Entrances to Hell

Along the lines of Use Your Town in Your Next Game, I recently came across Entrances to Hell (thanks, Boing Boing!).

Once you get past the lame navigation, this site presents a variety of user-submitted pictures of what could be entrances to Hell. There’s a good mix of modern and ancient locations, and some very fun ones (like this stairway in Mexico guarded by hellcats, which is actually kind of creepy).

Apart from GMing With Pictures, I dig this site for two reasons. One is that these photos make great inspiration for supernatural games, and the other is that I love the idea of a modern world filled with what are, in many cases, very innocent-looking portals to Hell.

It’d be a perfect fit for Dark Matter, Unknown Armies and similar games, and it sounds like a neat premise for a campaign.

Holy Option Paralysis, Batman

I’ve been trying to settle on a character class for an upcoming D&D game (3.5e), and I’ve been running into some serious option paralysis — there are so many choices that I’ve been completely unable to pick one.

There are a couple of other factors at work here, including my tendency to overthink things and (more importantly) the fact that I don’t have a strong inclination towards a particular class role.

Setting those aside, though, something occurred to me: I don’t think I’ve ever run into option paralysis as a GM.

When I’m GMing, despite having near-infinite options and making choices constantly — both before the game begins, and once it’s rolling — it just feels different in some way.

Partly that’s because few of my individual GMing choices are as critical as choosing a character is for a player (since that’s their most important source of input into the game), and partly it’s because I’m not choosing from a laundry list of options — I’m just brainstorming.

Have you run into option paralysis as a GM? Or have you also found that it doesn’t really come up? (And if so, why?)

A Variety of Ways to Use Cards for GMing

Issue #333 of the Roleplaying Tips newsletter is all about different ways to use cards in your games. The tips involve both blank and non-blank cards, including the rather nifty idea of using tarot cards to generate adventures (which ties in nicely with Flip Through a Book, Build a World).

Other TT tie-ins include Homemade Initiative Index Cards, Post-it Sortable Cards for GMs, Tools of the Trade: Index Cards and Use Index Cards and a Cork Board for Game Prep.

Dungeonomicon: Rethinking a Fantasy Staple

My friend Sam, who I game with every week, pointed me to this saucy little minx (thanks, Sam!): The Dungeonomicon, a lengthy thread on the WotC forums that attempts to justify, explain and tweak dungeons, along with a variety of other fantasy RPG staples.

It’s broken down into sections, but the original thread has no direct links to each section. Let’s remedy that by linking to the foundation posts individually here.

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Choose Your Own TPK

The PCs had ample warning that continuing on their present course would probably get them all killed. Hell, their contact said, “No, no, no — don’t do that! All of you will be killed. No, seriously.” The writing was on the wall.

They went there anyway. Now, halfway through what is clearly a losing battle, they have no options for retreat. They are, in short, headed for the dreaded TPK.

If you let them all get killed, turn to page 17. To fudge a couple of rolls and give them a slim chance of survival, turn to page 41. To tweak the encounter slightly without fudging any rolls, turn to page 67. If you want reinforcements to arrive and completely save their bacon, turn to page 73.

Which page do you turn to?

Evil Overlord Recruitment Bureau

Based on the level of interest in World Powers and Big-Picture Plotlines, and on my speculation that there might be wider interest if more folks were exposed to the idea, I’ve created a new board on the TT forums: The Evil Overlord Recruitment Bureau.

The EORB is the place to go to find fellow gamers to play the factions, secret societies, world powers and other behind-the-scenes groups in your campaign. I’ll keep the forum up at least until the end of November, and (as I always do with experiments like this) decide at that point whether there’s enough interest to keep it going after that.

Feedback is welcome, and I hope you’ll give it a shot.

GMing With ADD/ADHD

This guest post is from Amaril, who asked me to post it here on TT; I was happy to oblige. Hopefully the TT community can give Amaril a hand.
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I’ve been tested for adult ADHD recently and discovered my brain has difficulty controlling its focus while working on various tasks.

During more complex tasks that involve larger scale concepts rather than minutiae, my brain goes into what I call “super focus” mode, which causes me to focus only on a specific subject for longer than I need. It’s actually difficult for me to tear myself away from whatever I’m focused on, almost as though it were mentally painful.

For example, I will work on analyzing larger concepts pertaining to the setting or the adventure, but when it comes down to reading a module or the mechanical the details of a spell, feat, or other game mechanic, it takes me forever to get through the material.

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Character Arcs for NPCs

In most games, each PC has their own arc of personal development. The events of the campaign, the actions they took (and didn’t take) and their interactions with others combine to change the PCs in a variety of ways.

Major NPCs often follow similar arcs, especially if they interact frequently with the PCs. But what about the NPCs on the sidelines? The ones the party sees from time to time, but who don’t have a whole lot of impact on the game?

Oftentimes, those NPCs don’t change much, if at all. They’re imbued with some fun, memorable character traits, and they remain static thereafter. And there’s nothing wrong with that — but why not mix it up, and give some of those NPCs character arcs as well?

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