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 […]
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Designer’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 […]
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 readingDesigner’s Notes: The Perky L33t
My second Appendix Z, “The Perk L33t” was actually one of the first things I wrote after my debut article “It’s Pure Chemistry!” I’d just read W.A. Frick’s “Console Cowboys and Cyberspace Kung Fu” and I thought “Wow, this is amazing – how the heck did he come up with such a perfect application of BAD […]
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, […]
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