Adventures in Surrendering

“I don’t lose. I just change the battlefield to something that suits my skills a bit more.” –Tuyet There’s one thing I noticed about two of the games I was in (one running, one playing) that differ[...]
Read on >>

Opportunity Actions: DIY Templates 2 – The Hardware Store

Last time, I told you that you could get good gaming templates absolutely free with help from the hardware store. I will show you how to make 2 of them, one for Thunderwave (with the option for Expand Spell)and one for [...]
Read on >>

Needles of Knitting +5: Using The Craft Skill To Its Best Advantage

There's no such thing as wasted ranks in the Craft skill.[...]
Read on >>

Opportunity Actions: Hybridizing Gameplay

It’s tough. People’s schedules just don’t always line up the way we’d like them to. People move. People get married, have kids, and other things that make getting together less and less possible. [...]
Read on >>

Put your hand down and play

A few weeks ago, I was playing in my bi-weekly 4e game.  (Wait, is bi-weekly every other week, or twice a week, I can never remember…let me try again.) A few weeks ago, I was playing in my every-other-week 4e game[...]
Read on >>

Characterization Exercise: Who’s Your Ideal Enemy?

There’s a lot to be said about the peculiar dance between two enemies: a blend of mutual hatred, a peculiar sort of chemistry, and who knows what in the middle. It makes conflicts interesting—but like a good roma[...]
Read on >>

Opportunity Actions: What I Look for in an RPG

There are a lot of RPGs out there. That much is clear. The question I’d like to take on is: Which one(s) would I play, and why? There are a few criteria by which I will judge this: Theme/Genre Character Building [...]
Read on >>

Personal Observation: On Villains With Recruitment Spiels

An “Are you sure you want to continue fighting me?” in the middle of a fight. An “It’s a pity they’ve already got their hooks in you” between conflicts. A philosophical debate between enemies. I admit[...]
Read on >>

Ask The GMs: How to survive political games with paranoia and intrigue

Lilith Laing asks the GMs: “Recently I started playing in a Vampire: The Masquerade Old WOD game. Even after one session, it is probably the best game I have ever played in (or even run), but I have never play[...]
Read on >>

Review of Dark Sun Campaign Setting by Wizards of the Coast

When the original Dark Sun was released back in 1991, I recall that I was not terribly interested in a new campaign setting.  My Players and I were still trying to get a handle on how 2nd Edition was going to mess with [...]
Read on >>

For New Players: How Does This Work Again?

It’s rough being a new player in an unfamiliar system, particularly when there isn’t much time to learn, or you’re the only one who’s functionally a new player. Particularly when there are two way[...]
Read on >>

Creating A Character Around A Concept

Character concepts come from a myriad of sources. Sometimes we take an idea that is tried, tested and true. On other occasions we branch out and try new builds. Of course loading up Character Builder and looking for the [...]
Read on >>

Renaissance of Roleplaying

I feel like it is possible to establish a renaissance of roleplaying, assuming you even want to, but it couldn't possibly work through just one devoted person, even if that person is the DM. It would just be too excrucia[...]
Read on >>

Opportunity Actions: Character Optimization vs. Storytelling… Is This Really a Fight?

In a recent post over at Temporary Hit Points, SarahDarkmagic, sort of in passing mentions the conflict between Storytellers and Optimizers in character design. This gets me thinking. Why is there such a difference betwe[...]
Read on >>

How Not To Be Lost in a Scene

Yesterday, I talked about how a GM or a writer can keep from misplacing characters in a character-dense scene. But while it’s harder for someone who controls multiple characters to keep perfect track of all of them[...]
Read on >>

Comparing Conversation and Combat

What’s the difference between conversation and combat? I found myself asking that of one of my friends, while thinking about UZ’s recent question on keeping all participants in a conversation involving more t[...]
Read on >>

With One Scene

Often, a writer can get away with establishing a character slowly, over time. In this scene, emphasizing this quality. In another scene, another one. A slow, gradual process. A GM with a long-term enough plan, or a playe[...]
Read on >>

IC Questions I Really Need to Ask My Next Player

If there’s one thing I have learned from my game, it’s that it can be very, very difficult to play to a particularly reserved character. It makes sense that they’re not going to be fully realized starti[...]
Read on >>

“Mini-Me”: Inspiration for Character Creation

“I’ve already had someone created in my image. He’s evil, he wants to take over the world, and he fits easily into most overhead storage bins.” ~ Dr. Evil (Austin Powers 2, 1999) I was making lists earlie[...]
Read on >>

Characterization Exercise: What Do You See In These People?

