The practical arts and methods applied to gamemastering.
24
votes
8answers
1k views
What is some good advice for starting Paranoia with a new group?
My roleplaying group is talking about taking a break from our 4e D&D campaign for a bit, and doing some one-offs. We are planning on doing a few sessions with a GURPS game of some sort, and the ...
9
votes
1answer
134 views
Playing a pregame, how to keep sense of continuity in campaign
My players and I are currently playing a "pre-game" for a whole campaign I have written. I want the players to be aware of the "how did it get to be this way", so I make them play two games 4000 and ...
5
votes
4answers
219 views
How to avoid the feeling of railroading in my campaign pregame?
This question is related to my other question. Please see that one for campaign background, rather than me repeating it all here.
I don't want the players to feel "trapped" and forced into a ...
7
votes
3answers
396 views
Adapting literary works into RPG adventures
Beowulf is a classic tale which has been translated many times and has had many film adaptations. Seamus Heaney's new translation and Frederick Rebsame's translation
are good starts if you have not ...
10
votes
4answers
209 views
Do I need to stat out & measure everything?
I am preparing a session that contains a fair amount of absurdity. Many of the creatures and situations that my players will encounter will probably not be encountered again.
On the one hand, I know ...
14
votes
5answers
264 views
How to abstract a trial?
A session I am writing for my gaming group will take the characters through a murder trial. One of the players is the accused, and he and his companions will need to build a case and defend ...
12
votes
6answers
373 views
Regional Resource Management and Trade Rules
I've been looking at TSR's old Birthright setting lately, searching for an easy way to quantify trade between political entities. I'm thinking about ways for a city or region or planet to develop ...
9
votes
1answer
73 views
How to handle combination attacks
This is a topic that the book doesn't really talk about, or if it does i missed it. During one of our fights, our siccomancer (air magic) used a spell to launch our were-tank (he's got a ring that ...
6
votes
4answers
272 views
What are the steps that you as GM's and PC's take to develop a Level 1 character?
This is for the basic character creation at level 1.
I know the PHB goes into some detail on character creation and the steps for doing so.
What I want to know is how you as GMs or players create ...
8
votes
3answers
360 views
How to write in-character introduction to new players for a new game background
So, I have this uber cool game world and I want to run a super cool game in it. It should not really matter what genre for this, but let us assume it is fantasy. Instead of either a long conversation ...
5
votes
1answer
114 views
How to price a custom mortal stunt?
I've got a couple of players that want to create a custom stunt or two, which I'm fine with. However, I'm not really sure on how I should price the cost of their stunts based on what it allows them ...
7
votes
4answers
439 views
Exalted Limit Breaks - How do I get them to occur more often?
So one of the biggest problems I have had with GMing an Exalted game is getting the players to actually limit break. Flavor wise, it is one of the biggest flaws of an Exalt, Solars in particular, but ...
15
votes
4answers
295 views
GM Tips for a Rashomon style game
I want to run a Rashomon style session soon and I'm looking for solid advice, as well as lessons learned from your own experience doing so.
22
votes
3answers
575 views
How to implement a stealth based instant-kill system
I've been playing 4e for a few months now and I'm really interested in creating a dungeon crawl in which the PCs can choose to stealthily kill off certain monsters before they are able to alert other ...
8
votes
2answers
326 views
Creating encounters for a DFRPG party
I've got a 2-person party and i'm having some difficulty with balancing encounters for them. It seems that what i'm making is either way too easy, or harder than i really want it to be (ie, they're ...
11
votes
1answer
250 views
How do I handle someone who never ever wants to pull?
I am getting ready to host my first game of Dread and the question that is really bugging me is what happens if a player (and I have one in mind) absolutely refuses to pull every single time?
Dread ...
6
votes
3answers
116 views
How to effectively run a “Petal” trip or other dream-like sequences
A little background:
Eclipse Phase has a drug in the setting that creates a shared hallucinated experience among participants. These drugs, called Petals, are also designed to have some sort of ...
