Posts Tagged by player
| May 8, 2013 | Posted by John Arcadian |
I’ve recently completed a move to Mississippi and I have two new groups of players in two very different games. I’m running a very new player friendly game for some people who are unfamiliar with role-playing in general, and I’m running a somewhat advanced game with a mix of experienced players and new to gaming players. As I get used to the new play styles, I’m noticing some interesting things about the groups. The game for the new group is tailored towards teaching what role-playing…
| March 13, 2013 | Posted by John Arcadian |
Every so often I get the urge to run a game around very tight themes – a game where all the characters are thieves in a thieves guild, a game where all the players are members of a military organization with specific ranks and duties, a modern game where intrigue and politics rule the day, not pure combat, etc. Something with a definite, described theme with information provided to the players about what type of game I’m intending to run. Sometimes I’ve even done weeks…
| November 28, 2011 | Posted by John Arcadian |
I sat there at the gaming table, waiting to actually game. We’d started an hour ago, and after all of the usual bullshitting around, looking up youtube videos, and sharing jokes, we’d finally gotten into it. A brief encounter that set us on our path and the Game Master had to look up some info. While we waited, one of the other players started asking advice about leveling up his character. This went on for a few minutes, and then it kept going on, and…
| September 20, 2010 | Posted by Walt Ciechanowski |
While I rarely do this anymore I’ve found that it’s quite common in some games, especially those where each member of the team is absolutely vital to its success, for PCs to be run while their players aren’t at the session. Sometimes the absentee PC is given to another player; other times it’s NPC-ed. Still, I’ve heard a number of exchanges similar to this: GM: Sorry you couldn’t make it last session, Walt. We had a brutal last stand against the Chaos Horde that was…
| August 23, 2010 | Posted by John Arcadian |
Imagine this fairly common scenario: The character sheet talks about a backwoods, uneducated fighter with a low intelligence score. The player knows that the word puzzle on the wall can be solved by removing every third letter and putting the min order. The fighter might not know this, but the player does. Should the player be able to bring in their knowledge and find some way for the fighter to have brought it up, or should the Game Master enforce the character backstory or let…
| January 4, 2010 | Posted by Walt Ciechanowski |
Am I the only one creeped out by the fact that it’s 2010? For me, the winter holiday season is a time of reflection when it comes to RPGs. With the hustle and bustle of the various holidays (my household celebrates Christmas, Chanukah, and New Years’ Eve), I rarely have time to game in the latter half of December. With gaming in my blood, I usually do find time to reflect on my gaming over the past year and resolve to make my gaming experiences…
| 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…
