
road here; the northern route leads to "Rappen", a major naval port
city, the south continue to "Phitz", where the Templars were last
heard of'. You can add a few words to describe the junction.
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You can punctuate a journey with little pieces of lore like this. Maybe
there are two or three ways to get to Rappen. This time the
characters head straight to Phitz but coming back the take a detour.
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These little notes give you opportunities. You can drop in little facts.
You can suggest changes in topography and culture. You also get a
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half-way house between hand waving away the entire journey and
only interrupting it with random encounters and important
encounters. If every time you say "You are two days into your
journey when…" your players are going to be immediately on the
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alert, and their characters are grabbing for their weapons.

These waypoint notes help disguise the impending wandering
monster attack, amongst rustic villages, river crossings, bridges and
signposts.
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Zooming In
Your characters are in a temple to an ancient god. In this instance, I
would treat the altar as a location, and you can be pretty sure the
characters are going to go there. The entrance to the crypt is another
location. The big ritual circle on the floor is another location. Create
a note for each location. The characters and even the players are not
going to think of the entire temple, as a whole, they are going to
focus on the specifics.
A fully detailed description of the temple is going to be less easy to
use if your characters split up to examine different parts. The thief is
examining the door to the crypt; the wizard is scrutinizing the ritual
circle, the cleric is at the altar, and so on. Three separate notes are
easier to keep track of, than scanning up and down a page of
description when you need to find the difficulty to pick a lock or the
inscription on the floor.
Imagine you had come up with a particularly dastardly trap to go on a

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lock. You write up the trap on its sticky note. Right now that trap is
on the door to the crypt. The scene plays out, and before the thief

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gets to so much as examine the lock, the fighter kicks in the door. In
this case, you can keep your trap, and the players know nothing of it.
You can recycle it again on another lock. Just move the post-it back
into your GM file and bring it out again when you need it.
The rule here is: Everything that the players or characters will focus
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on is a discrete location and should be on its own note.
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III. Sticky Personalities
Locations on their own do not make for an exciting role-playing
experience. You and your players want to role-play, and for that you
need 'people' with whom to interact. Your players never get to see
stats and number, although they may feel them at the end of a sword
thrust. What your players experience is the NPCs personalities.

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This technique works as well for players as it does for game mastery.

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I will describe it first from the player perspective, and then how you
applying as a game master.
You sit down to play your favourite game, probably your one game
night of the month. You get your character sheet out and ask yourself
"Who am I?" The answer could be any number of things, a ranger,
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Lord of Grimdark, and insecure social climber? These can all refer to
the same character. Only the last one is going to help you get into
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character.
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Here is the suggestion. On the front of your character sheet, put a

green sticky note containing a short pen portrait of your character's
personality, a few turns of phrase and a mannerism or two. Now just
reading that single small note gets you straight into character. Things
like class/profession and skills or levels you are less likely to forget or
are prominently placed on your character record anyway.
If you, like my group, start your games with going around the table to
refresh people's memories of who you all are, they will be more
interested in your personality, your class or whatever can be
expressed in a word or two as can your preference for personal
protective equipment.

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So, to NPCs
The hard part of NPCs is to make them unique. It is too easy to

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make a generic shopkeeper called Bob, or gate guard called Fred. In
role-playing games, any one of these bit parts could suddenly become
an important actor. They could take a bullet intended for a Character
or become a quest giver.
What I am suggesting is that when you have a moment of inspiration
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for an NPC personality, or mannerism, even a catchphrase, you put it
on a green post-it and save it. Stick it on a page somewhere. Now,
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when you are either prepping a session, planning an NPC encounter,
or just plain need an NPC on the fly, out comes the green sticky
note. If you don't need to use it, the characters go somewhere else,
they shoot first and don't bother with the questions, whatever, the
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sticky goes back, to be used again.

