Not related to any one particular system of rules.
14
votes
1answer
239 views
How to play a character that has an alien mindset and thought process?
I have a character that I am currently portraying who is not human, and I would like to increase the obviousness of his non-humanity ( mainly through dialog and actions ).
The character is a ...
11
votes
3answers
265 views
Are there tips on reconciling the playing differences in this group?
My Werewolf game is going along quite swimmingly to the point that the players will ask that I keep the server (We play using maptools) open so they can discuss the plotline for hours after each ...
10
votes
6answers
860 views
Fantasy economy: how to design a deep, sophisticated crafting system?
I want to construct an immersive, complex and functional fantasy economy in order to inform my world-building process. I'm interested in finding a working economic model and applying that into ...
9
votes
2answers
245 views
Simulating grenade explosions in a stairwell
What would be a fair way to adjudicate the detonation of a grenade in an enclosed space, such as a stairwell?
I have used the rules for blowback in games such as Shadowrun before, but recently ran a ...
21
votes
5answers
539 views
How can I learn how to negotiate as an NPC?
I'm a new GM (the system is DND 4.0 but that's not relevant here). I've quickly found that I perform very poorly when I'm portraying a negotiation between the PCs and one or more NPCs. Even when they ...
11
votes
5answers
548 views
What stands out about an Iron Age setting?
High fantasy RPGs tend to be set in an era similar to the late Middle Ages. This seems to be the norm for D&D, and it seems to be what players of such games expect.
Let's say you have a group of ...
19
votes
5answers
494 views
How to handle diverging expectations on “background density”?
Sorry, this is lengthy, but I want to put this into context.
After many years (try 15) of not GM'ing a group of my own, I recently made an attempt to return to the head of the table and shake off ...
43
votes
14answers
1k views
How can I help my PCs remember clues that they found?
I'm a new DM running my first adventure (it's D&D 4.0 but that's not relevant to my question). I've heard of the "three clue rule", that there should be at least three independent pointers to any ...
18
votes
5answers
384 views
How do I learn to do accents?
I've always enjoyed playing in games where the GM/DM/ST makes use of a variety of accents to differentiate between NPCs. I've always wanted to learn how to do that, but I realize that I'm not ...
13
votes
4answers
307 views
Festival Mini Games
My D&D party will be going to a town with a festival in it. Generally during festivals there may be some games that are going on, kind of like small carnival type games or "mini games", ones that ...
20
votes
5answers
345 views
Maintaining a party in a world of mistrust
In essence, how would you keep a colorful group of players together in a world filled with mistrust, without going too much meta?
Here is the scenario :
Our hero consists of members of a special ...
12
votes
5answers
488 views
Dark Ages/Middle Ages marriage age?
I am trying to keep a fair degree of verisimilitude in my fantasy games (outside the obviously fantastical elements like magic and dragons). As part of that, the normal/average marriage age for ...
10
votes
1answer
116 views
Fine Granularity Hunting / Gathering / Fishing resources
I'm running a Session where my players spend long times on their own in woods / planes (etc.) and need to feed themselves from their surroundings. So I wrote a hunting / gathering program that ...
17
votes
6answers
423 views
Difference between writing a one-off scenario and writing a quest for a campaign?
I want to get some of my friends into roleplaying by running a self-contained single-session game with them rather than an actual campaign opener (for lack of a better term, I'll refer to this sort of ...
9
votes
4answers
317 views
In a high fantasy setting, what changes when you restrict player magical item purchases?
In every game that I've played or run, the players have been able to easily buy or craft any magic item that they could pay for. What are the pitfalls of this kind of unlimited magic freedom system? ...
20
votes
5answers
1k views
How much detail should I include in medieval maps for players?
I am running a campaign in the Eberron (DnD) setting, but really, this question could apply to anyone running a game in a medieval setting.
I wanted to know what level of detail/accuracy to include ...
18
votes
4answers
279 views
How to run an encounter where PCs have different observations of the same events?
