Unisystem experiences and “unbalanced” games

Earlier this year, I was trying to expand my vistas by playing with some new people. This also meant playing some new games. We used the Unisystem from  Eden Studios, Inc. To summarize I guess you could say that it [...]
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A Picture Should Be Worth 1,000 Words

How good are you at doing two things at once, both of which require concentration? That’s what I thought! Few people are. And yet, we GMs often seem to expect our players to be able to do just that, and on a regu[...]
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Action Trumps Description

Wise words for game masters. Authors are advised to always show, never tell. So too it is with gameplay, where more fun comes from playing things out than listening to a GM drone on. Next time you are about to start a mo[...]
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The Bees Know

I’m a fan of Glenn Beck from way back when his show was mostly about comedy. That guy’s got a way with humor that just makes me chuckle. I’m sure those two sentences alone may have just changed some re[...]
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On crunch, fluff, and system necromancy

We're starting playing RPGs again this week - and I for one can't wait! It seems I've been handed the reins, although Dave has FantasyCraft ready to roll "whenever," but I've been struck by a thought:My group likes crun[...]
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Changing the way we play? – Mouse Guard and Burning Wheel

I can't help but be intrigued by what I've read about Mouse Guard. I dismissed it intitially - who wants to play mice? - and moved on, but then I read about the interesting mechanics involved over at WrathOfZombie's blo[...]
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We All Have Our Roles To Play: A Functional Perspective on Personality Archetypes, Part 1

Everything that I’ve ever read on the subject has defined archetypes for RPGs either in terms of the psychology of the character or the abilities of the character. Filling out a team roster is often a case of playe[...]
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Repetition

Briefly: Use the same short description over and over again to describe something that is or will be significant. This is a trick learned from Ludosofy‘s Runequest game. There was a shaman in his hut. Our character[...]
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GM Oops, Gaffs and What the…

Every group has them… those stories they tell every time they get together. They’re the WTFs, the flubs and gaffs that become the glue that holds each member to another. Our gaming group seems to have more th[...]
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Ask The GMs: Rubbing Two Dry Words Together

Why have different languages in an RPG? How can they be used to enhance a story? And what’s wrong with Universal Translators, anyway? I have a question about using languages in fantasy RPGs. There are numerous[...]
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Gaming in the Classroom?

I've always thought there should be some educational/non-violent/classroom based RPG. Kids deserve that opportunity to expand their imaginations, and why shouldn't learning be fun? Related posts:New authors and lots o[...]
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Eureka! – Some inspiring notions

There is a cooking show in Australia (it actually started in the UK, and a US version was recently announced) called Masterchef Australia. The goal of the series is to identify and winnow through the best amatuer cooks [...]
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The ol’ Bait and Switch

So I’m looking for some insight from a player’s perspective. Here’s the (completely hypothetical) situation: Let’s say you are invited to play a rpg. For the purpose of our discussion let’s [...]
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Like Sand through the Klein Bottle: Time Travel in RPGs, Part 3

Hopefully, this will wrap up the article on Time Travel! Part 1 looked at the problems of Time Travel in RPGs, and reached the conclusion that the GM had to have some understanding of the nature of time in his campaign [...]
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A Journey Of 1,000 Years: Time Travel in RPGs, Part 2

The first part of this article looked at two simplistic solutions to the question of how to handle time travel in RPGs, and found that as they stood, neither was satisfactory. A number of readers were kind enough to writ[...]
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How To Be A Confident GM, Part 2

Confidence is key to having fun long term as a game master. Last week we covered several tips on how to become a confident GM, and this week we deliver more. Collaborate Say yes whenever possible. Get into the habit of b[...]
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When Inspiration Is Not Enough: Time Travel in RPGs, Part 1

When writing my submission to the June 2010 Blog Carnival, A Medley Of Inspiring Media, I said that Time Travel was a special case. This article started off as just another section of that Blog Post, but quickly showed s[...]
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Storytelling Technique: “You are now X…”

Break up your campaign and create tension for your players by using a vignette to introduce knowledge to the players, but not the characters. Related posts:Playing a Story in a Believable WorldReviews & Ideas: Abra[...]
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How To Be A Confident GM, Part 1

Gnome Stew recently posted an article about running on minimal prep game. One of the points was to GM with confidence, and that got me wondering about how exactly do you be a confident GM? Following are a few ingredients[...]
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The Critical Threshold: A brief debate on the Merits of Extreme Results

This is not the post that I expected to make this week. I simply ran out of time and could not finish either the article I had intended to post this week [about time travel] or the one for next week [the long-awaited fo[...]
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Reviews & Ideas: Abraham Lincoln – Vampire Hunter

Using novels to spark imagination and develop questions for RPG world-building. Related posts:Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: So it’s come to this OR Everything is better with ZombiesReviews & Ideas: Weather in [...]
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It’s Not Like Shooting Sushi In A Barrel: A Personalised Productivity Focus For Game Prep

