Campaign Mastery

I know I’ve written about this before (An Epic Confusion, Or How To Stage A Blockbuster Finish), but I’ve been thinking some more about big finishes to campaigns, prompted by the fact that my superhero campaign is currently in what I hope turns out to be an epic conclusion. As I developed this final scenario, [...]

I realized recently my game announcements and reminders are underwhelming. I’m leaving opportunities to improve the game unfulfilled.
We play every other Thursday night. Games start at 6:30, we’re usually full-on by 7pm, then we wrap up between 11 and 11:30. We confirm the week of the game by email though, just in case schedules change.
Maintaining [...]

How can you make the players feel like their actions have an impact on the world?

Sometimes, the simplest questions have the most complicated or profound answers. So it was with some trepidation that we’ve approached this question, which was asked virtually exactly as it’s quoted at the head of this article.
The short answer is, you [...]

How do you create a campaign that gives the players absolute freedom but still leaves the GM in control?

Recently, Campaign Mastery was asked,
Is it possible to create a truly player-choice driven campaign (within reason)? I’m trying to create a campaign that’s anywhere from 75 – 90% roleplaying (there will be dice, but not battle so [...]

What are the best ways to handle splitting the party up – especially over the long term?

An interesting question was asked of us recently:
I’m planning a pretty good science fiction game that will most likely involve party splits during a good percentage of the game. While this seems like it may be a bad idea, [...]

How can a campaign last for decades, and what does such longevity imply?

A question recently asked us,
I remember Mike mentioning his decades-long superhero game a few times, and am currently planning my next campaign, so I was just wondering how y’all can extend a game so far. Even if the players are still having [...]

As you should know by now if you’re a regular visitor here – and with 2 new articles every week, why aren’t you, if you’re not!? – this month’s blog carnival is on the subject of mistakes, how you recover from them, and what lessons you’ve learnt for the future.
I made a couple of doozies [...]

How much, if at all, should the final villain of a long running campaign pull his punches?

My campaign boss [villain] is a high level wizard with access to epic spells, and my party just made 20th level. They are on the way to fight him. Should I open up with his most powerful abilities, or [...]

The Roleplay of Prestige Classes
My games normally enforce the roleplay (non-game-mechanics) requirements for Prestige Classes (and, where relevant, feats and level progressions). It’s not enough for the character (PC or NPC) to simply meet the prerequisites, they usually have to DO something.
Pages 204-205 of DMG II, in discussing the design of new prestige classes, calls [...]

How do you ensure that every player gets a fair share of the attention when one of them has a dominant personality?

Sometimes it can be hard to determine exactly what the problem is when someone asks for advice. When that happens, we do the best we can to interpret the request, dissecting every word in [...]