Some of the discussion in this question got me to thinking about an encounter design that sounded fun but I couldn't figure out an elegant way to pull it off:
In some situation where one or more PCs ...
17
votes
9answers
543 views
What happens in adventure locations between adventures?
I'm running a sandbox with several adventure locations that have been visited, but not entirely cleared, and ones that have been left open for new residents to arrive.
I'm looking for a method for ...
18
votes
4answers
345 views
What analyses exist of capitalist economies in “modern” setting RPGs?
A number of questions exist on stack-exchange discussing feudal economies in RPGs, indicating a number of essays regarding feudal economics in RPG.
What equivalent essay analyses exist of game ...
5
votes
1answer
245 views
What point-buy systems of magic (like psionics in 3e D&D) are there? [closed]
The RPG I'm currently developing is a d20 model, skill driven rules system. The mechanics of spellcasting center around spell effects and point cost for stamina (a universal energy pool for all ...
36
votes
8answers
2k views
How do I deal with PCs who use kidnap and torture as an investigative technique?
I'm running a game in a modern setting with emphasis on the paranormal (Conspiracy X). The player characters are part of a secret government organization and are tasked with investigating & ...
51
votes
21answers
1k views
How can I avoid players spending too much time planning?
Several times when I have played in or ran a game in which the players had an objective and reasonable resources, a lot of (real) time was spent trying to plan for every contingency.
For example, ...
17
votes
8answers
435 views
What to do when your PCs skip an important part of the story line
In the earliest stage of my new duet campaign, I thought I had "rail-roaded" the PC into the first important encounter, one that leads to a major story line for the campaign. Specifically, the PC was ...
3
votes
2answers
212 views
Wiki engine for D&D [closed]
I'm serching for wiki engine, preferably written on python(but is not necessary), with one specific feature - user should be able to insert the block on pages, which will be visible only for one user, ...
16
votes
9answers
905 views
Rewards for a cancelled session?
If a referee has to cancel a session at very short notice, what rewards to the players are sensible?
For example part of a sessions exps, bennies or hero points.
14
votes
9answers
845 views
Randomly-generating weather for a sandbox campaign
I'm running a sandbox campaign and I've been looking for a method of randomly determining the weather for the day.
Features I'm looking for:
Low-to-medium handling time during play. Big tables are ...
19
votes
5answers
574 views
What sorts of things in a typical fantasy village would be made of iron?
I'd like to run an adventure where the party needs to improvise and find some sources of iron when they're in and around a small village. Cold iron plays a role in a lot of games as the bane of fey ...
9
votes
7answers
295 views
What monsters can be interesting as PCs?
I believe that the premise of the player as the monster of the game quite compelling. Vampire: The Masquerade is obviously the pioneer in this genre, and other creatures such as werewolves, ghosts and ...
33
votes
12answers
1k views
What rewards can compete with experience points?
My group is running a series of published adventures. I am GMing one of the modules (level 21-24) after which another member will be taking the reins.
I have plans for a side-adventure that will take ...
6
votes
9answers
411 views
What are ways player characters could awake an ancient evil? [closed]
Almost any epic level threat will do, but he/she/it should arise as a direct/indirect result of player character meddling (thereby making them responsible to destroy it). Preferable if PCs have a ...
7
votes
3answers
92 views
How do I, as a player transition my group from Play in Person to Play by Post?
We've just finished our 8 week slot at my local university gaming society, and I feel like events were unresolved. I'd like to transition the game into a play by post option on the society forum so we ...
8
votes
6answers
380 views
Giving Players the Game They Want
Currently I am running a game of Legend of the Five Rings, 4th Edition that is an extension of my 3rd Ed campaign. The current setting is a courtly endeavor, which dredges up certain problems. When ...
12
votes
4answers
299 views
How do DM's avoid burning out? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How do I deal with GM burnout?
Currently I am the single DM of a smallish group of irregular players. Although I enjoy DM'ing, I'm beginning to burn out and really wish ...