If the players never heard it, it never happened.
You can build up a library, it may only be one or two notes at first,
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but you are likely to add them faster than you use them. As all the
inspiration came from you in the first place, a glance is likely to bring
back not only the bare facts but how you intended to play this person
as well. Unlike traditional, 'build an NPC and give them a
personality', with this method, you are guaranteed to use the
personalities you create. The top post-it or sticky note is going to be
the personality of the next NPC you have to role-play.
You can go one step further. Do you see that little (M) in the top
corner? This personality is intended for a minor NPC (or minion).
Other notes are labelled with a (B) for big (or boss). This icon stops
you 'wasting' a really great villain's personality on a disposable, single-
use NPC.
This technique makes the best possible use of your creativity for
NPCs. It captures your creativity when it happens and doesn't waste
a drop when you need it.

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IV. Sticky Encounters
Encounters are not limited to monsters, battles, and big, bad, evil
guys. An encounter is anything that forces choices and decisions on
your players. For example, the characters may encounter a sage or
seer that gives them important information. An encounter with a
belligerent port official could lead to customs inspections, and some

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awkward questions or an encounter with some roadside witches
could offer up a prophesy or dooming that throws the characters'

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future into doubt.
A well-crafted encounter adds a lot of flavor to a game. A simple
fight between the characters and some goons can be used to set the
tone of the adventure. An encounter where the characters suddenly
cross paths with half a dozen low-power goons is probably a bit
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boring. These are frequently used to wear down a party, use up
resources, inflict a few minor injuries. All with the intent of making
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arrival at the final big scene more dramatic. Skirmishes can make that
final scene more of a knife-edge where victory is far from assured.
The actual encounters along the way can consume a huge amount of
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time in playing them out when the characters' survival is never really
in doubt. Some role-playing games are never safe; critical successes or
failures can result in character death. Others are more forgiving, and
as soon as a power gap appears between characters and minor
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monsters, the result is never in doubt.

At this point, all these minor combat encounters are doing is eating
into your players' valuable and limited gaming time. If you want to
have these battles to wear them down and use up resources, make the
encounters count and make them memorable.
Resorting to a basic fantasy trope just for illustrative purposes, the
same holds for stormtroopers, deranged cultists, or yellow-bellied
cattle rustlers. Your party of intrepid adventurers encounters eight
zombies. The six characters are slightly outnumbered and take a hit
or two in the first round before they cut down half the undead; two
rounds later, the fight is over, and the characters took a couple of
minor hits. What the characters learned is that it is likely that they are
going to encounter more undead.
Now we try and run the same encounter again but with a bit more
forethought. This time we will place the encounter at an intersection.
Out of the dark shamble four zombies, The characters go into their
combat formation and engage the zombies, but as the battle is joined,

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two more come out of the dark from the left. Suddenly the characters
are all set up incorrectly; they have to split their force to cover two

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fronts. As the third round starts, two more zombies shuffle out of
the right-hand passage. Now the characters have zombies front, left,
and right, focus on the front, and they have two flanks being
threatened, split their force, and some of the less combat-capable
characters will need to fight. It also creates questions. Are there more
zombies, and where will they come from? What will happen next??
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The difference is, on one level, that the first encounter said: "here are
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some baddies, you are tougher than them, they are no threat, go roll
some dice." The second version said, "here is a situation that should
be easy, but it is getting out of control, and it could get worse at any
second." In purely game mechanical terms, the second encounter is
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easier. The characters are never outnumbered. The first time around,
the zombies had an overlap and could attack a few characters, two
against one. The second time, this never happened. The characters
always had equal or greater numbers.
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Another difference is that the second encounter utilized terrain to the

zombies' advantage, a lack of light hid their numbers, and the
crossroad meeting of paths allowed them to meet from the front, left,
and right. A simple crossroads made the encounter much more
interesting.
When you are planning this kind of adventure, be it a dungeon delve,
a raid on a stockade, or boarding a starship, there is normally a
destination in mind where the end of level boss is going to be
encountered. It could be the necromancer at the top of the tower, the
demon in the lowest dungeon level, or the starship commander on
the bridge. Between the start and the final showdown, you have a
map.
Traditionally you will place your encounters on the map, sprinkle in
some random encounters, so not everything is waiting in its room to
be killed, and you have your dungeon/tower/starship.
I suggest you forget placing encounters on the map. Why create stuff

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in places no one is going to go? Instead, why not design five exciting
encounters, each of which poses different questions of the characters,
and you place the encounters in the characters' way, at the right time.

