Travis Miller's Blog About Sword & Sorcery Fiction and Classic Fantasy Adventure Gaming
A lot of the best game masters are curious. Curious about people. Curious about history. Curious about the way stuff works. They read, a lot. History, biography sometimes philosophy or psychology. They watch documentaries, old TV shows, classic movies and bad movies. The other part is that they are active in their curiosity. It isn't just …
Continue reading Charcteristics Of Good Gamemasters: Active Curiosity
If you want a great campaign, the kind you and your friends talk about for decades afterword, then your players must care about your NPC's. They must think of them almost as real people. What do I mean by this? Do your players say, "I hate that guy." And mean it? Do your players say, "We must …
Continue reading If You Want a Great Campaign, The Players Must Care About Your NPC’s
Role playing games, properly understood, are not stories. They are imaginary events resolved by game mechanics which stories emerge from afterward. However, role playing games have a lot in common with stories. One of the most obvious commonalities is characters. I've talked a little bit about player characters here on the blog before but I …
You are going to get tired of me writing it, saying it, dancing about it but here it comes; RPG's are not stories. They are games that have many story-like pieces. Often they have many commonalities with stories and story telling but they aren't quite the same. We would do well to figure out where …
Continue reading Non-Gaming Resources For Game Masters: Resources on Screen Writing
There's a phrase that'scliche in old school D&D circles. "Rulings not rules." The basic idea is that role playing games cannot contain a rule for every possible situation and it is better for the game master to simply make a common sense ruling and keeping the game running than to look up an esoteric rule. …
I struggle with this one. I’m putting it down as a virtue as much to remind myself as to recommend it to others. I think good game masters are organized. They use folders, binders, tabs, dividers and they keep their stuff categorized in a way that they can find it when they need it. You …
Continue reading Virtues of the Good Game Master: Organization
Because they are a puzzle. Some players dislike investigation games/adventures. They feel like they are railroady. This isn't true. Investigations are a series of nested puzzles that your players have to figure out in order to get a reward. The first set of puzzles is the where to look for the clues. If you are …
Continue reading Why Investigative Modules/Games Are Not Railroad Adventures
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