Do you fit the game to the group or the group to the game?

When I ran my first campaign, I started with a pre-boxed module “The Speaker in Dreams” and quickly realized that it was a terrible idea to try and mold my group to the confines of the module I had purchased. As the [...]
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Magical Location Design: Ravyn’s Guide to Geomancy

In yesterday’s post about creating magical locations based on their purpose, I mentioned the possibility of the purpose being to channel magic, and said I’d discuss it later. “The following day” counts as[...]
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New Magic Item – Dragonwing Cloak

The knight leap off the balcony, his black cloak snapping into draconic wings which beat heavily, carrying into the air to give chase to those that had kidnapped his lady. Dragonwing Cloak These cloaks are made of scaled[...]
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Picking your Players

When planning to start a new campaign it is important to keep in mind the social as well as the technical aspects. As a DM you are expected to devise a world, plan hooks, and orchestrate encounters, but something that ca[...]
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Magical Location Design: To Every Place, a Purpose

One of the most common first approaches I see for designing a magical location is determining its purpose. Sometimes, it’s to channel magic in a certain way, but that’s less common and not necessarily likely [...]
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Campaign Design: Gods and Spirits 1

When I create a new game world I almost always create a new pantheon or pantheons to go with it. I have never been a fan of the standard D&D gods and usually craft a religious system that suits the cultures I have cr[...]
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Magical Location Design: Establishing a Mood

I talked yesterday about designing a magical location around the effect it was supposed to have on the audience. But it’s one thing to say “I want this effect”, and another thing entirely to get the effect in q[...]
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Conscience of the Eight – Remorseless Killer and Hunter of Sen’tek

Conscience of the Eight, Remorseless Killer and Hunter of Sen’tek Quote: Some would feel regret on leaving you to lie in a pool of your own blood, I may, but only because I have stood too close and bloodied my boots. T[...]
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Campaign Design: Site and Situation

When building a campaign setting you are building a world for your party to interact with. When doing this one does not design and plan every location but instead focuses on key locations. A storyteller might have a gene[...]
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Three Starting Points for Designing Magical Locations

What fun is a fantasy world without inherently magical locations? They make it clear which genre you’re operating in, provide a little color, and because of the ability to use elements not present in mundane locati[...]
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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. [...]
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Creative Challenges

In any RPG campaign the majority of the encounters are straightforward in their objectives. To kill the bad guys, to disarm the traps and to gather the information are the three universal goals of most RPG encounters. To[...]
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The Uses of Ancient Civilizations

There’s one in every world, isn’t there? Somewhere in history, there was a civilization. It was advanced, or at least looked advanced, probably in the areas of magic or technology. At least one society is des[...]
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Alkemy Terrain Board – Part 4

I’ve made quite a bit of progress on the board since my last update. Work with the Sculptamold was completed, evening out the tiered layers, and adding shape and definition to the cave.  Most of the work was done [...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Spectral Feast

Ivek opened the sealed ceramic container.  “Uk, I would not eat this.” “Luckily, you do not have to,” snapped Volosh the Blue, “it is for the ghost.  Hope that he likes the smell.” S[...]
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Starting the Campaign 1

Before I start any new campaign I always ask myself whether or not I want the game to have a set ending or continue as long as the party is willing to play. For example a campaign with a set ending would end after the pl[...]
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Linking Backstories and Character Introductions

One of the most difficult challenges as the storyteller is getting the characters together at the start in a creative and meaningful way.  It is not difficult to put the party into a situation that would require them to[...]
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Late Again??

Oops. Well, folk, I've been a tad busy, getting ready to move back to college, visiting with an old friend, that sort of stuff. So, I'll keep things brief by offering a little something for all of you to peruse. I'll be [...]
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New Magic Item – Jade Oroboros

“I may die but I will not fall!” cried the priest, dropping to his knees as the dark magic crushed the life from him. “We shall see,” cackled the foul blood wizard and began a chant to animate the[...]
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L5R Thoughts – the Snake Clan

As I have mentioned, the minor clans fill an important role in the Empire of Rokugan filling odd but useful niches and making the Empire a more interesting and complex place. One of these is the Snake Clan, which was fou[...]
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Creature Comforts – Arctic

The frozen wastelands of the arctic regions of the world are probably some of the harshest environments known. Little food, deadly cold temperatures, and virtually no shelter make survival in such areas difficult – if[...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Hunter’s Cloak

Suddenly the wood was alive with hunters aiming all sorts of weapons at us.  We had totally failed to spot them before they revealed themselves.  We slowly put down our weapons. Defeated by hunters, how embarrassing. H[...]
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Setting Sketch: The Queen of Roses

tweetmeme_url = 'http://jachilli.squarespace.com/blog/2010/8/15/setting-sketch-the-queen-of-roses.html'; I've been working on Wintergris over the bachelor weekend while my wife and daughter are away, and in some of th[...]
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Paranoia XP Flavour Text – Decantation Orientation Briefing

Do not be alarmed Citizen. This is the voice of Friend Computer. Your allotted gestation and tank-based education period has been completed. Based on your conditioning programme, you have been assigned CLEARANCE: RED. In[...]
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Pools of Mana Instead of Spells Per Day

Today I will be sharing an alternate magic system I have employed in my Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition games. This system replaces spells per day with a pool of mana points that players can use to cast any spell they k[...]
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The Chaos of Game Night

Immersion, Interaction, and Organic Worlds by Charles Dickey When I engage in a role-playing game, whether as a player or GM, my highest priority is immersion. A few defining points of immersion for me: Detailed settings[...]
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Through the Lens of History – Vision 14: “You can’t get there from here” Maps in the West from the Ancient World to the Middle Ages

