Suggestion Pot: 2008-2009

This is the archived Suggestion Pot for Gnome Stew’s first year (May 12, 2008 to May 12, 2009).

Want to suggest and article? Visit the current Suggestion Pot.

72 Responses to Suggestion Pot: 2008-2009

clem
August 19, 2008 at 7:41 am - Link

Thinking about the sound contest, I had an odd idea. With a mixer, some presentation software, and a good collection of sounds, images and maps you could run a game like a business presentation, setting mood and background with sounds and generic dungeon tunnel scenes and illustrate encounters with images and sfx of lightning bolts, monsters, zombie moans, gigantic rocs flying away with the ship …. You could interact with the players by taking snippets of roleplaying and character action (for which you would cue up appropriate sounds and imagery) where a business presenter would take questions. This technique would get interestingly meta in a modern world corporate warfare or political intrigue setting. Besides change of pace, this method could be useful if you wanted to run a game, perhaps as a demo, for a large group of players that wouldn’t fit comfortably around a typical table.
AlasseMages
October 12, 2008 at 9:15 pm - Link

I’ve recently been put in the situation of being able to Co-DM a game with a much more experienced DM then I, though neither of us have ever had a game with multiple DMs before. I was wondering what you would do to fully utilize two DMs, as we can’t really think of much. How do you exactly run a game with two people?

Gnomed! — Covered in a double-header by John in My First Attempt at Collaborative Game Mastering and Walt in Methods of Collaborative Game Mastering.
Millsy
November 2, 2008 at 12:41 pm - Link

I remember a while ago (it must be a year or so) a few of us shared our own adventure prep notes (on Treasure Tables). I don’t know if that’s something worth trying at the moment… I personally found it really interesting, and got me to change how I prep for sessions. What do you reckon?

Not gnomed – (This is Martin) I liked this a lot the first time around, but it’s just not in the cards for us right now. There’s a definite possibility we’ll do it again sometime, though.
V. Hobbs
November 17, 2008 at 10:09 am - Link

Topic idea: Gaming on a budget. Because I have little money to spend on all of the gaming materials that I wish that I could, and so I always end up looking at my friends’ impressive collections and wondering how they do it.

Gnomed! — Scott wrote about your suggestion in Gaming on a budget. Thanks!
Marion
December 24, 2008 at 11:28 pm - Link

@Vorticus –
Group character creation….with new players it is a MYTH! With experienced players it can still be hectic. What I do is…well….a GM has to plan ahead is all I’m saying. Plan for that group of green-horns and have a complete set of pc’s already generated. When we do this it is sooo much quicker and easier to get the game rolling and that is what is important. When the players have their character sheets in front of them, already generated, then all we as omniscient GM’s have to do is go down the list one time for the character sheets, verbally detailing the different attributes, answering silly questions (heehee), and getting the pc’s on their way before the pizza gets cold. Well I realize that this is being posted LONG after the original question, but I hope this helps.
Timon
January 7, 2009 at 3:55 pm - Link

I would like to see a couple of posts on pacing games for children (9 to 11) and keeping things moving…

Gnomed! — Troy wrote D&D Burgoo: Adventuring for the Young’uns based on your suggestion.
Salcheech
January 11, 2009 at 9:35 am - Link

Hello i am new here, and am going to do a dnd campaign for my son 9 and two other father son combos children ages are all 9-10.

Was wondering if you have any tips and tricks for running a scaled down age appropriate campaign.

Perhaps an article on using one offs for morality exploration,and as platforms for parental discussions.

Love the site btw….

Gnomed! — Troy wrote D&D Burgoo: Adventuring for the Young’uns based on your suggestion.
Saragon
January 20, 2009 at 4:52 pm - Link

It’s a bit self-aggrandizing, but I was thinking about the presidential inauguration today and about how rare it is for political power to change hands smoothly, and put down my thoughts about it here. It really does seem sometimes – and maybe it’s just my games – that smooth transitions are considered the norm. But it’s so much more fun when they aren’t…
farfromunique
January 26, 2009 at 5:01 pm - Link

I’d love to see a bit about how to make skill challenges fun instead of tedious.
I’ve seen many people talk about going through some RP, rolling a d20 a few times, and then finding out afterward that it was a skill challenge. Compare that to the other end of the spectrum (my end, unfortunately) where players wind up not getting the hints, and play 20questions with their skills list: “can I use Acrobatics?” “How about Athletics?” … “thievery?” etc.

If you already covered this, I must have missed it and it didn’t come up readily in search.
Tazo
February 3, 2009 at 7:37 pm - Link

Your archives being as vast and voluminous as they are, I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t already covered this, but I haven’t found it.

How about a section on dealing with problem players? The Munchin, the Overactor, he of the Chronically Bad Ideas? I’ve been running into a lot of troublesome players and would love some advice on how to defuse things without having to ask them to out and out leave.

