Campaign Mastery

When you get right down to it, there are only three sources you can use when creating the world of tomorrow in a game: Copy something you’ve seen elsewhere, filing off serial numbers as necessary; Get it from the game setting; or Create it yourself. The Problems: All three of these solutions have their place […]

I’ve got so much campaign prep to get done that if I don’t do it here, I’ll never get it done in time… ************************************************************************************************* Chapter 44 was already in first-draft form, but Chapters 45 and 46 were only a very rough outline and needed considerable expansion to achieve first-draft status. I feel it necessary to […]

Our special effects gurus get better all the time, and at the same time, their product becomes more affordable with improving technology, making it more ubiquitous in entertainments. I first wrote about the impact of this phenomenon back in 2009, when I asked Are Special Effects Killing Hollywood?, a question which shed a new light […]

I’ve got so much campaign prep to get done that if I don’t do it here, I’ll never get it done in time… ************************************************************************************************* I got asked the other day why I don’t take a break from this series to post something else. It’s a valid question, and deserves an answer. There are two reasons; […]

I’ve got so much campaign prep to get done that if I don’t do it here, I’ll never get it done in time… ************************************************************************************************* Ooops. While preparing this post I discovered that in my urgency to get content produced that a couple of editorial errors have crept in recently. I’d love to say they were […]

I’ve got so much campaign prep to get done that if I don’t do it here, I’ll never get it done in time… ************************************************************************************************* Chapters 34 to 36 were mostly already in first-draft form when I started the series, but I’ve since realized that there’s a lot more that needs to be said as background […]

In this concluding part of my series on encounter tables, I look at Urban Settings, Dungeon settings, and talk about ways of integrating Wandering Monster encounters into plotlines and infusing them with meaning. And I might throw in the occasional new idea in other relevant areas, to boot. A quick catch-up – In part one […]

************************************************************************************************* I’ve got so much campaign prep to get done that if I don’t do it here, I’ll never get it done in time… The panoramic picture used as a backdrop to illustrate this week’s post was so incredibly stunning that I had to make the full-sized picture available for those who might want it […]

In part one of this series, I talked about the philosophical grounding of random encounters – the theoretical why’s and wherefore’s that underpin the encounters that result, and the ways and reasons why they matter. In this part, I’m going to discuss ways of creating better, smarter, encounter tables – ones that prompt you to […]

On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 27-28 I’ve got so much campaign prep to get done that if I don’t do it here, I’ll never get it done in time… ************************************************************************************************* Chapters 27 and 28 were partially unfinished when I started this series, which means they are presented in first-draft form and not the fully […]

The epic conclusion to the Second Great war between Elves and Dwarfs as plots, intrigues, betrayals and surprises come to a head.

How to overcome the problems with random encounters