While watching the special features from Numb3rs season 3 on DVD, I got to thinking about one of the phenomena of TV shows – that some episodes you really like, and some you don’t, and some episodes are real[...]
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Sophisticated Links: Degrees Of Seperation in RPGs

Introduction This is not the post I was originally going to write for today, but a paragraph in one of the books I am reading brought to mind the game that seemed to be everywhere just a few years ago, “Six Degrees[...]
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Reviews & Ideas: Weather in RPGs

"Weather effects have always had much too small of an emphasis in many RPGs, relegated to a mention in some generic world-building chapter or the occasional supplement." It is time to reconsider that for your game. Re[...]
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Ask The GMs: How to GM solo PCs (especially in combat)

Campaign Mastery was asked, GM Brian: “I’m trying to run a D&D 3.5 Eberron campaign that will mostly be a solo campaign for my friend. I’m just looking for tips on how I can run a well balanced[...]
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Serious gaming

I am currently running a Solar system game. Last session contained something I have not often seen in roleplaying, so maybe it is worth sharing. First, some background. I started the character generation by outlining the[...]
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With An Evil Gleam: Giving Treasure a Personality

All too often, treasures in a game – be they gadgets in a high-tech setting, high-powered sports cars in a modern campaign, or arcane thingies in a fantasy campaign – are about as interesting as the cardboar[...]
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Why do we roleplay?

James Maliszewski managed to nail it down very good in this post why we might put ourselves in the GM seat over and over again, even though it's hard work. Surprise, eh? That reminded me of one of my first rpg sessions.[...]
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A Slippery Slope: Level Adjustments Under The Microscope

There are times when an Ask-The-GM’s question doesn’t inspire one of us, or is too attached to the mechanics of one specific game system, or doesn’t have enough depth to justify a full blog post, or ha[...]
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3 Ways Game Masters Show, Don’t Tell

“Show, don’t tell is an admonition to fiction writers to write in a manner that allows the reader to experience the story through a character’s action, words, thoughts, senses, and feelings rather tha[...]
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The Pursuit Of Perfection, Part 5 of 5: Character Evolution

In the first part of this article, which is itself just the first installment of a series of articles, I discussed the execution and delivery of unique-ness in an RPG campaign, and derived a definition of doing so to a [...]
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The Pursuit Of Perfection, Part 4 of 5: Evolving The Campaign

In the first part of this article, which is only the first installement of a series, I discussed the delivery of uniqueness in an RPG campaign, and derived a definition of doing so to perfection that was achievable in m[...]
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The Pursuit Of Perfection, Part 3 of 5: Laying A Campaign Foundation

In the first part of this article, which is itself just the first installement of a series of articles, I discussed the execution and delivery of uniqueness in an RPG campaign, and derived a definition of doing so ̶[...]
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The Pursuit Of Perfection, Part 2 of 5: A Perfect Vision Through A Glass, Darkly

In the first part of this article, which itself is the first installement of a series of articles, I discussed the execution and delivery of uniqueness in an RPG campaign, and derived a definition of doing so to perfect[...]
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Retcon Rightly

How to undo major events in your campaign without destroying it. The worst case scenario in my games has to be erasing gameplay, rewinding and replaying that part of the game again. I’ve only done that several time[...]
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The Pursuit Of Perfection, Part 1 of 5: Don’t Compromise With Mediocrity

Confessions Of A Fan: A partisan review The 7 seasons of The West Wing emerged a couple of years ago from a packed field of contenders to become my all-time favorite TV series. Early in its life, it wasn’t even a [...]
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The proper care and feeding of players

In response to a question about where I’ve been, I bemoaned the fact that I seem to have filled my plate with too many activities lately. Nobody’s fault but my own I suppose… probably the result of shin[...]
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Roleplaying Ideas for a Jail or Prison Setting

A jail or prison setting is a great location for a roleplaying adventure or campaign. The players can take the role of guards, prisoners, or even an outside group that is working in or around the facility. These adventur[...]
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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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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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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 Characterisation Puzzle: The Thumbnail Method

This is technique number 1 for getting inside your character’s heads. It’s something I was taught in a Graphic Design course that I completed back in 1992 – so here we are 18 years later, and it’[...]
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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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The Characterisation Puzzle: When personalities are hard to find

Developing a characterisation is like a jigsaw puzzle. You solve the bit around the edges first – the most obvious characteristics – and then try and fill in the middle a bit at a time until the whole pictur[...]
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Some observations on Dogs in the Vineyard

I have up to this point game mastered three, I think, sessions proper of Dogs (hereafter DitV) plus one character generation session. There is a pool of six players (plus me as the GM) and we handwave why the cast of cha[...]
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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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You can’t do that in a RPG… at least not anymore

I’m a father now, have been for a few years so this isn’t an immediate adjustment, but something has definitely changed in me over the course of having kids of my own. Namely, there are things that now break[...]
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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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Roleplaying Nirvana

Over the years I’ve played with many different groups, used numerous systems, and gamed with more players than I can remember.  With very few exceptions I’ve enjoyed my gaming experiences, although in all honesty I�[...]
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