Gnomed! — Telas wrote this article based on your suggestion: Problem Players.
Bercilac
February 21, 2009 at 11:39 pm - Link

I would like a random article button, please.

Not gnomed — Well, kind of — we already have one! 1d12 Dire Weasels does the trick.
troy812
March 5, 2009 at 10:36 am - Link

More free money please.

Not gnomed — I’m afraid you’ll just have to settle for our contests.
troy812
March 5, 2009 at 10:44 am - Link

No really,
What I look for in sites is inspiration.
….New venues or sights, characters, creatures, loot, …. to show my players.
I would much rather see articles on how to facilitate ingenuity than a gaggle of new rules. You might say… I want to see articles on how to create new “things” by tapping into my creativity, not a list of “magic items”

For the most part this site does seem to do that well. I would like to see more of it.

Thanks.

Gnomed! — We write lots of articles with exactly this kind of inspiration in mind. You’re in the right place.
Martin Ralya
March 7, 2009 at 7:34 pm - Link

@Bercilac – Click on “1d12 Dire Weasels” in the sidebar, and your wish shall be granted.
raistlin50201
March 18, 2009 at 7:15 am - Link

Hello everyone,

so, my question: how do you get your player to meet the first time.

I have been in a few dozen campaigns myself and am GMing one. In most that I played, I was in military situations so we were just ordered together as a unit. I also often hear of the classic “You meet in a tavern and decide to travel together” stuff. For my campaign I tried to instead get everyone caught up in a mystery. Once it was solved, they were together and were familiar with each other and decided to stick as a group.

Do you have any suggestions on what hooks/actions to use to bring together the players realistically? I would prefer to let the players come together on their own than just say, you are a group.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

Gnomed! — Scott tackled this in Hi, I’m Magesto. Let’s go kill some kobolds!.
John G.
March 22, 2009 at 5:04 pm - Link

Hello all,

I was wondering how many people have GM’ed sessions with PCs at different levels of advancement (for instance, 1st level D&D PCs alongside 4th-level ones).

I’m considering starting off a campaign that way, but I’ve already thought of a few hurdles. Has anyone here tried it, and how did it work out?

Thanks!

Gnomed! — We wrote an article on this topic in response to an earlier suggestion, The Rambling Gnomes: New Character, Experienced Group.
BryanB
April 13, 2009 at 1:05 pm - Link

I was wondering if any of the gnomes have played Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition and what your thoughts about the system are. Also, what setting books have you used and which ones are your favorites?

Thanks!

Gnomed! – Kurt wrote this one for you: Come to the Savage Side. Thanks for waiting!
BladeMaster0182
April 20, 2009 at 2:06 pm - Link

Hi,

I was wondering if you guys had any advice on running an evil campaign. They’re a different monster than good ones (since evil characters are likely to kill each other.) What is a good way to keep it going? Some ideas I had were have them be apart of the same race or order.

Thanks!

Gnomed! — Walt wrote The Evil Campaign in response to your suggestion.
brcarl
April 22, 2009 at 8:38 am - Link

I’m currently running a published module (D&D 4e Keep on the Shadowfell), but have at least one player who would like the story to be more personalized toward the PCs. Any suggestions on how to take (often very generalized) published adventures and tweak them to integrate with PC backgrounds?

Gnomed! — Scott’s article entitled Customizing an Adventure: Making Published Modules Your Own rocked this topic.
brcarl
April 22, 2009 at 8:40 am - Link

Also, along the lines of my prior post just above: I have one PC in the group who wants some background integration, but the others seem content to just play along with the story. I’ve offered up some potential hooks to the other players, but they haven’t taken the bait.

How do I satisfy my story-driven player’s gaming desires without boring the other players?

Gnomed! — Scott tackled both of your suggestions in one article.
Patrigan
May 12, 2009 at 5:19 am - Link

Encounter Ideas…

This idea in my mind is mostly tailored towards D&D (most specifically 4E). But it could maybe done for any system.

It could be like a series of articles, all with specific ideas for encounters. Not just bland encounters, or encounters on a road. But actual 3D encounters, or Encounters with more than just opponents adding traps and similar stuff.

I’ve wanted to write something like this myself, but I’m not a gnome. However, when a man shares his ideas in a community like this, he is bound to get responses on how to potentially improve that idea.

That’s why, if you have a gnome hanging around not working enough, you guys could maybe make it a series? “Encounter” or “Into the Fray” or something. Not necessarily DnD ofcourse, I just don’t know any other systems.
Martin Ralya
May 13, 2009 at 4:38 pm - Link

Our thanks to everyone who suggested an article topic in our first year!

To keep things from getting too confusing, we archived all of the suggestions from year one (May 12, 2008 to May 12, 2009) on this page — which is why comments are closed — and created a new Suggestion Pot for current ideas. You can find it here: Suggestion Pot.

We’d love to field your suggestions on the current page.