Recent Posts
The Best GM’s Tool You’re Not Using
Today we’ll look at why a recording of your game session’s audio is the perfect game master’s tool. Capturing gameplay has many benefits. Automated Note Capturing – your audio recording is almost like having a personal assistant to take notes of everything you missed during the game session. Now you don’t have to worry about remembering or writing down that random NPC or that village that party passed through. Your recording may even capture dialog that you didn’t even hear during the live game session. Raw Feedback for Improvement – hearing your game session played back for the first time is rough. You’ll hear all of your game master faux pas. The audio recording captures mistakes you made with the rules as well as missed story opportunities. The payoff is that if you listen with a critical ear, you will improve your game master skills. Entertain Yourself – I enjoy
Pinterest – A GM’s Handy Tool
I ran across a cool character portrait that I could use as inspiration for an NPC in my MUD game, Lands of Oneiro. I found an awesome little dungeon that I could use the next time I run a D&D session. Thanks to my little browser’s Pinterest button, that character portrait and the map of the little dungeon were both added to my boards. This is a great way to build up a collection of resources that you can utilize in your game sessions. Your players will love the chance to see the NPC’s they meet. You will thank yourself for saving a random pirate name generator the next time your party goes swashbuckling in what you had foolishly believed to be a land-locked campaign. In my Tabletop Resources section, you’ll find the following 3 new tools to get you started on your Game Master Pinterest Collection Hunt:
Melissa’s Customized Session Cheat Sheet for Game Masters
In my experience, having a 1 page cheat sheet for each session has benefits that far outweigh the time that it takes to build it. I recommend creating a unique sheet for each session, a new cheat sheet for that specific game. Plot Hooks – You should create hooks for every session, not just the first adventure. You want to get ‘buy in’ for each game so that your players and their characters really care about what is going on in. Locations/Encounters/Scenes – Depending on the structure of the game system you’re using, having a bullet point list of the locations such as dungeon rooms, waypoints on the road or unique places can be a loose guide to keep your game on track. If you’re running a more crunchy dungeon delve style of adventure, having a list of probable encounters is just as valuable. As a storyteller, I find that
3 Warning Signs that Your Campaign is about to Crash and Burn
We’ve all stuck to a campaign that was well into its death throes. It can be hard to give up on a story that had a lot of work put into and characters that took time to create. Sometimes shooting a dead horse is a mercy. No One Shows Up – if your group meets together regularly and suddenly you have schedule conflicts, take a hard look at your game. Is the reason it’s hard to fill the gaming table due to a lack of interest in the campaign? Your Players Don’t Care – if the pre-session banter takes twice as long as usual, your normally attentive players are more interested in their cell phones and almost anything starts a non-gaming related discussion, your players aren’t into your game. You Don’t Care – It takes a lot of time and effort to run a campaign. When all of that work