This week we interview Trevor, a GM who enjoys AD&D, WEG Star Wars, and has a love for creating his own worlds and adventures. Please introduce yourself: Your name: Trevor Wiley Do you have a blog, website or campaign wiki? http://worldcrafters.blogspot.com , the home for my D&D campaign as well as some of my other [...]
Archive | GM Techniques RSS feed for this section
Weapons Permits
By Ralf Kruytzer This article deals with the questions, Why are there weapon permits in my Fantasy Medieval World? Why are there restrictions on wearing weapons? How the heck did our DM got that goofy idea? (As some players might ask themselves). This article tries to help the DM (or GM) to sell such an [...]
GM Interview: Rory Klein
This week we interview Rory, a GM from Cape Town who’s a huge Greyhawk fan. If you have any questions about his campaign feel free to post them below. Please introduce yourself Hi, I am Rory from South Africa, Cape Town. I am 39 years old and I work as an IT Consultant. “Online,” I go by [...]
Big Secrets and Big Plots in Roleplaying Games
By Heather Grove So many roleplaying game plots revolve around secrets. GMs try to make sure that there’s always another mystery in the game for the characters to run after and solve – lots of people love a good mystery. Secrets add spice and interest to a game. They make your players go nuts trying [...]
3 Ways To Make Your Life As GM Easier
By Darren Blair Let’s face it. No matter how hard we try there comes a point where reality bogs us down. Last-minute errands, phone tag, burn-out at work or school, and other issues make it harder for GMs to plan and run the game, and it saps player energy and brainpower. So, what’s a good [...]
How Do You Prevent Metagaming?
In RPT#520, Sean made this tips request: Johnn, I nearly laughed aloud at work over the “One More Tip: Top 10 Ways to Stop Sounding So Damn Metagamey.” I would love to see some tips on handling metagame scenarios in tactful ways. My group tends to pour through every source book at their disposal (and [...]
Guide to PBP / PBEM
By Scott Sylvester With busy schedules these days there seems to be precious little time for the more mature and adult gamers to indulge in their teenage passions of gaming. Once upon a time, there were countless hours in the day that could be carelessly frittered away around the gaming table listening to your favorite [...]
Fear in RPGs
by Delphine T. Lynx Fear. One of our strongest emotions, and yet one very difficult to conjure up unless it’s genuine. It can be fleeting or eternal, gentle or monstrous. But how does Fear apply to RPGs? It is important to note that not every roleplaying game would benefit from a sense of impending doom, [...]
Adventure Design Tip: How Do You use Chekhov’s Gun in Gaming?
From Ben Scerri The literary principal of Chekhov’s Gun has been around since the late 19th century and has influenced every aspect of storytelling culture. However, in my experience, it has failed to fully affect gaming and the stories game masters tell. This might be due to the reactive essence of good gaming (i.e. the [...]