Breaks and Intermissions: Getting Into the Swing of Things

Just like anything else, coming back to blogging break isn't easy. I stopped because of a glut of midterm work and just got out of my usual rhythm of posts, and I'm just now getting back into the groove. Blogging isn't t[...]
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The Characterisation Puzzle: The First Decision

If you’ve been following this series from the beginning, then you are now equipped with three new techniques for character development, all of which are useful when for some reason you’re struggling to find [...]
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The Characterisation Puzzle: The Window Shopping Technique

New techniques for getting under a character’s skin don’t come along every day; the techniques described earlier in this series have been my standard weapons for such tasks for the last two decades. So, when[...]
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Pitch to the Pros (Part 1) – GamesU 2009

In this session from GamesU 2009, Origins Award-nominated game designer, Boyan Radakovich, walks you through the process of submitting your board game prototype to publishers for publication. In Part 1 of this two-part s[...]
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Lazy Friday Video Post: “Making the Most of Mythic Structure”

This time I want to share a video from the Neoncon 2009 GamesU with you. In this 51-minutes video Matthew Grau from WildFire LLC talks about the monomyth (aka the hero’s journey) and how it can be used in creating stor[...]
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The Secret of my Success…

Like a mailroom clerk with dreams of greatness, of getting that corner office with a view, I too picked up a gaming book long ago and embarked on this journey we call role playing games! Back in 1986 I began playing and [...]
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Hallowed Halls Dungeon Tiles

I have a pretty sparse set of dungeon mastering supplies.  Since I’m only on that side of the table about once a month, I’ve devoted my gaming resources in other other directions.  I do, however, have the b[...]
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Crafting Your Adventure

How about that for a title? It's pretty audacious, acting like I'm about to deliver some sort of authoritative how-to guide. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that a better title would be, "Crafting MY Ad[...]
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Gaming can make a better world – Jane McGonigal

Don’t know who Ms. McGonigal is? And you call yourself a gamer? Watch this video then follow her on Twitter and check out her website. [...]
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Secret dice rolls

When I remember correctly I’ve always rolled behind the GM screen when I was running a game. My first GM did the same, as did most GMs I met in my life. Recently I had a talk on Skype with Philippe-Antoine Ménard and [...]
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World Building 101: Signs and Portents

Prophecy can lend a sense of great purpose to a campaign. It can provide direction when PCs are struggling to decide what to do next, create tension when they must race to prevent a condition of prophecy being fulfilled[...]
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Marking your opponents

One of the difficulties in D&D’s combat is system is keeping track of all the different status effects. It’s not so bad when it comes to tracking the effects on your own character; you can use the boxes o[...]
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Its not easy being Alpha

Back in January, I was invited to join a gaming group starting up a new “pack” in Werewolf: The Apocalypse. I knew the Storyteller (Jarvis) and one of the players (John) pretty well and had met the other players (Dev[...]
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“I Hit It With My Axe”

Stop reading this and go watch I Hit It With My Axe.The Escapist Magazine in it's infinite wisdom and awesomeness has launched a 52 episode weekly "reality" (as in unscripted which modern Reality TV is far from, more of [...]
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Framing in Games

In psychology of video games, Jaime related how framing works out in WoW and in business. I discussed Framing in the review of the Art of Critical Decision Making. Anyway, its a great skill and technique. Its actually th[...]
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Always Have a Graceful Out

I use to like watching Babylon 5 back when it was in first run mode. I suffered through all the changes that happened because different characters left and joined the show. I always wondered if the changes were planned i[...]
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Something new! Designing new items and gear for your games.

What do I do with this? So, today is all request Tuesday here at the Gamewerks, Gentle Readers. My good, good friend from the Great White North, Dr. Braden Campbell GM;Phd, dropped me a line last night to let me know tha[...]
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A Gamer’s Bibliography

"Cite your sources!!!" Mrs. Marsh, my 10th grade English teacher, shouted at us over and over again.  While I'm not doing a paper on Mark Twain anymore that doesn't mean that I'm done with research.  In fact [...]
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the way of snow

This month's RPG Carnival is hosted by Questing GM who has assigned the quest of how to be a better GM.  We've recently had the worst snowfall for 30-odd years and it changed a number of things... Click the title i[...]
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54 Sorcerer Hooks

A guest post by Bobby.Catdragon An orphan, the character only knows his powers came from somewhere. However, coincidental circumstances seem to point to something demonic or diabolical. Should the character find out why[...]
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Handling Small Gaming Groups

I know that we have all done it before. As gamemasters, we have constructed a great adventure for our gaming group, which is normally four to six people. We have setup up the session and we find that only a few people ca[...]
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The Week In Geek…

A round-up of geeky news you might have otherwise missed...(1) The Vorpal Blade Went Snicker-Snack: Timed perfectly to coincide with Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland, Skirmisher Publishing has released an OGL roleplaying[...]
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Ayn Blüd and the Silver Order

The mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition are very tactically oriented, and some argue that this comes at the detriment of the role-playing elements.  However, the game’s crunch can add to a rich role-playing [...]
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The adventure between times

(This post is late because I realised just now it wasn’t posted, so you get a double-dose for the weekend.) Well, by this time tomorrow afternoon my number of sessions of D&D I would have played will have gone[...]
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Making the Most of Mythic Structure – GamesU 2009

In this session from GamesU 2009, accomplished game designer and screenwriter Matthew Grau discusses the monomyth and how to use it to create epic and enduring stories in your games. Popularized by Joseph Campbell in hi[...]
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Idealism and creativity are not the same thing

