Category: Hot Buttons
| May 8, 2013 | Posted by John Arcadian |
I’ve recently completed a move to Mississippi and I have two new groups of players in two very different games. I’m running a very new player friendly game for some people who are unfamiliar with role-playing in general, and I’m running a somewhat advanced game with a mix of experienced players and new to gaming players. As I get used to the new play styles, I’m noticing some interesting things about the groups. The game for the new group is tailored towards teaching what role-playing…
| April 22, 2013 | Posted by Don Mappin |
You’ve no doubt heard — or uttered — the phrase that “no adventure survives contact with the players.” The argument being that even the best GM cannot possibly account for all the permutations that players come up with. Typically the bonzo, crazy ideas that come from out of nowhere (“I steal his pants”) are the ones that make us shake our head, pause for a moment, and then pick up the pieces. But this isn’t about handling those types of plans, it’s the opposite: the…
| April 2, 2013 | Posted by John Arcadian |
I’ve recently finished a long move out of my home state of Ohio. During the many long days of packing and unpacking, I watched a lot of netflix in the background, and being a geek I tended to watch lots of geeky tv series and movies. I realized a pretty common trope in a lot of fantasy, sci-fi, and supernatural shows is one of the main characters getting mind controlled – as in, really common. I was a little amazed by the amount it got…
| March 13, 2013 | Posted by John Arcadian |
Every so often I get the urge to run a game around very tight themes – a game where all the characters are thieves in a thieves guild, a game where all the players are members of a military organization with specific ranks and duties, a modern game where intrigue and politics rule the day, not pure combat, etc. Something with a definite, described theme with information provided to the players about what type of game I’m intending to run. Sometimes I’ve even done weeks…
| February 25, 2013 | Posted by Walt Ciechanowski |
Do you allow players to keep secrets from each other? In my early days of gaming, it wasn’t uncommon for players to keep secrets from each other, usually to each others’ detriment. The party thief (that’s back when we called a thief a thief, you whippersnapper!) often wanted to pilfer some valuables from other PCs or undervalue the latest haul in the hopes of getting a better percentage. Occasionally a PC was an infiltrator, tasked with some secret mission by the GM that went against…
| December 18, 2012 | Posted by Patrick Benson |
Many fantasy games include pantheons of deities. Gods of mythical origins and ultimate power. These entities can shape worlds and sculpt reality to their very whims. I have friends who treat the deities in their games as infallible beings. What a deity wants or desires cannot be questioned or challenged, and the mere mortal PCs must comply with a deity’s desires. The only way to avoid destruction for disobeying a deity’s wishes is to gain the favor of another deity to protect the PCs. In…
| December 3, 2012 | Posted by Walt Ciechanowski |
Admit it, we all have them. As Game Masters there is usually something that, no matter how innocuous, just gets under our skin. They aren’t major issues and certainly nothing worth sweating over, but they niggle just the same. They are pet peeves, and recently I was reminded of two of mine as they appeared at my table. The first is the Puppet Master. This is the player that “encourages” other players to use particular things on their character sheets, even if the Puppet Master’s…
