Because Gaming is More Than the Rules
Posted in Characters, Dungeons and dragons, RPG, Roleplay, Uncategorized, Urbana Arcana on Jun 30th, 2011
I was thinking about the last session of the Urban Arcana game in which I’m currently playing and it brought to mind something that I have kind of struggled with in my own gaming: making decisions (even in combat) based on what my character would do, not what my character should do. For example, earlier in [...]
Posted in Character interaction, Characters, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Pathfinder, Roleplay on Jun 24th, 2011
When a new player joins your gaming group it is often a cause for celebration. A breath of fresh air for both the party dynamic and the storytelling. I have noticed, however, that when inexperienced players join a gaming group that the other players and the DM sometimes interfere with their decision making process. In [...]
Posted in Character interaction, Dungeon Mastering, RPG, Roleplay, Tropes, locations, storytelling, world building on Jun 23rd, 2011
Literature is full of tropes, symbols and devices that create intricate settings for encounters between colorful casts of characters as they adventure through the plot of a story. The art of planning a campaign that is interested in storyline and contains a strong, character-driven plot may require the DM to participate in a certain degree [...]
Posted in Characters, RPG, Roleplay on Jun 17th, 2011
One of my great passions is the theatre and I love seeing how theatre and gaming interact in really exciting ways. This is the first in a series of posts I plan on writing about those interactions and how to use theatre tricks to improve your gaming. When I am directing a show, I usually [...]
Posted in Characters, Conflict, Roleplay on Jun 8th, 2011
Back in September, Bette Noire wrote a great post on why players should try to create characters that are different from themselves in fundamental ways. I would like to continue and expand upon her ideas by discussing how to maintain that great character work throughout a long campaign by using an example from my gaming [...]
Posted in Characters, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Houserules, Roleplay, backstories, storytelling, world building on May 19th, 2011
I’ve been spending quite a bit of time recently thinking about my 4e campaign that I plan on starting within the next couple of months. The problem I ran into this time is that I don’t want to run another sandbox campaign like I’ve done in the recent past. So I want to run something [...]
Posted in Characters, Houserules, Roleplay, Star Wars, Uncategorized, world building on May 5th, 2011
Today’s post is in honor of a good friend of mine who loved to play mechanics and engineers in sci fi games. When I first started running games in the Star Wars Saga Edition system I was disappointed that there is no technology oriented base class. There are certainly talents for the scout, soldier and scoundrel that [...]
Posted in Character interaction, Characters, D&D 4th, Houserules, Roleplay, backstories on May 4th, 2011
Examples of blood oaths and blood brothers can be found in history and mythology cross-culturally. While it would be easy enough for two players to announce that their characters are blood brothers and detail a ritual that they would undergo, what fun is there if they don’t actually get benefits and disadvantages as a result? Since [...]
Posted in Character interaction, Characters, Conflict, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Dungeons and dragons, Inter-player conflict, Roleplay, Uncategorized, backstories on May 3rd, 2011
An intrepid group of adventurers sets out to make their name in the world. With mighty swings, bawdy songs and esoteric spells they rid the kingdom of evil and earn their place among the legendary heroes. Along the way the heroes will fight many villains, striking down each with righteous fervor and without much hesitation. [...]
Posted in Characters, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Roleplay, Uncategorized, White Wolf, storytelling on Apr 28th, 2011
In my current Legend of the Five Rings campaign, one of the players designed an entire character concept around a samurai who lost his arm as a young boy. His whole life has been dedicated to the mastery of swordsmanship so he can prove he isn’t half a warrior as his injury would lead his peers [...]
