Travis Miller's Blog About Sword & Sorcery Fiction and Classic Fantasy Adventure Gaming
One of the debates I see pop up on social media from time to time is "Low Prep Vs. High Prep." Some say you should do as little as possible and improvise because players are going to do things you don't expect anyway. Others say you should do as much as possible so that you …
Continue reading Where Do I Fall in the Low Prep Vs High Prep Debate?
A phrase commonly used in conversations about role-playing games is "genre emulation." One might say that Call of Cthulu emulates Lovecraftian cosmic horror or Feng Shui emulates Hong Kong martial arts action films. Role-playing games do not emulate a genre. Role-playing games are one of many mediums that makes up a genre. A RPG is …
How much backstory and history do I make for my sandbox campaigns?
There are some basic elements of story that are helpful for a game master to know. This post is about those elements and why games and stories share them.
In last week's post I wrote about how random generation tables have some uses but they also have some drawbacks. The biggest drawback I find is that the tables created by other GMs or designers often have assumptions and contexts that don't fit whatever campaign setting I'm running. The major drawback of random generation tables. …
Continue reading How Do I Create Random Generation Tables for a Sandbox Campaign?
One of the common tools used by referees who run classic fantasy adventure games is random generation tables. These are useful tools that have many applications but they also have tradeoffs that I find undesirable at times. The Benefits One of the major and perhaps primary uses of random generators is they can be great …
Continue reading The Benefits and Tradeoffs of Random Generation Tables
Is Sandbox Vs. Railroad a useful comparison? I don't think it is. Here's why.
Grumpy Wizard 
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