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One encounter could be a pair of armed door guards. They could be
stationed at any door. They cannot retreat because there is a locked
door behind them. Their sole purpose is the prevent entry. How they
react is dependent on them and the situation. The players will see the
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problem as there are armed guards between them and the door; they
have to get to the door but probably don't want to alert everyone on
the far side of the door or get pinned down long enough for
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reinforcements to arrive. We already have lots of decisions that the
characters need to make.
Another encounter we place at a location involves the third
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dimension. It could be a balcony, a gantry, or that cradle thing that

always spells disaster for skyscraper window cleaners in action
movies. The goal here is that having foes above the characters makes
cover more difficult, making strategic movement harder. It is
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common to put minis on a table, and everything takes place on that

flat plane. A three-dimensional encounter will make the player think,
and their 'usual' battle plan probably will not serve them.
In a third encounter, we introduce an 'innocent' into the battle. It
could be a hostage or a non-combatant. Anything that makes using
that heavy machine gun or Fireball not an option and also gives the
bad guys leverage. It is not enough to grind their way through the
fight, and the characters have to protect the innocent from the bad
guys. The heroes may be armed and armored, but Vicky, the villager,
and Barny bystander are not.
This is where the sticky notes come in. Rather than dotting
encounters all over your map, half of which may never be used,
create just the ones that create the feeling you want from this
adventure. As I said above, five exciting encounters should be
enough. Think about how long a battle takes in your game. You
know how long a session you are likely to play. Use the two to set up
an exciting session. If you know you have time for three encounters,

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give them the three, but the third places them right on a cliffhanger
moment, at a great place to finish the session. In the second session,

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you run the remaining two encounters and the final big battle.

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This is an example of an encounter note. You can see that the

number of orcs encountered is relative to the number of characters.
If the party is four characters, there are eight orcs, six characters,
twelve orcs. The number in the trees is always two. There will always
be a minimum of one character, so we know there can be two orcs.
In addition to the basic encounter, this one uses terrain, cover, and
height advantage. It also has a very brief reminder of the game
mechanic for these conditions. The note also includes the combat
stats for the orcs, everything needed to run the encounter. (The stats
are from 3Deep5)
With a page full of encounters like this, you can order, re-order and
discard encounters as the session unfolds. Anything you don't use,
you can save for later or use in an entirely different adventure.
Encounters you know will not be wasted are worth putting that little
bit more effort into making them great. Make them a bit different,

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challenge characters, and your players will thank you for it.

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5 https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/217841/3Deep-2nd-Edition
V. Sticky Stakes
You have set up an encounter for the party, and when it comes to
breaking out the dice, the players treat it as 'just another fight'. Sure,
they may not know what is going on in the background yet, but they
see it as another "Insert sword for 20 exp" encounter.

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High-stakes encounters have a greater intensity, have consequences,
and keep the players engaged. Most players do not fear for their

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character's life when they see a minor skirmish laid out before them.
These encounters fix that perception. There is more at stake than just
life or death.
The technique introduces higher stakes to each encounter, on top of
the possible life or death, using up resources and slowing the
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characters down. You think of a cool complication, a hostage, a
burning bridge, run away coach, and when you plan an encounter,
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you slap one of these increased stakes sticky notes on top.
I touched on stakes in the previous chapter without really explaining
them. Stakes can be seen as modifiers to a situation, things that can
cause a change of focus or objective. For example, in the Encounters
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chapter, I suggested introducing a hostage or innocent into a combat.

That is an example of a stake. Other stakes could be time limitations.
For example, if the villain is fleeing, the bomb is about to explode, or
the cultists are about to complete their ritual, these are all time-
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sensitive stakes.
Another stake-raising technique was shown in the zombie encounter.
By adding more, in this case, zombies, to the encounter as time
progressed, it increased the stakes for the party. The 'safe' option of
putting the weaker characters at the back of the party doesn't work
when the party is being turned about. If the party's 'go-to' solution is
Fireball, being attacked from three different directions negates that
strategy or ramps up its cost in resources.
Another option is to introduce movement. Many things can move.
Enemies can fall back and retreat, possibly raising the alarm. They
can scatter in different directions. The terrain can move, bridges
collapse, ledges and walkways crumble, gantries fall away. A moving
terrain requires dynamic changes to the characters' plans. For
example, you can place the entire combat on a moving platform such
as the roof of a train, the deck of a ship, an ice flow.

