Welcome to the 9th edition of Role Player’s Digest. We have a great feature article from Niamh Celeste (that’s me!) for you, as well as some links to more role playing inspiration.
Index
Feature Article
Use Brain Science to Have More Fun at the Table by Niamh Celeste
Announcements
U4K: Pallid Delve Edition now in print by Kerova Archive
Mindset
Show You Care by Natural 7
Solo Perks: No Performance Burden by Dice Wrought Tales
Music
Until the Last Torch Burns, a Dungeon Synth album by Lone Legend
Playthroughs
Riley’s Last Case by LittleMe
Resources
Adventure Players & Domain Players mixing in the same Campaign by KA Winch
Pseudo Gods! by A Humble Traveller
So, You’re New to D&D? by Joshua Bader
An Overview of Penpoint App by Niamh Celeste
Storytelling through Gaming
The real archmage is probably not running your magic guild by Kind of Old
TTRPG Design
Designing Living Eco-Systems in TTRPGs by Tasha Craven (The Zebra Code)
Choosing a TTRPG System to Create For by Adam Wright
Feature Article
Use Brain Science to Have More Fun at the Table
by Niamh Celeste
We play RPGs to have fun, right? But have you ever had an experience at the table that was just not quite the amount of fun you had hoped for? I’ve got some quick tips for you today that will help you adjust on the fly when that’s happening. Let’s get started putting the G back into RPG!
Stop Over Prepping
FACT: The brain alternates between the Task Positive Network (intense, focused execution) and the Default Mode Network (DMN), which activates during rest, wandering thoughts, and low-attention tasks.
AT THE TABLE: I am writing this because I need to hear it. Maybe you do, too. I prep like my life depends on it. The number of spreadsheets and documents I keep along with the incredible outline of play I make in Obsidian would make your head spin. This can steal a lot of my joy. I suspect that anyone who GMs overpreps, and I suspect that some solo players might as well. So here’s your wake up call: Prep is Play is not a complete sentence, at least when it comes to gaming.
MINDSET SHIFT: It’s just as productive to spend some time daydreaming about how you’d like your next session to unfold as it is to obsessively prep it. Here’s the actual complete sentence: Daydreaming + Prep = Play.
Scaffolding for the Win!
FACT: The human brain can only hold about four chunks of active information at once in working memory.
AT THE TABLE: You can get bogged down in figuring out modifiers, how far you can move in this flooded room, how far your spell will spread and travel, how long you’ve got left on that last torch, whether you have any rations left, how much stuff you’re hauling in your backpack, mapping where you’ve been, and where was that necromancer hiding? The word for this is cognitive overload and it will definitely drain all the fun out of your game if you let it.
MINDSET SHIFT: Use scaffolding, such as battle maps and tokens to set the scene and help you remember where you are and where that nasty necromancer is hiding. VTTs are great for this, particularly for players who struggle with spatial relationships or memory.
In the school setting, we used manipulatives to help kids learn math. You can use them at the to track things like torches, rations, and how much you’ve got in your backpack. People use dice for this, but there are other options as well. I recently bought some dry erase playing cards on Amazon Haul as a grown up manipulative. Very inexpensive and there are enough in the deck that everyone at the table can have several if they want them. I even write down rules that I tend to forget on them so that I don’t have to stop to look them up.
The Rule of Cool
FACT: Speaking of forgetting rules, that’s another area where we can experience cognitive overload.
AT THE TABLE: Some games are incredibly complex, and even a GM shouldn’t be expected to remember every nuance of every rule. As a table, try this: discuss the problem of the slowdown that occurs whenever the GM has to stop to look up a rule. That’s not fun for anyone, so it should be easy to reach a consensus that in these cases, you’re going to go with the Rule of Cool.
MINDSET SHIFT: The GM will make a ruling based on what makes the game more fun and moves the story forward. There will be time to double check the actual rule after game night.
There are No Bad Rolls
FACT: Fear of failure creates a threat response in the brain.
AT THE TABLE: Once the amygdala starts screaming like the RED ALERT noise on the original Star Trek, you’re not having fun anymore. True story: my ex-husband once upended a Monopoly game, scattering tiny houses and game pieces over a large area because he got a bad roll. This kind of thing doesn’t just shut down one person’s fun. Fear of failure is contagious, even if no game pieces are thrown.
MINDSET SHIFT: In coaching, we would talk about this problem as a fixed mindset. “I lost because I’m a loser. I’m always losing. I’m terrible at this game.” You get the idea. The person in a fixed mindset blames themselves for a random dice roll. It’s pretty silly when you think about it.
Instead, you want to learn to cultivate a growth mindset. So, instead of going to the loser place, think: “Isn’t this interesting! I wonder what my character will discover because of this. I wonder how the story will evolve from this.”
One of my favorite characters died on a bad roll. I will admit to you that I was pretty unhappy about that, but I didn’t go to the loser place. I let that character die, and the story played out in a way that was much more interesting than if I’d re-rolled to let him live.
I play solo and run a lot of characters at once, so that was easy enough for me. If you’re playing as a group, support your fellow player if they have a bad roll and the RED ALERT starts flashing in their brain. Help them embrace the possibility of this being the best thing that could have happened.
