Two Takes on Bigger Guns

Lots of players like it when their characters have the biggest guns that they can have — myself included. And “big gun” can mean different things for different games: In D&D, it’d be the +5 holy avenger, while in Twilight:2000 it’d be, well, a really big gun.

I want to briefly share two anecdotes from my playing history — two different takes on big guns, courtesy of two friends who have GMed for me.

They’re on different ends of the spectrum, and hopefully they’ll make an interesting jumping-off point for discussion.

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So, What’d We Miss?

When your players finish an adventure, I’m willing to bet they usually want to know what they missed. Should you tell them?

Absolutely! Based on my experience as a GM and a player, here’s why I think this is a good thing to do.

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42 Words to Consider Using the Next Time You GM

A grab-bag of descriptive terms, surprisingly thought-provoking simple words and terms with many meanings.

I can think of at least two ways to use this list: to find words that aren’t commonly used in descriptions, and to brainstorm for upcoming sessions.

1. Eldritch
2. Nemesis
3. Rivulet
4. Explosive
5. Ferocious
6. Shame
7. Unrest

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Four TT Updates

Our early Christmas present contest runs through the end of this month. If you like our T-shirts, buying one before then gives you a shot at a $20 Amazon gift certificate.

To combat the ramped-up flood of comment spam, I’ve installed an anti-spam plugin. It presents no barriers to leaving a comment, which is very important to me. And if you’re not a spambot, you shouldn’t notice anything different from before. That said, if it’s acting wonky or it makes anything here on the blog weird for you, please let me know!

The Evil Overlord Recruitment Bureau board on the TT forums (an experiment that grew out of World Powers and Big Picture Plotlines) has seen some good activity. If you haven’t taken a peek at what it’s all about, why not give it a whirl?

And lastly, we’re considering splitting publisher-related forum threads (especially advertising) into a new sub-forum, Publisher Dialogue. In the long run, my goal would be to make this forum the place for publishers to discuss their products with GMs, and for GMs to ask questions and get involved with those publishers. If that sounds good (or terrible!) to you, you weigh in here.

More Uses for Index Cards

Index cards — a GM’s best friend, and something of a Treasure Tables obsession. This RPGnet column by Chris Gunning offers up another way to use index cards in your game: to organize all of your game notes.

Chris sums up his thinking like so: “Using notecards forces the GM to keep information short, pithy and bite-sized- exactly what is useful at a gaming table.”

He also points out that “As physical objects they give the GM a good benchmark to see how much preparation they have.” If you tend to over- or under-prep, this might be a useful technique for you.

Using index cards as an organizational tool isn’t a new idea, but I’ve never seen this specific approach — essentially, writing your adventure on them — outlined before.

Have you ever tried something like this?

When in Doubt, Allow, Then Dial Back

Especially when it comes to character generation, I’ve found over the years that the best approach for PC options, abilities and funky tweaks that you think might be game-breaking is to allow them, and dial them back if you turn out to be right.

This doesn’t apply to things that are obvious game-wreckers, or to players who are clearly out to bend the rules to the extreme. But if you’re not sure, why not allow it and see what happens? Just make it clear up front that if it breaks the game, it’s going the way of the dodo.

Do you agree, or do you prefer a different approach in this situation?

Online Support for GMs?

How much online support is available for your games of choice? And as a GM, how much mileage do you get out of it?

When I run (or play D&D), I get tons of use out of the online SRD (my version of choice is the one by Sovelior and Sage). I’m also a big fan of having well-designed character sheets — whether official or unoffical — available online. If I were running Burning Wheel, I know I’d be referring back to the Burning Wiki quite often.

Does the presence or absence of online support for a game make a qualitative difference in your enjoyment of GMing that RPG?

Informed Player Decisions

The always-thoughtful John Kim (who I interviewed for TT) has this to say about informed player decisions:

In general, I would say that if the player can’t make informed decisions about what game actions she needs to take to accomplish what she wants, then resolution is at the wrong level. Either the player needs to be given more information such that she can make informed decisions, or the resolution should be done at a higher scale [emphasis mine].

He goes on to give an example:

For example, if the players don’t have enough information to determine what they should do to find the sewer entrance, then I might simply have them make a single roll (say, Gather Information in D20) to find it. If I don’t want it to be a single roll, then I have to provide them with enough information to make informed decisions.

Man, but that’s a good way of putting it. (The whole post is here: Player Knowledge, Planning, and Intent.)

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