Campaign Mastery

This post is the end of a long road! It started with a guest article by Garry Stahl, “The Conundrum Of Alignment”. Parts two and three highlighted what I believe to be the causes of the problems Garry identified, and provided an alternative perspective on Alignment that turned it into one of the most useful […]

How does a mere mage survive in the world’s most infamous pirate’s den? And how does a leader of mages protect himself from the incredible powers his followers might weild against him? Here are a few of my thought processes behind a faction in my new D&D campaign. I thought you might be interested in […]

I realized recently my game announcements and reminders are underwhelming. I’m leaving opportunities to improve the game unfulfilled. We play every other Thursday night. Games start at 6:30, we’re usually full-on by 7pm, then we wrap up between 11 and 11:30. We confirm the week of the game by email though, just in case schedules […]

September’s blog carnival was about about GM errors: Mistakes – ones you’ve made in the past and how you got past them, one’s you’re making now and don’t know how to solve. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the carnival. The stories and lessons you’ve shared will not only help new GMs but verterans too: […]

How can you make the players feel like their actions have an impact on the world? Sometimes, the simplest questions have the most complicated or profound answers. So it was with some trepidation that we’ve approached this question, which was asked virtually exactly as it’s quoted at the head of this article. The short answer […]

How do you create a campaign that gives the players absolute freedom but still leaves the GM in control? Recently, Campaign Mastery was asked, Is it possible to create a truly player-choice driven campaign (within reason)? I’m trying to create a campaign that’s anywhere from 75 – 90% roleplaying (there will be dice, but not […]

Some mistakes you (hopefully) only make once; the mistakes that I’ve blogged about so far as part of this month’s carnival fall into that category. But some mistakes are bound to recur by their nature, and it is just as important to know how to recover from those. These mistakes might derive from a flawed […]

There came a time when I had to move out of the city (where my players were), and back to the small town in which I had grown up, for financial reasons. That would spell the end of most campaigns, but I had willing players and exceptional determination. I would write a scenario each week […]

Campaign Qualities Are Like Feats For Game Worlds I’m flipping through FantasyCraft, a new d20 OGL RPG from Crafty Games. The first place I always go to in such books is the game master section. And amongst the 80 pages or so that brim with great tips and advice in FantasyCraft, I home in on […]

How do you extrapolate from existing rules to cover new situations? Recently, Campaign Mastery was asked, If a giant has rapid shot can he throw 2 rocks in a full round action? (d&d 3.5) This sparked some debate over whether Campaign Mastery should answer rules questions of this sort; we aim to deal with big-picture […]

Some expectations are made to be confounded if it’s at all possible. If someone expects a dull and boring campaign, that’s one you don’t want to live up to. If someone expects to get favourable treatment because you owe them money, I’m happy to dissapoint them – and to repay the debt as soon as […]

How can a campaign last for decades, and what does such longevity imply? A question recently asked us, I remember Mike mentioning his decades-long superhero game a few times, and am currently planning my next campaign, so I was just wondering how y’all can extend a game so far. Even if the players are still […]