Running a roleplaying as the GM can be simultaneously invigorating, ego-destroying, fun, and make you hate yourself. If it wasn’t so fun I doubt people would do it. Running a game is like trying to fix the engine on your car while you’re driving it or laying down the tracks of a train while it’s […]
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Gamemaster’s Guidepost: What I Think a Good Gamemaster Is
I am forever a GM by choice. I have very high standards when it comes to the sorts of games I’ll play in for protracted periods of time. If I’m in your game more than four sessions it means you met my standards and are continuing to meet them. Now that doesn’t mean a hill of […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Ten Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Out as a Gamemaster
There are things that I wish someone had told me when I first started out being a gamemaster. Stuff you only get told by someone who knows (assuming you listen) or things which you learn at the school of hard knocks. Occasionally, you can read about them if some wise and learned master (*cough*) writes […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: On The Care And Feeding of Players
GMs can’t run games without players and players can’t play games without GMs. It’s a paradox of collaborative storytelling. But players can be finicky creatures and not all GMs know how to heard cats. Here’s a few tips to keep your players happy without giving into them all the time. Agency of Choices Players do […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Short Sharp Shocks
Guest Post by J. Edward Tremlett #1: The Institute (File Under: Aliens; Demons; Fae; Secret Government Projects; Sorcery) Not everyone knows about the Institute, but everyone knows their handiwork. Because everyone knows at least one kid who just changed, seemingly overnight. One day they were super-interested in something – or had a real talent for […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Flying Solo
Guest Post by Scott Rochat Sam Spade. Wonder Woman. Lara Croft. James Bond. What do all these famous fictional heroes have in common? Simple: they’re nearly impossible to play in the typical RPG campaign. Oh, they’re easy enough to build mechanically. But each of them is typically a solo act (Justice League notwithstanding). They star […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: The Plague City
Guest Post by S. A. Fisher Most people fled from cities infected with the bubonic plague. For instance, Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron revolves around the storytelling of survivors who fled Florence, Italy during its plague years. Player characters, however, may have business inside a plague city. How do you handle that? Mashup GURPS Bio-Tech and […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: What I Think a Good Player Is
Because I have such high standards for myself as a gamemaster I also have high standards for my prospective players. I’ve talked about this before but I feel it bears another post to look over what I consider the bare minimum for me to invest in a player as a GM. And I do invest. […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Compromised Player Characters
One of the hardest things to do when running a game is to GM a compromised PC. (Compromised in this instance is a player character who is mind controlled, possessed, or replaced by a shapeshifter.) Taking over the character’s actions is going to result in the other PCs being suspicious so that won’t work – […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: How I Prepare Adventures
I’ve had a lot of experience running campaigns (both of the GURPS and non-GURPS variety) and have spent the better part of 28 years being a GM to a variety of groups in a variety of ways. After all this time I’ve learned a lot – which means I messed up a lot. No one […]
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