05 Metagame

Title

This is the Metagame blogdex page. Metagaming describes any decision-making process or consideration which takes place outside the level of characters within the game. It can be good or bad, depending on the reasons something is done.

Campaign Mastery uses the term in three contexts – general metagaming, like having an NPC do something not because it is the “right” thing for that NPC to do, but because it will make for a more interesting or entertaining story for the players; House Rules, which compromise or alter the standard rules for campaign-concept reasons or for practicality; and the implementation of a Game Physics which treats the rules as guidelines within a simulated reality that can be overridden if the Physics implies a different outcome from a situation. Again, several of these topics are favorites of mine, and have been the subject of several articles as a result.

Because they function outside the rules (even if their sole property is to encapsulate those rules), GM Screens and Discussions regarding the production and use of Props have also been placed in this category (for actual props, see the Publishing And Reviews page).

This page consists of the following sections:

Metagaming,
GM Screens,
Props & Handouts,
RPG Theory,
House-Rules Theory, and
Game Physics
- The “Plunging Into Game Physics” series
- The “Examining Psionics” series


	Metagaming See also the “Campaign Pacing” subsection of the Campaign Plotting page, especially the Further Thoughts On Pacing series.
A Campaign Mastery 750th-post Celebration includes advice from a host of GMs on just about every subject as the climax of the party (and some from stragglers in the comments). So I’m listing it at the start of each page, as well as a handful of places where specific content warrants inclusion. Ask The GMs: Weather, Not Climate – How do you give your campaign realistic weather without overloading the GM with admin tasks? Johnn & I offer a variety of simulation systems, but not everyone agrees with us. Which is fine by me. When Is A Good Time To Hand Out Experience Points? – Johnn & the commentators examine this issue and many alternative answers to the question. Learn From Your GMing Mistakes – Session Post-Mortem Tips – Johnn offers some tips on how to improve your game by learning from your mistakes with a session post-mortem. Increase game attendance with great session reminders – Johnn talks about ways to improve session reminders. The benefits extend far beyond increased game attendance. Ask The GMs: Systematic Systems Choice – How do you choose the right game system for a campaign? It’s Not Like Shooting Sushi In A Barrel: A Personalized Productivity Focus For Game Prep – I devise a theoretical method of making game prep more satisfactory using the principles of time-and-motion studies and applying the objective of making the game more fun. I still don’t know if this works for anyone else. I’m not even sure it works for me. But it still seems to make sense. Google Calendar As Awesome Campaign Calendar – Johnn started using Google Calendar as the in-game Calendar for his Riddleport Campaign as an experiment. It worked so well that it became a permanent addition to his campaign tools. This article explains what he does and how he does it. A Monkey Wrench In The Deus-Ex-Machina: Limiting Divine Power – I argue against the use of a Deus-Ex-Machina in RPGs, and why that means you should give limits to the Gods. Along the way I show how you can have up-close-and-personal encounters with The Gods in unusual Genres for such occurrences – Wild West, Superspies, and Hard SF/Cyberpunk. There’s some great discussion in the comments. Unfortunately, Da’Vane’s website is gone, and so is the article she wrote in response to this, and attempts to find it using the Wayback Machine failed. Fortunately, Da’Vane summarizes her points in the comments. Life and Death in RPG – March 2011 RPG Blog Carnival – In March 2011, Campaign Mastery again hosted the Blog Carnival, this time with the subject “Life and Death in RPGs”. This was the first of several articles we posted on the subject: Johnn looked at how death was a hidden theme in his Riddleport campaign as well as introducing the topic. Evil GM Tricks For Over-Resting PCs – Do your players stop to rest as soon as they run low on power for the game-day – even if that’s just five minutes after their adventuring day starts? Johnn excerpts some material from his Faster Combat course to offer some solutions to the problem. I offer a refinement in the comments. When Good Dice Turn Bad: A Lesson In The Improbable – The improbable can occasionally happen. This is a true story (I was at the table) of just such an improbable event. And then the GM explains how he coped. Don’t miss the comments. Have WordPress, will Game – I consider the advantages and benefits of using WordPress as a campaign wiki, and how to structure it to get the most bang for your buck. This includes a mini-review of a dice roller WordPress plugin from Awesome Dice. GM’s Toolbox: Running The Game Part One: Creating the Mood – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. In this article, the focus is on the atmosphere of the game. GM’s Toolbox: Beyond The Game Part Two: Roleplaying and Reality – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. This article deals with the connection – and, ideally, the disconnection – between character world and real world. GM’s Toolbox: Beyond The Game Part Three: Learning to become a Better GM – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. The final substantative article in the series considers the metaquestion of how to constantly improve as a GM. It’s Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Game Fraud and Counter-Fraud in RPGs – In a fantasy, sci-fi, or superhero world, how might people cheat at games of chance – and what would casinos have to do to stop them? Selected Ticks Of The Clock – Session Scheduling for RPGs – I reminisce about my roleplaying experiences and ponder how playing time and session duration impacted the campaigns, deriving six principles to enable GMs to tailor these real-world factors to the benefit of their games. The comments offer some other reader’s experiences while validating the analysis. Patterns Of Unpredictability: Superheroics and the Stock Market – The impact of superheroes on the stock market and on economics in general. The Arcane Implications of Seating at the Game Table – Few people have ever thought about why people sit where they do at the game table, and still fewer have thought about the consequences of getting people to sit in different places. I take an in-depth look at both aspects of the situation. Top-Down Design, Domino Theory, and Iteration: The Magic Bullets of Creation – There are three tricks that I use all the time – and this article gives you the keys to all three. Along the way (as an example) I use the techniques to develop a master plan for a Mastermind in a generic D&D/Pathfinder campaign. Game Prep and the +N to Game Longevity – I consider professionalism when it comes to blogging, and the implications of inspiration when it conflicts with that value. I then apply the question to game prep and show how to employ top-down design principles to the problem, illustrating the process that I use to plan my game prep. Which is the same process that I use to plan my Holidays, writing, TV viewing, shopping… you name it. You might find it useful, too. The Gap In Reality: Immersion in an RPG Environment – Four years on, I update “Are Special Effects Killing Hollywood” and focus on the impact of changing expectations of immersion on RPGs, leading to suggestions for the use of multimedia in games. Ask The GMs: The Passage Of Substantial Time – How can you have substantial time take place in between adventures, with characters aging and eventually being replaced due to old age / death? I begin by analyzing the theoretical underpinnings and implications of this type of campaign, then move into practical considerations of the difficulties that will be faced in creating and running a “Discontinuous Campaign”. Topics touched on include delivery of campaign backstory, technological advances, The evolution of Language, Development of Infrastructure, Social Advances, Attempted Player Rorting, Metagame issues, the Impact of the Campaign Concept on characters, and The need for rules to cover Aging, R&D and Manufacturing, and Investments. There are a lot of similarity between running a Discontinuous Campaign and running a Time Travel campaign – though this is certainly one of the more prosaic and yet unusual forms of ‘Time Travel’. Ten Million Stories: Breathing life into an urban population – My front window overlooks the twentieth busiest road in Sydney. From traffic patterns and estimating how much busier those other roads are relative to this one, I estimate that the busiest road in the city takes part in ten million personal stories a day about the inhabitants of the city. Note that at the time this article was written, the city’s population was being officially measured as just over 5,000,000 – a factoid I’m including to let you scale that 10M stories to other metropolises. “George” is an individual who is resident here. One day, he is approached by a stranger named “Sam”. From their conversation, if it’s extensive enough, George not only comes to life as an NPC, but so do various facts about the city and what it’s like to live in it, using a technique that I include and a deck of cards. This technique is fast enough that it can be applied “live at the table” and even interactively with the players contributing. This article has also been translated into French at Dix millions d’histoires de gens, and has been rated as 9.3 out of 10. Shades Of Suspense Pt 1 – Eight Tips for Cliffhanger Finishes – I love ending game sessions on a cliffhanger, especially if I can get the players talking about how it’s all going to work out. This two-part article takes a good hard look at Cliffhangers, starting with these eight tips for employing them. In particular, I offer three methods that I reserve for improvising a cliffhanger when planning has gone awry. Shades Of Suspense Pt 2 – Fourteen Types of Cliffhanger Finishes – Wikipedia asserts that there are 2 kinds of cliffhanger, and neither of them are defined in such a way to be useful in an RPG. Other people also told me that they doubted there were 14 types of cliffhanger (prior to the pubication of this article, at least). For each of the 14, I describe it, describe how to implement it at the end of a session, describe the best way to restart play in the following session, and – in some cases – provide further discussion and deliberately over-the-top examples from various genres. A Population Of Dinosaurs and the impact on RPG ecologies – I get curious about how many species of dinosaur there were, so I devise some calculations to answer the question. That might be interesting enough in its own right, but then I see how quickly genetic engineering could produce new (well-adapted) species. This is so interesting that it holds my attention until I realize that it has other ecological value to the GMs of D&D / Pathfinder – for example, the same process could be used to tell you how long Dragons have lived in a Fantasy environment just by factoring in their average lifespan and the number of different varieties. The Expert In Everything? – I may sometimes give the impression of being an expert in everything. Such an impression is a long way from reality, but being a good GM means knowing how to fake it. In this article, I share my quick-fire research techniques, how I build up layers of expertise in a looong list of subjects, the techniques I employ to look more educated than I am (while behind the metaphoric GM screen), and how to use technobabble and how to misuse it to further enhance your credibility as an expert. I even show how to get out of trouble when confronted with someone who really knows the subject. An Experimental Failure – 10 lessons from a train-wreck Session – If you’re human, you make mistakes. If you’re a fair or better GM, you learn from them. Better still, you can learn from the mistakes of others. This article (and the discussion in the subsequent comments) is one big mea culpa on my part (and on behalf of my Pulp GM) for a total trainwreck of a game session. I detail what went wrong, why it happened, what could have been done to avert the trainwreck and why it wasn’t, what was done to get the campaign back on track, and conclude with ten lessons that I (and any reader) can take out of the experience, including what early warning signs were there to see but were ignored. In the comments, there’s a discussion between myself and one of the most-affected players, extending several of the threads mentioned above. How effective were the lessons identified? This was more than four years ago, as I compile the Blogdex, and not only is the campaign still running (with the same GMs) but the same player is still a regular. Now remember that the trainwreck was supposedly a bigger-than-life adventure to celebrate the campaign’s tenth anniversary… The Wandering Spotlight Part One of Two: Plot Prologues – The first part of a two-part article examining the techniques used to ensure each player is engaged in the plot even when the party is split up and everyone’s doing their own thing. The first part functions as introduction and foundation, looking at character Prologue Scenes and subplots, and the functions that they serve in the Adventurer’s Club campaign. This process makes the adventures longer, both to play and prep, but the benefits – not all of which are listed in the article (because I didn’t recognize them at the time) – more than justify the extra time. The Wandering Spotlight Part Two of Two: Shared Stories – The second part of this two-part article addresses main adventures and how we work to ensure spotlight time is shared amongst all the players. As the article closes, I also look at epilogues. One of the key points is discerning what makes an individual PC different from another PC; another key point is discerning what makes one Player different from another. These are both vectors to customizing content to shine the spotlight, however briefly, on a PC. Super-heroics as an FRP Combat Planning Tool – An unlikely confluance of fragmentary half-thoughts came together to yield an insight and a theoretical construct based on that insight. By the time I got to write the article, that theoretical construct had evolved into practical advice – but to explain the advice (and justify the unlikely principle behind it), I had to re-create the mental process that led me to it within the text of the article. I conclude the article with mini-reviews of a couple of kickstarter campaigns – one (flat plastic miniatures) that was doing incredibly well, and another that unfortunately did not succeed for running adventures online. “I know what’s happening!” – Confirmation Bias and RPGs The human brain is always trying to convince itself that it has a complete picture of what is going on, and … when contradictory information comes in, there is a tendency called Confirmation Bias to ignore it, to concentrate on, and act upon, what you think is happening. I’ve encountered confirmation bias on a number of occasions as a GM. In this article, I examine the nine options the GM has for dealing with the problem when it occurs. the compromises and price-tags and baggage that they carry, and the pitfalls that can result. There’s additional meat in the comments for readers. After you’ve read it, click on this link and scroll to the bottom of the text for a description from Hungry of Ravenous Roleplaying of how Confirmation Bias on his part can tip the RPGing truck off the rails. Ask The GMs: Buzz and Background – This article is split into three parts: Ways to deliver campaign background to players, with their respective pros and cons; Ways to generate buzz and enthusiasm about a new campaign; and, finally, What common ground can be found between these two mutually-antagonistic objectives. Flavors Of Victory: Why do good GMs fail? – Some articles are easily summarized for the Blogdex. This isn’t one of them. I noticed some patterns to the reasons some clearly skilled chefs lost in a series of cooking contests, and then realized that they provided insights into why one game fairs better than another – even if the GM running the second is superior to the first in some key attributes of the GMing craft. I then looked at what the “loser” could do to correct his situation, discovered a link through to good adventure and campaign design. This is one of the more profound articles at Campaign Mastery. It would be too easy to synopsize those results and oversimplify the findings, missing half the message. So I won’t try. The Gradated Diminishing Of Reality – Travel in FRPG – The players want to get to the interesting stuff, the GM wants them to feel what the world around the PCs is like, to immerse them in its colors and textures, and to make them feel like their characters are part of that world and not simply passing through. Over time, a series of level-based compromises has evolved (this article is specifically about D&D / Pathfinder and similar level-based games) in which both sides get some of what they want – and in which the GM gets compensated for giving in to the players, whether they realize that or not. Always Something There To Surprise You – Plots as Antagonists – This article is all about the right and fair and practical way to use metagaming, taking the most difficult type of plotline – a mystery – as its context and example. This is an article that memory and first impressions always underestimate, for some reason, yet the techniques here can solve many otherwise almost-unsolvable problems for the GM. Part 1 of the Basics For Beginners series, Beginnings, details what you really need before you start, with exercises to help you develop it if you don’t have it. Re-reading it, I was struck by how down-to-earth the advice was on Roleplaying NPCs (it’s harder than roleplaying a PC), Rules Knowledge, Materials requirements, How often you play, how long a game session will be, game complexity & continuity, explaining the fantastic in-game, setting aside time for research and self-improvement, resources and how to accumulate them, and giving yourself permission to fail. One example needs to be excerpted and echoed: Don’t try to make your dream campaign your first campaign. Tales From The Front Line: Critical Absences – an unresolved question – Should characters whose player is absent be subjected to the risks-and-rewards of criticals, regardless of what the game rules say? This article explores the question and finds it extraordinarily difficult to resolve, with valid arguments on both sides. What’s at stake here can be permanent losses of friendships, so the question deserves to be taken seriously. The Conundrum Of Coincidence – Players know that the GM has total control over the game world, and so expect that there’s no such thing as coincidence. Yet, if the game world is to be believable, it must have coincidence as part of its makeup. This combination makes coincidence the hardest phenomenon in gaming to simulate with verisimilitude, which is what makes this article (that explains how to do it) so valuable. As usual, this starts with theory and proceeds to assemble practical advice; I mention this because the “theory” section of this piece is some of my best writing to date. Plato, Aristotle, Quantum