Suggestion Pot
Want to tell us what to put in the Stew? We’d love to hear from you.
You Suggest, We Write
If you have an idea for an article or a topic you’d like us to write about, or a site-related suggestion, you can post it in the comments below (or if you prefer privacy, email us).
We can’t promise to do your bidding, but nobody likes a naughty gnome — sometimes we’re not quick about it (and at times, downright s-l-o-w), but we’ll do our best to cover everything our readers want to see here on the Stew. (Okay, in fairness, there are probably people who do like naughty gnomes…)
Got a Suggestion?
Please use our saucy little search box to see if we’ve already covered the topic you’re interested in — there’s a ton of material in our archives. If you can’t find what you need, let ‘er rip — and thank you!
When an article is written based on one of your suggestions, or a site feature is implemented or addressed, we’ll edit your comment here to indicate that — and for articles, credit you in the article.
(Looking for an old suggestion? In May of 2009, after the Stew had been online for a year, we archived all of year one’s suggestions here: Suggestion Pot: 2008-2009.)
47 Comments, Comment or Ping
BryanB
I’m still waiting for an inspiring article about Savage Worlds and its plethora of campaign settings. Surely there is at least one gnome that has this game in their rotation.
Gnomed! – Our resident Savage, Telas, wrote a jumbo article on this topic: Come to the Savage Side
May 13th, 2009 - Link
Martin Ralya
You caught me mid-move with the Suggestion Pot. I’m going through and marking completed requests, and compiling the not-yet-completed ones — including yours on SW.
I’m sorry we haven’t gotten to your suggestion yet, Bryan. I know we have at least one SW fiend among us, so I’ll prod him about it.
The move won’t be complete tonight, but will likely be done by this weekend. Then we’ll be planning which suggestions to tackle and polishing up year one.
May 13th, 2009 - Link
Noumenon
I just want to know how you deal with spells like Hypnotism, Charm Person, and Suggestion. Monsters you know the PCs are going to try to kill, but how do you plan for them to start controlling your NPCs?
May 15th, 2009 - Link
LesInk
Suggestion for an article: A review/comment article on “A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming” found here http://www.lulu.com/content/3019374
May 19th, 2009 - Link
BladeMaster0182
Hi guys. I would like an article on mapmaking. Every DM does it and I couldn’t find an article on it. I know many of us do it by hand but some of us (like me) lack the artistic talent to draw out their dream world. There are some map making programs, but most I have found are overly complicated, or do not look very good. How do you guys do it in your campaigns?
Gnomed! — Troy’s Crock Pot: A map-making groove is loaded with tips based on your suggestion.
May 25th, 2009 - Link
MattCruikshank
I really enjoy reading Gnome Stew, and I have a suggestion / request.
Two very closely related concepts:
I’m a Software Engineer and in my tiny amount of spare time, I’m trying to work on a single player, computer roleplaying game. I’m looking for a few choices of fantasy RPGs in the Creative Commons, Public Domain or similar. (An “attribution” license would be fine by me, but I’d kind of like permission to use it in a commercial product, which some CC licenses don’t allow.)
I saw a recent Gnome Stew article by DNAphil who said he was System Promiscuous. I’d imagine a few Gnome Stew contributors are cut from that same cord. I’d really appreciate it if they would spend some time reviewing their favorite CC fantasy RPGs…
Then, there’s this other whole thing running around in my head…
I enjoy D&D 3.0, and I’ve been a DM running the Temple of Elemental Evil for a few years now. I’ve made for myself a massive wiki on my personal laptop computer that is a huge reference and immense DM aid. Since I’m not sharing it with anyone else, I don’t think I’ve broken the law. I have a wiki page for each spell, for each monster type, for each room in the dungeon – and they all cross-link. Each spell wiki has an image which is from the scanned in PHB that I’ve cropped to have just that one spell… Ditto for the monsters… Ditto for the room’s text and the NPCs in the adventure… (I own legal, physical copies of all those books, and I’m not sharing this with anyone else, so I don’t feel too bad about it.) The room lists hyperlinks to the wiki pages of the monsters, the monsters list the spells and effects, the spell lists the other referenced spells. I’ve broken out the NPCs as well, and all of their abilities. I also have Excel Workbooks, where each sheet is an encounter. It helps me keep track of initiative, hit points, and current effects. At the bottom, I list the tactics and daily uses of each ability of each monster (and hyperlinks back to them), so I can plan out each round… Each monster’s label in my spreadsheet is a hyperlink back to my wiki for that monster / NPC. I have converted the maps into hot-link web pages in the wiki. THIS IS SO USEFUL!!! Why do we play an RPG that has a closed license?!
