Guest Post by Scott “Rocketman” Rochat “…I do like to take a story and reorder it, put things in different places. This allows me to see things in a new and sometimes surprising way.” –Carol Windley, Boston Globe interview Revise. Revise. Revise again. Few words are hated more by an author. And few might seem […]
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Gamemaster’s Guidepost: A Novel Approach to GMing, Part 1: The Plot Thickens
Guest Post by Scott “Rocketman” Rochat “You’re a GM, not an author. Don’t railroad!” Sound familiar? Sooner or later, it seems every guide to gamemastering includes that little gem, a reminder that this is a collaborative hobby, where everyone’s imagination counts. Don’t lock the players into a restrictive plot, we’re told, don’t predetermine your ending, […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Apocalypse Features
The post-apocalyptic genre has been steadily gaining popularity in recent years. It was a huge thing during the cold war and about 30 years before that, but waned for a while. Now it’s back and in full measure in pop culture. TV shows like Adventure Time, Revolution, The 100, The Walking Dead (and this summer, […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Wealth as an Attribute
Nathan “Crackerjakk” Joy asked me a couple of weeks back what I thought about Wealth as an attribute. I gave him a couple of answers that settled his questions and he in turn gave me a few ideas. Wealth as an attribute…what an interesting concept. It’s not novel. In fact, it’s been done a couple of times in […]
Continue readingGURPS101: It Ain’t Heavy, It’s my Shield
I’m not sure where I got the idea (I’d attribute it if I could), but someone asked why shields didn’t have a minimum ST requirement like other handheld weapons did. That’s actually a really good question. From a game design perspective I understand why it’s been done the way it’s done in GURPS. Think about it, […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Monster Hunters Campaign – The Broken Night
Today’s Gamemaster’s Guidepost is yet another departure from the standard fare I’ve been producing. In fact, it’s a radical from anything I’ve ever posted on my blog. This is something that I’d normally held in reserve for a Pyramid article. But I decided that I have so much already in that grouping that it was […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: You Need a +2 or Better Weapon
…I used to hate hearing my DM tell me that phrase. What do you mean this awesome weapon I’ve worked hard for can’t do diddly and squat (and diddly left town with Bo). Oh, it used to make me so mad. I remember actually keeping weapons I’d never use if they were a +3 or better weapon […]
Continue readingThe Hurt Locker: Metatronic Generators for Monster Hunters
GURPS Monster Hunters 5: Applied Xenology is out to day and man it is AWESOME. No, to be fair, I got to see if beforehand so I knew of its awesomeness, but seeing it released is pretty great too. New rules for magic, monsters, and making Monster Hunters totally non-magical if that’s something the GM […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Bringing Newbies to GURPS
JMD (who, by the way, is one of my absolute favorite people I’ve met on the forums – he’s the mad genius doing the GURPS Calculator) started this thread asking about why people don’t like GURPS. If you can read through some of the bullshit, check out the Reddit thread. I rather like this little […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Overcoming GM’s Block
“We’ll play next week guys…maybe, I just need to get over this block.” It’s happened to all of us at one time or another. Whether it’s for fifteen minutes or 15 weeks, it happens to the best of us. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something. So when the ugly aegis of […]
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