After a long break between roleplaying as a kid, I started playing with my current batch of players nearly a decade ago. In that time, I have sat almost exclusively in the game master chair, only occasionally becoming a player. Those ten years have been spent running almost universally Dungeon and Dragons, covering second, third, and fourth [...]
The original Baldur’s Gate is a landmark game. It was the begin of the rise of the great role-playing game developer Bioware. Along with the original Fallout, it sat at a high water marker of RPGs, sparking an entire branch of games. To this day, the game rates highly despite aging mechanics and graphics. While [...]
I use a variety of tools to help me run my roleplaying games. These vary from basic lists of names, to elaborate combat managers. While there are great benefits to these tools, there are some pitfalls that a game master must know of and attempt to mitigate as much as possible. One of my programs is [...]
Over at Fear the Boot, Trampas wrote a great article about “shackles” in running roleplaying games. The idea is that a game master can easily get in a rut and how our tools and methods can keep us there. I have a shackle of my own: pre-game notes. I fall close to the Dan end [...]
Being a rather nerdy person myself, I have acquired a collection of rather nerdy friends myself. Each person has their own circle of nerdness, outside of which they won’t tread. This is not surprising, everyone has limits. The surprising thing is that these circles are not concentric. As some of you may know (and others [...]
I have been asked a time or two how I, as an atheist, can play fantasy roleplaying games that involve gods, clerics, and divine magic. The first part of the answer is very simple: its a game. If I can imagine myself as an all power wizard casting fireball, pretending to a believer isn’t much [...]