Tag: game mastering

  • Give and Take

    As I mentioned in my New Year’s resolution post, I want to branch out and take on some guest blogging in the coming year. Writing for my blog is all well and good, and I obviously love it or I wouldn’t keep doing it. I love writing about any gamerly topic that pops into my…

  • Campaign Creation: In the Depths

    Last time, we talked about all the nasties awaiting our brave adventurers above ground. Now I want to look at what (or who) might be lurking underground. Giving it some thought, I want to split the Depths, as I’ll call them, into three main areas. The first area will be just below the surface, at…

  • Campaign Creation: Beginnings and Broad Strokes, Part 2

    In the first Campaign Creation post, we laid in a basic foundation for our campaign setting. Today we’ll expand that a little bit, focusing on the people around our characters. At this stage of the game I’m not looking to build fully detailed non-player characters. In fact, I usually avoid statting out NPCs until I’m…

  • Campaign Creation: Beginnings and Broad Strokes, Pt. 1

    Recent posts in the 30 Days of GMing Challenge got me thinking about campaign construction. Specifically, about how long it’s been since I built a campaign from scratch. I only have so much time in the day, so in recent years I’ve fallen back more and more on the use of pre-written campaign material when…

  • 30 Days of Game Mastering, Day Twenty-two

    We are close to the end of 30 Days of Game Mastering Challenge, closing in on the final week. I hope folks have enjoyed this. I had and am having a lot of fun, and with the exception of a minor hiccup last week, I like having a constant stream of posts. It is very…

  • 30 Days of Game Mastering, Day Twenty-one

    As we enter the final third of the 30 Days of Game Mastering Challenge, we start to look at more “meta” questions. Questions like… What are your favourite books about game mastering? My hands-down favourite book on game mastering is Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering, written by Robin D. Laws and published by Steve Jackson…

  • 30 Days of Game Mastering, Day Twenty

    Two-thirds of the way through, gentle readers. After today a scant ten entries lie between us and the end of the 30 Days of Game Mastering Challenge. I really hope you’ve found some of these posts useful. When this is over you’ll be able to read all these entries in one of two ways: either…

  • 30 Days of Game Mastering, Day Fifteen to Nineteen

    Never fear, I haven’t abandoned the 30 Days of Game Mastering Challenge. But last week became busier than anticipated, so once again you get a blog post covering the last several days. I promise, tomorrow we go back to one topic a day. Until then, pour yourself a coffee and enjoy. Memorable villains: how do…

  • 30 Days of Game Mastering, Day Eleven to Fourteen

    Moving into days eleven through twenty of the 30 Days of Game Mastering Challenge, we focus more on how things run at the table. As a reminder, if you follow the link above and look in the comments section, you’ll see all the blogs taking part in the challenge. I encourage you to do so,…

  • 30 Days of Game Mastering, Day Ten

    Ten solid days of the 30 Days of Game Mastering Challenge in the can! What are your tips for running a low/no prep game? As I said in an earlier post, I’m not the strongest improv GM. I’ve become better over time, but I’ve bolstered my meagre improv skills by being hyper-prepared behind-the-scenes. Every once…