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 – […]
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Gamemaster’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 […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: How I Designed An Adventure
Guest Post by Kalzazz I came up with and ran an adventure last Monday, so here is how it went. Around 6 PM identify that opportunity existed for game, ping potential players. By 630 PM I had identified players were available so I requested characters. By 7 had at least one character chosen, who was […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: For the Sake of the Game/Roleplaying
When you start a campaign there are things that you can do for the sake of roleplaying and there are things that you do for the same of the game. Every decision you make will fall into one of these two groups. When you do something for the sake of roleplaying you are often removing […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Player Immersion in Horror Campaigns
Horror is one of my favorite genres. In fact, I tend to run most games with a measure of it. Horror can go with just about anything even sometimes when you think it shouldn’t or does it. I like high-powered horror – kicking monster butt! – but I like the lower-powered stuff too. There are […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Reducing GM Overhead
Roleplaying games in general can get complicated even if it’s far on the end of narrativism. Simulationist RPGs tend to get a bad rap for overcomplications, rules, etc., but narrativist games can have the same problem with the GM having to interpret on the fly when a circumstance or event happens in game that the […]
Continue readingGURPS101: Unlimited Uses of Per Session Abilities
Some of the abilities in GURPS are priced in uses per session, but not all abilities are priced that way. This can lead to some oddities when creating a character who have abilities that are mixed type. Most abilities are either “always on” (e.g., they are active at all times for the character) or “switchable” […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Ten Tips for Starting Campaigns With Ritual Path Magic
Ritual Path Magic is arguably one of the most popular magic systems out there. It started as the “on-board” system for GURPS Monster Hunters 1: Champions and gained such popularity that it got its own book, GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic. It’s been explored dozens of times over in in Pyramid and has its own […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: What Makes a Worthy Character
In my continuing ramblings on what makes something worthy in gaming today I’m talking about one of the things that all RPGs have: characters. This might be a player character or a non-player character, but whatever it is it should have “character.” Here’s what I feel make up a worthy character. A Worthy Character Should […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: What Makes a Worthy Campaign
I’ve talked about what makes a worthy GM and what makes a worthy player . . . but there’s something missing. And that something is . . . what makes a worthy campaign? Normally, a GM comes up with the idea he wants to run and plans the campaign out over days or weeks and […]
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