Professional GMing

I had a chance to game with Tavis Allison, the president of Behemoth3, at this year’s GenCon, and after the con he asked me if I’d write about their latest project, Otherworld Excursions, here on Treasure Tables.

I agreed, for three reasons: Tavis is a very nice guy, we swapped a bit of free PR (which is always good!), and I think it’ll make for some interesting reading and discussion here on TT.

So what’s the idea behind Otherworld Excursions? In short, they’re a lot like gaming cruises: private vacations led by a famous game designer, centered around that designer GMing a game for you. That’s a nifty idea — and a great springboard to ask two questions: what is professional GMing, and how should it work?

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Robert’s Rules of GMing

A little while back, I bought a book called Robert’s Rules of Writing, by Robert Masello, on an impulse. I’ve been a freelance writer for the RPG industry (alongside my day job) since 2004, and this book of tips looked like it might come in handy.

And it did — but in more ways than one. The more I read, the more I found that this book was full of tips that were directly useful for me as a GM.

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Inspiration from Movies and TV Shows

One of my favorite things about GURPS books is that they nearly always have great bibliographies — and one of the best parts of those bibliographies is the section that lists TV shows and movies that can serve as inspiration for your game.

Movies and TV shows can serve not only as sources of inspiration with a very low “buy-in,” but as easy handles to describe your game.

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Treasure Tables Now on WordPress!

I spent Labor Day importing Treasure Tables from Blogger to WordPress, which is why things looked funny here for most of the day!

I decided to make the switch because this site, and its readership, are growing (which is great!), and I wanted a more robust platform to work with. The more I posted using Blogger, the more I felt that I was butting up against the limitations of that service — and it’s easier to switch sooner than later!

Thank you for bearing with me while I got things moved over — hopefully you’ll agree that it was worth it! For those who use Blogger and might be thinking about making this switch themselves, I’ll cover my approach here.

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Interviewing Prospective Players

When your group is short and you’re considering letting a stranger join your game, how do you decide if they’ll be a good fit? I interview them — and I know at least two other GMs that do the same thing.

That might sound a little weird at first, but it works! Don’t think of it as a job interview — think of it as a gaming interview.

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