After the Dungeon Crawl, the Heist is the second greatest of all RPG tropes. From stealing the scepter of Arkurs, to a stealing an AI out of a cyber fortress, the Heist transcends all settings. There is something about the planning, the sneaking, and eventually laying your hands on the object that strikes a chord with nearly all gamers.
The Heist is a tricky type of scenario to run. ...
Ideally, every new campaign you design has complete player buy in. You’ve discussed systems, options, flavor, outlined the basic thrust of the game, and everyone is on the same page and ready to go. In reality though, some games defy the full disclosure approach. Sometimes you want to throw in a major twist, some concepts are ruined by full disclosure, and other times you need to start work ...
Many GMs don't think about how their campaigns will end. And for those of us who grew up hearing about epic, decade-long campaigns with rotating casts of characters, why should we?
I mean, campaigns aren't supposed to end -- right?
Wrong.
With the exception of some outliers (who are no doubt having a fantastic time, and more power to them), never-ending campaigns are a myth. Jobs, school, kids, and a host ...
Thank you to everyone who commented on the Intro Games for New Players post last month. Jennifer ran her intro game for her group-- and it went extremely well.
A number of your tricks really helped people dig into their characters. Highlighting key skills was a nice touch-- making it obvious at a glance which characters were good at which tasks. We made use of a number of ...
This post is inspired by John Arcadian's recent post, Ah, the good old Scry and Fry. Before I get into this post, however, I want to whip you into a frenzied mob. March with me and demand a solution to the whole "Scry and Fry" thing, especially the fry part. Gnome Arcadian, show us the solution or (raising torch high in gnomish hands) we'll show ...
New to the Stew? There are 618 articles packed with GMing tips and advice in our archives. Why not start with our 
