By Andrew McLaren Roleplaying is a group activity. One cannot enjoy roleplaying alone. Sometimes the GM’s job is made more complicated by conflict that takes place within the group, when arguments and fighting takes place between characters and players. Consider the following situation to get an idea of what I mean: Having defeated the evil [...]
Archive | June, 2011
Managing Player Expectations
In the GM Mastery Yahoo! group, Randal recently asked, “How do you deal with player expectations? And more importantly, how do you prevent the game from failing as a result of not meeting those expectations?” Some great discussion ensued that included numerous points of views and GMing styles. I thought you might find snippets of [...]
GM Interview: Frank Bartlett
This week we hear from Frank Bartlett, who GMs for his wife and two daughters. I love the idea of the whole family gaming together! Well done, Frank. Please introduce yourself Do you have a blog, website or campaign wiki? No, while I use my PC to create my campaigns, my group prefers old school [...]
How to Make Your Games More Cinematic
by Travis W. Herring Many role-players enjoy evenings with their friends, sitting around the table or living room, eating pizza and drinking soda. For most, this is enough. For others, however, a traditional evening about the table isn’t. They want MORE. For those people, this article is the answer you have been looking for. How many [...]
How To Reduce Combat
By Mark of the Pixie If you want less combat, try these tricks. 1) Use fewer monsters PCs can only fight if there are people or things to fight. I know a few GMs who throw in monsters as a delaying tactic, to slow the game down. Don’t do this if you want to reduce [...]
Strategy, Tactics and Logistics for GMs
By Michael Beck (Read the original German version at http://spielleiten.wordpress.com) In the military, one distinguishes between different levels of decisions, called strategy, tactics, and logistics. I don’t want to delve deep into this issue, since I’m no expert in this field. But a short and rough explanation will help understanding the following tip. Logistics are [...]
How to Determine Campaign Length
By Jeremy Brown I was inspired to write this article by a problem my wife had when she first started trying her hand at GMing. She didn’t feel she had a good enough story. She wanted to run a long, intricate, and interesting campaign. Many novice GMs, especially ones who have played in experienced groups, [...]