This is RPG-ology #70: Value, for September 2023. Our thanks to Regis Pannier and the team at the Places to Go, People to Be French edition for locating a copy of this and a number of other lost Game Ideas Unlimited articles. This was originally Game Ideas Unlimited: Value, and is reposted here with minor … [Read more…]
This is RPG-ology #56: Voices, for July 2022. A couple months back someone on a Facebook RPG group (and I honestly don’t remember which) asked for advice on how to individualize non-player characters. There was some good advice given, including a small bit from me about creating character voices; but the question keeps coming … [Read more…]
This is RPG-ology #53: In the Spirit of Radio, for April 2022. Our thanks to Regis Pannier and the team at the Places to Go, People to Be French edition. This was originally published in the Winter 2004 edition of the Daedalus e-zine, and was forgotten when that publication vanished. However, having seen the French … [Read more…]
When I started to DM with regularity, I began keeping bulleted summary notes on each gaming session. By my current standards, those first notes were barely adequate. In time, I made some improvements. I also began to incorporate into my summary notes some short lines of text that I used during the session itself. They … [Read more…]
In part 1 of this series on single-session adventures, Michael gave the broad strokes of adventure design, from the desired playstyle to decisions on system and settings. Now we move into more specific adventure construction advice. If you missed the previous article, find it here: Designing the Adventure part 1 Consider Multiple Environments George Lucas … [Read more…]
Part one of a four-article series on designing and running a one-shot, single-session adventure. See the end of the article for links to the rest of the series. Unfortunately, I’ve never been to a gaming convention, but for years I have been intrigued by the early tournament adventures of the late 1970s and early 1980s. … [Read more…]
This is RPG-ology #30: Story-based Mapping, for May 2020. I have mentioned before that I belong to a role playing game mapping group on Facebook. Every day people post beautiful world maps similar to the ones pictured here and ask for feedback. I am not a cartographer; I am not an artist. When aspiring young … [Read more…]
Someone once wrote that good Game Masters seem to know a little bit about everything. If it’s not obvious, this is because they need to know how the world works so they can make their own game settings seem real. I know this first-hand from years of running fantasy campaigns. At one point or another, … [Read more…]
I have played in and run many games, and many types of games, over the years. From high fantasy to low, from games of nobles intriguing to pirates at sea, I have been on a star-ship crew and run with a coterie of vampires, vast epics and simple one shots, and everything in between. And … [Read more…]
This tale follows from the events of Tracks on a Moonless Night. Background Sir Garrett of House Winchester and his retinue have been in the region around Blackwater Lake for months now, searching for Sir Garrett’s lost ancestral estate, named Falconridge, which once lay somewhere near the shores of the lake. After several adventures and … [Read more…]