I used to play in the same Dungeons & Dragons campaign every week. Now my friends and I struggle to arrange a play session every few months. At one point I tried to make it work with another group. We made a six-month Doodle calendar to find one date we could meet. We got together, discussed character creation, and never met up again.

A campaign takes so much setup, homework, planning and scheduling and rescheduling, it’s hard to keep up the momentum. Meanwhile, I made more friends who wanted to play, but didn’t know the rules. How would I ever find time to introduce them to the game, if I couldn’t even find time for more experienced players?

Running a game of Dungeons & Dragons, or any tabletop role-playing game, involves telling your players what they see. Players rely on you to give a sense of tone and ambience, but also to point out anything interesting or relevant to their quest. But they also need you to leave them room to ask and explore. A good game master learns how to describe a scene in enough, but not too much, detail.

One way to learn that skill, says redditor non_player on r/RPG, is to turn audio descriptions on when watching movies and TV shows.

It's a good time to get into Dungeons & Dragons, the role-playing game featured in Stranger Things and the podcast The Adventure Zone. The game has lost its nerdy stigma and is trendy among artsy parents and their kids.

Not only are tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and FATE a blast to play, they can actually improve your life. Whether you're new to tabletop RPGs, or you're a goblin-slaying veteran, there are plenty of tricks to make your games even more immersive and fun.

Not every game is about winning. Amidst the rise in tabletop gaming, dozens of storytelling games have emerged that challenge you or your teammates to create entertaining stories instead of beating each other. If you want to hone your skills as a creative writer, these are an excellent way to start.

Playing tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder thankfully doesn't carry the same stigma it once did. That's great because as this TEDx talk explains, the game can do a lot to help you in real life.

When it comes to roleplaying games, there are two titans that dominate: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. They have a lot of similarities, but both games bring something very different to the table. Whether you're an experienced gamer, or never touched a d20 before, here's everything you need to know to make the right choice for you.