The Group is the Focus
FACT: When a group engages in shared play and mutual attention, their physiological and neurological patterns mirror one another. This is known as interpersonal synchrony. This triggers oxytocin and endorphin release, which builds trust and creates the fun we’re all looking for.
AT THE TABLE: The problem occurs when a table has one person who demands all the attention. Neither the GM or any single player should be the focus of the game.
MINDSET SHIFT: Consider the game of basketball. The role of the point guard is to make everyone look good by passing the ball to the right person at the right time. If everyone at your table decides to be like a point guard rather than trying to hotdog the play, your group play will become more fun and fulfilling.
Just for Solo Players
Cognitive Load Redux
FACT REVIEW: The human brain can only hold about four chunks of active information at once in working memory.
AT THE TABLE: You have to generate the world, interpret the mechanics, and stay in character simultaneously. This spikes cognitive load fast, and can lead to quick burnout or abandoned campaigns.
MINDSET SHIFT: Maximize the scaffolding you put into place. Lean on a GME and oracle tables. Try a minimalist style of note taking such as Lonelog. Let the tools carry the cognitive weight so that you can focus on narrative curiosity.
Dopamine and the Element of Surprise
FACT: The brain’s reward system releases dopamine, the reward chemical, in anticipation of novel information and unexpected outcomes.
AT THE TABLE: In group play, other people provide the element of surprise. In solo play, you know too much about your own adventure. That dampens curiosity and leads to predictable outcomes.
MINDSET SHIFT: Ask the GME questions that can genuinely upend your expectations. Yes/No questions are one type of these questions. But rolling on a meaning table in Mythic GME, for example, will also give you a very constrained answer. That’s what you want – an answer that allows you to fill in the narrative details around it rather than telling you too much.
Just Say No to the Internal Editor
FACT: The Executive Control Network is responsible for self-monitoring, judgment, and filtering out mistakes.
AT THE TABLE: We are our own worst critics. You would think that being able to play however we want at our own table would set us free to experiment and have more fun. In reality, the Executive Control Network can easily turn that freedom into doubt and self-criticism.
MINDSET SHIFT: Because we don’t have a group to offer support and scaffolding, we must learn to be self-advocates against this harsh inner critic.
I once attended a training for coaches where we were given silly finger puppets to personify our inner critics. We gave it a name, a way of further externalizing it. I named mine Edgar. So I learned that whenever Edgar pops up his silly head, I can laugh at him. He’s small, whiny, and I can shove him in a drawer any time I feel like it.
I’m not saying that you need to get a silly finger puppet, but you do need to figure out how to banish that inner critic who gets in the way of your fun.
In the meantime, give up the second guessing about whether you got the rule right or interpreted that meaning table correctly. Just play!
Conclusion
Our brains can either help or hinder us in our quest to have a great time when we play. I hope that understanding your brain better will pump up fun at your table.
Niamh Celeste writes more about brain science at A Reading Journey. She is the author of The Silver Spire News, a long-running isekai serial about an adventurers guild. In her spare time, she gives belly rubs to a very demanding dog.
Announcements
U4K: Pallid Delve Edition now in print by Kerova Archive
Mindset
Show You Care by Natural 7
Solo Perks: No Performance Burden by Dice Wrought Tales
Music
Until the Last Torch Burns, a Dungeon Synth album by Lone Legend
Playthroughs
Riley’s Last Case by LittleMe
Resources
Adventure Players & Domain Players mixing in the same Campaign by KA Winch
Pseudo Gods! by A Humble Traveller
So, You’re New to D&D? by Joshua Bader
An Overview of Penpoint App by Niamh Celeste
Storytelling through Gaming
The real archmage is probably not running your magic guild by Kind of Old
TTRPG Design
Designing Living Eco-Systems in TTRPGs by Tasha Craven (The Zebra Code)
Choosing a TTRPG System to Create For by Adam Wright
We hope you enjoyed The Role Player’s Digest. If you’d like your work to appear in the October 2026 edition of The Role Player’s Digest, please submit your articles, art, reviews, GM tips, or anything else having to do with role playing to us here by Friday October 23. In the meantime, May the Dice be With You!
Excellent main article-now I need to read the other articles. Before I go though, I have a game board flipping story too! Back when I was about 14/15, little sis was 2 years younger. We were playing Scrabble on a fancy lazy Susan game board. My sister put a word down which enabled me to put a word down in the triple word score category. After I did that, she decided she wanted to take her original word back. I said “you can’t do that!” She said “yes I can” and took her letters away. I got mad and hit the board with my fist and letters went flying everywhere! To this day, my family only remembers that I lost my temper and flipped a board, not that my sister cheated! Also, letters were lost. One ended up being stolen by my brother’s hamster and hidden in the stove. Which in turned created a funny, chemical like burning smell when Mom turned on the stove. Mom tore apart the stove and found a charred scrabble letter! Good times. 😂😂😂
Awesome article, love the unique neuroscience angle - it's a real personal interest of mine so this was great to see and relate back to gaming! I especially enjoyed the solo player parts, learning that prep is also play was the big shift that allowed me to relax enough to really get into solo in the first place, and to not feel guilty over going all in on the world holding before the story even starts 😅 Thank you for featuring my ttrpg design piece also! Now to check out everyone else's pieces, great lineup 😊