Category: GMing

Ever have one of those moments when everything is falling apart around you, when all your careful plans are out the window and there’s nothing left to do but break down and laugh hysterically? Okay, maybe that’s a little extreme, but I ran one of those games last month when I made a tiny error in...

“You walk into the Necromancer’s lair. The air is putrid and stale, and you can’t see more than a few inches in front of your face.” “Somebody got a torch?” “I have one. I’ll light it.” “The the torch illuminates the room with a flickering golden glow. Suddenly, all around you,...

During the interview for the job I currently have, I was asked what type of animal I would be if I happened to be an animal. It’s a silly question, but it’s a good way to gauge the candidate’s response to something out of left field, as well as their sense of humor. Both of those things have...

I’m going to go visit my parents in a few weeks! They live in California, where I grew up. I haven’t seen them in a bit over a year, now – we’ve done holiday things well after the holidays as a family since my brother and myself were no longer living in the same state as my...

I love Fairy Tales, from the ones truly watered down for the smallest child, like Disney’s Little Mermaid, to horror movies, like Black Swan. So when Once Upon A Time, OUAT, came out I was thrilled. I get to have a new Fairy Tale every week, yes please! Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of plot...

One of the common pieces of advice you’ll hear for running better low-preparation or improvised games is to have a solid understanding of what is happening in the world around your PCs. The concept is that if you know what the important NPCs, good, bad, or indifferent, are doing at any given...

During GenCon I was able to attend a panel about an upcoming dungeon crawl by Pathfinder. The scenario is called Emerald Spire and I have been waiting for it since I found out about it from the Pathfinder MMORPG Kickstarter. I’m really looking forward to getting it as a PDF. I will most likely be...

If you’re a GM, you’ve done it. You may not have meant to and may not have even realized you were doing it. Or maybe you do realize you’re doing it and you don’t care how it affects your players. Either way, we GMs have all played favorites among our players at one time or another. In an...

The other day, I saw this show up in my Facebook feed: My first thought was, “Whoa. The proportions in that painting are all so whackass. Is that an Elmore? Elmore’s art is usually better than that.” Then what the meme was saying actually registered and I thought, “Huh. That’s kinda true. At...

I firmly believe we are in a golden age for television. With the rise of original television programming on cable, some of the best shows that have ever been produced are being made right now. In fact, you could argue that there is more innovation and creativity in television right now than you...