A modern variant of the mythical "grim and gritty" fantasy campaign is the "standard horror" campaign. How many of us have dreamed of running a horror adventure (horror generally doesn't lend itself well to campaigns without high PC turnover rates) where all of the PCs are regular people forced to confront something horrific? How much fun would it be to have a flight attendant, a bookish college student, ...

I'm a big proponent of using everything my players give me, especially when it comes to PC backgrounds: If you put it in there, I assume it's because you want to see it in the game, and I'll do my best to make that happen. But why assume? As a player, I design character backgrounds this way. I include NPCs my PC would love to fight, fuck, or otherwise interact ...

I was running a Star Wars campaign a few years ago (revised pre-Saga) edition. One of the most helpful sections in the core book was a list of stat blocks for NPCs. As I wanted these stat blocks to be challenging for the PCs, I decided that the PCs would be standard by-the-book characters. When I showed up to the first session, I discovered that the group had a ...

My regular gaming group of five includes four GMs, which is fantastic for all sorts of reasons -- but one of the best things about it is that as a GM, I'm constantly exposed to new ideas, new approaches, and new tricks and techniques that I never would've come up with on my own. The background-independent pilot session is one of those techniques. There are lots of ways to kick ...

Last night, my group kicked off a Ghouls chronicle set in 1983 (Ghouls being a subset of White Wolf's Vampire RPG -- mortal thralls with minor supernatural powers, each bound by blood to a specific vampire), and our GM put a spin on the traditional prelude mechanic: He ran the session round-robin style. Preludes: Nuts and Bolts In WW games, preludes are solo (one player, one GM) mini-sessions that take ...

As a GM, I used to struggle with player backgrounds and PC complexity. I thought that every PC needed to be extensively plotted out down to the tiniest detail, and ignored the fact that many players don't enjoy doing this. Once I took off my blinders and looked at things from a different perspective -- and once I'd seen for myself how enjoyable PCs who start off simple could ...

Here's a question dug from my GMing archives. In a previous modern occult campaign, there were two players, Dan and Sarah, that played two characters, Drake and Shayla. Dan was very much into roleplaying and being "in character", while Sarah found roleplaying awkward and preferred to refer to Shayla's actions in the third person. Prior to the campaign, it was established between Dan and Sarah that Drake and Shayla would be madly in love ...

This is the fourth and final article in this series -- the home stretch. My definition of "roleplaying-intensive" is in Part 1, along with tips 1-3; tips 4-6 are in Part 2 and tips 7-9 are in Part 3.) 10. Driftable Mechanics (This topic was suggested by Gnome Stew reader Irda Ranger -- excellent suggestion, IR.) "Drift" just means taking an element -- usually a mechanic -- from one RPG and ...

I love names. As a player, naming my character is one of my favorite aspects of character creation. It usually shakes out one of two ways: I hit on the perfect name right away and it instantly helps me define the character. Sometimes this comes at the end of the process, sometimes at the start (it's better at the start). I agonize over choosing a name. I try real names, random ...

I apologize for the almost exclusively "D&D-ish" nature of today's Hot Button, but I think it definitely deserves addressing. It's a question that also comes up in other games that have similar distinctions (such as Palladium's alignment system or Star Wars Light Side/Dark Side distinctions). Do you allow evil player characters in your standard campaigns? I mention "standard" because I'm sure all of us old-timers can recall at least one ...

With D&D 4e out (and looking awesome so far), I wanted to start building a collection of prepainted fantasy minis for future use. While I plan to buy some boosters as well, I figured I'd kick things off by ordering a host of cheap minis for representing PCs. Even if creatures get counters instead, it's always cool when the PCs have their own minis. Back when I was collecting ...

(The first three steps, and my definition of "roleplaying-intensive," are in Part 1; tips 4-6 are in Part 2.) 7. Make Good on Your Promises By this point, you've made two promises to your players, one explicit and one implicit: Here's the kind of game I'm going to run. This is the explicit promise you made in in step three, when you pitched a roleplaying-intensive campaign to your players. The follow-through ...

When you're watching an episodic TV show (think Lost), who does everything happen to? The main cast. And who drives the action when things aren't happening to them? The main cast. The same should be true in your campaign (which, in a lot of cases, resembles an episodic TV show more than most other types of media): Whenever something worth playing out at the table happens, it should happen to ...

(The first three steps -- and my definition of "roleplaying-intensive" -- are in the first post in this series.) 4. Choose Your System Wisely Suggested by the Stew's own Patrick Benson in the comments on the first roleplaying-intensive game post, picking a system that reinforces the kind of game you want to run is critical. Some games are just better suited to a focus on roleplaying than others -- despite all ...