9
votes
2answers
218 views
What are good techniques to adapt module maps to 3D terrain and/or 2D tilesets?
This is slightly related to How to Use Module Maps but instead of being about how to adapt published small maps to 1" scale or using playmats, I'm interested in technique for adapting to pre-published ...
10
votes
3answers
186 views
Is buying game ebooks practical?
I am looking into buying some game rules books as ebooks, but I want to know if anyone else has done this. Ebooks/PDFs are cheaper and easier to get, but I am wondering if that is worth the trade off ...
2
votes
2answers
302 views
How can I improve my ability to react to spontaneous events in Star Wars: Saga Edition?
I like the spontaneousness of being the DM. My players can surprise me with "Hey, I am gonna throw grenades and detonators to blow up the reactor of a capital ship." and they pass the skills checks.
...
12
votes
6answers
260 views
Speed up campaign development
I'm making a campaign, and it's going fairly nicely. However, I found out that my group is able to meet this week, which I didn't expect. So instead of having 9 days to find time to prepare, I have 2 ...
23
votes
4answers
474 views
How do you handle large scale exploration?
I'm currently running a game where the players are exploring a large ruined city (It happens to be Rathess in Exalted, but the question is more general than that), and I'm looking for techniques to ...
12
votes
4answers
194 views
How to communicate genre tropes for better player buy-in to the genre?
Some games fail to be all that they could be, not because of a lack of engaging play, or clever players, but because of a lack on one or both sides of the GM screen of understanding of the genre being ...
6
votes
3answers
127 views
How do I re-use a module?
I have a very small group of people to play DnD with. (2 people not including myself right now, trying to convince a 3rd)
Before I left to this DnD free zone, I got a bunch of starter packs with ...
10
votes
2answers
156 views
Any advice for writing a historically accurate adventure?
I have some players who are requesting that I write some historical adventures. However, I am having a bit of a hard time keeping things historically accurate while still allowing there to be things ...
3
votes
3answers
2k views
How do you as GM's level/de-level monsters in adventures that are premade
I am getting ready to start a new campaign that was made for higher level characters.
I want to use the campaign but want to lower the monster levels and may want to raise monster levels inthe future. ...
12
votes
3answers
330 views
Non-combat objective: Delay larger enemy force
I'm re-writing the "Battle of Albridge" encounters from The DM-kit's Reavers of Harkenwold. As supplied they are mostly just a rehash of earlier fight-to-the-death skirmishes on re-used maps. Instead ...
11
votes
2answers
233 views
Tasks for a split party
I'm running a 4th ed game, but I don't think that makes a difference in this case. Last session my party decided to split up for a couple tasks. The hybrid bard/rogue and the avenger (affectionately ...
9
votes
2answers
135 views
How do I create locally focused play?
As a GM, I find using certain settings (such as the setting for Talislanta) to be somewhat challenging. These settings have a large assortment of eclectic characters that can be played and almost ...
6
votes
3answers
150 views
How do you handle skill use and spends in GUMSHOE?
I ran a playtest of Pathshoe (a new Pathfinder + GUMSHOE hybrid from Pelgrane Press) for my gaming group last weekend. I have several of the other GUMSHOE games (Mutant City Blues, Esoterrorists, Fear ...
22
votes
8answers
701 views
How do you discourage “player knowledge” as a GM?
As a trivial random encounter is winding down, a player thinks "That was too easy... The GM wouldn't give us an encounter that doesn't give XP," and starts searching for hidden bad guys or other ...
8
votes
3answers
661 views
How can I successfully run one-on-one adventures in D&D 4E?
It seems clear that 4E really wants the party to have at least four PCs, so that all four roles can be covered. The official rules give tips on what to do when you can only have three PCs, but when ...
16
votes
6answers
366 views
Techniques for speeding up a game with many players at the table?
I have a table of six players already, and have more people interested in joining my game. I wanted to consult people who had experience with running large tables to see if running for larger groups ...
13
votes
7answers
385 views
How should a GM handle novice players?