Theory, RPGs, and a measurable improvement in my gaming as a result – what more could you want? The Breakdown of Intersecting Prophecies – Using conflicting prophetic techniques to generate history and settings. Followed by a brief review of a Kickstarter that, unfortunately, didn’t make its funding target, “Fortune’s Wheel The Game”. Blog Carnival: The Unexpected Reality – A submission to the RPG Blog Carnival (that CM was hosting at the time) opened a pandora’s box of a concept: deliberately leaving things out of player briefing materials so that they can be revealed as surprises in the course of play,” in other words, using Plot as a Rules Delivery System. This article uses my Shards Of Divinity campaign extensively, and especially the Illusion rules, as an example and as a tool to test the arguements along the way. I identify three specific dangers inherent to the proposal, but when examining solutions to those problems, find that there are indeed circumstances (including a variant on the sci-fi campaign rules/campaign that inspired the article in the first place) in which this can be an asset to, and positive virtue of, a campaign – if they are used properly. Mid-way through outlining the article, I realized that this sort of thing happens on a smaller scale all the time – every time you encounter a situation in which the established rules are inadequate and have to concoct a house rule to resolve the situation. Pieces Of Creation: Lon Than, Kalika, and the Prison Of Jade contains some thoughts on the pulp genre in general, and imputes more information on the adaption of 1920s-30s material for a modern audiance. No-one who knows the beliefs of ISIS could fail to note the parallels between them and those of Lon Than, for example, giving this game material a relevance not obvious to anyone else. The primary purpose of the article is to relay four pieces of content from the Adventurer’s Club campaign for others to use: Compiled information on “the mystic properties of jade”; Lon Than, a pulp villain (and his organization), who could easily be translated into a Fantasy or Superhero Genre (there’s some advice on doing so at the end of the article); and a ‘reinvention’ for game purposes of the Hindu Goddess, Kali, and a “twin sister”, Kalika, whose duality has an unmistakable resemblance to Cyrene, the Deity featured in Assassin’s Amulet. Trust me when I say that it would take an expert in the faith to find where we have twisted the lore, but the cumulative effect is to produce a figure that is far more sympathetic and relateable than most RPG representations (who don’t see beyonf the Thugee and get most of their information on that from the second Indiana Jones movie). The fourth item is a very brief summary of the way these items were used in-game, from dangling plot hooks through to adventure.
	GM Screens
Top 9 Dungeon Master Screen Hacks – Johnn examines nine ways of customizing a GM screen. This remains a popular article at Campaign Mastery. 11 Homebrew Dungeon Master Screens – Johnn follows up his article about customizing DM Screens with another on constructing your own. Speed Up Combat By Building Your Own Combat GM Screen – There haven’t been many articles about GM Screens here at Campaign Mastery, but the few that have appeared have been amongst the most popular. This article by Johnn does exactly what it says in the headline. There are more suggestions on content and technique in the comments.
	Props & Handouts
The Color Of Pulp – I review Arcana Agency – The Thief Of Memories and its value as a game aid for a Pulp Campaign. What do you give the Gamer who has everything? – I run through some out-of-the-ordinary gift ideas for gamers, and why they are great ideas. This article came out a little too late – people had already done their Christmas shopping – but lots of people have asked for annual reminders about it in mid-November. Most years I remember, this year (2018) I was so busy using it myself that I forgot. Creating the Orcs And Elves Series Titles – I reveal the construction process from start to finish, with tips and techniques that can be applied to other art projects. Written as much to document the process for my own use because I knew I would have to make more of the titles before the series was complete. Every RPG book ever published has a title, and GMs (should) be making props for their games all the time – so while this article may be a small niche, it’s also a relevant one. Studs, Buttons, and Static Cling: Creating consistent non-human tech – This is the second article for the November 2014 Blog Carnival. I contend that GMs underestimate the value of giving alien/non-human races technology an appropriate but unique look-and-feel, and set about providing a technique to remedy the shortfall with minimal effort. This article deliberately applies itself to Fantasy and Superhero campaigns as well as Sci-Fi. It identifies five fundamental principles that should apply, then provides a step-by-step process for creating the right look-and-feel for a race by using those principles. 3-D Battlemaps for the financially challenged – Updated & Enhanced – Most CM articles start by looking at the theory of something, then deriving practical advice from that study. This article is different; it shows how to transform a tissue box and some selected battlemaps into a three-dimensional structure. In response to some reader requests, I went back and added some additional details and clarifications (that’s the “Updated” part of the title); and while I was there, I thought of another (optional) refinement to the design (that’s the “Enhanced” part). Stride The Earth in 7-league boots: Travel (and Maps) in FRPG Pt 2 – I look at the concept of a league, and what 7-league boots are therefore capable of. I then discuss map scales, making the radical suggestion that travel time instead of distance be the scale. I then use those maps to put the whole concept of 7-league boots into perspective. I then turn my attention to the map-making techniques that would be used in-game, and the resulting error rates in positioning of locations, and then feed that back into the 7-league boot concept, before applying the error rates to the standard scales that I recommended earlier in the article. Taking advantage of the sensory heirarchy – This article was prompted by the invitation of Campaign Coins to review a kickstarter campaign they had underway at the time – a successful one, raising more than US$150,000. The article starts with the flat statement that there is a hierarchy of human senses, and that the wily GM can take advantage of it. I then step through that hierarchy, starting with the weakest senses and proceeding to the most powerful, pointing out along the way that the ease of working with these senses at the gaming table also increases as you go up the scale. Under the sense of hearing, I provide a list of resources about Oratory, some free, others links to the option to purchase. I also discuss the use of audio backdrops and campaign soundtracks. There’s a sight trick in the relevant category but for the most part, I simply refer people to other dedicated articles I’ve written on the subject. Finally, I discuss several ways of using props to engage the tactile sense before reviewing the kickstarter campaign that started the whole train of thought. There’s another product mentioned in the comments for those interested in the campaign soundtrack part of the article. A Helping Handout – Hungry from Ravenous Roleplaying complained that his players were glancing at his handouts and then setting them aside, and that consequently, his effort invested in creating them was being wasted. He then linked to an article at Gnome Stew by Phil Veccione which promised to alleviate the problem. Having seen the “three second glance” myself, I was sufficiently intrigued to check out Phil’s article, and while it was good, I thought it didn’t go far enough. Phil identified 4 ways handouts could be used to increase their utility; I added 9 to that list in this article, and a tenth if you include maps, including how-to information. Ask The GMs: The Great Handouts Question – is “How much should there be?” if you’re wondering. This article defines a range of standards for handouts that are to be distributed pre-campaign, ranging from “The Tolerable Minimum” to “An Extreme Excess”. In the subsequent section, I describe a magic item and accompanying plotline, the “Tome Of Past Destinies,” that seemed to work very well. After some more general notes, I then describe (far more succinctly) the practices for pre-game, in-game, and post-game that I employ and best practice for delivering such background information. Blog Carnival: The Unexpected Reality – A submission to the RPG Blog Carnival (that CM was hosting at the time) opened a pandora’s box of a concept: deliberately leaving things out of player briefing materials so that they can be revealed as surprises in the course of play,” in other words, using Plot as a Rules Delivery System. This article uses my Shards Of Divinity campaign extensively, and especially the Illusion rules, as an example and as a tool to test the arguements along the way. I identify three specific dangers inherent to the proposal, but when examining solutions to those problems, find that there are indeed circumstances (including a variant on the sci-fi campaign rules/campaign that inspired the article in the first place) in which this can be an asset to, and positive virtue of, a campaign – if they are used properly. Mid-way through outlining the article, I realized that this sort of thing happens on a smaller scale all the time – every time you encounter a situation in which the established rules are inadequate and have to concoct a house rule to resolve the situation.
