Happy Birthday
image by FreeImages.com / Karen Barefoot

Welcome!

It’s time for a really big party! This is officially the 750th post here at Campaign Mastery! But it’s more than that: It’s also, as close as makes confusion, our 7th birthday – you see, Johnn and I started pre-loading the Blog with content and getting into the necessary habits to keep things rolling from November 29th, but we didn’t go Live until December 28 (in between he invited feedback from a few trusted sources, which is why some early comments are dated within that period). And, if you split that difference, you get December 16 or 17th – which just happens to be yesterday or today! And on top of that, it’s Christmas next week!

There have been all sorts of different plans for how to celebrate – I’ve been thinking about this for the last year!

Blogdex 750?

Plan A was to update the Blogdex. After all, it was first released as part of our 500th-post celebrations. Real world events necessitated that I shelve those plans; I had family functions to attend back in early October, which used up my stockpile of stand-by quick articles and then some – material that I would have needed in order to achieve the ‘free time’ that a Blogdex demands. What’s more, last time it was so big (over 24,000 words) that it broke various aspects of the blog infrastructure, like the RSS feed – so this time I would have to divide it into a series, just to make it fit. I figured that I would need 2.5 months (the original took 3.5) to write it – and I simply wasn’t going to have it.

Hitting The Spot?

Plan B was to share the hit location system that I came up with in my first campaign – capable of accuracy to the centimeter and yet very fast and easy to use. It quickly became apparent that recreating this digitally was going to be another Big Project that would not be ready in time. I’m still sneaking time into that here and there in odd minutes, so it should appear in 2016 sometime.

Project X?

Plan C was to kick off a series that has been in development for more than a year, a secret collaboration between myself and a couple of regular contributors to the Ask The GMs column, but it has turned out to simply be too big to have ready in time. In fact, it might not even be ready until mid-2016, though I’m pushing hard to get it done sooner! In fact, that’s what I expect to be doing over Christmas.

Party To End All Parties

And so to Plan D. A compound of various lesser forms of celebration, like having different activities at the party. We start with the welcoming speech (which you’re almost finished reading). Next, we’ll get the technical bits out of the way – Reasons to be cheerful, part 750! I’ll follow up with a glimpse of some of what I have planned for 2016 in Things To Come (warning: not all of them may eventuate). After that, I have a Q&A extracted from some recent correspondence clarifying a few things in past articles so that they are of maximum help to a beginner. And then, there will be the pièce de résistance – a swarm of helpful hints from my fellow GMs. And I use the term “Swarm” advisedly; I’ve had over 150 contributions from over 150 GMs from around the world, a better response than I ever thought possible. This party is going to be epic!

Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 750

I realize that this title’s reference might be too obscure for a lot of readers. If that’s you, check out this link and then this YouTube video and you will know everything you need to know. Personally, it’s not my favorite ID&TB song – but it’s a great title!

Over the last 7 years, we’ve had more than 590,000 visitors according to Google Analytics – and can expect to hit the 600,000 mark at the start of February (maybe even a little sooner), and the content has been viewed more than 1,000,000 times – we passed that landmark in late June.

Of course, Google aren’t the only way to count these things. We also have an analytics plug-in that’s been keeping track of such details for about five years, and IT has counted more than 812,000 visits since it went active. In all that time – as of this writing, which I’m starting a little in advance – we’ve had 4,769 comments and pingbacks [about half of them replies] that weren’t adjudged to be spam (and more than 1,265,000 that were!)

In that time, I’ve seen a lot of gaming blogs, podcasts, websites, and other resources come and go. In fact, I think we’re currently in the third or fourth generation of site since Campaign Mastery started!

I think it says a lot about what has been achieved here that there are posts from the first month or two that I still refer to regularly. Of those 750 posts, I think there have been only 10-20 that were not evergreen in nature. Even those that were relatively focused on a particular iteration of a game system are transferable to other, popular, game systems and are still current.

