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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March 2010 RPG Blog Carnival: How to be a Better GM?

Wow, time really flies and it's already March. I remember signing up to host the RPG Blog Carnival back sometime last year and now the RPG Blog Carnival is pitching their tents for the first time at the Questing GM.As fo[...]
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Liege-Killer–Post-Apocalyptic Role-Playing Inspiration on Space Colonies

Liege-Killer by Christopher Hinz is an older novel, but still well-worth your time. Since this series of posts focuses on a post-apocalyptic campaign, the Earth is, of course, blown all to hell. However, rather than a st[...]
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Ask The GMs: Essential Game Master Skills

What are the essential skills of a GM? Loz is a frequent contributor to the comments here at CM. So when he submitted a question to Ask The GMs, we were inclined to pay close attention. Here’s what he had to [...]
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50 Paladin Hooks

By D.L. Campbell One of the first posts I ever read at Campaign Mastery was the amazing 50 Barbarian Hooks. I instantly thought, ‘I hope there will be more of those!’ followed by ‘I wanna try that!̵[...]
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What? You want to Sleep here?

I don't like random monsters. On the other hand, the idea of having players sweat for their extended rest could be worth exploring once or twice in a campaign. This is especially true if your group chronically blows th[...]
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Scenario Sequencing: Structuring Campaign Flow

In a previous blog, I’ve written about my Superhero campaign currently facing a big finish (A Grand Conclusion: thinking about a big finish). This post will be a sequel of sorts, because any big finish naturally in[...]
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Ask The GMs: Systematic Systems Choice

How do you choose the right game system? The Ask the GMs questions here at CM never seem to stop, which is great, because they never fail to inspire new discussion topics. This one’s been sitting on the backb[...]
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Relatively Uncertain: Taking Control of Game Physics

Every campaign needs a game physics, whether the GM knows it or not. And, in fact, they all have one, whether it’s specified or not, and whether the GM knows that or not, as well. Boy, that was a short article! Now[...]
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Maps Have Three Parts – Part 3: Negative Spaces

When mapping, I tend to focus on the corridors, rooms, streets, caverns, and buildings. However, every map has more than just these areas; each has three zones in your design control. Next map you build, think of these z[...]
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Vocabulary Hijinx: Using random word pairings for inspiration

We all have problems with our imaginations freezing up on us every now and again. While there are a number of things that you can do to kick-start your creativity when this happens, I have always found that it’s a [...]
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Short and Great vs Long and Mediocre–Campaign Lessons from Television

Role-playing campaigns can learn much from the failures of television series. There is nothing worse than a long-term campaign that drags on past its sell-by date, slowly rotting like old milk. Plots grow convoluted, gam[...]
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Maps Have Three Parts – Part 2: Adventuring Spaces

When mapping, I tend to focus on the corridors, rooms, streets, caverns and buildings. However, every map has more than just these areas; each has three zones in your design control. Next map you build, think of these zo[...]
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Keeping up with the PCs: Part 2, What Not to Do and Quick Fixes

In part 1, I discussed a common occurrence in D&D 4e where parties becomes much stronger than they should be through what I called the ‘Secret Synergy Bonus.’  This occurs when players figure how to pla[...]
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Keeping up with the PCs: Part 1, The Secret Synergy Bonus

Many D&D 4e DMs have experienced, over the last 18 months, a shift in their gaming group's performance. PCs have become capable of taking absolutely everything thrown at them with more ease than the game rules assume[...]
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My Favourite PC Travel Game: Campfire Chats

In one campaign years ago, the PCs did so much travel it seemed far-fetched to give them an encounter every time they hit the road. However, I still wanted to pace things so the party was not instantly appearing at their[...]
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The Tyranny of Epic Heroism–Small Stories Have Powerful Role-Playing

Sometimes it is the smallest act that defines someone as a hero. A copper placed in the hand of a street urchin, ignoring a violated law when humanity trumps justice or helping peasants evade an onerous tax are all heroi[...]
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Railroading in a Good Way

The term 'railroading' usually sends a shiver down the spine of any tabletop RPG player because of the negative implications that come along with it. To be honest, most DMs dislike the term as well and railroading is gen[...]
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Winners and Losers in D&D

I want my players to succeed. I really do. I want them to have that spectacular moment. I want them to stare down the ferocious, slathering monster, and say, "Wrong, hellish beast. This is where your reign ends. Prepare [...]
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Downsize Your Disasters: GMing catastrophes in your RPG

We hesitated before running this piece, which was written prior to the disaster on Haiti. It is certainly not our intent to trivialise what has occurred or in any way to be insensitive to the ongoing emergency there. Ul[...]
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Poor Public Speaking Skills Among Role-Playing Game Masters–Some Solutions

Role-playing game referees require significant public speaking skills. The essence of a GM’s job is to tell a story and a huge portion of that story arrives as spoken words. Poor speaking skills diminishes the stor[...]
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63 Wizard Hooks

