So +Douglas Cole talked about “time dilation” and importance of actions on your turn in this blog post. And he brings up a point that I think every GM should be aware of: never, ever, ever make your players feel superfluous or useless. IF YOU DO YOU WILL REGRET IT. Just don’t. Seriously. Now some of you […]
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Gamemaster’s Guidepost: A Novel Approach to GMing, Part IV: A Matter of Character
Guest Post by Scott “Rocketman” Rochat “Be sure not to discuss your hero’s state of mind. Make it clear from his actions.” –Anton Chekhov I’m going to start with something basic, but true. Your players can’t see your characters. I’ll give you a moment to recover from the shock. It’s a problem every author has. […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: The Three Ring Circus – The Malefactors
+Peter V. Dell’Orto talks about rules-lawyering here and +Mark Langsdorf talks about it here so I guess I’m going to talk a little bit about it myself. First, let me talk about how I run RPGs. I assume (as does anything I write on my blog or when handing out advice to other games on other platforms) that the […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Randomly Generated Traps
Sometimes it’s a trap and you don’t know that you know. Sometimes it’s a trap and you knowthat you know. Sometimes it’s a trap and you don’t know that you know. Basically, sometimesyou need a trap to spring on your players and you don’t want to take the time to roll it up.Here’s twelve traps […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: A Novel Approach to GMing, Part III: Here’s the Plan
Guest Post by Scott “Rocketman” Rochat It’s the heart of a hundred novels and screenplays: the team of experts, moving like a well-oiled machine. With wit and muscle, they work their way past every obstacle, thanks to their intricate and well-rehearsed plan. But there’s a reason audiences don’t watch a rehearsal. Put it at the […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: A Novel Approach to GMing, Part II: Do I Feel A Draft?
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 […]
Continue readingGamemaster’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, […]
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