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Unknown elements can increase the stakes. I like to think of this as

the seeds of doubt. If your players think that the mission is to get in,
kill everything; if they have to, get out. That is how they will play.
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Kick in the door, kill the monster, take its stuff and move on. If you
introduce an element that throws that simple view into doubt, it can
shake the character's confidence. An example of this could be, you
want to throw six orcs at the party. You introduce twelve orcs to the
scene, but the leader barks orders to half his squad telling them to
'not let them get away', and sends half the orcs off on a different
mission at a run.
What do the players make of this? There appears to be something
else going on that is more important than their invasion of the orcs
cave/lair/city/whatever. Do they follow the six orcs who have been
sent away? Do they press on with their original plan? What is the
right thing to do?
In your GMing folder, you create these complications as you get
inspiration. For example, you could see something in an action
movie, or real-life event, a scene in a book. Whenever the inspiration
strikes, you grab it and write it down. Then, as you run your game,
you can play the complications almost like betting in poker. "I'll see

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your 2d6 goblins and raise you an escaped wild boar!"
If you have been following this technique, you will notice that

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separating the events from the dungeon map means that everything
you prepare gets used. You are not detailing every room, placing
every encounter on the map, and rolling up every possible NPC.
Instead, you create the parts you want to play, the GM is playing the
game as well, and you place them in the characters' path. The players
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want to have encounters that make the game fun. They want those
encounters to be exciting and different. There is no advantage to
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anyone if you have a great scene planned for the kitchen involving
two gas cylinders and a T. Rex if no one goes to the kitchen.
Applying increased stakes to a regular encounter, just as needed, ticks
all of the boxes. At the start of an adventure, a 'straight' encounter
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may be enough to convey the threat level, set the tone, and draw in
the characters. Now you can apply an increased stake to an
encounter, just to up the excitement a little. Once you are deep into
the adventure, you layer your increased stakes. Not only is the bridge
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on fire, but the hostages are trapped on the far side; the goblin
captain sends three of his minions off back into the cave to get axes
and bring the bridge down.
VI. Sticky Plots
The plot running through your game is why the players are there. It is
the reason for it all. I say plot, but in reality, most sandbox6
campaigns have many plots running concurrently. There could be an
overarching campaign-level plot, an immediate, clear, and present
danger, a plot, and a character backstory-driven plot bubbling away

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beneath the surface.

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Plots, as I see them, tend to have five stages.
1. Plot Hook and initial barrier
2. A non-combat challenge
3. Obstacles to overcome
4. A final major encounter
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An unexpected twist or gateway to further adventure
The magnitude of the plot, from saving the universe, saving
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Manhattan, to saving a kitten, all take the same structure.
Sweet little girl cries out for someone to save her lost kitty is no
different from a crowd of screaming New Yorkers feeling a T. Rex in
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Times Square.
Finding a ladder or climbing a tree is not a lot different from battling
against the crowd and crush of people to get to the monster.
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Inching out along a branch that doesn't feel like it will take your
weight is on a par with rescuing trapped kids on a school bus.
Grabbing kitty without it drawing blood is your T. Rex takedown.
Who was the little girl's father? What made the mad scientist open
the portal for the T. Rex?

6A sandbox campaign in one in which the characters can go anywhere and do

anything, rather then progressing from start to finish through prepared modules.
The part where things are most likely to go 'wrong' is when the
players bypass the plot hook. They are too busy to save a poor old
kitty. When the crowd screams "Run!" the characters do exactly that.
Breaking your plots down into the five stages, you guessed it, each on
to discrete notes means that you can swap out parts that don't work.
If the characters ignore the first plot hook, you can create another
that feeds into the same adventure. I am not saying railroad your
players. An adventure they don't want to do today may be perfect for

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them in three months.
I like to slot in three plot hooks into every session I run. It means the