Lone heroes happen in stories, but they’re not the world’s most common creatures, and games almost invariably involve a group, either homogeneously PC or a combination of PC and NPC (or a parallel all-NPC gro[...]
Read on >>

Facilitating Gamebuzz

Yesterday, I talked about the creation of a feeling of intense achievement beyond expectation (or “gamebuzz”), and why and how its effect on the players in an RPG can be utilized. But what sorts of factors aid or hin[...]
Read on >>

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[...]
Read on >>

The GM’s Secret Mood-Weapon: Gamebuzz

Overwhelming emotion is the hallmark of the good storyteller, regardless of medium. Catch up the audience in the moment, throw them around a bit, and immerse them completely in the emotion, and the payback will be worth [...]
Read on >>

Combat, Comfort Zones and Comparative Difficulty

While many of the people I know would probably disagree rather strenuously, I think the most difficult part of any given RPG is managing the combat. But it’s interesting looking at the relative difficulty of most o[...]
Read on >>

A Speech-Writing Process

Rhetoric. It’s the purview of a speaker, a common way of showing why a leader is so popular, an excellent use of a high Performance score, a way to show off one’s own writing skills—but on the other hand, a[...]
Read on >>

Nonvisual Manifestations of Magic

A long time ago, I asked a question: why do we always see magic? The answer I originally worked with was that it was easier, since people are visual; I know the English language has more sight-words than sound-words or t[...]
Read on >>

Authority Levels and the Gaming Table

Yesterday, I talked about comfortable authority levels, the general hierarchical positions to which people tend to find themselves drawn. But they aren’t just for characters; I’ve noticed that comfortable aut[...]
Read on >>

Character Exercise: Comfortable Authority Levels

Like everything else, how much authority and in what form people are comfortable with varies from person to person, and from character to character. I find, though, that there are certain bands in which they lie, and kno[...]
Read on >>

Ramblings on Motivation

Without motivation, there is no story. If there’s already a plot, it needs to be possible to get the characters motivated to do something about it. If there isn’t one already planned out, the characters need [...]
Read on >>

On Finding Love (for Your Characters)

I talked a lot about understanding your characters through looking at what might work well for them in terms of romance, but as Brickwall pointed out yesterday, I never really went into much detail on explaining how. Her[...]
Read on >>

Character Exercise Followup: Matchmaker, Matchmaker…

Yesterday, I talked about learning about a character through trying to figure out what the perfect romantic partner for her would be like. Of course, even with fictional characters, one really shouldn’t expect perf[...]
Read on >>

Character Exercise: Who’s Their Type?

While I’m no supporter of the idea that every story needs a romance in there somewhere, I do think that a character’s interest in romantic partners, particularly of the long-term persuasion, can say a lot abo[...]
Read on >>

The Evolution of In-Joke (and Other) Slang

In-jokes. The secret language of people who’ve known each other or been part of the same subset of a subculture for a while, they serve a writer or roleplayer as a way of illustrating a strong shared history betwee[...]
Read on >>

Character Types Part 8 – The Gambler

"You should know how low the possibility is of getting 7 runs off that guy" ~Yoshida"A low possibility, so it's not zero than is it?" ~Toua The line above is from an anime called 'One Outs', a sports anime about a Gamble[...]
Read on >>

Character Design: Optimized or Game Breaking?

