
If you’ve never checked out TT’s GMing forums before, here are three incentives to do just that:
• Messing with your players: Have you done it?: Clayton opens what could be a Pandora’s Box for entertaining GMing stories — and his specific example is a good one.
• Funny monsters?: TT member phasedweasel is looking for oddball fantasy creatures. Suggestions so far include gelatinous dodecahedrons and were-marmosets.
• Making a city come alive!: Thread necromancy revives Craig‘s discussion about creating vibrant cities — including tips based on his 25-year long urban campaign.
And as always, if you have a GMing question — beginner or advanced, for any system, about anything GMing-related that you need help with — this is one of the best places on the web to ask it.
If you’re running a modern or futuristic campaign, the best substitute for funny monsters is to add rockets and lasers to random things. In my Shadowrun campaign, the players had to hijack a truck. It was going smoothly, but oops, it was actually a rocket truck, which promptly took off at several hundred mph. The looks on my players’ faces were priceless.
Another idea is NPCs who own battle armor or mechs but really shouldn’t be able to afford or know how to use them. Basically, any technology that takes the players by surprise, preferibly a few years ahead of its time, is good for a laugh.
There’s always the Head of Vecna…