In the Hot Seat: Another Way to Tabletop
When you think of D&D, the first thing that probably comes to mind is one Dungeon Master, maybe behind a screen, and a group of four to five players sitting around with their dice and character sheets. Some of you may imagine the inevitable fight that comes before the campaign gets started; no one wants to DM, no one wants the responsibility, but everybody still really wants to play.
Keep your D&D game alive! Trials and triumphs of a full-time nerd in a part-time world
There’s never been a better time to be a tabletop gamer. Recent years have brought an explosion of products and popularity for board games, card games and – my personal obsession – roleplaying games (of the pencil-and-paper variety). Whether as a rebuff of our ubiquitous online lives or simply a celebration of face-to-face social entertainment, this renaissance has made new gamers of all stripes and brought lapsed gamers back to the hobby.
Dungeon Masters, don’t let a bad game get you down
Even the best Dungeon Master can have an off day. Just ask Uni the unicorn!
As Dungeon Master, you’ve been preparing a week or longer, planning for your Dungeon & Dragons group’s next session, writing out stats for NPCs, trying to think through various story lines, contemplating possible player character actions and responses, etc. It can be a lot of work, and time consuming. It doesn’t necessarily have to be, but sometimes it is. Then there’s the mental exhaustion that can set it.
Finally, the game arrives! You open your rules books, lay out your maps, places the minis, maybe start a Google Hangout, whatever.
Then the game sucks.
New DM Handbook: The Tutorial Quest
For a while now, I’ve been talking mostly theoretical, while including some real-world personal experiences to support my claims. While that won’t completely go away, especially since I have a lot more philosophy I want to go through, I wanted to start talking from a place of experience.
The Tutorial Quest or:
The Wheel Of The Year With Dungeons and Dragons
The year’s seasons with D&D
The year’s seasons with D&DWe as people have such a unique connection through our similarities and natural patterns. One of those many ways we connect is with traditions and holidays! Other ways are through leisure, tribal get togethers, games and entertainment. Why not transform these connections into a tradition all of their own?
Let’s take ourselves to a lovely room with a fireplace, coffee on the pot, decanter of wine set, the smell of food, laughter of friends nearby, and the jolly sound of tavern music playing in the background specifically this one (it’s literally how I start my morning most days).
New DM Handbook: The 10 Commandments of Tabletop RPGs
These are my 10 Commandments of Tabletop RPGs. Some of these are based on personal experience, where others are based on observation. I won’t always indicate which is which, but I feel confident in my assessment.
New DM Handbook: Your Story Doesn’t Matter
This is going to be by far my most controversial post, which I believe says a lot. Based on my observations, it would seem that the mentality among Game Masters is they have a story to tell, and the players are there to play in...
You Can Have Story and Rules in an RPG
There is a long standing argument between which is more important in a roleplaying game, and for the record I always side with the story if I must choose. That being said, I just wanted to chyme in with a few tidbits of advice on...
Character Progression – Awarding Experience and Rewarding Players
There are about as many different ways to handle character progression as there are role-playing systems, but most commonly they revolve around one tantalizing resource – experience points. It might go by different names or work differently from system to system, but at the end of a session most players are excited to rack up some XP. Loot and items may come and go, but XP is a permanent reward, one which drives the game forward and works as a proverbial ‘carrot on a stick’ for your players.
So how, as GMs, do we hand out this resource? Some GMs meticulously calculate exactly
how many points each character receives, while others eschew the XP system entirely and
give out levels at narrative milestones. There’s no right or wrong way to handle character
progression, but it is important to make sure that whatever method you’re using is right for
the players in your group, and that everyone’s on board.
Dungeons and Dragons Tabletop Roleplaying Games – How to Keep the Game Going
Several Dungeons & Dragons miniature figures. The grid mat underneath uses one-inch squares. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons for decades. I personally have been in more campaigns that have floundered or just stopped. As noted in the video below I have notebooks full of characters that are not really retired, the sessions just stopped.
Game masters have a number of reasons for wanting to stop a campaign. Running a tabletop roleplaying session week after week becomes very taxing not only on the DMs time but on creativity and inspiration as well. Constantly running also become taxing as some DMs want to play as well. As a DM running every week while looking through the material can cause inspiration for a character idea that they really want to play.
Sadly a DM might get bored or lose all control with a game. When you lose focus or control it can destroy your momentum or desire to keep the game going.
As a way of combating this we use multiple dms. I am currently in 4 groups that meet each once a month, 3 of which are Nerdarchy games that get filmed and uploaded to the channel. The other is with a group I met though Scott and although he is no longer in the group the other players are happy to have me there.
Running a D&D game off the cuff – it can be easy
[caption id="attachment_10844" align="alignright" width="511"] Does this Dungeon Master/wizard look panicked?[/caption] So you’re the Dungeon Master. There’s a game of Dungeons & Dragons in an hour or two. Unfortunately you’ve been busy all week and have not had time to prepare. Don’t panic. You can still run your game...
Game Master Tip- Engaging Individual Characters in a Roleplaying Group
As a player, one of the most rewarding experiences you can have in roleplaying is exploring a story which your character has a personal stake in, and which is tailored specifically to your character. It’s one thing to raid a tomb full of undead with your pals, but it’s entirely another to explore the tomb of your ancestors, fighting the spectres of long dead family
members and searching for a priceless heirloom.
Engaging individual characters within the party can be a fantastic way to develop characters
and make players feel badass, and these personal storylines can often develop into entire
plot arcs and adventures. However, the logistics of keeping the whole group entertained
while your game focuses on one character can be difficult. It’s often difficult for people to
find time to game together, and the last thing you want is for people to show up and then
spend the whole session watching somebody else play the game.
To Game or Not to Game?
Hello fellow Nerdarchests, I hope to find you all having a great time. I wanted to address an issue some [caption id="" align="alignright" width="350" class="zemanta-img"] The Werewolf of Fever Swamp (TV special) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption] of us might have and that is trying to run multiple games...
In Role Play, Description isn’t Always a Good Thing
These are dice. They decide things in RPG combat, but they don’t describe the combat. Maybe we could learn from this.
The most dreaded words I can hear from a game master are, “Describe your attack.”
I’m not talking about describing complex character actions. That I understand. If the game master needs explanation on how one of my characters is trying to perform a certain act, especially an unusual one, that makes perfect sense.
No, I’m talking about the rather mundane, usually involving combat.
My character steps into a fight, swings his or her weapon. I roll dice. The weapon hits. I go to roll damage and …
Game Master Tips – Using Long Rest, Short Rest and Random Encounters
Nerdarchist Ted here and Nubz had an emergency and I am here to fill in. If you missed his article on the World of Darkness, you can check it out here.
In Dungeons and Dragons the mechanics have built in the use of Long Rest and Short rest as a way of getting back hit points as well as abilities. Some classes are built on needing these while others function just off of their hit point pool.
So because of this need to get abilities back the party is going to want to take a breather now and again. If you have marched, exercised or fought hard for any length of time you know how important it is to actually sit down and try to catch your breath.
