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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Carpe Blogiem: When Is a Dungeon Fantasy Campaign No Longer A Dungeon Fantasy Campaign?, Part II
Peter Dell’Orto talked a bit about how to not let your Dungeon Fantasy campaign become a fantasy campaign. It’s extremely well-written and if you want to avoid the situation that I describe in my first post then you should follow it to the letter. If not, read on. Many have used GURPS Dungeon Fantasy as a way to […]
Continue readingCarpe Blogiem: When Is a Dungeon Fantasy Campaign No Longer A Dungeon Fantasy Campaign?, Part I
Oddly enough, running Dungeon Fantasy demos are my local game store and my hacked-together version have given me a bit of insight into the series like nothing else ever has. At first, Aersalus was just supposed to be a straight-up Dungeon Fantasy campaign with all the normal rules and races and the beer and pretzel approach. […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: Bottled Magic
“Bottled Magic” was my fourth ever article and I was still finding my voice. My formatting was still rough as hewn stone and even the time I took to learn better editorial skills didn’t seem to make a damn. I’d stopped writing after Pulp Hunters because I felt I might never be able to get […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: Pulp Hunters!
My third article ever published had lots of editorial issues, but I was in for some serious OJT. It was also the first time I had a lot of outtakes of material I just couldn’t use. It was a labor of love for me because I really dig the various source material that Monster Hunters draws from […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: The Gryndel Menace
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with complete rule sets in my head. I’m talking down to the last perk. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night screaming because my eyes were just eaten by a monster and now I need to write it up in GURPS or describe […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: Outlaws and Arrows
I was one written article away from finishing the wish list in 2014. My brain was starting to become mush, and nothing in the Vault was working for the Wild West theme. Now, some of you might know this, but for the rest: I’m a huge fan of westerns. Huge. Old, new, whatever, their is […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: Cursed Thou Art
I’ve been thinking about coming up with guidelines for some of the fluffier disadvantages for a while now. And this article was the culmination on the one I felt needed it the most: Divine Curse. Divine Curse is one of those traits that is the equivalent of a multi-tool in the GM’s toolbox. It can […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: It’s a Threat!
It’s not secret that I have hundreds of article-size/small supplements that I’ve written for GURPS since 2005. The running joke on the forums is “Ghostdancer probably has an article for that.” The sad truth of it is that I probably do. I write too damn much – it’s a form of therapy for me. The […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: A Familiar Path
This started off life as a outtake from the already monstrous “Alternative Ritual Path Magic” and eventually grew into a article all its own. Not counting the time it took me to write the few chunks I excised from Alternative Ritual Path Magic this one took a surprising amount of time to incubate and write […]
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