This past Saturday night, my group played the final chapter in a year-long, 18-session Mage: The Awakening chronicle. It was one of the best campaigns I've ever run, and, in 20 years or so of GMing it was the first campaign I've ever ended according to plan. Planned for the Very First Time Up until a couple years ago, I'd never even been involved in a non-one-shot that had a ...

I have no idea if this concept has been floated before, but it's new to me -- and it's been enormously helpful over the past couple of weeks. As my Mage game draws to a close, I'm working towards a specific ending scene. I don't know what'll happen in that scene -- more to the point, what the PCs will do -- but I know what I want it ...

Welcome the first in an ongoing series here on the Stew: 100-Word Solutions to GMing Problems! Every 100-Word Solutions post gets its start as a question I email out to the gnomes -- a GMing conundrum of some sort. Here's the first one: "You completely spaced out on game prep -- it's 30 minutes before your players show up for tonight's game -- an ongoing campaign -- and you realize ...

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 ...

This year at Gen Con I ran three scheduled events, several impromptu games, three seminars, and had a wonderful time from beginning to end. With that said, I did have less than stellar moments and noticed areas for improvement as a GM. The great thing about convention games is that you can experiment and try different things as a GM. The downside is that you only get one chance ...

When you first think of running a campaign, there's probably one overwhelming motivation for your game. Whatever you do, don't forget it under the weight of all your research and preparation. Design your campaign to satisfy what you're aiming for. My group's current D&D3.5 campaign was conceived with two strong motivations in mind. We knew 4e was coming, but we had lots of supplements for third ...

I've tried different approaches to game prep over the years, but lately I tend to do it all in one big rush. The rush is preceded by brainstorming and outlining, but most of my prep happens all at once. One thing I've found about this method is that it's almost inevitable that I'm to going to get GM's block during prep. I reach a point where I just don't ...

(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 ...

(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 ...

Drawing maps, statting NPCs, writing plots, and preparing handouts. Prep work is still work no matter how you slice it. Improvising on the other hand is fun! You skip all of those tedious tasks and get right to the good stuff – running the game! I often improvise sessions and it works great for me. The players get a great game, and I don't have to spend days ...

As a general rule, I'm not a big fan of game prep -- for me it's more like work than fun, and the real fun comes when I'm running the game. The catch, of course, is that in order to have the crazy fun of actually GMing for your group, you have to do at least some game prep. Different Games, Different Prep Times What I've noticed over the years ...

There are probably as many ways to define "roleplaying-intensive" as there are gamers, but for talking purposes here's the definition I use: A game in which mechanics take a backseat to character interaction, where all (or nearly all) in-game decisions are purely character-driven and where most (or all) in-game conversation happens in-character. I've been running a Mage: The Awakening chronicle since October of 2007, and from the outset I ...