Campaign Mastery

This post is a musing on the reaction to the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic here in Australia. It will have some relevance to citizens of other countries (and definite relevance to writers and GMs) but that wasn’t the primary goal when I was writing it – though that relevance did manifest along the way. I’m also […]

I’m going to start this article with a bit of tooting of my own horn. One of the many steps that led to the creation of Campaign Mastery in November 2008 was the publication in early 2007 of a two-part article on “Scenario and Story Arc creation” called “Hipbone’s Connected To The Thighbone”. These days […]

There’s a little-known curse that sometimes afflicts GMs. It reads, “may you have far more prep time than you need.” It’s not a situation that is encountered very often; more frequently, the converse is the norm, and almost every GM would give a good d20 for an extra hour a day. Or even an hour […]

The Blog Carnival for July 2020 is on the subject of “What Would You Like To Know?“, and is being hosted by Of Dice And Dragons. I actually find it easier to come up with topics for Carnivals than I do to answer this question. If I had to provide an answer to the question, […]

Last time I outlined the first half (roughly) of a process for the introduction of a system of organization for plotting to an existing campaign. I hope everyone’s already familiar with what was in Webs Of Gossamer: Retrofitting For Plot Pt I because I don’t have time to do much of a recap. Instead, I’m […]

So let’s say that you have an RPG campaign that is doing well. Your plotlines are interacting with each other, your adventures are compelling, your players are happy, and everyone’s having fun, but you’re starting to struggle to keep on top of the entwined complexities of your plots and your prep is becoming a nightmare […]

Folk wisdom is a funny old thing. Sometimes it’s a pearl, other times it’s what in Australia might be called a Pearler. Much of the time, it’s sensible, practical advice when applied to situations that are comparable to that which gave rise to the saying; – and incredibly foolhardy when not. For example, take that […]

Over the years, there have been many attempts to combine RPGs and Board Games, with varying degrees of success. So pervasive is this pattern that it can only be concluded that it’s a far harder bridge to cross than seems initially apparent. Attempts… …like Monopoly, for which I developed variant rules within 6 months of […]

This article has now been split into three parts, because of the pace of growth of this middle section. Part 1: Covid-19 Facts, Analysis, and Advice Part 2: Busting Covid-19 Myths Part 3: Should My Game Be Canceled? Each part will link to the other two, and they will all be extended and updated as […]

My original article on Covid-19 has now been split into three parts: Part 1: Covid-19 Facts, Analysis, and Advice Part 2: Busting Covid-19 Myths Part 3: Should My Game Be Canceled? Each part will link to the other two, and they will all be extended and updated as necessary. Part 1: Covid-19 Facts, Analysis, and […]

This article has now been split into three parts. Part 1: Covid-19 Facts, Analysis, and Advice Part 2: Busting Covid-19 Myths Part 3: Should My Game Be Canceled? Each part will link to the other two, and they will all be extended and updated as necessary. Part 3: Should your next RPG Game-session be canceled […]

Some History It used to be so simple, back when I first started GMing AD&D. Each monster had a treasure type, and each treasure type had a table (or sequence of tables) that you rolled on, and a set of rolls on that table determined what treasure would be found in the vicinity. Room, Inhabitant, […]