	RPG Theory See also the Campaign Pacing subsection on the Campaign Plotting page.
Leaving Things Out: Negative Space in RPGs – after exploring what Negative Space is in art & layout design, mounting brief excursions into Optical Illusions and Eyewitness Testimony along the way, I examine the benefits and pitfalls of leaving things out in eight areas of RPGs: Narrative, Descriptions, Characterization, Maps, Adventures, NPCs, Rules, and Campaign Planning. The Blind Enforcer: The Reflex Application Of Rules – The speed of events in the computer world mandate that rules be codified and violations detected, and acted upon, automatically. Yet, human behavior does not readily boil down to neat straight lines, and that opens the door to rules being enforced when they shouldn’t, or not being applied when they should. Human Error is an inherent part of the system. I use these thoughts to re-examine the question of how much dominion the GM should have over the rules and update a previous article, Blat! Zot! Pow! The Rules Of Genre In RPGs, which examined these issues from a genre-and-campaign perspective. The Premise Of Falsehoods – Luck Vs Skill in RPGs – I start with a question that’s been around forever – “Is it better to be lucky or skilled” – and proceed to analyze just what luck is and what skill is. In the process, an understanding of RPG concepts from different perspectives emerges that verges on the revelatory. Several side topics of relevance are explored, including the role of players in how Campaigns evolve, and by the end, even the concept of what a campaign is has been redefined. While it contains nothing of practical value, this is practically certain to give you a changed awareness of the world, and of the hobby of RPGs – which is either worthless or infinitely valuable to you. The Expert In Everything? – I may sometimes give the impression of being an expert in everything. Such an impression is a long way from reality, but being a good GM means knowing how to fake it. In this article, I share my quick-fire research techniques, how I build up layers of expertise in a looong list of subjects, the techniques I employ to look more educated than I am (while behind the metaphoric GM screen), and how to use technobabble and how to misuse it to further enhance your credibility as an expert. I even show how to get out of trouble when confronted with someone who really knows the subject. Ask The GM: Seasoning The Stew (making races feel distinctive) – a reader asks why I go to so much effort to distinguish Elves from Drow when the latter are an offshoot of the former. I spend most of the article looking at the advantages that derive from making the races of a campaign distinctive, not only from each other within the campaign, but from other campaigns, before providing some resources and sources of inspiration on the subject. The Thinking Man’s Guide to Intelligence for Players and GMs – I presage this article with a drop-in editorial concerning what has become known as the Lindt Cafe Seige. I suspect that the huge number of likes this article got on social media at the time had more to do with that editorial than with the content. That content: Practical advice on how to roleplay characters of different Intelligence levels, both PCs and NPCs. The categories discussed are Low Intelligence, Very Low Intelligence, and Very High Intelligence. It is assumed that characters with “Normal” Intelligence require no modification in playing style to represent that intelligence. Readers who find this interesting and/or useful should also check out the two-part article on Charisma linked to in the opening paragraphs, which also (in part 2) demonstrates how to build general perceptions of a race or class into a social structure through house rules. The End Of The Adventure – Although it deals with tone on an adventure-by-adventure scale and applies an even smaller granularity, looking at how the tonal quality of an ending influences the start of the beginning that follows, this is just a close-in zoom of what happens throughout the campaign – it’s one domino after another, with limited option for taking control. It’s therefore important to seize those opportunities when they arise. To that end, this article provides a somewaht-dubious list of 31 possible tones for ending adventures, and analyzes them before considering the plot structures that enable them to be controlled by the GM. Ask The GMs: On Big Dungeons – Johnn and I both offer advice on handling a big dungeon, then my fellow GMs rip that advice to shreds, forcing me to discover and solve the real issue with Big Dungeons (and other larger settings like Cities). Big is not necessarily better, but it can be – if approached in the right way by the author and the GM. The Power Of The Question-mark in RPG Plotting – I struggled in deciding where this post should be indexed. It’s kind of about plot structure and kind of about plot writing and kind of about agency and giving some to players while keeping a measure of control as GM. I discuss 7 different uses for the question mark. Part 4 of the Basics For Beginners series, is About Players. I didn’t intend for this series to become a slayer of sacred cows, but for the second post in succession, that’s a theme. In this case, it’s spelled out in the opening line, “I’ve read a lot of nonsense and enlightened theory over the years when it comes to players”. I then go on to walk that back as being too dismissive of RPG Theory. After looking at the factors that go into making a particular part of a particular day’s play “the most enjoyable part” for a particular player-character combination in a particular campaign of a particular genre on one day in particular (try saying that three times fast!), I link to various pages discussing player types in various ways, each of which (I contend) have some validity but which also fail in various ways. Since it’s unfair to criticize without at least attempting to offer something better, I then present a richer 9-axis classification system in which preferances inhabit “zones” or “regions”, not pinpoints. After a few caveats, I discuss the nine (Character, World, Concept, Drama, Conflict, Plot, Interaction, Amazement, and Heroism) individually, especially looking at the sensitivity to GMing style, genre, and campaign. As usual at Campaign Mastery, theory is then translated into practical advice: classification of campaigns, recruiting of players, and designing campaigns and adventures, before considering the impact on player surveys and finally, on game prep requirements. After diving deeper than I really should have for an artiicle aimed at a beginner, I wrap up the article with a pair of much simpler general principles that, in combination, won’t steer beginners wrong: “Give every player a focus on something they enjoy in each and every game session, and your game will be a success,”, and “Predefining some aspects of the game to achieve that in the majority of cases frees your attention up to the task of being creative in all the other areas. The rest takes care of itself.” As a post-script, I (very superficially) review “Era: The Consortium & Secret War” in case I didn’t get to a more substantial review in time (I did, just barely). Part 9 of the Basics For Beginners series discusses Rewards With Intent. This is one of the longer and more complex articles in the series. In fact, I would find it difficult to defend against an allegation of forgetting who it was supposed to be aimed at. Fortunately, if that was the case (I don’t recall), I discovered the problem before it was too late to do something about it. I start by making the bold statement that thinking of rewards as having no meaning beyond powering up PCs and being either dreaded or reveled in when they threaten the campaign has probably destroyed just as many campaigns as giving away too much in rewards. After justifying that assertion, I move on to listing four purposes for rewards; later in the article, I will argue that the fourth is by far the most important. I then break rewards into 15 categories, and how to value each of them; along the way, I offer the occasional bit of specific advice. The categories of Secrets, Reputations, and Enemies get special attention. There are lots of adventure plot hooks offered. After the fifteen, I describe an unresolved debate over the entitlement of PCs to rewards. I then discuss an expanded version of the rewards system described in Objective-Oriented Experience Points, which was itself an expansion of principles spelt out in another article. After describing the basic premises of the system, I offer two variations on the approach, and then propose an entirely new system that is simpler and hence better-suited to use by Beginners. I then walk back through the two basic mistakes that GMs make, time and again – too much and too little reward – and describe a third situation, the Dirty Snowball, just as deadly to campaigns, before offering a method of breaking that cycle by changing what magic items can do, within limits. I also point out that the presence of identify as written in the standard rules will completely destroy this solution, and recommend that readers adopt one of the solutions to the problems posed by this spell in Making, Earning, Finding, Analyzing, Using, Selling, and Destroying Loot as a House Rule if they are going to employ this approach. I then sum up the article into eight bullet points that I want to be the takeaways from the article.
