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 […]
Continue readingCategory Archives: Gamemaster’s Guidepost
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: Building History
Most GMs will eventually find themselves in one of two places when running games. Either they create their own settings (i.e., “homebrew”) or they use an established one. (Of course, there are heretics who do both at once, but we must consign them to the shadows where they belong)…. …if you’d like to read more, […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: The Heroic Index
The best games are a mix of gritty and cinematic elements. The player characters (and major NPCs) are cinematic beings with abilities beyond normal men and women. But the world they are in? That world is realistic. It’s the difference between a hero punching a mundane in a comic book and they go flying back […]
Continue reading