Travis Miller's Blog About Sword & Sorcery Fiction and Classic Fantasy Adventure Gaming
A reader named Pete sent me a question about how to manage a group of six players. He is new to DMing and groups of more than five is giving him some trouble. Good question Pete, thanks for asking! I'm going to assume Pete is running a face to face game. Personally, I won't run …
Continue reading How I Referee Large Groups of Players in Old School D&D
Probably the biggest error I made when I started to learn game mastering was trying to do too much too fast. I get excited and, in my ignorance, under appreciate the difficulty or complexity of what I'm attempting. I realize my error once I get under way. My game fails to launch, crashes and burns …
First, a note about how to get Hogwater on DriveThru RPG. DriveThru is not keen on selling books that have adult content. There is some adult material in Hogwater but it's not horribly graphic. There's an encounter in one of the monster lairs that implies there is some bestiality happening. The cover has the slightly …
Continue reading My first self published RPG Product Hogwater: Village of Secrets is now available
A game master can be creative with weirdness. You can create completely new monsters, magic items, and adventure situations. Another way to be creative is to take the things we already have and use them in ways that subvert expectations while fitting within the constraints of the game rules and the typical fantasy setting.
I want players to feel like their characters are in danger the moment they step into the dungeon. Making darkness a danger that players must deal with is one way to do that.
Discarding the theory that there are only certain ways a particular game should be played and experimenting with how it can be played has helped me to get more of what I want than accepting the common advice given by people who are not me and do not want what I want.
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?
Grumpy Wizard 
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