Archive for the ‘Planning & Preparation’ Category

Memory Lane: Nov 2017 Blog Carnival Roundup

Campaign Mastery hosted the November 2017 Blog Carnival and had some really great submissions in addition to my using the Carnival as a springboard for a whole heap of articles. The theme this time around was “The Past Revisited: Pick a post (your own or someone else’s) and write a sequel. Should include a link […]

Comments (4)

Counting Sheep: A Surprising Campaign Idea

I originally intended to publish the Blog Carnival round-up today, but last week’s computer failure has messed up my plans quite a bit, so I’ve given myself a couple of extra days to get that finished. This is another article that I wrote while my internet was dead, and could be viewed as something of […]

Comments Off on Counting Sheep: A Surprising Campaign Idea

A Pretty Little Bauble: The Heist in RPGs

Late last night (as I write this), one of my favorite Anime movies (outside of the works of Studio Ghibli) was repeated on television. The Castle Of Cagliostro is a complex interaction of several different plotlines, but at it’s heart is a variation on that old plot standard, The Heist. More pure representations of that […]

Comments Off on A Pretty Little Bauble: The Heist in RPGs

Round-Robin Adventure Structure

This article won’t be very helpful to readers who are visually-impaired. I apologize for that, I know I have at least one reader who falls into that category. Maybe if you could get someone to describe the diagrams to you…? I tried including such descriptions, but found that the meaning of the article became buried. […]

Comments (3)

Comparative Underpinnings Of Campaign

While this article builds on some others that I’ve done here at Campaign Mastery, I didn’t feel it was enough of a sequel to any of them to qualify for the Blog Carnival. But I wanted to remind readers that if you’re thinking of doing so, there’s still time to submit a late entry! I’ll […]

Comments Off on Comparative Underpinnings Of Campaign

The Greater Society Of Big Bad Wolves: RPG Villains of the blackest shade

I’m listing this as an entry in the Blog Carnival because it builds on several past articles about villains and villainy. See: The Anatomy Of Evil: What Makes a Good Villain? Shadows In The Darkness – The nature of True Evil Making a Great Villain Part 1 of 3 – The Mastermind Making a Great […]

Comments Off on The Greater Society Of Big Bad Wolves: RPG Villains of the blackest shade

Nostalgia in RPG Characters

When first I listed this article as a to-do, it represented a very straightforward concept, but I’ve taken so long to get around to writing it that other notions have presented themselves. I now find myself in possession of three distinct and – at first glance – mutually contradictory ideas on the subject. With these […]

Comments Off on Nostalgia in RPG Characters

Parallel Worlds and the probability of events

It’s been a while since I’ve done a straight pseudo-physics article, but as I write this I’m in the final preparations for the Zener Gate campaign*, and as a result the subject has been on my mind. In fact, the campaign is due to have it’s second session next week. Nevertheless, this will all be […]

Comments Off on Parallel Worlds and the probability of events

The Influence Of Distance Part 3: Far (The first half) and bonus worldbuilding tools

I’m tagging this post as part of the Blog Carnival. The theme is sequels, and I think that being the third part in a series qualifies. The first two parts of this small series (Part 1, Part 2) looked at the tremendous impact of a community being located close to the major social, political, and […]

Comments (2)

The Past Revisited – Nov 2017 Blog Carnival

This isn’t the post I expected to put up today. The other one’s ready, and will appear later in the week. The reason is because it’s almost November – and that has a significance that will become clear any second now… Once again it’s time for Campaign Mastery to host the Blog Carnival for the […]

Comments (20)

The Impact Of Urban Migration On Fantasy Games

Documentaries are supposed to educate and enlighten, to Document and explain. There is little so irritating as a documentary that ignores or commits errors in basic facts to present a myopic, distorted, or one-sided view that provides only half the story. This evening I started watching just such a documentary. One segment was discussing the […]

Comments (4)

Finalizing the Mechanics for the Zener Gate Campaign

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series The Zener Gate System

Introductory Recap This is the third post on the development of a bespoke game system for use in my latest campaign, which is now scheduled to start play on October 21st – so finishing this has become a priority. Let’s start with a recap. A couple of minor details that weren’t properly explained the first […]

Comments Off on Finalizing the Mechanics for the Zener Gate Campaign