The following ideas could be used for player characters stuck on a PC background and purpose. Game masters could also use them for interesting NPC wizard hooks. If you have any ideas for more hooks, just comment below, m[...]
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Melodramatic Licence: Drama in RPGs

I thought I’d talk a bit about Drama vs Melodrama and how the two function in an RPG. This subject came to mind when reading “Hooked” by Les Edgerton, a book which I would not recommend for most aspiri[...]
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The Cypher Gate

In the first post about gods and the Cypher Gate in my upcoming Riddleport campaign several readers supplied great ideas. Thanks to that feedback, I have a better picture of how things are in the pirate city. The secrets[...]
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Stop Procrastinating and Get Those RPG Campaign Projects Done

A campaign killer is falling behind on planning and preparation, especially once a campaign starts. You soon lag and feel unready to GM. Then stress builds, fun flees and sessions get cancelled. This post is inspired by [...]
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How to Design a Cool Holiday for Your Game – 3 Templates

With a big holiday imminent, today’s post is themed on how to create adventure-filled holidays for your campaigns. It’s one thing to have a date picked in your game world calendar, and another to have a holid[...]
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Revealing the Exotic

Characters in my Riddleport campaign will be constructed just from the Pathfinder Core Rules and two regional supplements the group bought for Paizo’s world of Golarion. This is a nice break from the splat book inf[...]
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The Fate of the Players

Let’s face it; some days, the dice are against you.  And nothing you can do can change your bad dice luck.  So what do you do? The Fate Points I’ve had a couple of DMs use the Fate Points.  The incarnation[...]
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The Ascended Conflict in my Riddleport Campaign

While I’m using Golarion as the world for my upcoming Pathfinder campaign, I’m making changes to the powers-that-be in a move that is the ultimate change in top-down planning. Spoiler warning: players in my c[...]
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A Grand Conclusion: Thinking about a big finish

I know I’ve written about this before (An Epic Confusion, Or How To Stage A Blockbuster Finish), but I’ve been thinking some more about big finishes to campaigns, prompted by the fact that my superhero campai[...]
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3 Rolls, 1 Check

This happens for many kind of skill rolls. An idea occurs to one player, who rolls a skill, which then prompts several other players to also roll. If a check is declared, then everybody rolls who can roll. You can't blam[...]
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Flavours Of Neutral – Focussing On Alignment, Part 4 of 5

In part one of this 5-part examination, we presented a guest article by Garry Stahl, The Conundrum Of Alignment. In Part two, I discussed the justification for alignment being part of the rules, looked at the arguement a[...]
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Dark Shadows – Focussing On Alignment, Part 5 of 5

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 prov[...]
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D&D 4e One-Shots: Putting it into Action

As a result of playing four very different one-shot games at DC Game Day, I condensed my thoughts about one-shots into one simple rule: Everything important on the character sheet should come up during play. It’s a[...]
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Mage Guild Mastermind Survives Pirate Haven

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 th[...]
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Increase game attendance with great session reminders

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 ful[...]
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Game Master Mistakes Carnival Roundup

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 contri[...]
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Questing’s Readings – 1/11/09

It's November and the former board of the RPG Bloggers Network have made their decision. Dave Chalker has made an announcement, after deliberating through the 6 proposals that were submitted, they have trusted the reins [...]
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Winning in RPGs

It has been a common question asked. How do win in a RPG?This could be seen as a misconception that since RPG has the word game in it, there is a winning objective. Through skill, imagination and wit you have beaten the [...]
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Ask The GMs: PC Choices and Consequences

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 ap[...]
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Behind the Screen: Using motive to your advantage…

Tonight, I had an opportunity to talk about campaign building with e from Geek’s Dream Girl who was working on her own storyline.  This quickly got me thinking about how I put storylines together, and here we are.[...]
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Behind the Screen: Dungeon Pacing…

In my current campaign, I designed a small single-level dungeon for our players to explore.  Now, our group is comprised of several people that have children, so often our gaming sessions get punctuated by real life fam[...]
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Ask The GMs: Giving Players The Power To Choose Their Own Adventures

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 [...]
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My Biggest Mistakes: The Woes Of Piety & Magic

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 i[...]
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See Me at Bard of Valiant

I was just told last night by Viri Cordova that my entry in the Heart of an Evil GM contest had won! I’m very surprised, considering the other people who had said they were interested in entering, as well as the fa[...]
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My Biggest Mistakes: Magneto’s Maze – My B.A. Felton Moment

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 play[...]
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Mine Fiction For Campaign Qualities

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 [...]
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Ask The GMs: Going Beyond The Rules

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 debat[...]
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My Biggest Mistakes: Defying Expectations in the Zenith-3 Campaign

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 treatme[...]
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Ask The GMs: In it for the long haul

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 campa[...]
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