“A novelist can do anything he wants so long as he makes people believe in it.” Gabriel Garcia Marquez Gabriel Garcia Marquez s particular form of magical realism was once described to me as such: Making the mundane seem fantastic and the fantastic seem mundane. In his short stories, particularly The Most Handsomest Drowned Man and [ ]
A simple way to think about your RPG-style is what you find the most interesting. The small details you focus on vs. those things you skip over define your style. The Things You LikeAre you gifted at describing the ebb and flow of combat in exciting detail? Can you come up with evocative descriptions of [ ]
While the most common ‘ideal’ group is 4 players and 1 GM, give or take a player, there is no one-size-fits-all option for GMing. It is difficult to find the right number of players for the types of adventures you want to run. Often, the group size is dependent on how many friends are willing [ ]
There is a brick wall that all creative people hit while being creative. It often comes out of nowhere, because we’re too busy making stuff to notice what’s directly in front of our faces. Other times, we see the brick wall and decide that putting our head down and plowing into it at full speed [ ]
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it.” Bruce Lee Whether you are crafting the plot yourself or running a published adventure, it’s important to be adaptable. You don’t need to be great at improv or [ ]
It’s the first day of a new campaign. You’ve created a world, invented the conflict, gathered the heroes, and it’s time to release your plot upon your players. You start with an ambush by goblins, as is tradition. And as you describe the goblin’s first volley of arrows raining down upon the unsuspecting characters, one [ ]
“There is a distinct difference between suspense and surprise, and yet many pictures continually confuse the two.” Alfred Hitchcock We’re all tempted to create an amazing reveal that changes the course of the game and redefines the past. All of a sudden, previous clues and unanswered questions make sense. It’s the revelatory moment we all [ ]
“Ain’t nobody got time for that.”-Kimberly Sweet Brown Wilkins Running RPGs is hard work. It’s a hobby that takes an immense amount of time and effort. It’s never as easy as plopping down on the couch and relaxing with a video game. It can be more rewarding and fun, but make no mistake, playing a [ ]
Playing online is fraught with many perils, and none more insidious than distraction. No matter how well-mannered and attentive a player is, there will be a time during the session where they get distracted or zone-out. Spending hours staring at a screen with tiny voices in your ears doesn’t grab a person’s attention like sitting [ ]
When we sit down at the table to play, often the GM begins with the iconic, “When we last left our heroes” or a comedic, “Previously on…” nod to serialized radio and television programs. Some GMs ask the players to do a recap of the adventure so far. Introductory summaries and scenes help set the [ ]