Campaign Mastery

AtGMs Closed For Awhile

Thank you to all the GMs who have emailed in their Ask the GMs questions.

Campaign Mastery has built a large queue of questions to answer, so I have paused on the question submissions. I (and Johnn when he was part of the site) have privately answered everybody who had an urgent submission, and I’ll follow through with public, more thorough advice as I work my way through the backlog.

Upcoming entries

• ATGMs 47: Regaining control of Undead PCs

• ATGMs 48: Reluctance to try a new Game System

• ATGMs 49: Equitable Face Time when roleplaying

• ATGMs 50: What’s the best session length?

• ATGMs 51: Long term planning and alignment shifts under multiple GMs

• ATGMs 52: Big-scale gaming – Making & GMing Cities and Nations

• ATGMs 53: Clue Hints, Puzzles, and Illusions

• ATGMs 54: The Price Of Creativity

• ATGMs 55: Deceiving The Players

• ATGMs 56: Players As Characters

• ATGMs 57: Traps That Matter

• ATGMs 58: Getting To The Beginning Of The Aftermath

• ATGMs 59: When Characters Fly and fire sharp sticks

• ATGMs 60: The Undead Hunters

• ATGMs 61: I Wish I Knew This, Then

• ATGMs 62: Online Vs. Tabletop

• ATGMs 63: Merchants & Commerce

• ATGMs 64: PCs As Businessmen

• ATGMs 65: Gaming An Age Of Discovery

• ATGMs 66: Locations To Inspire Risk

• ATGMs 67: Suicidal PCs

• ATGMs 68: Tailing The Target

Previous Ask the GM entries (newest to oldest)

• When Undead Go Stale, Part 3 (Creating Big Campaign Finishes at the 11th Hour)

• When Undead Go Stale, Part 2 (The Implications of Undeath)

• When Undead Go Stale, Part 1 (Making Undead scarier)

• Your Latest Bling: Questions About Equipment

• Shared Worlds and Co-GMs

• Up Hill and Down Dale: RPG Travel Laid Bare

• The Hollow Echo Part 2 – Musical Puzzles

• The Hollow Echo Part 1 – Adding Music To Your Game

• Many Hands, Mild Insanity (Large Groups Revisited)

• Death Is Only The Beginning (Resurrection Penalties Examined)

• A Target With Warp Drive: Maps and Minis for Sci-Fi

• Iceberg Plotlines: Massive Plot Arcs in RPGs

• Handling PC strongholds and bases

• The GMs Help Network

• The Great Handouts Question

• Parting is such a frayed plot thread (Writing characters out when players leave the game)

• On Big Dungeons

• Some Arcane Assembly Required – Pt 4: Cut At The Dotted Line (Creating cool spell components)

• Some Arcane Assembly Required – Pt 3: Tab A into Slot B (Creating cool spell components)

• Some Arcane Assembly Required – Pt 2: Sourcing Parts (Creating cool spell components)

• Some Arcane Assembly Required – Pt 1: The Sales Pitch (Creating cool spell components)

• Buzz and Background (delivering background and creating player buzz in the process)

• Seasoning The Stew (making races feel distinctive)

• My table runneth over (too many players)

• How can you have substantial time pass within a campaign?

• How can you accelerate the introduction of a new PCs?

• Players who disagree with GM calls

• Creating and GMing tournements and contest in your RPG

• How can I create puzzles that aren’t riddles?

• How do you survive political games and prosper?

• How do you fix it when inconsistent roleplay is killing the campaign?

• How to GM solo PCs (especially in combat)

• Level Adjustments Under The Microscope

• The Momentum Of The Inevitable

• How do you GM Player Characters as Spectators?

• Penetrating the veil of mystery

• Essential Game Master Skills

• Systematic Systems Choice

• PC Choices and Consequences

• How do you handle PCs who seem to be immune to magic?

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

• How can a DM split the party regularly without harming the campaign?

• Going Beyond The Rules

• In it for the long haul

• An Epic Confusion, or how to stage a blockbuster finish

• The right to be heard

• Pacing Your Campaign

• Weather, Not Climate

• Networks Of NPCs

• Characters not trusting the other PCs