If the mechanics of an RPG are an Operating System…
Wizards of the Coast is Microsoft.
There are a ton of Apples – creative, very good, and maybe you can even download them for free – but the publisher retains the copyright, so I can’t do anything like I’ve described above and publish it for the world to enjoy.
Where is the Linux of fantasy RPGs?
And if you pick one as a rallying cry, let’s make a wiki out of it, the likes of which even the very nice D&DInsider “Compendium” won’t be able to touch. Adventures and Campaigns can be made into BEAUTIFUL DM supplements that make running them A BREEZE.
I’ve even considered trying to raise money to get a professional game designer to do some contract work to create the core of the gaming system…
I’m pretty passionate about this, because I’ve spent a great amount of effort – but can’t share the results with anyone – and I’ve seen how amazingly useful it can be. I’d like to play in a world where we can all share and take advantage of this! DM’s of the world unite!
-Matt Cruikshank
Jun 6th, 2009 - Link
Patrigan
I’d like an article with regards to building a city. Tips and advice for drawing the floorplan. The important assets that any city requires (like mayor). And how to fill in specific story stuff into the city.
The biggest roadblock is mainly the drawing of the map. I can never find a good road between too much and too little. And with nearly 0 drawingskills, this becomes really though.
Jun 8th, 2009 - Link
Reddo
Hello, there! First off, I would like to thank you all for the awesome information-rich website you run. I’m going to start GMing a Campaign in Changeling: The Dreaming and it was very useful. I hope it’ll turn out pretty well.
Then I noticed there were no Articles concerning Online GMing (which is exactly the type I’m going to). Online GMing is nice in that with it players and GMs from far away can all play together, also being easier for players that aren’t that far away from each other to getting close (Getting online is easier and faster than getting somewhere else!). Some of the programs I use the most are Fantasy Grounds (http://www.fantasygrounds.com/) and RiPG (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ripg). They are both nice tools and I believe most Online GMs out there may be using not-so-great programs (even I could have no knowledge over a better one than those two!). So I think a gnome-made Article would be of very help for a lot of people (especially I, that am new to GMing, online or not). Again, thank you for all the great info I already got on your website!
Jun 18th, 2009 - Link
Bercilac
This discusssion:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-3rd-edition-rules/257592-i-want-believe.html
is ridiculous.
There are a few issues raised here.
1. How much metagaming is acceptable?
2. How separate should player and character knowledge be?
3. And, to avoid the scandal in the first place, how do you structure events, particularly spot checks, sense motives, and saves against illusions, so that the players aren’t tempted to metagame in the first place? In my mind, you have to be at least as crafty as your NPCs. It’s no good having an illusion that looks like a duck if doesn’t walk like a duck and sound like a duck. There must be some issues of framing encounters worth thinking about.
Jun 23rd, 2009 - Link
Bercilac
@MattCruikshank – FUDGE is the Linux… almost.
http://www.fudgerpg.com/
It’s as close as you’re going to find, anyway.
Jun 23rd, 2009 - Link
MattCruikshank
@Bercilac – have the FUDGE rules really not been updated since 1995?
I’m drastically underwhelmed with the way FUDGE is currently presented on the internet. Perhaps if a few Gnomes jumped in and helped, we could give it a nicer face.
Jun 23rd, 2009 - Link
BigYAvenger
Hackmaster Basic was just released. I’d really like to see it reviewed on Gnome Stew!
Jun 24th, 2009 - Link
whodo_voodoo
A rather open ended suggestion but do any of the gnomes have advice on writing up an adventure that other GMs could run? I’m currently in the process of writing up a Demon Hunters adventure and finding translating my game notes into a written and ordered format rather more challenging than expected.
Jun 28th, 2009 - Link
Crushnaut
Right now I am running a Vampire’s game with five of my friends. This was a our first adventure into gaming since we played DnD about 6-7 years ago. We play once a month, and in between sessions we play one-shot games based off the base World of Darkness rules with different players DMing.