	House Rules Theory See Also the “Touchstones Of Unification” series on the Genre Overviews page. See also the “Cinematic Combat” series on the Rules & Mechanics page. See also the “Plunging Into Game Physics” series in the Game Physics section below.
The House Always Wins: Examining the Concept of House Rules – I look at the basics of House Rules – and in particular why campaigns have them. Along the way I introduce readers to some of the many controversies relating to the subject that have raged amongst gamers for as long as I’ve been involved in the hobby. I have some fun with some of my players in the comments. A Different Perspective: Changing the dynamic with a different metaphor – I look at the potential of using playing cards and existing card game rules instead of dice to resolve situations in an RPG. My House Rules for D&D – As part of the Blog Carnival for July 2009, Johnn got guest author Mike E. to pen this guest article detailing the way he integrates rules from earlier editions of D&D to augment his 4e campaign. The Critical Threshold: A brief debate on the Merits of Extreme Results – I consider extreme die roll results and the merits – and disadvantages – of systems of associating extreme results with extreme rolls. And the discussion in the comments was awesomely useful to anyone thinking about the subject. Ask The GMs: How to set up a fun fishing mini game – Johnn considers some environmental and procedural aspects of fishing in response to the specific question posed, dealing with the roleplaying aspects of the question. I put on my rules-creation hat and consider the bigger question of how to represent contests and competitions within an RPG on the way to developing a complete mini-game. The rules of that game are available as a PDF at the end of the article. And there are some fun left-of-field ideas in the comment at the end. Experience for the ordinary person – I cast an analytic eye over the question of how ordinary people (NPCs) gain experience and expertise in the course of a game. While primarily intended for D&D / Pathfinder, the results should be more broadly applicable, though YMMV when it comes to any specific game system. Don’t miss the extended (and extensive) discussion in the comments. Objective-Oriented Experience Points – I extend the line of thought offered in Experience for the ordinary person to completely revise the experience paradigm. Taking everyman skills to the next level: The Absence of an Alibi – I start with the concept of Everyman Skills and evolve a tool for the characterization of individuals that often yields surprising results. The Nuances of computer use in a simulated world – I examine the difficulties of simulating computers, and their use (and abuse) in RPGs and develop a “Virtual Reality” solution to those problems. The Application Of Time and Motion to RPG Game Mechanics – Although the article is specifically aimed at testing House Rules, and I deliberately advise against doing so, the principles contained within this article can be used to test the efficiency of published game systems and subsystems with a view to identifying a problem area. The Fields Of Magic – “What is Magic?” is one of the Big Questions that I recommend every Fantasy GM spend at least some time contemplating, because there are two very practical questions that can only result from a definitive answer: “What can magic do?” and “What can be done to magic?”. After quantifying the need in greater detail, I show how to create an answer, then examine that answer for manifestations and consequences that need to be expressed in changes to the base D&D/Pathfinder rules. The Personal Computer analogy and some Truths about House Rules – I realized that constructing a campaign was analogous to constructing a Personal Computer, that the analogy revealed some valuable insights into the relaionships between different bodies of rules, and that there were some especially notable points to be made in this context about House Rules and importing rules from other game systems. The Blind Enforcer: The Reflex Application Of Rules – The speed of events in the computer world mandate that rules be codified and violations detected, and acted upon, automatically. Yet, human behavior does not readily boil down to neat straight lines, and that opens the door to rules being enforced when they shouldn’t, or not being applied when they should. Human Error is an inherent part of the system. I use these thoughts to re-examine the question of how much dominion the GM should have over the rules and update a previous article, Blat! Zot! Pow! The Rules Of Genre In RPGs, which examined these issues from a genre-and-campaign perspective. Ergonomics and the Non-human – As the title suggests, this shows simple techniques for applying the principles of ergonomics to non-human physiologies, showing how everything from furniture to staircases is affected. Elves are studied as an example. By Popular Demand: The Ergonomics Of Dwarves – After foolishly mentioning the possibility in “Ergonomics and the Non-human” (above), I got lots of requests for giving Dwarves the same treatment. One reason I was readily persuadable was that while many races (including Elves) had been featured in the Orcs And Elves series (see the subsection below), Dwarves weren’t one of them. One day there will be a part three, applying the principles to sentient octopi, squid, and the like. Prodigious Performances Provided In Due Course – There are thousands of feats in print and on the net. Some of these will stack improperly, others will have broken mechanics, still others will simply not fit the campaign. This article describes the approval process that I developed and insisted on implementing within my Fumanor campaign to weed out the intolerable and flag the unsatisfactory for revision if and when there was time. Actually, in most cases, the changes that needed to be made (if any) were so obvious that I could make them at the same time as rejecting the original and accepting the modified version. House Rules – For Pulp (and other RPGs) – This article lists (and offers as a freebie download) the house rules that my co-GM and I have developed for our Pulp campaign, the first in a series of four on the subject. I then discuss the meanings and implications of some of the rules, and the broader principle from which they were derived (which apply to every campaign. ‘I Can Do That’ – Everyman Skills For Pulp – After (briefly) explaining the skills system within Hero Games’ Champions Fifth Edition, I look at the everyman skills that we give the PCs (and NPCs) in our Pulp Campaign, provide some additional rules relating to their use, then expand on the concept of Everyman Skills to adapt the principle to other game systems, like D&D/Pathfinder. There’s Something About Undead – Blog Carnival Oct 2014 – for the Blog Carnival of October 2014, I penned this article, looking at what makes Undead what they are – in other words, I try to give them some depth. It alls starts with one of those simple little questions: What Is Life? The process of examining the answers reveals a fundamental inadequacy within the standard D&D/Pathfinder Cosmology. Phase 1: Inspiration from the “New Beginnings” series – I list and analyze 23 sources of inspiration, and discuss what to do with the ideas that they generate. Along the way, House Rules Theory and Campaign Ideas get discussed. Phase 4: Development from the “New Beginnings” series – Detailed examination of the process of Campaign Development is made, touching on Campaign Plotting, Research techniques, Societies and Cultures, Races, Rules Conflicts, House Rules Theory, Rule Importation, Plot Organization, Campaign Structure, and Plot Sequence. This constructs the major “bones” of the campaign skeleton. Phase 6: Mindset & Underpinnings from the “New Beginnings” series studies completing the structural elements of a new campaign. Specific attention is placed on the Campaign Philosophy, Campaign Themes, Magic, House Rules Theory, Races and Classes, with a key example from the Shards Of Divinity campaign. Phase 9: Completion from the “New Beginnings” series – is mostly about dotting i’s and crossing t’s and a few other tasks that were put off, at least temporarily, earlier in the series. In particular, the categories of Campaign Structure, Adventure Format & Structure, House Rules Theory, PCs, Races, Archetypes & Classes, Campaign Background, and how Players will integrate with the campaign are considered. Overprotective Tendencies: Handling Player Risk Aversion – the longer a player lives with a particular character in his pocket, the more attached to that character he becomes, and that can lead to overprotective tendencies and over-planning by players. In this (brief) article, I look at six solutions to the problem, several of which I don’t personally recommend. This post seemed to connect with a lot of readers at the time. Part 6 of the Basics For Beginners series, Challenges is really about how hard to make challenges to overcome, and building safety nets into your plots in case you get this decision wrong. It starts by describing a challenge I was facing in real life, which seems both ironic and appropriate in retrospect. I then discuss the question, and point out the number of results produced by Google searches at the time for the term “Encounter Balance” (123 million results), “Encounter Level” (another 123 million results) and “Challenge Rating” (145 million results). This shows, I argue, that a lot of people find the subject difficult, and that there’s no shortage of people who consider it important, or even critical. I