I talked about what makes a worthy GM here. Now it’s time to talk about what makes a player worthy. Yes. The GM must be worthy of their players, but so too should the players be worthy of their GM. I’m rarely a player myself (I prefer being a GM), but when I am there […]
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Gamemaster’s Guidepost: Being a Worthy GM
This thread on the forums brought up something that is near and dear to my heart: “How do you determine if a GM is worth your time as a player?” The subject is actually a little complicated so I’m going to invert it a bit and instead ask: “How do you as a GM determine […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Paid Gamemastering
The topic of gamemastering for pay came up in the GURPS Discord and I just had to jump in. First, I’ve done paid GMing in my past and it can be a great experience if you know what you’re doing. You need to be a good GM, capable of improvisation on the spot, willing to hash […]
Continue readingMelee Academy: Evaluation As a Skill Roll
+Douglas Cole tossed down a gauntlet (as he usually does) while I was ill (I hurt my back about 2 weeks ago and it’s just now that I’ve been able to type or write for extended periods of time). While I was laid up I got to thinking, Evaluate is kind of a “special maneuver” – […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Narrative Focusing
So this post is going to be about how I go about preparing narrative/plots for a story arc. This is different from my writing process or how I take notes, or how I do game prep. But they are related to all of those. I call this process “narrative focusing”. Essentially, narrative focusing is an outline […]
Continue readingCarpe Blogiem: How I Do Game Prep
Game prep is the thing all GMs fear to some degree or another. Whether it’s fear of not having enough time for prep or having no ideas for prep, that fear doesn’t go away as your GMing skills increase it just lessens. There are probably hundreds or even thousands of ways to game prep – […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Learning From Your Mistakes
As a gamemaster you will inevitably make mistakes running your game. It’s just going to happen. Accept it now and be prepared to fix them. But how? Create a strong, but flexible base for your campaign. This way you can change it when you need to and still have a sturdy foundation. What do I […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Different Disadvantages
Some game systems don’t have (or need) personified disadvantages/flaws/etc. – GURPS isn’t one of them. Disadvantages play a huge role in determining how a character might react in a given situation or be forced to react if the player isn’t running his character as his disadvantage(s) dictate. That’s the whole point of having them – you get […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Highway to the Danger Zone
Running roleplaying games as a GM can be very rewarding. It can also sap your patience to the point of GM burnout. A state to be avoided at all costs. But how do you avoid that? Here’s a few warning signs I’ve learned (the hard way) to be on the lookout for. Player Despondency Maybe […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Recurring Villains and Their Care
There is nothing quite like an antagonist that all the PCs can hate together to keep a campaign moving forward. Sure, the villian put fricken lasers on the backs of squirrels and tried to kill the PCs, but what is a villian doing when he’s not tormenting the PCs? Moreover, how do you keep the […]
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