The game started off well. Everyone seemed excited about playing, but now I get the feeling that my player’s interest has waned, although they do not seem to want to admit it. I ask the players if they are enjoying the game and they tell me, “YES! It is great!” But, then during the games they do not seem to pay attention. They seem more interested in having side conversations, falling asleep, or their favourite, drifting off into space. I try to rein them in but eventually I feel like I sound like a broken record player, or my mother nagging me.
For example. In our last game the group killed a bunch of women they picked up at the bar. I decided that they way they did this was very sloppy, and would probably draw unneeded attention to the group. Since the group did not seem to think that the Masquerade was a good idea I had two old Vampires, one Cirlce of the Crone, and one Lancea Sanctum, come and have two seperate Vampire philosophy sessions with the Player’s. I thought it was a great idea as the two views are polar oposites and I thought it would give the players a good look into the world of the Kindred. And since they seemed interested in posibly joining these covenants I thought, perfect. They will learn more about Vampire unlife, more about the covenants they are interested in, and hopefully learn to obey the masquerade.
All the players said that these conversations were really well done, and that it couldn’t be improved; however, during the conversation, one player was drifting in and out of sleep, one was doodling, and the others just didn’t seem to be paying attention. I tried to lead them along a Socratic dialogue, but when the elder Kindred asked them questions they just kind of hummed and hawed, and never really had an answer, or just did not really seem to want to interact.
So, this is the problem I have. I have players telling me the game is awesome, but to me it seems like they feel playing in the game is a chore. This effects me because it is no longer fun to DM as I do not feel the players are having fun. It makes me not want to spend time preping my games because I feel the players wouldn’t notice the difference between a prepared game and a winged game. Also, it becomes hard to hide suttle clues in the dialogues they have with other Kindred because they do not seem to pay attention.
Thus, my question is what do I do when my player’s do not seem interested in my games, but continue to tell me that everything is fine? Is it time to give up on this group?
Jul 9th, 2009 - Link
Scarecrow
Last night I finally ran my first game of Star Wars Saga. Everything was in place. I knew the rules, I knew the scenario. I was ready for them to fail aswell as succeed. I was prepared to say ‘yes’ to the players and let them go off at a tangent rather than railroad them.
The game was as dull as dish water. They aced all their rolls (despite making the DCs quite high – usually 20) and breezed through the scenario without any real challenges atall – except for one totally overpowered combat (but that’s another issue).
The problem as I saw it was that I didn’t complicate their situations at all. Sure they made their checks but that just made for a dull game. They needed to succeed at a cost.
I’m a great believer in complications rather than obstacles, but I am definately not quick-witted, cunning, devious, malicious or generally twisted. These are essential qualifications for a good GM, I feel.
So I was thinking that a Gnome Stew post on ideas, suggestions and tips on ways to complicate situations (especially non-combat situations) for your players would be useful and interesting.
Cheers,
Wayne
Jul 15th, 2009 - Link
temenok
Kind of related to Crushnaut’s suggestion:
How can you know when you, as GM, are being a jerk/bully? Speaking for myself, I always talk with my players after each game session and see how they reacted to it, so I sort of have a pulse on how they feel about the way I’m GMing. But there might be clues I miss.
Having played/GM-ed for 30 years, now, I’ve seen a lot of bullying GMs, and real jerks behind the screen. However, I’ve got biases and opinions, and am curious about others’ biases and opinions on the matter.
Jul 21st, 2009 - Link
BladeMaster0182
Hi there. I’m about to start up a Shackled City campaign with my DnD group. It is an award winning premade I found and I’m eager to run it. While I love making my own campaign, premades give me a lot of new ideas and do two things that take up the most of my prep work, map drawing and stating out NPCs.
However, the issue I had with my last premade was that it was too railroady. There was often only one or two solutions and this frustrated some the players. While I have no problem with linear story lines (all stories are linear in some way,) I do like giving my players some freedom.
What is the best way to make a premade less linear, without completely having to rewrite sections of the story?
Aug 13th, 2009 - Link
brcarl
One of my groups is dealing with an AWOL player. We’ve tried to contact him a few times but haven’t gotten any response. As it’s a play-by-post group, we don’t have the option of physically checking in with him.
