First, let me preface this with the following: Steven Marsh was even more of a freaking hero than normal. That man is the Patron Saint of Long-Suffering Editorial Work. Seriously, we need to get him canonized or something. I turned in a draft that could have been better, but the timeline just wouldn’t allow it. […]
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Designer’s Notes: Eastern Adventures
I’d originally conceived Eastern Adventures as a one-stop-shopping for Dungeon Fantasy GMs who wanted to run games in “the Mysterious East”, but that quickly became nothing but wishful thinking. I was effectively trying to squeeze three books into one article. That just was not happening. I quickly trimmed my outline down to templates, races, a few power-ups, and […]
Continue readingGamemaster’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 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: 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 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 […]
Continue readingCarpe Blogiem: 2015 – A Year In Review
Like my last two years in review. Here are how things went for me in 2015: The Good (What I did well or that went well) I was published in Pyramid a lot this year: #3/75: Hero’s Jackpot (5/5 stars), #3/76: Dungeon Fantasy IV (4.5/5 stars), #3/77: Combat (4.5/5 stars), #3/78: Unleash Your Soul (5/5 stars), #3/79: Space […]
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 […]
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