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characters have options. Plot hooks not taken can be recast in a
different style and offered up again later. By making the adventures
modular, this isn't a problem.
There is a truism that no adventure survives contact with a player
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character. One of the classic adventures of all time is or was Keep on
the Borderlands. It contained two locations, the keep and the Caves
of Chaos, and ran to 32 pages of room-by-room descriptions. I have
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very clear memories of being beaten to death by an ogre at one point.
Using this sticky note method, you do not need to write 32 pages of
detailed notes. Your location stickies will detail the key points in the
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party's explorations, and your encounter stickies will deal with the
challenges along the way. If the characters want to talk to the
Castellan, your personality sticky will let you play a character you
have been waiting to play.
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I am not saying you don't have a map, but you don't need to be tied
to the map. Make the exciting bits the place where the characters are
and where they are going. Not in the parts they will never visit.
The plot post-its allow you to manage where the characters are in the
story, and it means you can re-order events to suit the session on the
night. You can swap out elements that no longer feel right. You can
also upgrade parts if you have an amazing idea. Finally, it makes it
easier to play in a freeform style if your game is guided by a small
note telling you the objective rather than pages of longhand notes.
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In this example, there is no explicit objective. However, it is implied
from the previous note that it is a role-playing challenge just to get
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the party into a palace. It is one of those situations where the party
has some really important news. A guard will not allow a bunch of
unknown, heavily armed, and probably dangerous strangers into the
palace. His Sargeant feels the same way, "Not on my watch!"
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The plot offers up two routes, named NPCs in this case, that can get
them past the outer guards, neither of which is without
consequences. Both NPCs are, in fact, plot hooks in their way. The
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Contessa is up to something, and this is a "higher magic" adventure.

Father Ingram will have the party in his debt, a debt that he will call
in later.
The challenge cannot be solved with a sword, and casting Charm
Person on a guard will most likely be seen as an assault. That isn't
going to go down well. If the players come up with a third way, then
great, that is the point of role-playing games. If we were going to be
restricted to the options we are offered, we may as well play a
computer game.
VII. Sticky Questions
There will always be a moment when the characters go off on a
completely unplanned tangent. Most of the time, the pinpoint
process I have been describing will allow you to keep putting events
and encounters in the characters' path. They should never know that
tonight's adventure was not what you planned. But even the best-laid

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plans rarely survive the first contact with player characters.

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This sticky note method has a secret weapon. Actually, it has two
secret weapons, but they work well together.
I want you to look at this really basic d6 table
1 No, and…
2 No
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3 No, because…
4 Yes, but…
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5 Yes
6 Yes, and…
As you create each sticky note, be it encounters, plots, NPCs, or
whatever, you roll a d6 and jot down the result above.
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When a player tells you their character is about to go and do that

'thing' that will derail everything you had planned, the first question
they ask you, like 'Can I open the box?', you use the answer on the
current sticky-note (the one that is guiding the current situation), as
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your answer.
Four of the six possible answers need a bit of explanation.

No, but…
This answer generally flips the question back at the character in a
really bad way. It is the worst possible answer. I am going to use the
'Can I open the box?' question and suggest something like 'No, but…
you hear something crack and a small tinkling sound inside." oops!
Or how about, 'No, but… you think the box has started to tick.'
This answer throws the ball, figuratively, back into the character's
court. It is not often GMs are encouraged to say No to a player. This
is one of the exceptions. The answer is just an improvisation prompt
and should provoke an additional action from the player character.
That action in itself should give you more to work with and more
opportunities to redirect the action to an area you are more
comfortable with. It buys you time and lets you reorganize.

No

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Simple and to the point. As noted above, it is not normally a good
thing to say No to player questions, but in this case, just think about

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the question, the situation and try and rationalize the No answer to
help the characters or advance the story. No doesn't have to be
negative if that makes sense.

No, because…
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The difference with this one is that there is a reason why the answer
is a No. Typically, one that the characters could do something about.
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'Can I open the box?' No, because it is locked. Simple, but where is
the key? Oh, it appears the Contessa has a small key on a chain
around her neck. Good luck getting that key!

Yes, but…
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The Yes but is not quite as good as a straight Yes. There is another
factor at work. Yes, you can open the box, but the hinges look really
flimsy and corroded; they may break. This answer also puts things
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back on the player character; they have a choice to make.