As the GM, I’ve decided that he’s been absent long enough that we need to replace him. (Nobody wants to run his PC long-term.) The new player I’ve got ready to go, but I’m struggling with the exiting player: I don’t want to just kill off his PC, as he was a good player when he was around. We’re hoping he’s just dealing with lots of RL issues, and I’d like the option of bringing him back in if he returns. I’d also prefer an exit that makes sense in the current plotline, and isn’t blatently contrived (ie., he disappears mysteriously in a puff of smoke).
How should I handle this?
Aug 18th, 2009 - Link
Zaraphina
I’m a fairly new DM with a problem. I have a HUGE PARTY. I’m not exaggerating. My whole party is about 13 people, with 7-10 showing up regularly. It’s sort of my fault. I wanted to have a big enough group so that even if half the people were gone i could still run. I kinda expected that by now the party size would have gotten smaller (due to scheduling conflicts, etc.) but it hasent. The game is going fairly well, everyone is excited to come back everyweek. so I’m not looking to downsize, (plus it’d be rude as I personally asked them to come), but am looking of r some tips on how to manage such a large party.
Aug 21st, 2009 - Link
Zig
Hi, Guys.
Something I would find very interesting and useful would be a collaboration article from all of you about one unique magic item you have each had in a campaign you ran.
Also I think the comments for such an article if you asked the readers would be interesting reading and certainly useful. I, and I assume most GMs, are always looking for good ideas that have worked for other GMs.
Thanks!
Aug 23rd, 2009 - Link
CanadianHobo
I’ve been GMing for a fair amount of time now, and it’s just getting to the time to wrap up another campaign. None of my players though want to pick up the mantle of Game Master (A fact that frustrates me as for the past 3 years I’ve not been able to actually play in a game). It seems impossible to get them to understand that while I enjoy each and every session I run for them, it takes a lot of work to get it all together on my end. I’d find it interesting to know how the Gnomes would handle such a situation.
Sep 1st, 2009 - Link
MattCruikshank
@CanadianHobo – you could try picking a roleplaying game without a GM. I’ve heard of them before. Or try to get each of your players to GM for one night, each. Or try using Pathfinder Adventures, or some other completely prepared Adventures (to minimize prep time for you). Or see if anyone in your extended social network would be willing to come GM for you guys for a while?
Sep 2nd, 2009 - Link
jreyst
Hey guys – I’m the original creator and prime motivator/promoter of http://www.d20pfsrd.com which you graciously linked to in an article on Pathfinder several days ago. I was wondering if you might take a few minutes to write up a review of the site as it is today, including the many features we have available on the site. I’d love to hear your thoughts, pro or con, in order to improve the site.
Thanks,
John (jreyst)
Sep 9th, 2009 - Link
Tabulazero
Hi Guy,
I would love an article highlighting how you organise your DM notes? What do you write? In which order? On what support? Any tips you could share?
Would love to know how you approach dungeon crawls and more event driven adventures?
Sep 21st, 2009 - Link
Crushnaut
I did a quick search of the blog and couldn’t find an article on this topic. If I am wrong please let me know.
Anyway, I thought this could be a good article. How do you know when you have a player that is just not worth having at the table? What are the signs? How do you know when its not just bad DMing on your part?
Thanks!!!
Phil aka Crushnaut
Sep 29th, 2009 - Link
Jimc
Hey Guys,
I actually a couple of questions/suggestions/topics for thought, all from one game idea.
A while ago a friend of mine had an idea for a game about dragon riders. The game never actually happened; I think he couldn’t find a system he felt would allow his vision to play out happily.
So first up: What if your homebrew setting idea doesn’t fit into an obvious system?
The obvious idea was to play using any system and just giving your fairly typical each player a loyal dragon companion, the issue here is that he wanted the dragons to be fully fledged personalities in themselves. So how’d this be possible? In essence how do you have recurring and powerful intelligent, but essentially loyal npcs. How do you manage when a players mount, rather than a well trained warhorse is fully intelligent and able to (and should) question what’s asked of it? A similar question can be asked about systems which have intelligent familiars?
Final question is about the other way of handling it, ; the Dragon is played by a player as is the rider. How could you handle such a potential disparity in PC ability?
Oct 11th, 2009 - Link
sealer04tx
Hey Guys,
Thanks for the hard work and all the great posts. I’m currently running a DnD 4e game and your site has been a big help. I was wondering is you had any ideas about how to incorporate war into DnD 4e: characters lead troops? fight bosses? fun mini-games?
