Campaign Mastery

I’m in the process of answering a question from GM Roy, who wrote: “I need some inspiration to create cool names for spell components. I have 5 [scales of rarity = Mike]: Common (flesh, breath, water, dust) Uncommon (earth from a cemetery, humanoid blood) Rare (head of a Medusa, Minotaur’s horn, black dragon blood) very […]

There are times when we all have to make a fresh start. This series examines the process in detail. So you’ve got some general ideas, and you’ve vetted the legacies of the past to see what to keep and what to throw away (with a few ‘wait and see’ items that will only stay if the […]

This question comes from GM Roy, who wrote: “I need some inspiration to create cool names for spell components. I have 5 [scales of rarity = Mike]: Common (flesh, breath, water, dust) Uncommon (earth from a cemetery, humanoid blood) Rare (head of a Medusa, Minotaur’s horn, black dragon blood) very Rare (Essence of the ghost […]

Another filler article, I’m afraid. I’ve made quite a lot of progress but – due to external factors – simply ran out of time. I’ve been saving this one for just such an eventuality… For the purposes of this article, “FRPG” is considered restricted to D&D / Pathfinder and similar systems. I know that’s unrealistic, […]

This morning (as I write this) I was chasing down a vague notion about an emotional “color wheel” that wouldn’t quite come together. While pondering it, I realized that GMs sometimes think that they can end adventures on just about any emotional note that seems appropriate to the circumstances, and that I had never seen […]

There are times when we all have to make a fresh start. This series is going to examine the process in detail. The table of contents was in the introduction (part 0). In Phase 2, short-term measures were used to buy time while doing some fairly tedious work in performing the last rites over large […]

A brief recap: This is the final part in a detailed reexamination of singe-player campaigns. If you want to see the full Table Of Contents, it was included in Part One (though it has definitely been updated since that was published). So far, we’ve looked at the effects on combat, characters, roleplay, and how those […]

There are times when we all have to make a fresh start. This series is going to examine the process in detail. The table of contents was in part 0. While there are always going to be things that you will want to bring forward from your previous game, there will be a lot of […]

A brief recap: This is the third part in a detailed reexamination of singe-player campaigns. If you want to see the full Table Of Contents, it was included in Part One. In today’s article, I am going to look at how Plots and Play change in a single-player game. Let’s dive right in… Heading Due […]

There are times when we all have to make a fresh start. This series is going to examine the process in detail. Finding Inspiration You need to start with an idea. While this might be an original concept, many people derive inspiration from existing sources. Depending on what that source is, the idea may be […]

A brief recap: Quite some time back, in an Ask-The-GMs, I discussed singe-player campaigns in what seemed at the time like quite a lot of detail. After recently starting a Dr Who single-player campaign, I decided to review that article to see if there was anything more to be said. It turned out that there […]

There are times when we all have to make a fresh start. Creatively – and GMing is a creative aspect of the broader RPG hobby – a change of scene may be needed. Enthusiasm may have waned. The old campaign may have ended. One or more key players may have dropped out and you want […]