Campaign Mastery

The second of three articles looking at lessons learned in the art of problem solving focuses on Prioritization, which is an essential skill for long-term success. Knowing which problem to tackle first can make the difference between achievement and disaster. The article considers a theoretical analysis and then uses it to offer two practical approaches to the problem.

In 1990 I was trained as a Safety Warden / OHAS representative for my then-employer. At the time, I was employed as a Computer Programmer and acting as a Systems Analyst for the commercial software systems for which my former department were responsible. Both aspects of this occupation taught me some key problem-solving tips and […]

Gaming in a space shared with 20 or more CCG and at least 1 other RPG campaign (sometimes 2 or 3), all in a relatively crowded space the size of a typical classroom, presents a number of challenges. This article offers proven tips and techniques to cope.

The second of 9 parts in the series looks at STR checks and how they relate to the other core stats that are common to most game systems – with some surprises along the way.

This nine-part series looks at opposed stat checks and what they can represent. Part 8 will create a new characterization tool, The Stat Matrix, based on the interactions described, and show how to use it to turn stats into characters, and Part 9 will warp up the series by turning that process on its head and demonstrate a way to use the Stat Matrix to turn a personality into a set of stats for a character.

An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. I’ve been tweeting these for some time now. This article collects and discusses some of my best and most enlightening.

In celebration of Guy Fawkes Night, this month’s blog carnival, hosted by Nearly Enough Dice is all about Gunpowder, Treason, and Plots. I decided to take a comprehensive look at treason and betrayal as Campaign Mastery’s contribution…

The Timing 500 Posts. Wow. Really, Wow. Of course, it’s all in how you count them. You could argue that by a strict numeric count, the 500th post was a couple of months ago, and you would be right, but only because a problem with an earlier version of WordPress forced us to break articles […]

Today’s article is in two halves. The first is a guest article submitted by Jason Falls (the “five games” part), and the second is by yours truly, adding relevance to tabletop RPGs to the mix. 5 Games That Will Wreck Your Life When I was a kid making my first tentative steps into the Mushroom […]

How to describe wonders and monuments.

In my first article for this month’s Blog Carnival, I asked the question ‘Location, Location, Location: How Do You Choose A Location?‘ and identified ten or eleven influences on the decision, and an approximate hierarchy within them, but was unable to offer even a guideline beyond those observations in answer to the question. Today, the […]

52+ techniques to vastly increase the scope of what you can depict on your battlemaps.