It’s New Gamemaster Month! All month, every Tuesday and Thursday, visit newgamemastermonth.com to read specially tailored articles to take you from “wannabe” to “am” as a Tales of the Valiant game master! (There are several other great RPGs there too! Try more than one!)
As a bonus and encouragement, we’re interviewing some new game masters in our Kobold Creates program. In this program, Kobold Press provides sponsorship funds for digital creators who create and stream their own content using the Tales of the Valiant RPG as a base, expanding in creative ways!
Today’s GM interview is with the mononymous Kujo, owner and producer behind Crit Hit Chronicles!
Kujo, tell us who you are at the 10,000 foot level.
I am an independent professional wrestler of fourteen years and have been a huge fan of TTRPGs for even longer. I’ve played a lot of 5E, but I ‘ve also delved into systems like Daggerheart, World of Darkness, Fabula Ultima, and Kids on Bikes. I am currently running Tales of the Valiant games on Thursdays thanks to the Kobold Creates program, and Shadows Over Baldur’s Gate on Fridays which is a spiritual sequel to Baldur’s Gate 3. Come and join the Chronicle!
What got you interested in GMing? Was there no one else to do it? Were you the one with the idea you wanted to get out?
I had played in a few games for a couple of years before I discovered Critical Role and almost immediately became a “critter.” I remember my friends had picked up the 5E system back when it was released in 2014, but we were bummed that we didn’t have a game night to try and dive into a new campaign. I suggested running something since we were all excited about the game and Mercer had been a major inspiration to give it a try. I had never run a game before, but I was excited about it. We spent that night creating the setting together before characters started being made and then within a couple weeks we had our first game night.
Do you make your own setting or use a published one? What’s your favorite thing you’ve created or added to a world?
I have only just recently been running games in established settings. Prior to 2024, my games took place in homebrew settings either by my own creation, or a collaborative creation with the other players at the table. I find the setting offers a deeper connection to the player as well as the game master if the setting is created together.
My fondest creation would have to be the divine pantheon that exists in the world of Aeoria, which is the setting for our Tales of the Valiant campaign. The names of the Divine have all been wiped from history as names have power. Now, they are known as phrases that sum up their domains. As an example, the Divine of strength, wartime, and personal honor is She Who Conquers while the Divine of life, death, and the transition is They Who Guard The Veil. I also wanted to have the Divine be referred to specifically as that term, divine, as “god” and “goddess” still hold some of the gender binary.
What’s your favorite compliment you’ve ever gotten from a player?
I love hearing that players feel the freedom and safety to be able to tell the stories that they are looking to tell. I am a thorough believer in allowing the rules, and maybe even my own plans as a game master, to take a backseat if it means allowing a particular story beat or character defining moment to happen for the table.
Did you ever feel burned out? What did you do around that feeling?
I absolutely do. Game master burnout is real and it can hit hard sometimes. I find that taking some time to completely unplug from writing or game prep to just exist as a human helps a lot. I also believe in full transparency with my party on where my head is at and what can be expected. If my prep for one particular session is a little light, I communicate to my players that the session is kind of in their hands on where things go.
What advice do you have for someone who is thinking about GMing?
I’m so excited for you and the stories you will tell with your players! Don’t feel like you have to memorize an entire book on a system in order to run your first session. The whole point of GMing is to bring people together and have fun! Don’t forget to communicate expectations and safety tools with your party to make sure everyone feels comfortable, you included!
What’s a story from your first (or early) GMing experience?
I love this story. We hadn’t been able to meet in a while for a session before finally figuring out the scheduling to make it work. I had planned a chase encounter where the party would ride in one cart escorting a VIP from one city to the next while monsters would swoop down to try and attack them on the way there. I remember printing out the map, the markers for the cart, some scenery bits, and having miniatures ready to go. When my group arrived, we were chatting a bit and someone asked if they could gain a level since they hadn’t in a while. Being a merciful game master that I was, I said sure!
Here’s the thing though. Druids have a spell called transport via plants which allows them to essentially open a portal through the trunk of one tree and travel great distances through the trunk of another tree. We started the session and the druid cast that spell. The party was able to appear at the next town, completely negating the work I had put in to construct the chase encounter. It was hilarious and fantastic. That player felt bad, but I assured them that using that spell would ABSOLUTELY make sense in that context and that I needed a few minutes to rework my plans for that evening. I learned a valuable lesson that day. Druids can completely upend your plans as a game master and that is a fantastic thing.
What resources or other creators would you recommend to fellow GMs?
On a more encounter planning front, I use a book called The Monsters Know What They Are Doing by Keith Amann so I can go into the mindset of the enemies the party will encounter. I am a big fan of immersive audio so I also use Syrinscape and Monument Studios for some good music and ambient sounds. If you run your game over the internet, I highly recommend Foundry VTT as it is one of the best all-in-one virtual tabletops out there.
As for creators, I also highly recommend Folk & Myth, Critical Fayle DM, Blackwater DND, and Legends of Avantris. These GMs and tables really provide the wide scope of the different kinds of games and experiences you can have at a table. TTRPGs don’t come in one flavor. Don’t be afraid to try something new.
Is there anything you’ve done that you’d like other people to see?
I am so proud and fond of the story and world we are creating with the Tales of the Valiant game. The cast is spellbinding and I find myself looking forward to every Thursday when we get to play and continue telling this story. I am also so excited for Fridays when we have Shadows Over Baldur’s Gate which is our spiritual sequel to Baldur’s Gate 3. Exploring some of the possible endings and their effects on the world of Faerun has been so thrilling, and I cannot wait to see where that tale leads.
Both of these campaigns stream live on Crit Hit Chronicles on Twitch on Thursday and Friday nights, but we also have all of the episodes available on YouTube for anyone who would like to see how these stories began.