Yes
Nice and simple, the answer is Yes. Whatever the player asked, if you
don't have a good reason; otherwise, the answer is a Yes.
Yes, and…
This is the most positive response. The answer is a yes, but not only
that, there is more. This will push you to answer the question and
then provide something extra. Just because the answer is positive
does not mean that the answer is good. If the character asked if they
could hear guards, sirens, or ogres coming, Yes, and… could be really
bad.

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Time for Pictures!
Yes-no answers to questions you don't know you are going to be

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asked are only so helpful. So, to help you out of this unplanned
situation, we are going to use Game Icons7.
Game Icons are like Rory's Story Cubes, but there are thousands of
game icons. The website is Game-Icons.net, and the last link in the
footer is Random Icon. Use that link to get two icons and jot the
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name alongside your yes-no answer. Here is an example from a note
you have seen before.
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7 https://game-icons.net/
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So right now, you don't have to know what that means—the more
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obscure, the better in many ways. When the situation comes up that
you have to improvise, that is when you use these prompts. A
parachute could be a way out of a sticky situation; figuratively, it
could be a real parachute if that works in your situation. Double fish
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was a Pisces symbol and could mean someone likely to go in one of

two directions; it could be to do with the zodiac. They exist only to
give your imagination something with which to work. You use some,
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none, or all of it.

Imagine now that your player has picked up the box, and they ask
you about its appearance. You can tell them that it has a pair of fish
as a design on the lid and the box has a very delicate engraving all
over to represent scales. The player asks if they can open the box, but
it is locked; there is a tiny fish-shaped key around Contessa's neck on
a thin chain.
For me, in this example, the parachute didn't work. However, that is
not a problem. During a typical session, you may use a couple of plot
notes, three or four encounter notes, five or more personality notes,
and half a dozen location notes. That could be fifteen or more post-it
notes, all with possible answers and imagination prompts.
These are techniques from the world of solo role-playing, but in this
instance, they provide genuine support in a regular game. You don't
need to use them. If you know what is in the box or what you want
to be in the box, that is great. Chances are you have already made a
sticky note to cover the box, figuratively speaking. If you come up
short, that is when you can try and use the prompts. They can fill in

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the cracks in the pavement.
There is one other thing that these do by being on every sticky note.

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If you start rolling dice every time the characters ask you something,
it soon becomes obvious that they have gone off the page, and you
are making stuff up as they play. In contrast, having pre-rolled the
answers to any possible questions, it will appear that you are fully in
control and still working off your campaign notes. It may seem a
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small thing, but to the players, it makes a big difference. If they think
they are still on plot, small details may be important. If they realize
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they are into freestyle improv and you are making it up as you go
along, none of it is likely to have any importance. That may or may
not be true, but it can create that impression, and your players will
pick up on it.
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VIII. Sticky Combat
There is a joke that says role-playing games, where a three-month
journey takes 30 seconds, and a 30-second fight takes three hours.
We all dream of dramatic and dynamic combats. The characters race
through the castle, dispatching the evil baron's guards with a slash

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here and a thrust there.
It rarely works out like that. Games vary; some revel in the mook,

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goon, or brute squad8 that the characters fell like wheat before a
scythe. Other games value initiative, declared actions, and single
combats.
Faced with a brute squad, the players may be concerned the first
time; after that, these foes are little more than narrative threats. They
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can delay the characters, allowing more bad things to happen, but
they will not defeat the characters.
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There are two ways in which the humble sticky note can be used to
speed up your fight sequences. The first is in organizing you. The
second is in orienting them.
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Get Organized!
Most games have some like of initiative order. If this is you, then
grab a clean sheet of paper and right the fastest to slowest initiatives
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top to bottom. If it is a d100 system, then group them into 10s or

whatever works for you.
On a separate note for each participant, write their name. You can
put entire encounter stickies onto this page if they use the same
initiative.

