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What to do when your PC’s go somewhere you hadn’t planned
I’ve found that it’s really impossible to account for even half of exactly what your party will do. Oftentimes they don’t mean to go off narrative they just didn’t realize which direction you had intended them to go. There’s nothing wrong with this, but you do have to be prepared. Just because the party has [...]
Continue reading...Making Interesting Side Quests
17. November 2009
I've found that PC's don't generally want to constantly be focusing on the main story line of the game. They like a change of pace, a chance to have some quick fun. So what makes a fun side quest?
Continue reading...Building Cities
3. November 2009
In most world building scenarios your players will end up in cities frequently and if you don’t do enough prep work all your cities can end up looking about the same. There are many different GMing philosophies on this but I’m going to share what’s worked for me. When I first started I tried to map [...]
Continue reading...Using More Skill Challenges
27. October 2009
Skill Challenges are something I think many GM's have been using for years but was finally officially introduced to the D&D world in fourth edition (though notably things like this have been in other RPG's long before this). They are a tool to help you award experience fittingly for out of combat action (or sometimes in combat skill checks).
Continue reading...Dealing With Problem Players
20. October 2009
There always has to be that one guy. The guy that just isn't quite on the page with everyone else. Maybe he's obsessed with being as evil as possible in an otherwise good group, possibly he's good but just likes to pick fights, or he just disrespects the other player's time by talking out of game too much or being too distracted. These people aren't bad people generally, they just honestly have trouble fitting into the group and cause group disruption either in game or out of game. So how can we help encourage everyone to work together while hurting the fewest possible people?
Continue reading...Getting your players to care about each other
13. October 2009
Group unity is one of the most important things in a RP game. Without it the party spends more of their time arguing amongst each other then actually playing. Players quit games because of too much stress in a party so spending a bit of extra time focusing on keeping your party on good terms is time well spent. This is a follow up to what I wrote last week about how to get your characters to work together in the first session of a game. I'd like to expound a bit on that along with talking about how to keep them together.
Continue reading...Getting Your Players to Work Together
6. October 2009
When I first started GMing I was fairly against obvious hooks in a campaign. I mean, how frequently does your party composition make a group that would all randomly come together at some tavern (and all happen to be at the same tavern) and group up to do whatever the story is. Not frequently enough for a GM's taste.
Continue reading...Review of 4th Edition PH3 Playtests
22. September 2009
I've had a chance to tryout four of the playtests released from WotC for their upcoming Players Handbook 3. I'm not sure if I should be excited or afraid of this next release. It plays around with how a normal turn works and how a normal character acts which could be a really interesting development or something that adds way too much complexity to the game.
Continue reading...Nation Red Review – Asteroids with Zombies
21. September 2009
Nation Red is Asteroids with zombies. It's a fairly good arcade game overall and it uses this classic gameplay style with panache. Unfortunately it's held back by a lack of a multiplayer option and very little replay value.
Continue reading...Creating Intrigue in a Campaign
15. September 2009
One of the things I love in a campaign is intrigue. Don't get me wrong, I can still enjoy more straightforward games, but I love it when everyone has their own agendas and when those agendas conflict between people. It can be difficult to create it well though. It is very easy to end up with, instead of intrigue, a frustrating machination of plot or characters so transparent that the party never has to wonder about them. So how do I try to create good intrigue?
Continue reading...Troll Polls
Loading ...- Bridge Troll - the game of building bridges and eating people
- New video game drops today. For the Amiga!
- Bridge Troll - A new card game we can get excited about
- Star Trek Reviewed
- Zombies in Fantasyland - or creating a fantasy world that experienced a zombie apocalypse 100 years ago.
- The Forever War to be filmed in 3D, murdering a significant chunk of my teen years
- Mount & Blade Warband - new gameplay trailer
- BOH (new game for Amiga, Windows or Mac) creator Simone Bevilacqua submits to a grueling 8 question interview
- Jen Page is a chaotic-neutral gamer, actress, geek and our latest interview subject
- An Old Friend has Come Home to Stay
- ha1ku: Hey thanks for this review. I have seen this game ...
- Smart Business: good review I agree with you incredible game...
- Festival Tents: The game play in this is fantastic, just like guit...
- link wheel: Tex has a good review.... ...
- gainesville bike shop: Any vampire related movie excites me.... ...
- Battlestar Galactica keeps you on edge
- Stories with Meaning
- Of Orcs and Empire
- Old-School Gaming with OSRIC (Review – Races and Classes)
- Voices and Verisimilitude
- Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
- Why I’m Glad 4e Exists, Even Though I Don’t Use It
- Shotgun Diaries: Lightweight Zombie Roleplaying
- Scribblenauts 2 announced as I buy a new stylus
- Putting Gaming out in Public
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1. December 2009
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