This past week I was at Origins and doing my best to play all the RPGs I could. Mostly I ran games, meaning it was my job to get the game started. That means from sitting down at the table, getting characters made, and then getting the story going. I did this for a number of games, Hydro Hackers,...
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Most of the time, the tactile sensations players get during the game are limited to their pencil, character sheet, dice, and mini on the board. As GMs, we can take it to the next level by leveraging handouts, props, and auditory mood setting. Handouts Handouts are a great, and usually...
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Here in a few weeks, I’ll be firing up a new campaign based on The Expanse (books/TV/RPG), so this has gotten me thinking about “using someone else’s setting” quite a bit. This is an especially potent concept for The Expanse. There are (as of this writing) eight books with...
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There’s a bit of advice that floats around writing workshops, conferences, classes, and such that goes: Your setting should be a character. It’s good advice but (like most advice) maybe it doesn’t always apply in every situation. Today, I’m going to assume it does apply to...
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Last month I got on my soapbox about prep, specifically talking about how it does not matter how long your prep is, and I thought I would stay on the topic and talk about how I prep a game today. This article will be a snapshot of my prep process because this is a GM skill that constantly...
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You’ll sometimes run across the phrase “springing up like mushrooms after a rainstorm” to describe something that makes an appearance too quickly to be pure coincidence. Mushrooms are able to do that...
Read More A few weeks ago, I got all ranty on Twitter about something I am calling Prep-Shaming. It is that thing when someone brags to you or just to the world about how little their prep for their game was. It always sounds something like this, “It took you four hours to prep that game, I prep my...
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Beneath the soil they wait, oozing digestive juices to liquefy and absorb any edible material hapless enough to fall in their path. Silently, patiently, they spread hidden tendrils thinner than a hair under the ground, linking threads to form an invisible net below the feet of the hapless...
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Just when you thought that the idea of a session zero wasn’t nerdy enough, along I come to show you how I recently upped the nerd-ante, hopefully to my benefit, the benefit of my players, and the game as a whole. If you are not familiar with the concept of session zero, it is basically a...
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I wanted to share my experience running micro-sessions — all under and hour — for my two teen sons. I’m using the d20 Modern system, or at least a bare bones version of it. Everyone at the table has mastered this rules set, which is something to keep in mind if you wish to mimic...
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