8Mooks, Goons and Brute Squads are foes designed to be taken down by a single
blow, or at least extremely easily.
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If your initiative changes round by round or turn by turn, you just
move the sticky up and down the page as the players call their
number. So in the example above, the monsters are green, the
spellcasters are pink, and the party is yellow.
As a GM, you have a lot to keep track of. Who is burning, bleeding,
dying, or dead? The sticky for each combatant is a great place to put
this current state information. If it is a character that is bleeding, that
is something that the characters are going to have to deal with after

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the battle or while on the run, depending on how it goes.
As it is, I can instantly see Raven's state when I turn to Paul and ask

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for his actions.
No one is going to get forgotten in this visual initiative order.

Orient them!
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I believe I first read this idea in a blog by Johnn Four. The scenario is
that you turn to a player and ask what they want to do. The first thing
they want is a recap of who is doing what, what condition the other
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party members are in, and the state of the main threat. You give them
a round-up, and then they decide what they are going to do. They say
what they are trying to do, dice are rolled, more dice are rolled. Then
you move on and have to give a full recap to the next player.
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The problem is that all this is looking backward. This happened, that
happened, blah, blah, blah. It is very static, repetitive, and lacks
drama. It is also a huge amount of GM talk compared to player talk.
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Do not rely on the players to have successfully visualized the entire

scene. It is never going to happen. What works much better is not
starting by asking for their actions but by offering them a recap.
Changing the order of events takes out an entire interaction "What
do you want to do?" pause, thinks, "What is everyone else doing?",
and recap…
Using your visual ladder, you know what just happened, but you also
have other information to hand, who is dead or dying, who is
bleeding out, are the goblins in mid-charge? The cleric may be fine
right now, but the necromancer has his eye on them and is preparing
a spell.
We all know the sort of questions players ask. Can I move there, is
that in range, who is most injured? Build these into your request for
their actions. Now they know what needs doing and they can tell you
what they want to do. It isn't going to work every time, but it will cut
down the amount of time each cycle of combat takes. It makes
combat forward-looking and will add a sense of urgency. This is

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happening, and this is happening; what are you going to do?
The visual guide to the combat round with the critical conditions of

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each combatant laid out in front of you will make your combats go
faster.
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IX. Sticky Kit
Who doesn't like having magic weapons, cool alien tech, or simply a
bigger flipping gun?
At least once, that I am admitting to, I have run entire combats, the
big final battle in a plot, and only in the final looting of the bodies did
I realize that one of the antagonists had magic items that would have

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been useful if only I had used it in the battle.
If I now give it to the characters as loot, did they really earn it? When

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I set up the battle, I took the item into account. It was part of the
challenge to be overcome. Now they have won the battle, but the
item did not play a part.
The way around this is to pull out those cool gadgets, magic items, or
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über weapons and put them on their own note.
You have your sheet with the plot point at the top. Below that, you
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have the key locations. The encounters and this key NPC. Directly
beside the NPC is the note with Wand of Magic Missiles/Rocket
Launcher/Antimatter Ray. It is no longer languishing on some
inventory sheets. Instead, it is front and center.
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Whoops! Dropped the Ball!

If this item is the McGuffin needed to slay the evil blobosaur, it
needs to be found.
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If the characters miss the clues or don't stick around to search for
them, it is really easy to move the note to the next scene. They
[notes] don't have to be attached to people. If the McGuffin is in a
chest, but the characters don't open it, peel off the note and attach it
to the grandfather clock in the hall. Not found? Peel it off and put it
under the four-poster bed.
Forgot to use it in the battle? Move it to the next villain.
Rewards that are earned are worth more than those freely given at no
cost. By letting your special items and kit float over the top of the
NPCs, locations, and plot points, you can make sure they are in the
right place at the right time and hard-fought.

Cautionary Tale
Do not put all your magic items or alien tech on the same color post-
it note! There will be eagle-eyed players out there who will see the

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flash of color on your notes and immediately be aware that
something special is going on. Some players are really good at not
metagaming, but some just cannot help themselves.

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I see the most important items in a game as no different than a
significant NPC. For that reason, I tend to use the same colored
notes for both items and personalities.
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X. Sticky GM
This last chapter will show you how to bring all these bits of paper
together into something that you would recognize as a game session.
When I am running a game, I have the adventure I want to run, the
thing I have prepped for, and my file of stock sticky notes both on

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hand.

