Author: Patrick Benson

I am back from another great Gen Con, and I wanted to share with everyone one of the highlights for me this year. No, I am not going to talk about the ENnies (although that was super cool). I was in Sean Patrick Fannon’s “Savage Saturday Night” game again this year. I very much enjoy his Shaintar setting for Savage Worlds, he enjoys my ridiculous characters, and it has become a bit of tradition now that if he is running a Shaintar game that I…

Ever play poker? You might be dealt three of a kind, but you are never dealt three of the same. One eyed jacks, suicide kings, and the Black Mariah all stand out from amongst their peers. “Three of a Kind” is a series that is all about providing you with three distinct versions of an NPC archetype for you to use in your game, as well as some tips on how to use the archetype itself. So ante up, because you have nothing to lose…

It is no shock that some drivers are observing traffic and some drivers are focused on their own objectives. The ones who observe traffic are cooperative in the sense that they are working with others to prevent problems in order to get what they want, and the drivers who focus on their own objectives are taking dangerous risks in order to get what they want. The cooperative approach works out the best for everyone, while the selfish approach results in horrible wrecks on the road.…

Sometimes we fail to see the forest for the trees. I have found myself so caught up in trying to perfect one particular aspect of my game that I blinded myself to the whole of the game itself. It is easy to become focused and obsessed on a few details that seem oh so important the night before the game, but that really are not deserving of so much attention. A few of the monumental wastes of my time in the pursuit of perfection have…

Back in May I shared how my gaming hobby was impacted by my being laid-off from my former job of 13 years. I am happy to let all of you know that I have a new position, and that it is both more challenging and better paying than my previous role was. Having my job taken away from me was a rough but overall positive learning experience. I was considering how a similar scenario of the PCs being dismissed from a patron’s service might impact…

Details. I have such a love/hate relationship with details as a GM. Adding details to your game is like cooking with a powerful spice. If you add too little it is a waste, and if you add too much it overpowers the dish. You need to get the amount of the spice right for not just the dish as a whole, but for every single bite. It gets even worse though, because you have to get the amount of spice right for every single bite…

If you want to be a great GM you must risk your current game being a failure over and over again. You need to take risks in order to get rewards. Rewards do not come to the people who do the safe and sure thing. People who do the safe and sure thing get mediocrity at best. Do you want to run a mediocre game? If you answered yes, stop reading this blog. In fact, stop reading any form of GMing advice whatsoever. If you…