then look at the reasons why it’s so hard to do, why it’s so important, whether or not it’s actually essential, and whether or not it’s realistic to aim to ptovide balanced challenges every time. The next two sections detail the very abstract process that I employ in written adventures to get a quick and satisfactory answer, and then describe an alternative based on narrative that I employ when improvizing. I discuss plotting within character limitations (the first of two tools that I employ), how it permits the narrative solution to present multiple possible pathways to an overall success or failure, and how to use a skill-check to thus direct the narrative rather than determine the outcome. There’s a very large paragraph containing an example – make sure to read this because subsequent sections keep referring back to it. The second tool is a beginner’s checklist that I use osmotically to set the difficulty numbers of any challenge (regardless of game system). I discuss each item of the checklist seperately, some deeply, others very briefly, look at when such assessments should occur, and illustrate the whole process with a metaphor. I wrap up the article by examining a list of 5 DO’s and 5 DON’Ts (considering a couple of side-issues and the resulting advice along the way), discuss the problems of linking challenges with xp, and recommending that the two experience a permanent divorce. I wrap up with some final advice and a progress report on that real-life challenge. Part 9 of the Basics For Beginners series discusses Rewards With Intent. This is one of the longer and more complex articles in the series. In fact, I would find it difficult to defend against an allegation of forgetting who it was supposed to be aimed at. Fortunately, if that was the case (I don’t recall), I discovered the problem before it was too late to do something about it. I start by making the bold statement that thinking of rewards as having no meaning beyond powering up PCs and being either dreaded or reveled in when they threaten the campaign has probably destroyed just as many campaigns as giving away too much in rewards. After justifying that assertion, I move on to listing four purposes for rewards; later in the article, I will argue that the fourth is by far the most important. I then break rewards into 15 categories, and how to value each of them; along the way, I offer the occasional bit of specific advice. The categories of Secrets, Reputations, and Enemies get special attention. There are lots of adventure plot hooks offered. After the fifteen, I describe an unresolved debate over the entitlement of PCs to rewards. I then discuss an expanded version of the rewards system described in Objective-Oriented Experience Points, which was itself an expansion of principles spelt out in another article. After describing the basic premises of the system, I offer two variations on the approach, and then propose an entirely new system that is simpler and hence better-suited to use by Beginners. I then walk back through the two basic mistakes that GMs make, time and again – too much and too little reward – and describe a third situation, the Dirty Snowball, just as deadly to campaigns, before offering a method of breaking that cycle by changing what magic items can do, within limits. I also point out that the presence of identify as written in the standard rules will completely destroy this solution, and recommend that readers adopt one of the solutions to the problems posed by this spell in Making, Earning, Finding, Analyzing, Using, Selling, and Destroying Loot as a House Rule if they are going to employ this approach. I then sum up the article into eight bullet points that I want to be the takeaways from the article. Tales From The Front Line: Critical Absences – an unresolved question – Should characters whose player is absent be subjected to the risks-and-rewards of criticals, regardless of what the game rules say? This article explores the question and finds it extraordinarily difficult to resolve, with valid arguments on both sides. What’s at stake here can be permanent losses of friendships, so the question deserves to be taken seriously. A Stack Of Surprises: Blog Carnival November 2015 – After introducing the month’s Blog Carnival (it was once again Campaign Mastery’s turn to host), listing all the things that could be written about under the heading of “Suprise” and “The Unexpected”, I turn to analyzing the sticky question of “Should Surprise Stack?” – or it’s more intrinsically comprehensible alterntative form, “Do multiple surprises compound?” in both D&D / Pathfinder and the Hero System. This article does NOT follow the usual Campaign Mastery pattern, with practical application first, then generalizing and theory afterwards. As usual, when pushed too hard, I find that all three game systems’ rules have a hole that may need to be patched with a House Rule. There’s a lot of logical analysis of combat mechanics and principles, and both alternative answers are given a thorough going over before avoiding a definitive general conclusion. Instead, this is shown as one issue that each GM and each campaign could and perhaps should handle differently. The impact of genre on that choice is also discussed. Blog Carnival: The Unexpected Reality – A submission to the RPG Blog Carnival (that CM was hosting at the time) opened a pandora’s box of a concept: deliberately leaving things out of player briefing materials so that they can be revealed as surprises in the course of play,” in other words, using Plot as a Rules Delivery System. This article uses my Shards Of Divinity campaign extensively, and especially the Illusion rules, as an example and as a tool to test the arguements along the way. I identify three specific dangers inherent to the proposal, but when examining solutions to those problems, find that there are indeed circumstances (including a variant on the sci-fi campaign rules/campaign that inspired the article in the first place) in which this can be an asset to, and positive virtue of, a campaign – if they are used properly. Mid-way through outlining the article, I realized that this sort of thing happens on a smaller scale all the time – every time you encounter a situation in which the established rules are inadequate and have to concoct a house rule to resolve the situation. Sequential Bus Theory and why it matters to GMs – I start by looking at the logic (some might say, ‘Illogic’) of bus timetables and why any given bus is almost always early or late. I then use the phenomenon of passangers getting on or off the bus to create a means of getting rid of monty haulism once and for all, and the distribution of game rewards like wealth and treasure, and (finally) consider a hypothetical way of letting PCs benefit from good character design without coming to totally dominate combat. That last is more of a thought experiment, not yet ready to be seriously advocated. Oddities Of Values: Recalculating the price of valuables – This article starts off talking about currency conversions and getting a ‘feel’ for the price of things in a pulp campaign using modern currency values. It then defines a pair of new “units of currency”, NTDs and Ms – “NTD”s is “Nineteen Thirties US Dollars” and “M”s are “Modern US $”. These are necessary because many of the values that we have recorded are from different time periods – our main sourcebook only goes up to 2005, for example, and there’s been significant changes since then. We then turn to the pressing question that sparked the discussion – How big is a LOT of money, say, M100 million? In Pulp Campaign currency? In large bills? (The answer is, 122 lb and the size of a large suitcase). I then look at the same value in Gold, which works out to 16.6 TONS of gold; and diamonds (7.7 lb of 1-carat diamonds, or a stack 3 inches by three inches and 2 1/4 feet tall. Unfortunately, by now, most readers seemed to have decided that there was no value in the article for them because they hand-waved encumbrance in their campaigns. This is shortsighted – even ignoring the encumbrance issue, don’t you want to know how many rubies can fit in that pot? But it was at this point that the article took a turn to the left, relative to where I had expected it to go, by looking at the rarity of larger gemstones, game treasure tables (especially those in D&D / Pathfinder), and how to value them. I also look at Collectable Coins, other Collectables, Art, and Land, then devise a fast and simple universal system for deriving valuations for these things for any game system, regardless of genre or commodity. Along the way, I look at three die rolling methods for generating rare high values and routine middle-to-low values. There’s also a discussion of how to use the system as a tool for delivering campaign background information in an interesting way. So those who tuned out early missed out on a LOT of meat. Transferable Skills From Bottom to Top and back again starts by studying the theoretical foundations of Skills Systems, identifying two different types (bottom up, with lots of specific skills and narrow definitions, and top-down which has few skills and applies them liberally), and determining that a lot of GM problems and GM-player conflicts stem from using the wrong approach with a specific system type. I then find that the D&D / Pathfinder skills system (as of version 3.x) can best be described as “confused” in this respect, and offer three solutions: A bottom-up solution, A top-down solution, and a flexible compromise. I also describe (too briefly, to be honest) the skills system in use in my Superhero campaign.
