Author: Kurt "Telas" Schneider

Over at the Suggestion Pot, Gnome Stew reader and high-level Cleric BishopOfBattle cast Divination (or maybe it was Find the Path; I’ve taken too many negative levels in d20 to be an expert). Anyway, he asked: How do the Gnomes go about getting better player feedback? Often articles mention "Ask your players" but I often have difficulty getting useful (or sometimes any) feedback from my players. In a beautiful example of irony, this picture is from “stock.xchng” This is not an uncommon topic. I’ve seen…

Two students train at a martial arts school. One fights only students at or below his level, and has an excellent win-loss record. The other fights only students above his level, and has a terrible win-loss record. Which one is learning faster? – Overheard at a martial arts seminar When was the last time you got out of your safe zone and tried something new? Were you any good at it? Did you learn from your mistakes pretty quickly, and get better? Or did you…

The Forgotten Realms is a very complete and immersive setting, and I played in a great FR campaign under a most excellent GM. But the Forgotten Realms calendar has always frustrated me. If you’re not familiar with it, a week is ten days, the names of the months make no sense, and the holidays are irregularly spaced between some of the months. However, a year is 365.25 days, with another holiday held on the extra day. I greatly prefer the calendar from Greyhawk. Weeks have…

It’s that time of year again. When the temperatures hit the triple digits, when downtown Indianapolis gets funky, and when kids are squeezing as much fun out of the last little bits of summer before school starts. That’s right, it’s time for tax-free weekends and back to school sales. Time to pick up another year’s worth of gaming supplies. Even if your state isn’t having a tax-free weekend (or has already had it * ), many of the local stores will have school supplies as…

It’s easy to see a role-playing game as a one-way street; the flow of information is generally from GM to players. But the GM should also be collecting information on his players and their characters. If you’re paying attention to your players, you can really make the game fun for them. After all, the players are your primary audience. They’re also your opponents. You should go into each session with a solid idea of what they want, and what they are capable of. How? Glad…

This is part two of a two-part series on index cards. The first part dealt with using index cards during game prep, and included a brief overview of what kinds of cards are available, and how to store them. While no single approach is ideal for everyone, this article will focus on how I’ve been using index cards, along with some ideas that I’ve seen in use, so please excuse the ‘in my campaign’ tone of it. As usual, feel free to take what’s shiny…

This is part one of a two-part series on index cards. The second part will deal with using index cards at the gaming table. Unless you’re new to gaming, or live and die by the laptop, you’re probably familiar with index cards at the gaming table. A stack fits in your hand, and they can be used for any number of things, from notes to character sheets. Overview Before you run off and buy a thousand cards, know that they come in many different sizes…