Tag Archives: GM’ing
Enter Sandland
Sand is an underutilized terrain feature in games. Sand is dynamic and versatile, for both GM’s and players, and it can transform a generic encounter into a shifting, swirling event full of complications and advanced tactics. Plus, it’s a beautiful backdrop for epic adventures, and has been since the dawn of storytelling. So, grit your teeth, dust off your sandals, and let’s comb the beaches for some game-changing ideas about sand.
Tracking Trash
Use More Garbage in Your Games
When describing dungeons, do you remember rubbish? Does the odor of an opponent factor in when players are chasing down a challenger? Where do the Mind Flayers dump their muck? Did you think about what clues the cyber-corporation might leave in their back-alley bins? You should – the details of dregs can make for some interesting additions to a living, breathing, excrement-dropping world. One man’s trash, as they say…
Lockpicking Lessons
Be Better at Burglary
If your roguish roustabouts seem bored while picking at yet another generic door lock, you need to up your GM game. Or, as a player who picks, you can use your few, precious moments at the keyhole to elevate your elucidation and really get into the descriptions of the art of the breach. Breaking through security should be a sustained spotlight for a story’s specialist – not a die roll and a “click!” Read on, my lock-minded friends, and let us make lockpicking legendary.
Barroom Blitz
Designing Your Tavern for a Tussle
It’s a classic. The bar brawl. And with a little prep-work when world-building, you can make your ale houses, pool halls, and common rooms uncommonly perfect for a proper fracas or a beer-fueled brouhaha.
20 Things
There’s a little collection of random tables called “20 Things in an Orc’s Pocket” which contains all sorts of fun and simple randomizers to add details to your castle corridors and gloomy goblin lairs. When I found it, I started thinking about how potent the practice of using minutiae in games can be, and how GM’s who pepper their worlds with the spice of small specifics are really breathing a subtle-but-important kind of life into their creations.