Through the Lens of History: Using History for Better Gaming Vision 14: “You can’t get there from here” Maps in the West from the Ancient World to the Middle Ages Maps are more than ways to show how to get from pla[...]
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Creature Comforts – Islands

While islands exist in many different climates and have varying terrain, the image that comes to mind when most folks think of “island” is one of coconut palms, sandy beaches, and beautiful blue ocean lagoons. While[...]
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Using Wikimedia Commons To Flesh Out Your World

I’ve been working on this weird Earthsea/Odyssey/de Camp/Howard setting for a while now, but was having trouble describing some of the locations of the world. For those who haven’t heard it before, the Middle Isles [...]
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Send In the Clans

tweetmeme_url = 'http://jachilli.squarespace.com/blog/2010/8/11/send-in-the-clans.html'; Fundamentally, clans and traditional RPG classes do the same thing. They represent how a player wants to play the game. When you[...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Moth Mantle

They came on silent gray wings, dropping unseen onto the grounds, they slew all within the mansion and left as they came -by air- leaving none the wiser of their deeds. Moth Mantle These simple cloaks are made of layered[...]
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Loot With Personality 2

In order to illustrate the points discussed in “Loot With Personality 1″ I will take you through how I create and introduce intelligent items.  The first step in my process is to decide the history, scale an[...]
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Alkemy Terrain Board – Part 3

We’ve been building a tournament board for an Alkemy scenario I want to write, centered around a tribe of Aurlok’s defending their Manitou totem from invading forces.  I plan to use it in other games we play[...]
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Loot With Personality Part 1

Storyteller: Laying upon the dragon’s hoard is a sword that appears to be made of flawless black steel Player 1: I pick up the sword and inspect it Storyteller: as your hand touches the handle you feel an evil pres[...]
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The Die of Fate, or, Character and Campaign Defining Items

I wasn’t the best DM when I first started in the 4e world. Part of it was our setup, 5 friends in Syracuse, NY with a laptop hooked to someone’s big screen TV, me in Pittsburgh, PA in my computer room, Ga[...]
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Monsters Vs. Humanoids (Coming Soon to Theaters)

Monstrous adversaries are the bread and butter of any fantasy roleplay game. From killer Jello to giant spiders adventuring parties expect to encounter strange and outlandish beings in their travels. Monsters are excitin[...]
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New Magic Item – Gamer’s Talisman

The most skilled gambler I ever knew was Camovan of Nine-Fingers.  I heard he was killed by a rival gambler who heard that he had a lucky amulet.  Why that would lead to murder I do not know.  But I surely miss watchi[...]
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Recurring NPCs: Narration through Non-Player Characters.

When creating a world for players to explore it is often too easy to focus entirely on the environment and locations rather than the people populating these places. The problem that many DMs have with putting too much en[...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Traveler’s Case

Estano the Cunning, merchant of the unusual, never traveled anywhere without his battered black case decorated with his name in flaking gold foil.  Somehow, he always managed to have what people needed. Traveler’s Cas[...]
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Creature Comforts – Deserts

The desert can be a harsh environment for those unfamiliar with its ways. Water is precious and rare, and food is difficult if not impossible to find. Treacherous terrain, rare resources, and deadly predators enable th[...]
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Invented Historical Periods: Art

Yesterday, I talked about a trick for real-world settings, using various cues to establish the historical era, the decade, or even the year in which the story using the setting is itself set. That doesn’t work near[...]
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Kitsu Aika – Priestess, Healer, Grandmother

Kitsu Aika, Priestess, Healer, Grandmother Quote: The Ancestors will guide us to victory. Come and listen children to the tales of our fathers and mothers. Description: Kitsu Aika is elderly by still healthy and stalwart[...]
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Marking Time

One of the biggest difficulties with an Earth-with-modifications setting is getting across to people the time period in which the story is set, particularly as the setting gets more and more modern and the distinctions l[...]
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Words from the Empress

“The only things that matter are power and the truth, one can compel the other.” “When you have chosen a destination, you must chose what you are willing to do to arrive there.” “Some things[...]
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Opportunity Actions: Multi-Focus Campaigns

Ok, while my Tarrasque encounter is simmering down to a delicious little event, I’d like to talk about something I’ve long held a fascination for: the multi-focus campaign. If you listen to the latest Dungeon[...]
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Off the Rails 3: More Hooks, More Fish!

Hello Everyone and welcome to the final installment of “Off the Rails”. Today’s post is entitled More Hooks, More Fish because I will discuss how to use plot hooks to make your campaign more open ended.[...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Lightning Stroke Blade

Hazai of Hazolai, Dracona swordsman, danced and cut his way through the thugs.  His sword flashing and crackling with the harnessed power of lightning.   The kidnapper of young Haza tried to escape but Hazai become a [...]
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Off the Rails 2: Three Encounters Ahead

In today’s installment of  “Off the Rails” I will discuss how the three moves ahead strategy used in chess can help you run a more open ended game. The rationale behind three moves ahead is that if you[...]
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My intro to players for our current adventure

Here's the intro I wrote up for my players for our current Traveller adventure. I'm still trying to get an after-action report of our last session set up, so by way of introduction, let me present this er, intro.Since ev[...]
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Organization – Draconic House Hazolai

Draconic House Hazolai (“Diamond Lightning”) House Hazolai is a successful Draconic House, under the direction of the Matriarch Tainhaz, it has gathered valuable territories and built a trade empire.  It is surprisi[...]
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