Posts Tagged by GM
| March 4, 2009 | Posted by Scott Martin |
Fang asks, What Makes the Perfect Gamemaster?. It is having fascinating world, scenarios and characters? Being able improvise, but not railroad? Perhaps if one lets players act whenever / however they like? I’m a big proponent for keeps things moving; is that it? Maybe a perfect gamemaster can handle a split party with perfectly equal spotlight time? Memorizes all the rules? Is fair to the players but not the NPCs? I like his required skill set, though they’re as impossible to reach as perfection implies.…
| February 12, 2009 | Posted by Walt Ciechanowski |
In my last Pathfinder session, one of the PCs was hit by a confusion spell from an unseen enemy and began attacking the rest of the party. As it turned out, this PC had only joined the existing group in the previous session under somewhat mysterious circumstances. Given the situation (and numerous failed Sense Motive checks) it wasn’t a stretch for the PCs to feel that they were betrayed. They descended on her like frenzied dogs and the player was soon creating a new character. I’m normally…
| September 29, 2008 | Posted by Walt Ciechanowski |
Not long ago, I was surfing the boards (I won’t mention where) and I came across a post from a gamer who insisted that it was the GM’s job to serve the players. I’m paraphrasing, but it seemed to me that he was saying that the GM should always allow player decisions to trump her designs. It’s a viewpoint I’ve heard echoed before. In the early 90s, I played a game under a GM praised by several gamers in my circle at the time. I…
| June 3, 2008 | Posted by Walt Ciechanowski |
I’ve been involved with many campaigns over the years that were location-based; that is most, if not all, of the campaign took place within a single location. The classic example is the superhero city; other examples from my campaigns include seaside resort towns, space stations, and pirate ports. I really enjoy running location-based games; over time, the location really gets fleshed out. I get to know the streets, the people, the civil servants, and the landmarks. It can be a lot of fun. One pitfall…
