Category: Tools for GMs
| February 5, 2013 | Posted by John Arcadian |
One of the things that bugs me when I’m a player is the fact that games can tend to get really bogged down if the spotlight gets stuck on one player or style of play. Sometimes it is hard to avoid, and the nature of a particular session will be on one style of play or a particular player’s story, but I’m a firm believer in every player getting at least a little time in the spotlight in every session. When I’m a GM,…
| January 30, 2013 | Posted by Guest Author |
John Fiore is a “low-prep” GM and a connoisseur of stuff that makes his life easier. His guest article sold me a set of these little cubes on the spot. Thanks, John! I wouldn’t have spent a single minute with Caitlin — let alone date her for almost six months — had I known in advance that she was a militant vegan with severe dependency issues and a fondness for Coldplay. Our relationship was, at best, terribly inconvenient for me, and I could have done…
| January 29, 2013 | Posted by Guest Author |
Today’s guest article by Jakob Kallin is about RPG Ambience, a free tool for GMs. He initially wrote to us to tell us about the app, but once I’d checked it out I asked him to submit an article about using it. Thanks, Jakob! Ten years ago, I started planning my first Star Wars campaign. After watching the movies over and over, I knew one thing that I just had to include in my game: music. When the first session started and the sound of…
| January 25, 2013 | Posted by Guest Author |
Edward Lockhart is an aspiring Pen and Paper Roleplaying Game Designer, a Giant Nerd, and former frontman of a terrible High School Punk-Rock band. He also enjoys craft beer, single malts, and fine cheeses (and writes Violent Media). Thanks, Edward! Almost everyone’s thought about it, even if just for a moment. When you’re watching old footage of Mick Jagger swaggering around a stage, looking on with awe as Geddy Lee’s hands blur on his bass guitar, or just feeling that exciting buzz fill a pub…
| January 21, 2013 | Posted by Matthew J. Neagley |
Once again January has snuck up on me and dealt extra backstab damage, so it’s time to pretend that my B-string campaigns are something anyone else would ever actually run and re-“gift” them to you. As usual, I expect the real gift will be the comments section where everyone else piles on with their backburnered campaign ideas. These ideas are great for a new game for the new year, or for spare parts for inclusion into an existing game. Enjoy! Garden Gnomes: Gone are the…
| January 15, 2013 | Posted by Martin Ralya |
This is the third and final article in my sporadic series on Lamentations of the Flame Princess products: a look at my favorite aspect of Vornheim: The Complete City Kit. (The previous two articles covered Carcosa and Isle of the Unknown.) Like its predecessors, this is a product spotlight and not a review; Phil reviewed Vornheim back in 2011. Vornheim is a neat book in all sorts of ways. Written by Zak S., the author of Playing D&D with Pornstars (which is NSFW and excellent…
| January 10, 2013 | Posted by Scott Martin |
Social contracts. It’s hard to pick a topic more fundamental to a good roleplaying experience–or more dry to discuss. This time you can blame Roleplay DNA, particularly their podcast episode 15, Contact Negotiations. I had some “right on,” head nodding moments during the podcast and agreed with almost everything that was brought up. The truest–and most intimidating line–comes from Vern near the end of the podcast, where she mentions that all of the problems addressed in the previous podcasts were social contract problems. When she…
