Want to write better adventures? Want to prep more efficiently? Sick of players skipping all of your best content? Prep Smarter, Not Harder, with Encounter Theory Encounter Theory: The Adventure Design Workbook is a fresh way to look at adventure design by Ben Riggs, the voice of the...
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Over on Encoded Designs, Phil Vecchione (longtime GM and TT reader (DNAphil), GM-Fu panelist and author of the kickass guest post Great Campaigns: One Out of Three Ain’t Bad) recently wrapped up an epic three-part series detailing his method for writing session notes. This is one of those...
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In the comments on Metagame Elements and Transparency, TT reader Chris mentioned successfully reworking an encounter while improvising part of a session. Chris’s comment got me thinking about different ways to write up adventure notes — specifically, writing them with adaptability in...
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Sitting here listening to MC Frontalot’s “Secrets from the Future” while writing this post, it hit me that I’ve never tried doing game prep to music. You can build soundtracks for your game — so why not have background music keyed to your prep? I’m not very...
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The campaign I was running when I created Treasure Tables ended shortly after I got started the site, and I haven’t GMed anything since then (mid-2005). My group of four includes three folks who GM regularly and one player who GMs occasionally — there’s no shortage of GMs, in...
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“Refinement prep” is the final stage of game prep for an RPG — the part where you: Give everything a once-over to see if there’s anything you missed, or still need to do. Address any glaring holes in your game prep. Look for things you could sex up a bit — not glaring...
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• Notes to the GM – What a Player Wants: This Roleplaying Tips article offers six player-oriented GMing tips, from “Get Started Quickly” (#1) to “I Can’t Handle Much Homework – Let’s Game It Instead” (#6). They probably won’t all be to...
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I’m not a big fan of game prep, and one of the reasons why is because I have trouble guessing how long it’s going to take me. My personal Achilles heel is maps: I enjoy making maps, so I tend to get carried away (this is true for tactical maps as well as regional maps). After two or...
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TT reader and RPG freelancer Walt C. wrote to me a little while back about his ongoing Star Wars campaign, and we’ve been exchanging emails about the technique he used to create the campaign’s framework. I asked Walt if I could publish excerpts of his emails here, and he graciously...
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When you’re going to GM a one-shot, there are nine steps you can take to make sure things go smoothly. 1. Read the whole scenario. Whether you wrote the adventure or are using a published scenario, read it through in its entirety. 2. Read it again. Reading the adventure a second time helps...
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