Things To Come

I’m proud of the content that Campaign Mastery has built up over the past seven years. But I don’t want to dwell too much on the yesterdays; instead, let me focus for a minute on just some of what is planned to come up over the next year (several of which have been promised through the course of the year just past):

• updating the Blogdex;
• my original hit location system;
• the philosophies of skill interpretation;
• table construction tricks;
• reinventing the concept of campaign history;
• a Christmas giveaway;
• Google Image Search usage and tricks;
• dealing with excessive PC wealth in gaming;
• more ATGMs;
• more of the Basics For Beginners series;
• a couple more entries in the “All Wounds Are Not Alike” series;
• creating a building;
• the power of GM visualization; and
• that epic series that I mentioned!

And that’s only about 1/3 of it!!

A quick Q&A

Last week, I received an email from Tracey Snow, a relatively inexperienced GM. Because both it and my reply are rather lengthy, I’ve interspersed them in the format of an interview.

Hi Mike,

Hi Tracey.

As I’ve mentioned in a couple comments on your blog, I’m trying to get back into RPGs and GMing but so far, it’s been a struggle. You and a good few others have raised the bar of player expectations considerably in the years that I have not been active with RPGs and I feel like I’m in over my head. It’s like I’ve just learning to add and subtract and now I’m trying to solve a calculus problem!

That is as much my fault as anything. Reading your blog, I want to incorporate all your years of practice, learning and thinking about creating memorable campaigns into the first one I put together. I’m trying to remember to start small and work my way up but I like having a good understanding of where I’d like the story to go.

I really enjoy all of the detail and in-depth perspectives you put into Campaign Mastery. It’s really is a Master Class on GMing. You consider aspects of the hobby I have not seen anywhere else and you go into depth on your subjects in very amazing ways. I learn so much from any of the articles and they never fail to make me think about how I might incorporate the topic at hand when I get to that point in my GMing.

Unfortunately, from where I sit, reading your blog is almost more of a frustration than a help. So much of what you write, assumes the reader has GM experience and a process that can be improved by your insights. Since I’m still trying to work out a process for creating a world, a campaign, integration of multiple plot lines and fill it all in with sub-plots and side quests and make sure I’m not railroading the players that much of what I read on your site I can’t yet take advantage of.

I’m sorry that you’re finding it a struggle, and that CM has been one of the sources of frustration. You’re right in that Campaign Mastery is pitched more at experienced GMs than at relative Beginners. There are two reasons for that.

The first is that I was a beginner so long ago that I struggle to remember what it was like, and hence I’m never sure how useful my advice would be. That’s the main reason why it’s taken me almost 7 years to get to the “Beginner’s” series that you mention.

The second reason is that if you pitch at the beginner level, once the readers pass that level, there is little of value that they can get from the articles, whereas if you pitch at the expert, or wanna-be-expert, then even if something is beyond a reader now, they can come back to it when they have greater expertise. So there is longevity and greater residual value.

I know there is a great amount of information in your archives for new GMs. I have been stumbling across articles that are slowly helping me fit the puzzle pieces together. I really wish there was a Table of Contents for the site that could guide me through your articles in a logical order. That said, as I persevere through the archive, I’ll come up with a basic for one for you! Also in that vein, I’ve been impatiently waiting for the latest “beginners” series you have started to continue in the hope that it will help me.

A table of contents? What you need is the BLOGDEX – which lists all the articles that had been published to that date by subject and reviews (briefly) the contents of each. You can find it here: A Blogdex Celebration.

I was planning to update it for the 750th article, due in just a week or so, but realized that I was not going to have enough time to do it properly (it’s not the writing so much as the organizing, structuring, and formatting). So that’s on the agenda for maybe the 800th post, due close to the middle of 2016.

As for the “Beginners” series, new parts of that are currently planned to start at the end of January – but that schedule changes on an almost-weekly basis, and if anything, they will be brought forward from that (they subsequently have been, even though all this was written just a week or two back – Mike).

I had a few questions that I thought I would ask in hopes that you might be able to flatten out my learning curve. Here goes:

I’ve had a difficult time finding articles and content that will help me at my level of experience. Are there keywords that you would suggest I use to search for articles on specific topics? I have used the category lists and the general archive list but it’s often difficult to discern what information is covered in an article from its title.

Keywords: most of my articles start with a fundamental principle or subject and begin with a simple treatment of it, growing more advanced as you read, or at least, that is the goal. The idea is that once the reader starts getting out of their depth, they can simply skim through until they either get to the end of the article or a new section starts. It doesn’t always work that way, but that’s the basic structure that I aim for. So a keyword search won’t help except in relation to specific topics.

