When mapping, I tend to focus on the corridors, rooms, streets, caverns and buildings. However, every map has more than just these areas; each has three zones in your design control. Next map you build, think of these zones and how you can change things up to be fun and interesting for your gaming. This […]
In one campaign years ago, the PCs did so much travel it seemed far-fetched to give them an encounter every time they hit the road. However, I still wanted to pace things so the party was not instantly appearing at their destination each time. A fun solution we came up with was campfire chats. This […]
The following ideas could be used for player characters stuck on a PC background and purpose. Game masters could also use them for interesting NPC wizard hooks. If you have any ideas for more hooks, just comment below, maybe we’ll get to 100. Master’s experiment goes wrong, transforming the PC and cursing the master. PC […]
In the first post about gods and the Cypher Gate in my upcoming Riddleport campaign several readers supplied great ideas. Thanks to that feedback, I have a better picture of how things are in the pirate city. The secrets of the Cypher Gate as it is in my game, with reader feedback interwoven, are now […]
A campaign killer is falling behind on planning and preparation, especially once a campaign starts. You soon lag and feel unready to GM. Then stress builds, fun flees and sessions get cancelled. This post is inspired by tips on beating procrastination over at RPG Atheneum. Alric discusses four procrastination motivators and a few tips to […]
With a big holiday imminent, today’s post is themed on how to create adventure-filled holidays for your campaigns. It’s one thing to have a date picked in your game world calendar, and another to have a holiday become a living, interactive game element that helps you do some of the legwork for session planning and […]
Characters in my Riddleport campaign will be constructed just from the Pathfinder Core Rules and two regional supplements the group bought for Paizo’s world of Golarion. This is a nice break from the splat book inflation previous D&D 3.5 campaigns of mine have suffered. Further, I’m ruling that exotic arms, armour and equipment will be […]
While I’m using Golarion as the world for my upcoming Pathfinder campaign, I’m making changes to the powers-that-be in a move that is the ultimate change in top-down planning. Spoiler warning: players in my campaign please read no further. A big dynamic in my upcoming Riddleport campaign will be the Ascended – a group of […]
This month’s RPG blog carnival hosted at The Bone Scroll asks us to revisit our 2009 goals and deliver a status report. Time to eat some humble pie. Goal #1: DM my D&D campaign every other week This was a resounding success. We missed only three or four sessions this year. This campaign now nears […]
I like games and I enjoy competing. Years ago, after getting riled up during one too many board games, I realized my competitive emotions were ruining the fun for me and others at the game table. I reflected for quite awhile on this as I took a break from board gaming. Suddenly a solution came […]
How does a mere mage survive in the world’s most infamous pirate’s den? And how does a leader of mages protect himself from the incredible powers his followers might weild against him? Here are a few of my thought processes behind a faction in my new D&D campaign. I thought you might be interested in […]
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 […]
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