In our game, we have 5 players - two are completely new to roleplaying, and one is new to the system we're playing (Pathfinder).
At the moment, the GM grants the new players no leeway - if the player ...
14
votes
5answers
276 views
What to do when a curse makes a character useless?
It happened in a DnD 4th edition game but it could happen in any game.
My group of players fought a Weretiger and the two melee-type characters now have claws and can't use weapons. Since those claws ...
13
votes
8answers
315 views
What are some proven methods of generating attachment to locations/objects in a campaign?
It is a truism that a GM can never really be sure what a group of players will do, or which NPCs they are going to grow fond of. Places and objects, however... are they the same? In games like Star ...
10
votes
4answers
197 views
Introducing Guest-Stars in Ongoing Campaigns
I've got a situation I'm dealing with tonight and that I've dealt with before, but I've never had rpg.se to ask about it. So here goes:
Are there any tried-and-true methods for dealing with ...
7
votes
3answers
142 views
How can I expand the visceral gore as tell-tale scenery theme beyond dungeons?
On Greywulf's Lair, Lessons learned from Super Meat Boy, the author suggests:
Our dungeons should be littered with corpses of past adventurers (or parts of them, at least), and blood stains serve ...
18
votes
8answers
382 views
Practices to mitigate player characters' conflicting agendas
You have a campaign that provides, by design, a high level of freedom for the players to pick the story threads, sides and whatnot for themselves.
In the long run, a conflict arises: some player ...
11
votes
6answers
530 views
Out-Of-Control Characters
As I review the suggestions the DMG (pg32) has I wonder what other suggestions that realistic.
I know that if a player is out of control (ie: killing masses for no reason) a DM would send Imperial ...
22
votes
5answers
614 views
GMing for [dis]abled players, specifically blind players?
What kind of measures should one take when running a game which includes a [dis]abled player (or players) such as a blind of deaf player? Are there any technologies or styles which are particularly ...
22
votes
9answers
788 views
Third-Person Limited Narration or Third-Person Omniscient Narration?
What are the advantages/disadvantages to using either a kind of "Limited Narration" or an "Omniscient Narration" style when running a game?
i.e. Does saying...
None of the characters notice the ...
12
votes
7answers
374 views
Role-playing within role-playing
Suppose that the PCs are actors that have to play roles in film, television, theatre. Or that they are some sort of spirits that process other people and make them do their bidding without letting ...
24
votes
14answers
627 views
Story Arc vs. Player Creativity
I want to put the players in a challenging spot by putting them in a no win situation and having them captured and stripped of their equipment (assuming they might get it back as they make their ...
14
votes
16answers
442 views
When GMing a game, how much should you prepare in advance?
Obviously you need to have some high level idea of what's going on in the world around the players, and where you are heading with the story, but in an ongoing game at some point players will be ...
11
votes
10answers
601 views
Are there good game mechanics/systems for a timetravel-heavy game/character?
What techniques(or systems) can be used to deal with a game (or even a single session) where time travel is a heavy part of the game?
For example, I have a player whose character concept has the ...
8
votes
2answers
284 views
What are your play experiences with The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men?
I'm going to run a session or two of The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men for my wife and kids. We're all experienced roleplayers, but we haven't tried this system before. What kinds of adventures have ...
8
votes
7answers
355 views
What techniques are there for balancing power gamers with story gamers in D&D 4E?
In my current D&D 4E game, I have a fairly large number of players with differing preferences for play style. As they have progressed through levels, differences between the characters with ...
13
votes
7answers
335 views
What major differences are there between convention DMing and home DMing?
I've been DMing for a while in 4th edition D&D, but I've only been DMing for Living Forgotten Realms and D&D Encounters. Now I'm thinking of starting to do some home games in various systems. ...
12
votes
4answers
367 views
How do I create and effectively use silence?
People who have thought about public speaking or presentations usually know that silence is one of the most powerful tools in conversation, speaking and negotiation. Think about any memorable speech. ...