Nov 6th, 2009 - Link
Patrigan
might I request some elaborate examples and tips to use Stross’s Law.
I really like Martin Ralya’s article surrounding this and it has been an awesome tool to create several things, like races, events, places and so on.
But a fresh view on it (or a review of Ralya himself on his old view) would be awesome. It’s also a great tool for many aspiring worldbuilders.
Nov 10th, 2009 - Link
trisj
I would like to see something more specifically addressing how to run play-by-post. Places that support this type of gaming/good tools to use, ways to keep your players updating, problems one would face specifically with this medium vs. table top, systems that are better for this than others…yeah.
That or ‘What’s a GM to do when there is nothing to M?’ People move, things happen and unfortunately one can’t always run games. Besides the obvious picking up of the XBOX controller, what are some good things to do to keep those thoughts going and juices flowing?
Nov 11th, 2009 - Link
Great_idea
I have been GMing a group for about a year and a half now. It started out with me playing with my close friends, who are all very good, very fun players to play with. Over time, my friends brought in their friends, which I encouraged, and over time, they brought in their friends. We had an unwieldy huge party for a while (It was not unusual for twelve players to show up), and we tried to split it into two smaller groups, but nobody but me was willing to commit the time and energy to GM regularly.
Eventually, my original core players started leaving the group. Some of them didn’t like the size that the group had ballooned to, because it made everything take forever, and reduced everyone’s spotlight time to practically zero. Some of them didn’t like the playstyle of the newer players, who were combat-hungry minmaxers while the original players had played light, humorous, but roleplaying-heavy characters.
At this point, the party is down to a manageable size, but I’m no longer playing with my friends. I’m now playing with people I don’t really know, and I don’t really enjoy their playstyle very much. They are not people I would spend time with outside the context of the game, and I feel a little cheated that I am having to adjust my style to suit their wants, when I started out with a group that shared my interests exactly.
I just finished a fairly long campaign (with only one of the original players), and I’m currently taking a break while some of my players run short adventures and mini-campaigns. I had kind of hoped that this might encourage one or another of the players to take on a major campaign of his own, and maybe take the new crop of players with him, allowing me to go back to my incompatible older group. This is looking less and less likely as they fail to prepare for their sessions, and their adventures are generally treated as inferior to my “official” ones.
Anyway, I’m preparing for my next campaign now, and I’m just not enjoying the prospect of returning to the other side of the screen with these players. I want to play with my friends, and with players who are interested in something other than killing monsters and taking their stuff. Is there any good not-hurting-anybody way to get my favorite players back (without adding another high-preparation, time consuming weekly session), or am I stuck catering to the players who still show up?
Nov 20th, 2009 - Link
Havukin
Judging by the comments on many articles this site has a large community of intelligent and experienced GM’s reading it. At the moment you encourage us to participate by discussing things in the comments (and by using the suggestion pot). Have you thought about asking for and publishing full articles by the readers? Maybe hold a GMing article contest or publish a guest article of the month. This would probably cause some (lots of) work on your part because you would have to act as editors but might be worth it.
I at least have had ideas that I would have gladly shared with the whole community as articles, though I’m not sure if I could actually create anything I’d think of as good enough to send to this site.
Nov 21st, 2009 - Link
trisj
Not a suggestion for an article and potentially impossible but…
…is there a way that you can make your links to other sites open in a new tab instead of drawing people away from the article? It’s something minor and something people can get around with a few extra clicks but…if you can do this, I think you guys should.
Nov 24th, 2009 - Link
fanta
Hi GMs! Im currently running a D&D 3.5 campaign & I Have some issues because they`re all SO LEGAL GOOD (in a WARMAMMER 4k`s Space Marine way) that in the end its inevitable they turn to EVIL, so here is the poin of my topic.-
How can a DM deals with a PURE EVIL PARTY?
I must admit, I feel kinda sad for the destiny of my NPC & their families in the last session althrougt it was memorable because the twist of the plot made by the PJs.
Im concern about the plot twists that makes me throw all my preparation & lead the camapign ON THE FLY. Im kinda easy this way, the thing is: Im running out of towns because are all burned down ´cause my party tends to judge them as “heresy towns”.
TXS!
Nov 30th, 2009 - Link
bif
I’d like to see an article about:
Imagine a ‘friendly local gaming parlor,’ which carries little inventory and pays its expenses through a mix of hourly game room rentals, membership programs, consignment space, and by-order retail sales in order to offer a comfortable place for gamers to gather. Could such a business survive?
