Category: Campaigns

So You Want to Write an Asian Campaign Setting (Part 1: Historical China)

by Daniel Kwan | Nov 29, 2019 | Approaches and Techniques, Campaigns, Editorials, Game Mastering, Tools for GMs, Worldbuilding

So you want to try your hand at creating an East Asian Fantasy campaign setting? Start with some valuable research from Daniel Kwan’s favourites!

Randomer Encounters

by Chris Baker | Apr 29, 2019 | Campaigns, Encounters, Game Mastering, Tools for GMs, Treasure Tables

If you have run a game campaign for any period of time, it becomes apparent that the random encounter tables for your adventurers become stale-dated or dull. Even if there are variations by terrain, climate or civilization, the game-provided tables become repetitive. One solution to this...

Are Two Stories Better than One?

by Craig Dedrick | Feb 8, 2019 | Approaches and Techniques, Campaigns, Game Mastering, GMing Advice

Â A number of years ago, I decided to try something bold with a campaign of the Kult horror RPG that I was about to run. I wanted to play around with past lives and the theme of duality, so I decided to run a campaign with two story lines that would eventually merge into one. I had the players...

Chris Chinn, Backdrop Plots and Home Bases with Personality

by Martin-TT | Oct 11, 2007 | Campaigns, Online Resources, PCs, Worldbuilding

Link roundups like this one make me feel like I’m behind… • Deeper in the Game: Chris Chinn has been back since July, and I didn’t find out until this week! Chris wrote the now-defunct RPG theory blog Deep in the Game, as well as the TT post Social Contracts for RPG Groups....

Recurring Elements: Bond’s Fast, Sexy Car

by Martin-TT | Oct 8, 2007 | Campaigns

Think about James Bond for a moment. He’s defined in part by recurring elements — character traits and actions, of course, but also something more interesting for our purposes as GMs: fast, sexy cars. Bond always drives a sports car (tricked out with rocket launchers and so forth, of...

Campaign Prequels

by Martin-TT | Oct 6, 2007 | Campaigns, Guest Posts, PCs

TT reader Joaquim Ball-llosera (Quim in the comments), co-founder of the Spanish indie RPG company Maqui Edicions, emailed me this nifty idea. He was gracious enough to let me share it with you — thanks, Quim! – – – – – While designing my new Rifts campaign, I...

How Much Do You Recycle Between Campaigns?

by Martin-TT | Sep 25, 2007 | Campaigns

I’m back from Michigan but nowhere near caught up (we had a great time). Luckily, TT reader Walt C. posed a question via email while I was gone: How much of your material do you recycle between campaigns? (Great question, Walt — thanks!) And to be clear, Walt’s question...

Co-GMing, Campaign Tips and the New Breed of GMing Blogs

by Martin-TT | Sep 24, 2007 | Approaches and Techniques, Campaigns

For today, two GMing links and a smidgen of commentary on GMing blogs: • Co-DMing: Heed Your Dungeon Mentor: This recent Stupid Ranger post offers a behind-the-scenes look at one GM’s experience with co-GMing. The author, Vanir, backed up Dante, who was the main GM for the adventure,...

Great Campaigns: One Out of Three Ain’t Bad

by Martin-TT | Sep 21, 2007 | Campaigns, Nature of GMing

This guest post by longtime GM and fellow GM-Fu panelist Phil Vecchione grew out of a comment Phil made at the first-ever Treasure Tables meetup. Knowing that Phil is a great GM, hearing his success ratio was a light bulb moment for me — I suddenly felt a lot better about the campaigns...

GMing Short Weeknight Games

by Martin-TT | Sep 17, 2007 | Campaigns

Summer is always a bad time for my group when it comes to actually getting a chance to play, and that’s due in part to the fact that we game every Saturday: when stuff comes up, it’s often on Saturdays. One option might be to throw a weeknight game into the mix — much like having...

It Came From The Stew Pot

Hey you. Yeah, you. Do you know about Gnomecast 21? Why isn’t it in the archives? What are they hiding? If you value your safety… don’t go searching for Gnomecast 21…

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