40
votes
7answers
763 views
As an unreliable player, how can I lessen the burden on my group?
I'm often unreliable, in the sense that something always seems to turn up at the last minute that draws me away from our current regular game. (It's happened before as well.)
Given that the reasons ...
5
votes
9answers
518 views
Where to find an adventure with a crashed spaceship
I'm running a fantasy sandbox game and would like to include a crashed spaceship as an adventure location in the game.
Two of the player characters are humans with some scifi tech and they are ...
35
votes
14answers
1k views
How to get out of a story deadlock
As with most of my questions, this is more of a general "how to handle a special situation" and not a plea to solve an existing problem.
What is the best way to handle story deadlocks (as in: The ...
14
votes
5answers
293 views
Rules for player inventions
To illustrate what I mean, let me give a quick example:
In the-dark-eye, there is a Staff Ritual named Hammer des Magus (No idea what the term is in english). Its effect is that everything ...
10
votes
2answers
291 views
How can I introduce Life Paths to character generation?
The first time I played* Traveller, I found myself blown away by the detailed character creation, featuring year by year (4 year chunks actually) break down of how your character got where they are ...
13
votes
3answers
279 views
Fleshing out a background and roleplaying it
I am a big fan of fleshed out, rich, interesting backgrounds, that give the feeling that the character is real. For that reason, I really like to give characters traits that everyday people have, ...
14
votes
9answers
439 views
What to do when you end up duplicating another players character?
Frequently I seem to roll up characters who are the spitting image of someone else's character. Most recently I rolled up a Utility Force Wizard for Star wars: Saga edition, which matched someone else ...
7
votes
2answers
128 views
Best practices for balancing separate enemies in an encounter?
I'd like to run a game where a Mage has killed a necromancer, who has re-animated himself and is after the mage. The mage himself is evil. The necromancer makes up the majority of the session. The ...
21
votes
7answers
457 views
It is possible to have one player lose control of their actions (get possessed) and have the other players not know it?
One of the players in my group is getting rather fond of a very powerful and clearly evil sword that gives them great increases to strength and magical ability. As a consequence, I would love to have ...
19
votes
9answers
580 views
How can you encourage players to portray a “realistic” reaction to in-game stressful/traumatic circumstances?
This question came to me while I was thinking about killing people in pen-and-paper rpgs.
When a character starts his career, in most systems, he is somewhat young. As an example, when you are first ...
2
votes
2answers
195 views
System for alignment of gods
Are there systems, apart from the classical D&D, that show the moral alignment of gods and rule the degree of matching of the gods disciples or clerics to thier deity?
I want to measure this ...
14
votes
3answers
235 views
How do you build rule mastery in your game?
No one likes the "rules lawyer." However, most GMs like players to know the rules. There is nothing more frustrating to have a player, or players, come to a table to play a game--that they are excited ...
12
votes
8answers
309 views
How does one get players to explore more?
In a comment in my answer within What qualifies exploration gaming?
Javafueled commented:
It almost begs me to ask the question: How do I get players to explore more? :) – javafueled
In order ...
11
votes
9answers
797 views
Best way to use a GM Screen nowadays?
This may just be me but I like the feel of having an old school GM/DM screen up. However, between laptops, mountains of books, and more frequently having to see the battle layout, I find that within ...
7
votes
0answers
336 views
Are there any adventures for younger children?
I have been running an Advanced Heroquest lite game for our 5 year old and he is ready for something with a bit more story and plot. Are there any adventures out there that are young children ...
37
votes
13answers
2k views
How can I play dumb?
I have a half-ogre character at my local larp group, and one of the roleplay-enforced restrictions for half-ogres is that they have low intelligence. I often find myself biting my tongue not to say ...
9
votes
3answers
246 views
Are human characters needed in a roleplay system?
I proposed, a long time ago a setting without humans in it. Instead I'd designed a series of fairly 'alien' creatures, and I was going to set it up as Science-Fantasy (set on the moon of a brown ...
