You already imagine colorful characters inhabiting stunning settings, you bring them to life with your words. You already plot ambitious adventures and direct the pacing of play to precise peaks. You do this because you love to run games and create content, and you’re so much better at it than you...
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If you have 60 seconds, you can come up with the plot for your next adventure. First, let’s define three terms: • A is the party — your group’s PCs. • Z is one of the party’s adversaries (new or old, it doesn’t matter). • W is something either A or Z...
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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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I was thinking about my all-time favorite one-shot, the Call of Cthulhu scenario “In Media Res” (from Pagan Publishing’s excellent magazine, The Unspeakable Oath), and one of the things I enjoy so much about it is just how brutal it can be. CoC one-shots are always pretty...
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Recently on TT we’ve looked at the longest sessions you’ve ever run, and at some models for GMing short sessions on weeknights. With session length on the brain, TT reader and frequent commenter Walt C. emailed me to suggest this two-part GMing question (thanks, Walt!): What’s...
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Commenting on Adventure Notes: One Page per Encounter, TT reader Millsy said: “On a related note, I’d find it really useful to see links to other GM’s notes. […] Is there any more demand for this?” I thought that was an excellent idea (thanks, Millsy!), so I figured I’d get...
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Alysia and I have gotten sucked into Showtime’s Californication, which is much better than its premise — washed-up writer has lots of one-night stands while trying to fix his life — suggests, largely because of David Duchovny. Before we started watching it, I read a review of the...
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This Saturday, after fiending to run it for the past year, I’ll finally be getting a chance to pitch Burning Empires to my group (w00t!). In this case, by “pitch” I mean “run a pitch session” — one shot at hooking all three of my players. If someone hates it, we...
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A few observations on naming campaigns and scenarios, from both sides of the screen: • Neither individual adventures nor entire campaigns need names, but it sure is cool when they have them. • Campaign names are a useful shorthand, and one that helps evoke the tone of the game....
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Ending a session on a cliffhanger is a great way to leave your players wanting more, and get them excited about coming back for the next session. It’s possible to screw this up, though, if you choose the wrong break point for your cliffhanger. The key to a good cliffhanger is ending your...
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We are always looking for new articles and gnomes to throw in the stew. Drop an article proposal over at
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Guest authors get paid the same per article rate as full time staff gnomes.
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