The Planned Adventure

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At the top of a new page, I stick the Plot Hook Post-it, rather like a
title on a page.
Below that, put the locations. Typically side by side across the page.
Remember that a location is unlikely to be A Tavern; it is more likely
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to be The Tap Room, Character's Room, Kitchen. The locations are
the places where the characters are going to interact.
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Placing these sideways across your page allows them to act a bit like
headings in a table. Then, in a vertical column below these headings,
you can add in the other important notes that set this scene. For
example, if the barkeep is in the taproom, that is where that note
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goes. If there is a possible encounter with a gang of thugs in the same

room, add that as well.
Each column contains the notes for that location. If people move,
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you can move their notes to the right location. For example, if an
NPC asks for something from the kitchens, you can move the
barkeep's note across, making a perfect time to start a fight and then
blame it on the characters!
I recommend color-coding your sticky notes; it makes it really 'at a
glance' to see what planned or possible encounters are in which
location.
The plot hook sat at the top of the page is a constant reminder of
your goal here as GM. These notes are ultimately for you, not your
players.
My setup uses a ring binder, and each plot stage has a double-page
spread. A scene in a tavern may not need it, but a demonic cathedral
can contain many interesting locations.
That is how to lay it all out.

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Now Things Get Interesting
The other resource you have is your stockpile of unused notes.

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I have a page of interesting personalities; I put minor and boss level
personalities on a different sheet. You have encounters, stakes, and
items all to hand on their own pages. If the scene in the tavern is
getting a bit pedestrian, you can drop in an encounter from your
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stock. In this case, we throw in a hen party of drunken female half-
orc mercenaries looking for raucous fun. Take the post-it from your
stock and stick it to the Tap Room location.
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If the scene was the demonic cathedral, a suitable encounter could be
a minor demon leading half a dozen priests with a human sacrifice
(increased stakes). What or who is the real threat? The priests could
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be evil clerics with access to magic, or they could be no more

dangerous than your local vicar. The demon is an obvious danger. A
mixed encounter like this can be challenging. The priests could divide
their attention between characters and their sacrificial victims. The
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demon is likely to do its own thing. Your characters are going to have
to counter several different strategies being used against them.
Locations are not static. If a fight breaks out in one place, you can
instantly see who is close by. What are they going to do? You can
simulate their movements by moving their note from place to place.
For example, if a priest from the bell tower is rushing to the vicarage
to raise the alarm, you can move them from tower to boneyard to
vicarage as the rounds of combat roll around. The high priest can
then be moved from vicarage to boneyard to the cathedral entrance.
Just moving the notes around is almost instantaneous but can track
the movements of many different significant players.

Dynamic Mapping
What you should have now is a dynamic map of your adventure. The
players can move from location to location, but so can the threats
and challenges.
The use of color means that you can quickly spot a potential

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encounter and move it into the players' path, dropping it onto their
location.

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What you want to strive for is to use as many of your stock notes as
you can. There was no point in writing things if you never get to use
them! Your players will appreciate action-packed adventures much
more than them sitting around in endless discussions within the
party, not knowing what to do next.
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It is also highly likely that you got all sorts of ideas for related NPCs,
items, encounters, and stakes as soon as you planned this adventure.
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It is only natural that inspiration drives more inspiration. What you
are gaining is a more dynamic way of offering it to the characters and
for you to track the adventure during play. You created it, so now is
your chance to use it.
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The advantage of the post-it method is that you are not fixing
locations before play starts. Which means you can apply the right
thing at just the right time. There is more chance you getting to use
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all the things you created. Writing in long-form can mean that an idea
on page two is lost when the party is on page five of your notes.
XI. Conclusion
This way of working may be completely different from what you are
used to. Therefore, I do not recommend throwing away everything
you have ever learned about organizing yourself a GM just on a
whim.

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Try this out on a one-shot adventure. Or the first session of a new
campaign. Try it and decide if you like it. If you don't give it a go, you

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will never know.
If you don't like it? Try just making sticky notes for important items
and the NPCs personality and moving them to the front of the
character record, where they are least likely to get overlooked.
What I hope is that this little book and an ample supply of little sticky
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notes give the same sense of liberation as I felt when I broke away
from dungeon maps, numbered rooms, and pages of game notes.
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