This article (http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/11/local-bookstores-social-hubs-and-mutualization/
) speculates on what bookstores might do to compete with online retailers. I think it applies to FLGSs.
The article basically says that bookstores aren’t compensated for much of the social value they provide as side-effects to their bookselling. To compete with online retailers, these bookstores might find ways to emphasize and monetize these social aspects through memberships, endowments, consignment fees, etc., becoming the ‘NPR’ of reading.
I don’t know if this is quite within the editorial scope of your blog, but I’d like to see the idea circulated a little within our community in case it inspires someone to give it a try. Alternately, is there a blog more focused on the industry aspects of gaming where this article would fit? Am I already behind the times on this?
Dec 2nd, 2009 - Link
Zig
I had a question about how other GM’s deal with a player base where you can’t rely upon all of them being able to show up on game day due to real life issues — spouse, children, other interests, etc.
My second edition D&D game has been on hiatus since end of spring. Normally I’d be able to ramp the campaign back up now that Summer is over, but that hasn’t been.
I’m feeling the GM itch and what to run a game for my friends once again. Going back to the last campaign could cause problems as essential characters might have the players running them missing gaming sessions.
I could also start a new D&D campaign, or go to another game like Shadowrun which I have run in the past. The problem I would deal with there is that I could never be sure which players will be able to show, and some of them give notice of a day or two only making it difficult to plan out the adventure. Example, putting a number of traps around for the rogue character to deal with and have his moment in the sun…but if he doesn’t show up I have to ditch the traps or find an npc to join the group.
How do other GMs deal with this issue. I’d appreciate any ideas either from one of the Gnomes and of the other GMs who read this site.
-Zig
Dec 12th, 2009 - Link
Crushnaut
I would like to work a rival, or re-occuring adversary into the next campaign I run. How do you guys work these into your stories? Do you use the powerful, yet utterly hopeless defiler as seen on TV? Or do you use a truely threatening foe?
What if, to your best efforts, the PCs kill their nemisis before you are ready for that dramatic final show down?
Do you find rivals and reoccuring villains to be an effective way to add that extra something-something to a campaign?
Thanks.
Dec 15th, 2009 - Link
bif
OK, I’m back with more esoterica:
http://www.animationarchive.org/2010/01/gustaf-tenggren-and-genesis-of-golden.html
This article about a successful children’s book illustrator has a lot going on, but the part that struck me was how his art developed from full-page illustrations to ‘floating’ the subjects against the white page background in what was to become the ‘golden book’ style.
Its value to GMs can be summed up by this quote from the article:
“Instead of busy backgrounds full of details, he used just enough information to place the characters, and focused his attention on composing the figures.”
This concept is tossed around among GM advice blogs, especially as it relates to world building, in the form of ‘getting the most of your prep time’ and ‘the PCs are the stars of the story,’ and so forth. The illustrations used as examples in the article nicely sum up the concept visually and offer it a fresh persective, and are painted by a well-regarded master of his art.
Jan 22nd, 2010 - Link
hattymchappy
I’ve just started a new play-by-post 4e campaign and I already fear that it is going to implode. The main problem is with one of the PCs. I, as the GM, and a couple of the other players have a problem with her. She is a “Mary Sue” and frankly, she’s really annoying. Now I’m all for anyone creating any type of character that they like, and I want all of my players (including myself) to have fun. But this “Mary Sue” I KNOW is going to try to hog all of the spotlight, and she’s already acting like she’s above everyone.
Usually this could result in some interesting roleplay between characters, but in real life my other two players have little interest in having to interact with such a character. (And they are actually reluctant to post so that they won’t have to.) What do I do to make all of my players happy? I don’t want to tell the problem player how to play their character, but I need the other players to WANT to play with her.
Are we just being whiny, intolerant jerks? Or do we actually have a point? Any advice would be super helpful. I just want everyone to have a good time.
Jan 23rd, 2010 - Link
Katana_Geldar
I would like to see something about Star Wars Saga written up, there seems to be very little critique of the system on the Nets outside messageboards and my own blog. And given that the current publishing run is ending rather soon, perhaps someone could take a look back at the system as a whole and what could be done in the future.
