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 readingTag Archives: Worldbuilding
Carpe Blogiem: AEON Primer – Setting History I
Buckle up, kids. This is going to be a long post. Before the Black Sky Aeon was much like our world in the beginning, in fact, up until almost 30,000 years ago it was the same. Then something happened. An odd asteroid collided with Earth. As the meteor streaked across the sky, it drew the […]
Continue readingCarpe Blogeim: AEON Primer – Setting Assumptions
As I have discussed before the first thing I do when I start to build a campaign setting is decide what the setting assumptions are. That is, what is true, what is false (if needed), and what is thought to be true. This is an intensely important part of campaign building and I can take weeks just […]
Continue readingCarpe Blogiem: AEON Primer – Introduction
I previously did a primer series on my Chronicles of Ceteri campaign setting and it was so well received I decided to do it again, but this time for my AEON universe. So first, here’s what my session recap page has to say (I’ve reprinted it here so you don’t have to go there): It’s […]
Continue reading
Gamemaster’s Guidepost: When to Follow, Make, Ignore, Bend, or Break Rules
GURPS is one of those games where if you try to use every rule for every circumstance you’re going to create an unusable pile of crap. It’s like sticking a bunch of magnets on a refrigerator and then expecting to see what color the fridge is. You can do it – but it’s barely recognizable. So how do […]
Continue reading
Gamemaster’s Guidepost: How Much Lore Is Hidden?
When building a campaign setting or starting a new campaign one of the things that you must decide as a GM is what skills are important, what skills exist, and what skills don’t exist. For campaigns with magic, psionics, and other “paranormal powers” one of the key jobs a GM has is to decide what […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Organizing Your Gaming Notes
Any gamemaster (or writer) worth his salt always has more ideas than he has time. These ideas may be half-baked, over-cooked, or perfect and fully formed like Athena on paper from your Zeus-like noggin. It’s just a hazard of the mindset – too much stuff floating in our heads and too much “what if” thinking […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
Free lunches? I don’t believe in them, well, when it comes to free stuff in a roleplaying game anyways. Now, I’m not talking about one woe for every weal – I’m talking about taking disadvantages and then weaseling out of actually playing them or suffering for them in some way. First, it’s just bad roleplaying […]
Continue readingCarpe Blogiem: A New Chronicle Part II
In the previous post we talked about the rules of the campaign world. This time I want talk about the players and their characters. Now to the rosters! A-Team Lineup The A-Team are set at a minimum of 400 points and they will be dealing with all manner of things. They are part of a private […]
Continue readingCarpe Blogiem: A New Chronicle Part I
My GURPS campaign has ended, long-live my GURPS campaign! Aeon came to a final close about 6-8 weeks ago. I answered some questions and left more questions unanswered. That’s usually a good way to leave things I’ve found. So what’s next? Returning to a previous campaign is what’s next. I’ve talked about my urban fantasy […]
Continue reading