Have you outlined your process of Campaign building from the first blank piece of paper to your first play session? You have lots of articles detailing specific tasks in the process but is there one that identifies all of the steps you take to cover campaign, adventure, encounter and world building and in what order you do it?

I have – the “New Beginnings” series was a major one in 2015, running for 11 parts, and was both as specific and as comprehensive as I could make it. You can find it here: The New Beginnings series.

You seem consummately organized and, like me, you appear to prefer working through a defined process. I would assume that you have created templates for anything you are preparing (NPCs, locations, plot arcs, etc.). I have seen a few of them but is there an article where you list and give examples of all of the ones you have come up with?

I do have processes that I work through but not fixed templates. The broad process was the subject of “One word at a time: How I (usually) write a Blog Post” which you can find here: One word at a time: How I (usually) write a Blog Post.

You’ll find that most of the process-related articles will refer back to that as a foundation – and if you look at some of the early articles/series like “Distilled Cultural Essence” you’ll find that they connect forward, as well. That’s because this is the basic process that I use for all writing, from adventures to campaigns to blog posts.

The other article of relevance is “Top-Down Design, Domino Theory, and Iteration: The Magic Bullets of Creation”, which you can find here: The Magic Bullets of Creation. It details the other logical processes that I employ in order to create the headings/structure that populates the “One Word At A Time” process.

Is there an article where you discuss your process for or provide an example of your session prep tasks?

Session prep is very much dependent on two principles: What do I need for a given adventure, and what do I need to spend time on so that it will be ready when I need it for a future adventure. I’ve tackled the subject many times and often touch on it in other articles as well. There is no one article, as my own practices have evolved over time, and as I think about subjects for Campaign Mastery! I suggest the following:

• To Every Creator, An Optimum Budget?
• Writing to the limits of longevity
• Amazon Nazis On The Moon: Campaign Planning Revisited
• The Fire Fighting, Systems Analysis, and RPG Problem Solving series

…and the New Beginnings and Basics For Beginners series, in which I look at all of these and sometimes offer simpler (but less effective) alternatives.

Is there an article where you discuss how you run a session and track information while you’re at the table? Do you use a computer at the table or do you make notes and incorporate them into your electronic system later?

I’m terribly disorganized in that respect, I’m afraid. I wouldn’t hold what I do up as an example of “Best Practice” to anyone! I never stop to take notes, and consequently often forget what’s actually happened after a campaign/adventure has departed from “the script” – to which I never adhere, and I’m often the most guilty party at letting plots “evolve” in the course of play. Sometimes that works to my benefit, sometimes it’s a train-wreck. Worse still, I’m usually too physically exhausted after a game session to make any notes while things are fresh in my mind. I’m going to try to line up an article for 2016 on what some of my fellow GMs do to solve these problems and will be as interested as anyone in the results.

What is the differentiating factor between a campaign and an adventure in your mind? Reading “Scenario Sequencing: Structuring Campaign Flow”, you indicated that the campaign was coming to an end but you’re seeding it with plots that will come to fruition in the sequel campaign. That rather sounds like what you do with story arcs in other articles so I was wondering what the difference was.

An adventure is always designed to run to a firm conclusion in which the major plotlines are resolved or transformed by events. A campaign may be closed (designed to run to a firm conclusion) or open, with no firm ending in sight, and involves the resolution of minor plotlines, ongoing subplots, and overarching “super-narratives” or “campaign loops” or “story arcs” or any of half-a-dozen other terms used for the concept. So both bigger and smaller – and a campaign is made up of adventures and subplots bridging between them and providing context for them, so the end of a campaign will also be an adventure. That means that the end of a campaign is the end of everything – unless you KNOW that your players want a sequel, or you want to prepare for the possibility, in which case you deliberately include subplots that are NOT going to come to a conclusion; these then form the basis of the sequel campaign. Essentially, the differences are immediacy and scale.