	Game Physics The first articles that anyone interested in Game Physics should read (and that should be everyone!) is the “Plunging into Game Physics” series, in it’s own subsection below. See Also “Putting The SF into SciFi” on the Genre Overviews page, Sci-Fi section. See Also “Time Travel for RPGs” in the Time Travel section of the Genre Overviews page. See also the “Portals To Celestial Morphology” series in the Magic section of the Campaign Creation page.
Relatively Uncertain: Taking Control of Game Physics – I take a close look at game physics – why you need one, the assumptions that underpin them, downsides, and how to create a manageable one. It’s Reality, Jim, but not As We Know It: St Barbara – I discuss the Paranormal Physics and Paranormal Biology skills from my superhero campaign, and use the discussion as a springboard into an illustration of my contention that rules-based disadvantages and roleplaying-acting don’t have to be mutually exclusive by exploring the pseudo-science behind the powers of one of the PCs in the campaign – an explanation that gets both a reality check and an extension in the comments. Fascinating Topological Limits: FTL in Gaming – I examine Faster-Than-Light travel, and point out the flaws in the assumptions that lead people to assume it isn’t possible. Then I examine the different types of approach used in RPGs. The conversation in the comments was one of the most enjoyable I’ve ever had at Campaign Mastery and is not to be missed by any devotee of science fiction or future-world-oriented games. A Twist in Time: Alternate Histories in RPGs – I offer the general principles that I use to construct a viable, believable, alternate history or parallel world. The Physics Of Uncertainty – An anomalous article for Campaign Mastery that is only indirectly game-related. I reflect on some of the stranger implications of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty, use the results to prove that anything that can be measured contains an uncertainty, and consider some of the consequences that would manifest in a sci-fi/superhero campaign or novel. Speculative physics can be so much fun :) I just wish I could have gotten some real-world physicists to comment. A Hint Of Tomorrow: The Future Evolution Of Homo Sapiens – I consider the evolutionary pressures on modern humans in an effort to understand what the humanity of the future might be like – something relevant to just about every sci-fi and cyberpunk campaign. Quantum Entanglement and the Tech of TomorrowI examine the concept of quantum entanglement (now a proven phenomenon) and the technological applications that could result, from the near-certain to the highly speculative. The Fields Of Magic – “What is Magic?” is one of the Big Questions that I recommend every Fantasy GM spend at least some time contemplating, because there are two very practical questions that can only result from a definitive answer: “What can magic do?” and “What can be done to magic?”. After quantifying the need in greater detail, I show how to create an answer, then examine that answer for manifestations and consequences that need to be expressed in changes to the base D&D/Pathfinder rules. Why list it here? Because if Magic operates in a campaign that has a Game Physics, that physics will need to encompass the answer of “What is magic?”, and that’s what this article is all about. The Pillars Of Assumption: A Source of Plot Ideas – It’s always good to challenge assumptions – they will either emerge the stronger and more robust for it, or you will learn something. It’s just as good to challenge the players’ assumptions about an RPG and a great source of adventures. After all, everyone knows that the sun will rise in the morning and clouds are soft, fluffy, and white – right? A Population Of Dinosaurs and the impact on RPG ecologies – I get curious about how many species of dinosaur there were, so I devise some calculations to answer the question. That might be interesting enough in its own right, but then I see how quickly genetic engineering could produce new (well-adapted) species. This is so interesting that it holds my attention until I realize that it has other ecological value to the GMs of D&D / Pathfinder – for example, the same process could be used to tell you how long Dragons have lived in a Fantasy environment just by factoring in their average lifespan and the number of different varieties. The Expert In Everything? – I may sometimes give the impression of being an expert in everything. Such an impression is a long way from reality, but being a good GM means knowing how to fake it. In this article, I share my quick-fire research techniques, how I build up layers of expertise in a looong list of subjects, the techniques I employ to look more educated than I am (while behind the metaphoric GM screen), and how to use technobabble and how to misuse it to further enhance your credibility as an expert. I even show how to get out of trouble when confronted with someone who really knows the subject. There’s Something About Undead – Blog Carnival Oct 2014 – for the Blog Carnival of October 2014, I penned this article, looking at what makes Undead what they are – in other words, I try to give them some depth. It alls starts with one of those simple little questions: What Is Life? The process of examining the answers reveals a fundamental inadequacy within the standard D&D / Pathfinder Cosmology. Pt 1: The Sales Pitch of the “Some Arcane Assembly Required” series is all about my convincing myself that spell components were worth the trouble. Most GMs immediate response to the article briefing would be, “Why Bother”? In answer to that question, I provide five answers to the question, but don’t find any of them initially convincing, especially in light of the “Eschew Material Component” Metamagic Feat. An in-depth analysis of the mundane, non-magical item, “The Spell Component Pouch” unlocks the puzzle and leaves no doubt – every D&D / Pathfinder campaign either needs a house rule eliminating spell components as a factor of concern, or it needs a House Rule eliminating or revising this item. With it in its current form, it is impossible for Spell Components to be taken seriously. Since this analysis also finds conceptual issues with the item big enough to drive a Mystic Mountain through, I’m forced to advise the latter. So that’s what the article does. I look at mutliple ways of revising the concept, find multiple consequences of value to a campaign that result, some of which mandate the rating system for rarity, and that leaves me (and most readers who followed along) convinced of the answer to that initial question. Next, I revise and review the rarity scales and propose rules to implement them into a campaign and make them relevant (which also unleashes all those side-benefits discussed earlier). Finally, I offer three solutions to the bookkeeping tedium that makes most GMs ask “Who Cares” in the first place – then postcript that with some extra tantalizing applications. Pt 3: Tab A into Slot B, from the same series, provides a template for creating exotic spell components and then dives into some examples: Perfect Octarine (carries Cosmological implications), Etherial Alloy (carries more Cosmological implications), Firesphere (logically consistent with the preceding two, same implications), Ghostwood (carries Cosmological implications, Life & Death implications, and plot implications; mandates sentient trees; consistent with Positive and Negative Planes being two poles of a single structure), Heavenly Airs (profound implications for Death & The Afterlife, profound plot implications). Many of these substances are extremely valuable. After detailing those 5, I was completely out of time… Pt 4: Cut At The Dotted Line, also from the “Some Arcane Assembly Required” series, contains the exotic components that I wasn’t able to complete in time for part 3. It starts with a far more compact version of the template, then looks at Permanice Frost (gives Water Elementals a new sense, carries the same implications as Perfect Octarine from Part 3), Nightmare Spinner (involves an original monster from the Negative Energy Plane known as a Dreameater, cosmological implications, planar travel implications, scary stuff!), Oil Of Cholic (implications for military and barbarians), Razorleaf (cosmological implications, unresolved cosmological questions, exotic organizations, adventuring location, Elvish society). I then offer an incomplete idea for a 10th exotic element. The Conundrum Of Coincidence – Players know that the GM has total control over the game world, and so expect that there’s no such thing as coincidence. Yet, if the game world is to be believable, it must have coincidence as part of its makeup. This combination makes coincidence the hardest phenomenon in gaming to simulate with verisimilitude, which is what makes this article (that explains how to do it) so valuable. As usual, this starts with theory and proceeds to assemble practical advice; I mention this because the “theory” section of this piece is some of my best writing to date. Plato, Aristotle, Quantum Theory, RPGs, and a measurable improvement in my gaming as a result – what more could you want? The Shape Of Strange is the third part of the “Portals To Celestial Morphology” series. This time I loosen the reader’s mental muscles by pointing out the impact on geology and agriculture of being able to erect a handy portal, again recapitulate the basics, and then tackle the next five Big Ideas, which all