Award-Winning GMing Advice
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2011 and
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1,183 articles packed with GMing tips and advice, as well as
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I have a hex map detailing the lands north of Steffenhold — the barony town that serves as the central point of my home campaign.
The map is perfectly serviceable. The main geographic feature of each 10-mile hex is shown by a mapping symbol. There are lakes, rivers, roads and dots for towns.
Hex map of the lands north of Steffenhold.
Should the players wish their characters to go exploring, I ...
It's not my job to keep Martin, our gnome-in-chief, happy. We gnomes be too mischievous for that!
But I seemed to have rekindled his interest in older editions of D&D, and gotten him in touch with the Old School Renaissance gaming community by sharing my gaming adventures using the old Basic game rules with my kids. And for that, I was more than glad to play a role.
That in ...
We gnomes often make it a point to say that it's important to know your players' tendencies, to riff off their "suggestions," know when to hit them with the spotlight or even exploit their weaknesses.
Mrs. Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster) plays with her earlobe, one of her "tells" that prove her undoing at the poker table, in the 1994 film "Maverick." (Warner Bros. publicity photo)
But it works the other ...
In this series so far we've created tiles from plaster using molds, assembled and glued them into place, and applied the base layer of paint. Now we're ready to add layers of paint that will bring out the texture of the tiles.
1. Wash (then rinse)
Here's a spot where a small detail brush comes in handy. We're going to do a wash, that is add a lot of water ...
In the first part of this series we cast the molds from plaster and in the second part we assembled and constructed the tiles into a modular dungeon set.
Now we're ready to apply paint.
1. Gather your painting supplies
Apple Barrel brand acrylic paints are inexpensive and probably available at your local big box retailer or craft store. (More expensive brands of paints — acrylic or otherwise — are available, ...
In the first part of this series we selected a mold for casting, assembled some 250 pieces for our dungeon tiles, planned what our modular dungeon tiles would look like and cut out mounting board pieces to fit.
Now we're ready for the fun part — especially if you like building with Legos or Lincoln Logs or any similar toys — actually constructing our tile pieces.
1. Tile pieces, assemble!
The ...
An aspect of the hobby I find rewarding is the craft side, namely painting miniatures and constructing terrain from plaster mold pieces.
Here is a "how to" on constructing a modular dungeon set with a single mold, using the kinds of crafting materials that are available at craft stores and big box retailers.
1. Selecting the mold
I purchase molds from HirstArts. For this exercise I chose one of the least ...
Being stuck inside on a winter's afternoon, it seemed an opportune time to run an impromptu game of D&D for two of my children.
(Carolyn's always in the mood for something fresh, so after weeks of train games and card games like Poo, Uno and Hike, she was willing to dive back into an rpg, while Jonathan was eager to use the new plaster dungeon terrain set he helped ...
Wizards of the Coast announces Monday it is working on a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons.
But what's this mean for you as a GM?
Other than speculation about what kind of game will be developed, what considerations should you be making now, before Wizards makes its first limited unveiling at the D&D Experience in February?
Some might be content to wait until 2013 (or later) for the game to ...
Urban fantasy's often a tough genre to nail down.
Fairy tale creatures and consumer electronics aren't always fast friends — just ask Jim Butcher's own Chicago-based sorcerer-detective Harry Dresden about the last time he tried to boot up a laptop.
But adventures set in the modern world with mythological creatures and magic can be very rewarding.
The question: Where do you go for inspiration for your adventures?
Recommendation: If you don't mind ...
For the novice gamemaster, designing a level of a dungeon can be a daunting, yet rewarding, task.
Keep in mind, a good dungeon crawl should contain a variety of elements.
There should be something to challenge each party member’s specialty ability or skill set, as well as something to amaze, to amuse, to frighten and perhaps something it would be best to evade or avoid.
Above all, though, is the big ...
Bullet points.
Short bursts of information.
Direct. Succinct. Descriptive. Engaging.
It's been nearly a year since I first read Charles M. Ryan's blog post "Putting a Bullet in Descriptive Text." In it, he describes how bullet-point Powerpoint presentations brought him around to incorporating the approach in his rpg adventure writing. Since then, I've used the method in my own game, and have been largely pleased.
Mr. Ryan knows of what he speaks. ...
As I continue preparations for the gaming group's upcoming foray into a Steampunk Eberron game, I've been reading some of the genre's fictional offerings for ideas.
One vision of a steam-driven nineteenth century London I've been quite taken with is that created by author Mark Hodder for "The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack." It's a Victoriana landscape littered with coal-fired penny-farthings, mesmerism, eugenicist wonders and a cut of ...
Last year I discussed the merits of a steampunk-styled rpg for the gaming group's next campaign. At that stage, it was just an idea, and really, required educating some of my gaming compatriots on the tropes of genre.
Teddy Roosevelt
Also, I was torn between advancing the timeline of my current homebrew city of Steffenhold or applying the convention of brass goggles and steam power to the two-fisted pulpy foundation ...
The personal computer made preparing game handouts easy. Type something up, download and apply a nifty typeface, print it out and present it at the appropriate moment. All good.
But there's something ineffable about doing a handout by hand. The homemade quality — the craftiness — can put a stamp on your on game.
Adding a touch of calligraphy is one way to do this. Here's the materials I have ...