For the record, I’m still not completely happy with “Scenario Sequencing: Structuring Campaign Flow” – things weren’t explained as coherently or clearly as I would like. The “Back To Basics” articles –

• part 1: adventure structures
• part 2: campaign structures

– attempted to simplify and clarify by starting simple and gradually layering in complexities one after another, but it still ended up confusing some people. I took a third swing at it in the “Amazon Nazis” article and the “New Beginnings” series.

Do you have a glossary for terms that you use in your articles? Your recent article where you try to define an adventure talks a lot about that specific term but in various articles, you have used many different terms to discuss varying ‘sizes’ of storyline. I’m trying to get a handle on what each term means to you. I find it a little difficult to tell which ones you use a synonyms for each other and which are unique (I can attach my effort to define them if it will help).

A Glossary? Not really; my terminology evolves as my understanding of best practice evolves. That was what actually led to the article on trying to define an adventure! If you were to send me your attempt at definition, I will turn it into an article on the subject of clarifying the terms, if that would be of benefit to you (and others), and give you co-author credit :) (Tracey has, since this correspondence, provided her notes and such an article is in the works. She declined my offer of a co-author credit, so I’m giving her the kudos she deserves for her efforts here!)

The reason I don’t have one is for the same reason that I have poor game-table record-keeping: I’m too busy doing it to stop and take notes! The only difference is that the “it” in question is writing an article instead of running an adventure!

Do you have any third party resources you would recommend to someone in my position?

There are a number of articles and blogs out there – try the results of . The problem is that most of them will be pitched at absolute novices, and will be of no value to you. The “Beginners” series is my attempt to bridge that gap.

Do you have any advice in general that you could offer?

Actually, as it happens, most of the advice being offered in the 750th post will be relevant to your last question! But the bottom line is this: don’t try to follow all the advice that I, or anyone else, offer. Read it, tuck it away in the back of your mind, and just game – the parts that are relevant to your style will work their way forwards without you even realizing it. From time to time, you may be confronted with a problem and go “aha – I vaguely remember reading some advice on that subject once upon a time, now where was it…” An example comes to mind: Lucas, of The City Of Brass, was a recent participant in a podcast on gaming and mentioned a technique for handling masterminds, but couldn’t remember where he had read it – at first. He found it again here after the show: Making a Great Villain Part 1 of 3 – The Mastermind.

Note that Lucas hadn’t memorized the entire article – just the broad principle, which was “The GM should assume that whatever happens, the Mastermind will have anticipated it and will have a plan to turn it to his advantage.” You don’t have to come up with those plans in advance, you simply develop them on the fly in response to PC-instigated events and changes in circumstance.

I’m sure I have more questions but I’ve taken well more time than I intended already. Thank you again for all the work and effort you put into your blog. I have learned so much and I look forward to learning even more!

Postscript: There are two other articles that I should probably have brought to Tracey’s attention, the latter more than the former. These are:

• Bringing on the next generation, Part One: Player Peersand,
• Bringing on the next generation, Part Two: Gamemaster Mentors

Seeing what advice I had at the very beginning might have been helpful in placing her own efforts into context.

Party To End All Parties, Wildest One In The Book

Another possibly-obscure reference! Skyhooks were one of THE iconic rock bands of the 1970s, and if there’s one song that epitomizes the parties of the era in which I grew up, it would be this one – making it the perfect piece of theme music for this special post! YouTube link to the video is here.

I wanted to do something extra-special for this anniversary post.

So I reached out to just about every GM that I know and asked them one simple question:

If you could give just one piece of advice to another GM, without knowing anything about their campaigns, rule systems, or players, what would it be?

I have been absolutely blown away by the response, and can’t thank those who have contributed enough!

An important note

Some people have suggested that they would want to follow just about everyone on the following list with a twitter account. More power to them, they are all worth following for one or more reasons! But please remember that twitter restricts you to 100 follows a day, and there are a LOT more than 100 twitter users on the list below.

I agree with all the advice offered above (even the ones that are contradictory; that just means my agreement is qualified in some way).

Onwards and Upwards

And so this 750th post celebration comes to an end. I hope everyone had a good time, and takes away some good memories. And now, it’s time for me to start thinking about the next article, because that’s the reality of blogging. (Oh, #$@@! I just realized what this means: I now have less than 250 posts to try and think of a way to top this as an event…)