have the theme of “Reshaping Reality,” starting with #11, A Direct Connection To The Afterlife (there’s nothing in human society that I could think of that would be unaffected!); #12, Portal Transfiguration (in which travel through a portal is akin to the effects that befell Alice in Wonderland); #13, Socio-Ethical Morphology through Portal Networks (alternate worlds, everything from Discworld to Mirror, Mirror); #14, Portals Can Only Connect To Variant Planar Topologies (all Portals led to cosmologies that have only one thing in common – they are all Different to the one that the PCs live in – a world in which a coalition of Water and Air elementals led by General Ulysses S. Grant is fighting a terrible civil war with Fire Elementals over the enslavement of Earth Elementals? Or maybe they are trying to win their independence from the Fire Elementals and are being led by General George Washington?). Idea #15, Variable Difficulty Portals, then gets examined in depth, in fact about half the article is devoted to the subject, which asks, “why should all destinations be equally accessible by Portal or Gate? Why shouldn’t there be lines of least resistance, and to reach a more remote destination, the additional resistance must be forcibly overcome? Why shouldn’t travel to a more remote destination be akin to climbing a hill – with several hundred pounds of gear on your back?.” The problem is that the reshaping of the cosmos by several of these options is totally out-of-control; this mechanism restores that control to the GM. I give a detailed explanation of how to map out the lines of least resistance in a practical manner using a scrabble board or something similar (a chess board doesn’t have enough spaces). Feel The Burn is the final part of the “Portals To Celestial Morphology” series. In my introduction to this part, I start with Mutually-Assured Destruction by Portal and go to a means of sucking dry any magic items that the PCs shouldn’t have at this level before once again recapitulating the basic parameters. The theme of this final quintet is “Energy Flow In Transit” – as though you were entering a portal at one altitude and exiting at another, gaining potential energy in the process, or vice-versa: #16, Gaining Energy In Transit, has two subtypes, “Balanced” and “Unbalanced” (and be warned, some of these hit game physics with a two-by-four, and in the course of discussing the various “energy forms” that could be gained, I offer up some house rules for making Negative Energy Levels Scary,, which they aren’t in standard D&D / Pathfinder); #17 flips the coin to consider Losing Energy In Transit; #18 considers Portals as Planar Batteries (a possibility that I’ve actually used in one of my campaigns, and attached to a couple of really interesting external links – both still valid, I just checked 5/1/19); and finally, #19 and #20, which look at the momentum of events as a kind of energy (a concept players in my Zenith-3 campaign will be familiar with) that can be gained, lost, or inverted during transit. As part of the writeup of Énorme Force, one of the villains from the campaign, I give a thumbnail version of the origins of Blackwing in Pieces of Creation: Énorme Force. This article also explains (very briefly) some of the game physics including the basis of magic and psionics and the equivalent of clerical powers within the campaign.

		The “Plunging Into Game Physics” series This series looking at the underlying principles and applications of Game Physics. The term itself is inherently contradictory when taken at face value, so the series starts by looking at what it really means, the relationship between a Game Physics and the game mechanics, the use of a Game Physics in terms of plot, and finally, the campaign-level implications of a Game Physics.
	Pt 1 – What Is a ‘Game Physics’? attempts to understand what a ‘game physics’ is, and finds that it can be many different things to different GMs. En route to this understanding, it looks at the influence of Genre on the importance of a Game Physics, Game Physics as a selective rationale for making game rulings (and how such rulings amass to form a game physics whether the GM realizes it or not), Game Physics as Essential Pseudoscience for rationalizing extraordinary abilities and discerning consequences beyond those provided by the game mechanics, Game Physics as Metagame Ubermechanics which embeds key campaign concepts into the mechanics through the pre-game generation of House Rules (transitioning from a Gamist perspective to a Simulationist perspective by way of a Narrative Perspective half-way house), and the three ways that the latter can be used by a GM. It’s because of this article that Game Physics is considered most validly emplaced on the Metagame page of the Blogdex. Pt 2: Strange Mechanics studies the process of turning principles into game mechanics, i.e. Game Physics into House Rules, with examples. Practical advice on mathematics and algebraic expressions is provided before turning to one of the major consequences of any House Rule: Rule interlocking. House Rules breed like rabbits, and the only real guideline that you can bring to bear to limit or permit this growth is the Game Physics. I then look at the process, pros, and cons of infusing extracts from some other game system that appears to do what you want. I end the article with a word of warning: Creating and Applying a game physics can be wonderfully rewarding but can have unexpected traps for the unwary. The only ways to learn what works are the hard way and very careful and deliberate experimentation. They are a tool for experts, but the only way to become an expert is to acquire experience in what works and what doesn’t – and becoming an expert might mean that you walk into barn doors less frequently, but will also mean that when you do,, they will be much bigger. Pt 3: Tales From The Ether looks at how plot and game physics entwine, and in particular, how a game physics can generate plots unique to the game world that possesses that physics. I use my TORG campaign’s version of Aysle (the Fantasy plane) as an example. I also look at how plots can (and, over time, will) expand upon the existing game physics (this time using an example from the Zenith-3 superhero campaign), and how two side-benefits are consistency and verisimilitude. “The Ouroboros Development Cycle” then discusses a feedback situation – game physics inspires plot which expands options available to GM & Players which makes new plots possibile. Finally, I sum up with four ways that Game Physics can feed into plot, and four ways that plot needs can feed into Game Physics. Pt 4: Better Campaigns Through Physics looks at the campaign-level impact of a Game Physics, starting with a definitive heirarchy of campaign to game physics to plot to official mechanics, something that has been discussed multiple times in Campaign Mastery articles. This heirarchy is all about what can overrule what when there is a conflict. I then throw in a concept for a “shared world” campaign that’s wilder than any that I’ve ever seen in the past, before moving on to examine the downside of a Game Physics and how to contain and avoid them. There is a practical approach to making good ad-hoc rulings when these are needed, and I then look at using the “big concepts” approach to make game physics a lot easier to manage, examine some of the philosophic consequences of having one, and look at three different types of Game Physics and who each will best suit. Finally, I look at problem-solving for when game physics problems arise, and how to turn such problems into opportunities – with real-game examples.

		The “Examining Psionics” series This 5-part series examines Psionics in gaming, especially Telepathy.
	In Part 1, The Mind’s Eye, I provide extracts from the game rules for my superhero campaign including notes on roleplaying telepathy. This is probably the least-valuable part of the series to the general reader, I have to admit, though there’s discussion of the metagame impact of Psionics and telepathy in particular that no-one in a campaign with Psionics should skip; it provides a framework for the rest of the series. Part 2, Neurons & Lobes, offers a pseudo-scientific ‘explanation’ for the biology of Psionics. Both these first two articles are actually preamble for the article that originally intended to write, which appears as the rest of the series. Part 3, The Value Of Information, points out the inadequacy of existing metaphors and analogies for the telepathic experience, most of which date from the first half of the twentieth century or earlier, and then suggests using the Internet as a metaphor for the telepathic experience. I had identified 21 aspects of the Internet that were applicable, and use each to generate telepathy-related adventure ideas or to illuminate the concepts involved, or both. In Part 3 of the series I consider Privacy, Law, Law-Enforcement, Telepathy for Voyeurism and Pornography, the value of information, Data Piracy, and Search Engines. Part 4, All This And Psionic Spam, continues by examining the World Wide Web, Misinformation, Spoofs, Spam, Instant News services, Viral Marketing, and File Sharing. The final part of the series, The Dark Side Of The Mind, considers Tracking Cookies, Fisching, Viruses, Social Networking, Twitter, Website Hacking, and Spyware/Hijacking exploits. I close by reviewing the value of the Internet as a metaphor for Telepathy and then considering the whole series as a representation of the value of Analogy.