Posted in Character interaction, Characters, Conflict, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Dungeons and dragons, Hero System, Houserules, Inter-player conflict, RPG, Roleplay, Skill checks, Star Wars, backstories, locations, storytelling, world building on Nov 11th, 2010
Military campaigns are one of my favorite things to write. Being part of a regular military gives your characters a definitive structure for the chain of command, a place that missions and orders are always going to come from, an easy way to build in political intrigue, and lots of excuses for sending people across [...]
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Last week I talked about character friendships and how to create them, so now let’s talk about a much trickier character relationship: the rivalry or animosity. I say tricky because this type of relationship can be a fun, valuable, and often hilarious addition to your campaign when done correctly. And when done incorrectly, you can [...]
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Posted in Character interaction, Characters, Conflict, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Dungeons and dragons, Inter-player conflict, RPG, Roleplay, backstories on Oct 28th, 2010
Short answer, when your players are mature enough to know that chaotic-evil is not the same as chaotic retarded. Most gaming groups have the idea of playing the bad guys, but most players are just not ready for this massive change of character orientation. We all have one or two people in our group that [...]
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Posted in Character interaction, Characters, Conflict, D&D 4th, Dungeons and dragons, Inter-player conflict, RPG, Roleplay, backstories, storytelling on Oct 26th, 2010
So you’ve made your character and your so excited for your new rebel without a cause, he’s inspired by Jayne from Firefly or your favorite badass from fiction and he doesn’t take sh*t from anybody. He wanders the world keeping an eye out for number one, he’s probably chaotic neutral and will never do anything [...]
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So, before I talk next week about character relationships and interactions, I thought I’d discuss an issue that I feel needs some special attention. Every last campaign I’ve ever played in has been a mixed gender group, and I prefer it that way. The biggest double-edged sword in a co-ed group, though, is that it [...]
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Posted in Character interaction, Characters, Conflict, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Dungeons and dragons, Houserules, Inter-player conflict, RPG, Roleplay, storytelling, world building on Oct 8th, 2010
DM: The dragon hits you for 35 points of damage Knight: Well thats it guys I am dead Fighter: DIBS on his stuff! Rogue: No way we can sell all of that and split the money! Knight: You guys are going to strip all my gear before you bury me. My armor was an heirloom [...]
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Quests are the backbone of role-playing games. Whether they are small quests for a local farmer or epic quests to save the world, quests are what draw the players in and motivates them. I, however, find that quests can sometimes be too easy to follow up on. Generally, once a DM gives out a quest, [...]
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PvP is often an overlooked aspect of role-playing games. Usually if the players at a table pit themselves against one another, things are going downhill with the campaign. PvP combat that is initiated by the players generally should be avoided, but that doesn’t mean that PvP can’t be used to liven up your campaign in [...]
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Depending on your group makeup, it can be challenging to add in-depth role-play to your game. You may encounter resistance, scorn, or timidity from your players. However, as the GM, you are in control of the mood of the game and to a large extent, you also set the tone of the way that players [...]
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Posted in Character interaction, Characters, Conflict, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Dungeons and dragons, Inter-player conflict, RPG, Roleplay, storytelling, world building on Sep 2nd, 2010
When I ran my first campaign, I started with a pre-boxed module “The Speaker in Dreams” and quickly realized that it was a terrible idea to try and mold my group to the confines of the module I had purchased. As the junior member of the group I had only been RP’ing for 12 years [...]
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