The stories told in sandbox-style games differ quite a bit from the procedural adventures presented in traditional adventure. They still happen, but rather than a planned sequence of events, they arise from the situational choices the players make.
Category: Roleplaying Games
Last Minute GMing: Running the Blank Page
In the prior two posts in this series we came up with a great idea for an RPG session and scrawled out some quick notes to flesh it out. Now our guests are here, the Mountain Dew is flowing, and the dice are rolling. How do we run our game? The Fine Art of Improvisational…
Last Minute GMing: Filling the Blank Page
Continuing our discussion on last-minute prep from last week: The simplest scenario structure is that an antagonist wants something, and is doing something to get it. We need a bad guy. Our antagonist is simply the person the PCs will be opposing in this story. He doesn’t have to be a “bad” guy. He can…
Last Minute GMing: Vanquishing the Blank Page
Gaming is a fun hobby, but it’s just that, a hobby. Taking on the role of GM is a hefty responsibility, but real life should always take precedence, and sometimes our more important responsibilities — career, family, sleep — eat away at our game prep time until there’s nothing left, and we’re stuck on Friday…
Kitchen Sink Gaming: Gamer’s Paradise
Synopsis: High school students find themselves catapulted through dimensional barriers into a number of fantastic scenarios. Setup The PCs are members of a high-school’s gaming club. While gamer interests can be eclectic, they should be more or less normal with zero to minimal combat or survival skills. As always, be cautious about letting players play…
Kitchen Sink Gaming: Virtual Beta Testers
If you’re like me, you’ve accumulated a lot of spare gaming materials as you’ve gone along, orphans from systems you may never play again. Sometimes you get some use out of this stuff by adapting it to a new modern system, but a lot of it just sits around taking up space. Virtual Beta Testers…
Kitchen Sink Gaming: Recycling Old Materials
Decades spent in any hobby will result in the accumulation of a lot of stuff. Modules, maps, campaign books, you name it. A gamer can accumulate great stores of materials for games they no longer play. The most direct way to re-purpose gaming materials is to ignore the mechanics and adapt the setting and story…
Setting Up a Play by Post Game
We’ve talked about some of the challenges in running a play-by-post roleplaying game. This week we’re going to talk about how you can make things easier for yourself when you plan and set one up. Plan it out ahead of time. Seriously. Just because you have more time to decide what happens next, doesn’t make…
Running a Play by Post Game
We’ve talked in the past about which systems work well in a play-by-post game, and how to play in a meaningful and cooperative manner. Today we’re going to discuss tips for actually running your own play-by-post games. Play in a few games first. Seriously. I have seen a lot of GMs assume they can jump…
Playing in a Play by Post Game
The general rule in play-by-post is the same as it is in face to face realtime gaming: add to everyone’s fun, don’t subtract from it. That said, there are a few guidelines that apply to play-by-post gaming that you can abide by to maximize everyone’s fun. Rule 0: Lurk First Every site’s culture and expectations…