Jan 27th, 2010 - Link
AvatarArt
Why, a review of the RPGPundit’s GnomeMurdered RPG of course:
http://www.pigames.net/store/product_info.php?products_id=553
And the 2 of you should do some cross-promotion.
Jan 28th, 2010 - Link
Martin Ralya
@AvatarArt – I’m not sure if we’ll do a review, but we have seen this game. We’re surprised no one has done an “all gnomes, all the time” RPG before, actually!
Jan 28th, 2010 - Link
trisj
You have reviewed various programs/apps that can help GMing; how about a compiled list of “Apps for your mobile device you must have,” or “Tiny proto-robot makes killing PCs easier (I jest).” Most people have some kind of smart phone these days and not everyone wants to bring their laptop.
It would be nice if the list was not iPhone-centric.
Jan 30th, 2010 - Link
AvatarArt
@Martin Ralya – Good point. But why didn’t you guys do one?
Jan 30th, 2010 - Link
Martin Ralya
@AvatarArt – We went in a different direction for our secret project — though a gnome RPG would be a ton of fun to develop. Maybe down the line we’ll tackle that one.
Jan 31st, 2010 - Link
LesInk
Dear Gnomies,
I believe I have been a victim of the suddenly-appearing-railroad scenario. There I was GMing my last gaming session when I found myself in a scenario where I thought the players would be forced to a desired endpoint where they are captured. Low and behold, the players were able to keep fighting off the rounds and rounds of sleeping gas (4E game mechanic wasn’t working as well as I would have liked) and just when most everyone was knocked out, another was jumping back up (can’t fudge the dice, they get to saving rolls). In this scenario, they were also trying to break through a grating to a pipe they had entered through and escape. The problem was I have this wonderful next scene that depends on the characters to be knocked out and everything depended on it. This isn’t my normal mode of operation, but we are experimenting with more cinematic games. Eventually, one of the players pulled out an obsidian horse and used it to pop open the gate and they fled. I could have introduced a very heavy hand to forced the ending to work in my favor, but I decided the characters earned their reward of escaping — they had already been put through enough.
The game ended there for the night and we talked a bit while I stewed over some possible new next scenes. I bravely piped up and asked the players if they would mind letting themselves get captured if I assured them of a few things that would happen (namely that they would wake up alive and still have their equipment). To my surprise, they agreed knowing that I was working up to something worthy of playing out.
So, here I come to my quest for advice — when you have something that you need to happen, what are some tips on making it seem pausible without offending the players? And what do you do when you thought the odds were all in your favor and they suddenly go sour?
I should also point out that I also dislike railroading, have read http://www.gnomestew.com/gming-advice/railroading-it-encourages-nothing and http://www.gnomestew.com/gming-advice/in-defense-of-railroading, but believe that sometimes you really need the players to turn left instead of right even when you want the illusion of right to be there.
Feb 2nd, 2010 - Link
Salbic
Is there a way to “nudge” a GM who’s unwilling to change or grow?
In this case, we’re all pretty new to roleplaying. Our GM rejects any gamerunning-related reading (articles, blog posts) I suggest, and even brags that he hasn’t read the GM’s manual for the game we’re playing — he’s afraid that any new perspective would “change his style.”
It’s not that he’s bad. We’re having fun most of the time, and he’s got a good grasp on the rules. But just because his approach works with this game and this group of players, doesn’t mean it will work with others, and I’m afraid that by ossifying so early he’s limiting future possibilities for all of us.
I’m his assistant (away-from-table duties — photocopying, player liaison — only), and I feel like I know more about GM’ing than he does. I don’t want to attempt a coup; I just want to share some of that knowledge. Are there any strategies to make him listen?
Note: If I come off sounding a bit patronizing or possessive here, it’s because he’s my younger brother.
Feb 4th, 2010 - Link
AJSB
Hey guys,
Despite being a player predominately (and only occasional part time GM), I’m loving the site.
My suggestion is thus: How much do you use minis to represent the game? Having played in two different groups recently, one where minis were used pretty much all the time, the other the exact opposite, I now find myself leaning towards no minis. I find I have a much, much clearer visual idea of the game, battles and characters when I’m not staring at a bunch of figurines on a grid. What’s your experiences? (Obviously the type of game will make a big difference here. Crunchy D&D might not lend itself to no figure action.)
Feb 22nd, 2010 - Link
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