Archive for the ‘Rewards’ Category

Sparkle and Clink: Objective-Oriented Loot Placement

Some History It used to be so simple, back when I first started GMing AD&D. Each monster had a treasure type, and each treasure type had a table (or sequence of tables) that you rolled on, and a set of rolls on that table determined what treasure would be found in the vicinity. Room, Inhabitant, […]

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Jan 2020 Blog Carnival: Some Thoughts On Random Encounters

Maximilian Hart puts out a daily newsletter with a short thought and some links to resources that may be of value to D&D GMs called Dungeon Master Daily (subscribe and read some more about this resource here. Of course, some of those links and resources have a broader applicability, which is the main reason I […]

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When Is A Door Not A Door?

I was watching a movie that’s an old favorite, National Treasure (now available with its sequel as a blue-ray double-feature at Amazon, click on the link – limited copies available), prompted by a combination of availability and renewed speculation concerning a third movie in the series. It’s not as though the first two were flops, […]

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Trap-tastic

I’ve always had problems with traps in D&D. Some of these problems have their origins all the way back in AD&D, others are more recent in origin. Rules changes with the different editions have solved or mitigated some of my concerns while creating whole new headaches to take their place. I have solutions to these […]

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A Matter Of Trust: 14 ways to prevent inter-party conflict

Rite Of Passage There’s one experience that used to be common to almost every GM out there – the party being betrayed by one of its members and the GM expected to make sense out of the situation before it killed the campaign. It often started, in the AD&D days, with the Thief in the […]

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Further Thoughts On Exotic Creations

This is a post in three parts, all gathered together right here for your convenience. You see, I was very rushed for time when completing last week’s article on exotic creatures for TTRPGs, and almost immediately, afterthoughts started coming to me – things that would have been added if I’d had a few more hours. […]

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Value Added Rarities

I saw an answer on Quora the other week which related to the consequences of a 200-tonne asteroid made completely of gold crashing to Earth. The answer dealt with the economic repercussions based on the resulting crash in the price of gold because the value attached to many commodities is a measure of their rarity. […]

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The Search For Lost Treasure and other Mysteries

One of the oldest plots in the RPG canon is the search for a lost treasure, guided either by a map or trail of clues. This, like any other puzzle, gets solved like a detective novel or TV show – a mystery to be divined, one clue or step at a time. But there are […]

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The Most Important Question: How Did That Get Here!?

Over the weekend, Campaign Mastery was described by the very flattering term, “one of the best Treasure Troves for a DM”. Aside from feeling very chuffed at the compliment, my mind immediately started to think about Treasure Troves. This article is the result. The Map So, how do you find a treasure trove? The two […]

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If Wishing Made It So

Last week’s post was (technically*) the 1000th here at Campaign Mastery. Appropriately for such a number, it dealt with big-picture abstractions and the fundamental principle upon which the blog is founded – having more fun at the gaming table. That make’s this post (again, technically*) the 1001st – a number that itself both the seeds […]

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Wild Pathfinder 2.0 Speculation

Being invited recently to participate in play-testing for Pathfinder 2.0 (or whatever they are calling it) – an invitation that I had to, regretfully, decline – has, nevertheless, fired my imagination. I keep returning to the question, “If I were one of the authors tasked with updating the game system, what would I do?” Surprisingly, […]

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Inhabiting the Character Space and 16 other ways to help shy players

On Quora recently, I (and others) were asked for GMing techniques to help shy players come out of their shells. As it happens, I already had this article underway, in one of those serendipitous coincidences that stretch credibility to the point of near-fracture. As it happens, I have 17 techniques to offer by which the […]

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