Here are five adventure hooks for travelling adventures for this month’s Blogger’s Carnival.
1. Shipwrecked
This one works in just about any game system whether low fantasy or high tech.
The vessel carrying the party sinks / runs aground / crashes or generally gets destroyed leaving the party stranded on a unknown island or planet. The players must [...]
GMing
5 Travel Related Hooks for GMs
Running Back-to-Back D&D Sessions
After 25 years GMing, I had a new experience on Saturday. Running the same scenario in two back-to-back sessions only 20 minutes apart. It proved a very useful play-testing experience.
As part of our demonstration day at Chimera I was running two D&D 3.5 sessions whilst Mike demonstrated miniature painting and Rob talked about how miniatures [...]
Making Monsters Different
The best way to shake up a party is for them to encounter a monster they don’t recognize. This is especially effective on players who have that smugness that can only come from an encyclopedic knowledge of the monster manual. When something totally new comes into sight, they find themselves in the uncomfortable, but exciting, [...]
5 Beginner GM Mistakes (and how to fix them)
1. Lack of Preparation
Nothing says “I’m a green GM” more than making the players wait five minutes whilst you try to find the NPC’s stats or work out what happens next. Fortunately this is easy to fix. Read the rules and adventures beforehand. Bookmark key pages and get that highlight pen out.
This may be [...]
The Changing Role of GMs
Listening to the RPG Circus podcast I was struck by something they said that I realised was blindingly obvious but I had never considered. In the olden days, GMs were the gods of the gaming table for one very simple reason – they had the rules.
In original D&D and up until 2nd edition, [...]
Keep Players Under Control with an Altoids Catapult
We all know that what a GM needs to rule his gaming table is more weaponry. Previous weapons we have covered have had probelms with size and damage potential.
Now we have the perfect solution. Small enough to sit behind the GMs screen, ready to launch surprise attacks and a source of handy snacks should your [...]
Vampires! Archaeologist Find Proof!
Ok, not really but they found something that is even more interesting and inspirational for GMs.
Venetian Vampire
The Universita di Firenze announced that he and his archaeoloical team had excavated the skeleton of a Renaissance woman whose skull was impaled through the mouth with a brick. Why a brick through the mouth? It seems that [...]
Poll: What type of GM and Player are you?
Gaming – is it about personal glory or a team sport. What will you do to win? As a GM, are you naughty or nice?
Of Coolness and Idiocy
It appears that I ruffled some feathers with yesterday’s The Rule of Cool – Only for Idiots. So let me expand on why I think the ‘Rule of Cool’ is bad advice for GMs.
Note: None of which follows is an attack on Chatty DM, he has merely written something I disagree with.
Defining the Context
Here is [...]
The Rule of Cool – Only for Idiots
The ‘Rule of Cool’ brings everything that is wrong with Hollywood and consumerism to the gaming table.
WTF!
The ‘Rule of Cool’ is best explained by Chatty DM here (and the follow-up here) but in short it is the same motivations that produce films like ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ and other CGi driven tripe – Make [...]