“Out of perfection nothing can be made. Every process involves breaking something up.” ~ Joseph Campbell Now before I even begin here, I’m going to admit that this post is going to sound a bit like a rant, and I ho[...]
Read on >>

Ask The GMs: An Inconsistency of Play

How do you fix it when inconsistent roleplay or interpersonal conflicts are killing the campaign? The more restrictions on gameplay you have, and the more expectations on play style you have, the more you need to talk ab[...]
Read on >>

Cooperative Party Building

I am starting up a new 4e campaign and the players and I got together for the first session this past Monday. I have realized in the past year or two that the ease of DMing 4th edition (by which I mean encounter building[...]
Read on >>

Review of Martial Cultures: The Ikanoi by Chaotic Shiny Productions

“We come from the land of the ice and snow…” ~ Led Zeppelin (The Immigrant Song, Houses of the Holy) If you want to convey how tough and hardy a hero is, just portray them running, fighting and jumping around in so[...]
Read on >>

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[...]
Read on >>

Background Check

I’ve talked about investing some emotion in your character and, thereby, the game. As a follow-up, I suggested you seize the game by the horns. The “Play Boldly” article seemed more concrete, more useful, than the [...]
Read on >>

How to Find a Gaming Group

I have been on hiatus for a week, and I apologize for that.  While I am constructing the next few Adventure Hooks, I have this post for you to peruse.  This was written in response to a person on a message board I freq[...]
Read on >>

Play Boldly

Following up on my last post, I intend to disparage no one, including my players past and present, but a malaise sets in on me occasionally when I’m playing a D&D game. Players seem lethargic. They don’t respond [...]
Read on >>

Response to: What to Do With a Bad GM

This is my response to a post on a blog I read (mikesdndblog).  In this particular post, Mike talks about his experience with a DM at a convention game (D&D 4e, one-shot, limited time, pre-set adventure).  The DM w[...]
Read on >>

Become Emotional

The psychology of desire and attachment defines our lives in countless ways. This fact is true even in the roleplaying games. Every character you play is an extension of you and the desires you want to fulfill by playing[...]
Read on >>

World Building 101: This One’s For the Players

World building is traditionally considered to be the DM’s task. After all, the DM is responsible for setting the stage, portraying the NPCs, controlling the monsters and hazards faced by the player characters, and gen[...]
Read on >>

Are You Afraid of Hurting Your Characters?

24. Arguably one of the most popular television series of the last decade. The premise is simple, each one-hour episode depicts an actual hour in the main character’s life. That character is Jack Bauer and over the[...]
Read on >>

The Almighty Player

Excuse me, but could I have just a few moments to talk to the players out there? If you're a DM, with your level-plus-four encounters, your killer dice that never roll below 15, and your behind-the-screen smirk, I'd jus[...]
Read on >>

Raise Dead and the TPK

A couple of weeks ago I was playing in a 4e game which ended in a TPK.  That’s Total Party Kill for those of you not current with the lingo. A couple of bits of background info regarding the group… 1) This w[...]
Read on >>

Levelling Up

When do you like to receive experience points? And when do you like for your characters to level up? Video games (Super Mario Bros. in particular) has conditioned me to expect to know how many points I’ve earned im[...]
Read on >>

Do You Own Your LARP or Consume It?

Is your LARP experience like the DVD that you just purchased, or the movie theatre ticket that you brought your better half to last week?[...]
Read on >>

Next Page »

• Maiden's Head Games
• The Report
• The Core Worlds
• Risus Monkey
• Dungeonmastering
• Dane of War
• Mostly Geek
• Tower of the Archmage
• The Dungeoneering Dad
• bySwarm
• F1337 Command
• Highmoon's Ponderings
• Over 317 Members!

• Pages

  • FAQ for Network Members
  • Join the RPG Bloggers Network
  • RPG Bloggers Community
  • Subscribe to Feed
  • Testimonials
  • What is this?

• Friends of the Network

  • A Terrible Idea
  • Gnome Stew
  • Chaotic Shiny
  • RolePlayGateway
  ENWorld
  • GamingReport
  • Dane of War
  • The RPG Site
  • Campaign Builders' Guild
  • Obsidian Portal
  • Roleplaying Tips
  • Grand OGL Wiki Blog
  • Gold: The Series
  • Polymancer Studios

• Other Networks

  • Deutsche Rollenspielblogs: German RPG Bloggers Network
  • Alexandria: Danish RPG Bloggers Network
  • RPG.Blogs: Brazilian RPG Bloggers Network
  • Poland: Planet RPG
  • GDRBlogs.it: Italian RPG Network
  • RPG Podcasts
  • Planet Story Games
  • Vorpal Network
• Search for:

• Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org