Campaign Mastery

I try very hard to provide balance in my coverage of different genres here at Campaign Mastery, guided by the relative popularity. Out of every 15 posts, 6 should be Fantasy oriented, 4 should be sci-fi oriented, 2 should be ‘realistic’ (Modern-day or Pulp, hence the inverted commas), 2 should be Superhero/Secret Agent oriented, and […]

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 […]

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 First Frontier: Appearance Early science fiction depicted aliens as having animal heads or other elements of animal anatomy. Fantasy, myth, and legend carry the principle even further back in time – the Minotaur of Knossos comes to mind. And I would not be at all surprised to be told that centaurs predate even those […]

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 […]

Last weekend, Ed Johnson, author of Bars, Clubs and Bands, contacted me to ask that I take a look at a guide that he had written for adding bars and nightclubs to role playing games including modern fantasy and modern horror, which was available for pay what you want on DriveThru RPG I took a […]

0. Fundamentals (repeated for all posts:) — The Sixes System is a minimalist game system suitable for any and all genres. — It has been used in my Dr Who campaign since September 2014, which has just come to a successful conclusion. — Characters are constructed using a point-buy methodology with NPCs generatable using die rolls […]

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 […]