The presentation above has kicked off quite a passionate discussion over at Mad Brew Labs and the Kenzer & Company forums. It seems that Marcelo’s comments are being seen by some as an attack on the indie and[...]
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On Character Death: Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Beautiful Character Sheet

It's better to burn out, than to fade away...  The chainsaw burr of Joseph's SAW and the rhythmic thumping and booming of Piotr’s grenade launcher mixed with the screaming of the frenzied angels that kept pouring [...]
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The Characterisation Puzzle: The Inversion Principle

The second technique of character development that I call apon when stumped for ideas is something that I call The Inversion Principle. Some parts of this I had worked out many years ago, but it was when I read an inter[...]
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Minicast now available on Itunes

Just a quick post to let you know that the NewbieDM.com Minicast is now available on the Itunes store.   You can find it here. Also, you could just do a search for Newbiedm.com in the Itunes store. There’s only o[...]
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Random Album Covers (Repost)

If you’re running a near future game like Cyberpunk or Shadowrun, the music scene is a huge part of the atmosphere. Or should be since I’ve noticed it doesn’t get alot of play time. Part of that, I thin[...]
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Earthdawn Soundtracks

[...]
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Five good things I learned playing D&D 4th edition (or… How I learned not to care about diagonal movement!)

Some of you might have gotten the idea from a previous post that I don’t like Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition. Nothing could be further from the truth. I played the game for the better part of a year and had fun wit[...]
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First Who, Then What

Not long ago I came across the audio version of Jim Collins’ Good to Great.  While the focus of the book is to understand the difference between truly great companies with great leadership and enduring growth from the[...]
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Sacred Oaths

The humble Serf, as well as Husbands and Wives, to entrepreneurial Peasant and Yeomen, to loyal Retainers and Vassals, the Knights, Lords, Dukes and Princes... all these people have one thing in common: Promises.I have s[...]
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Initiative Tracking Tools

Initiative tracking is very important when it comes to running a Dungeons & Dragons game. Gamers all over the internet have come up with some unique and creative ways for tracking initiative. I thought I would take a[...]
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It’s Called Tabletop Gaming Not “Rebooting My Laptop” Gaming

Watching my fellow players and their fixation with technology in the past months has got me thinking quite a bit about the place of technology at the gaming table. They use their iPhones to store their character stats, r[...]
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recession-proof gaming VII – mission to game

Is that light at the end of the financiapocalyptic tunnel?  Maybe.  Here's some more stuff anyway. Browser Tools hack/ has produced some neat RPG bookmarklets.  I've mentioned... Click the title if yo[...]
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World Building 101: Incorporating New Content

Roleplaying games evolve continually. Even “dead” editions, that have been retired by their publishers, can still see unofficial support from fan communities. For systems still in print, new content tends to emerge[...]
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War Campaign musing

I've joined Arm Chair Generals forums to work through some of my campaign problems.One of them, I'm stuck on is military readiness. Using GURPS mass combat, plotting the precise human resource is very hard and difficult [...]
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Virtual Table Top and DDi

No, this post is not going to give you an update on the status of WotC’s Virtual Table Top Program.  Sorry to disappoint you.  I know that some people are eagerly awaiting the announcement that it is complete and[...]
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Reader Voicemail: Building an Adventure

The response to the voicemail has been pretty fantastic so far, and there’s probably no way that I’ll be able to take advantage of all the voicemails that have come in through a podcast alone, so I thought I&[...]
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The Old Girl: Vehicles as Characters in Your Game

 "She's not old, she's in her prime." I'm not going to lie to you gentle readers, I'm an inveterate gearhead. I love machines of all kinds, but vehicles especially turn my crank, as it were. Anything from a 50cc min[...]
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Take My Car For A Spin Around The Block

somewhat WoD related...My players and I are discussing the idea of sharing the mantle of Storyteller in our Changeling: The Lost chronicle. I think it might be a lot of fun to see what can be done with the campaign in th[...]
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i4e review

I’ve been meaning to post this review for awhile. At the end of last year I blogged about playing without my character sheet. In the comments, DM Ron suggested I check out a iPhone/iPod Touch program called i4e. It[...]
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A Hidden Gem

I played Hackmaster 4th edition, but I never served as GM.  HM4 is something of a bitter sweet memory to me, one that I haven't discussed to date.  I do plan on discussing some of my group's experience with th[...]
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Previews for RPGs (No, Not the Catalog)

Here's a nifty trick I tried based on advice in the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG: Previews of the next session! Now, DWAITAS is strong on genre emulation, and since it is based on a tv show, it recommends[...]
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The A-Team: A model for RPG campaigns?

Yesterday while watching  an episode of The A-Team on TV, it struck me. Wouldn’t The A-Team make a perfect model for a RPG campaign?  Let’s look at the basic premise, which is summed up pretty good by the voiceover[...]
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Playing it right

Well, I have hit a stone wall (or is that a duracrete wall?) in regards to the Star Wars Saga Theatres of War campaign. It’s been flagging for more than a while now, I was starting to worry and then I heard back f[...]
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Ask The GMs: Penetrating the veil of mystery

Why are mysteries so hard? Campaign Mastery was asked, I’m making a Hero System 5.5 campaign for some of my friends. I wanted to do a non-power game that was mystery based. First session went off fine, and I [...]
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The Good(?) Guys, Random Allies

Character creation in Cyberpunk 2020 includes rolling up a “lifepath” or series of events that has happened to your character before he started adventuring. Unless they’re very unlucky, players will usu[...]
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