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. […]
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GURPS101: Dungeon Fantasy Knight Power-Ups and Gear
I was playing in a Dungeon Fantasy game GMed by Timothy “Humabot” Ponce and one of my fellow players (Tai Parry) created what was essentially Link from Legend of Zelda. What eventually became one of Tai’s signature moves was a slam with a shield. It was, in a word, devastating. Inspired by various game sessions and a few […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: Magical Tradecraft
This one was another one of those things that was a blast to write. I mainlined Burn Notice for several days, while taking notes for cool feats of skill or times when magic would have just been insanely useful to have. I then watched a few spy movies, made a few more notes, and then […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: A Song of Many Worlds
Another article that started out a campaign material and then I whipped into shape to become something more publishable. Like most of the articles I pull directly from my campaigns I had very few pieces to cut because it was so concentrated. This was also the article where I fixed what I viewed as a […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: May the Shadows Guide You
With “May the Shadows Guide You” I began to hit my stride. I’d half a dozen articles under my belt and a hit in Metatronic Generators (which is still fairly popular years later). The meat of this article actually hailed from a defunct fantasy campaign I ran. My significant other wanted to use GURPS Powers: […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: The Wild Hunt
I don’t remember if I asked PK about it or if he asked me, but somehow we got to talking about GURPS Monster Hunters and faerie. I remember when I was playtesting the series originally that I raised this question and he told me he just didn’t have room. I asked if I could work the […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: Magic Bullets
This rather light article should have been quick to write. It wasn’t. It was like giving birth to a baby that had bone spikes on it. Really, I probably should have skipped writing anything for this issue, but when your broke you’ll do whatever you need to to make some money. All that aside it […]
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 readingMelee Academy: Hostile Diplomatic Relations (or “How to Disarm With Words Instead of Swords”)
“Drop. Your. Sword.” If there is anything more iconographic of a threat resulting in the disarmament of an opponent it’s the near final scene of Princess Bride. In my mind, there’s not much more powerful than the moment where Wesley/The Man in Black has nothing left to fight with but his wit and it’s more […]
Continue readingCarpe Blogiem: It’s Been an Aeon…
My new campaign setting, Aeon, has proven to be quite interesting. The base idea of the setting is the question “What if superpowers became real one day?” It’s not a particularly novel idea. But it became more (and I can’t really discuss what I mean by this – because my players read this blog) the […]
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