From Len Henderson One of the most enjoyable parts of roleplaying for many gamers is combat. However, especially in large groups, players can wait for a considerable amount of time between turns. This sort of wait leads to boredom and cross chatter, annoying the GM and the player whose turn it is. Here are things [...]
Archive | March, 2011
A Trick For Easier In-Game Communication
From Joseph Rapoport Johnn, In regards to creating simple communications in games, I play in two campaigns and DM one in which we have all arrived at the same solution for communication. The solution is an item, a small hollow metal tube, which acts like a Message spell. The item comes in two forms: An [...]
When You Need To Cast In Secret
From Morgan Joeck One thing that bothered me when I first started gaming was identifying the spell I was casting when those around me would not have known what it was. My solution to that was to print out colorful fractals or other designs on index cards and fold them into little envelopes containing the [...]
Three Ways To Game With Casual Players
From Mark of the Pixie Johnn, I agree with your epiphany that we should play more. One way I am looking at to help facilitate this (as work, children, and other responsibilities reduce our time) is the logistics of how we play. Most of my games are fortnightly three hour face-to-face table top sessions in [...]
Organize Your Information With Evernote
From Jared Hunt http://www.jaredhunt.ca Evernote is a free service that I’ve used on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. There are versions for other mobiles and for Windows as well. It is a simple word processing program that incorporates online storage so you can share your notes across any number of your computers and devices. http://www.evernote.com One [...]
Conversation Skills in an Action Game
by Christopher Magoun Conversation, persuasion, oratory and seduction can pose special problems to new and experienced GMs alike. These charisma-based skills are often treated differently than physical skills. When a PC tries to use a physical skill, the GM assigns a difficulty based on the situation at hand, and the player rolls against his skill. [...]
How Do You Make RPGs School-Safe?
An RPT reader wrote in with a question about how to make sure the content in RPG materials used in a school club align with school policy. That is a tricky question I was not qualified to answer. So, I brought in the big guns – Katrina Middelburg – who wrote two articles for me [...]
Tips For Naval Battles
From Mark of the Pixie Age of Sail Battles My general rule is to go with whatever the players suggest. The description is however they want to describe it, but the mechanics stay as normal. So, if they declare they are going to “cross the T of the other ship and broadside its mainsail,” I [...]
Spy Tips: Blind Communication
From Logan Horsford Blind communication protects the identity of the message sender. This offers the perfect tool for villains in your campaigns. Here are a few blind communication methods: Dead letter drop I make a chalk mark on a building that you go by on the way to work. That means, “you have a package [...]