Community PDF Project for TT Members

Looking at what the TT community created on our GMing wiki during January — the first month of the year-long Bulk Up the GMing Wiki Project — I’m impressed. Creating NPCs, Instant NPCs and Roleplaying NPCs all have good stuff to offer to GMs.

But something’s not quite right, and I think I know what it is. To fix it, I’d like to try using the wiki to assemble free GMing PDFs, with credit given to all of the contributors.

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Writing Adventures Like TV Episodes, and Time Loops

A few weeks back, my group played a Stargate SG-4 session that was based around a time loop — think Groundhog Day (or from Stargate SG-1, “Window of Opportunity”), but with a very short cycle.

It was a very fun night, and one that really felt like the TV show. Don, our GM, also did something very clever to make the time loop concept work: he created a system-neutral game mechanic that balanced roleplaying social encounters with the desire to not have to roleplay them every time we looped. I asked him if he’d mind writing it up for his blog, Abulia Savant, and he was kind enough to oblige (thanks, Don!).

As it turned out, though, it wasn’t something he could explain without providing plenty of context, and the resulting post covers a lot more than just crafting a time loop adventure — it’s essentially a primer for writing TV-episode-style adventures using the three act model (and bending it when necessary), and a damned fine one at that.

This campaign is on my list of all-time favorites, and Don really hits what he aims for with it: a game that’s not only fun, but feels like the show. It’s fascinating for me to peer under the hood and see how he makes that happen, and I think you’ll enjoy it as well.

When PCs are on the Line, Talk it Out

In our D&D game this past Saturday night, the climactic battle of the evening was a real nail-biter. Things looked very bad for awhile, and winning was far from assured.

And around the halfway point, one character’s survival came down to a single die roll. I had to make that roll to save my friend Don’s PC, and Sam, our GM, did something very smart: he talked it out with me.

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Steampunk GMs, Meet Brass Goggles

Brass Goggles, which I learned about from Wired, is a steampunk GM’s wet dream.

It’s stylish, fun to read and packed with just plain nifty stuff — much like the steampunk genre itself, really. The author, Tinkergirl, draws on all sorts of sources, writing about (as the tagline says) the lighter side of steampunk.

In corresponding with Tinkergirl, she pointed out two RPG-specific posts: one featuring steampunk paper minis and another on paper models (thanks, Tinkergirl!). You might also enjoy the steampunk alias generator, which turns a name you input into one more suitable for the genre (I’m Lieutenant General Raymond Heaton, for example), the images category and steampunk books.

Organizational and Writing Tools for Macs

Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger recently reviewed two writing tools for the Mac that both sound pretty nifty: DEVONthink Pro and Scrivener. (Darren’s review is aimed at bloggers, of course, but it’s easy enough to read between the lines.)

DEVONthink is a database of sorts, but one that allows you to import text from a range of sources, and then export or print what you’ve put together. Scrivener features a virtual corkboard, and looks to be geared more towards brainstorming.

I can think of lots of potential GMing applications for these two tools, from writing adventures to building worlds and planning campaigns. Both offer free trials (30 days for Scrivener, 150 hours for DEVONthink), and both are Mac-only.

SLang: Adventure Writing Tool

TT reader clem emailed me about a free program he just discovered: SLang, a screenwriting tool that looks like it’d be useful for GMs, too.

According to the site blurb, “SLang is story-development software. It allows you to write events for your story as ‘virtual index cards’ and print them out.” The Features page also mentions that SLang is useful for crafting stories with multiple “routes” — which sounds a lot like adventures to me.

Whether you’re taking part in Worldwide Adventure Writing Month or writing scenarios for your home group, SLang sounds like it might come in handy. Thanks, clem!

Ask Your Players to Spell Things Out

Jeff Rients has some great advice on the topic of making PC actions explicit:

Don’t make the enigmatic figure behind the screen guess what you are trying to accomplish. Sometimes the GM is mentally juggling more stuff than is immediately obvious. Do yourself a favor and connect the dots for whoever is wearing the viking hat.

That’s something that’s well worth bringing up with your group, and it’s an easy way for your players to give you a hand with the often complex art of running the game.

As a GM, I don’t mind when players “spoil” this kind of surprise — for me, the surprise comes when they describe the idea, or it works really well, and not from being in the dark.

FreeCountry: Tile-Based Fantasy Map Program

FreeCountry is a free fantasy mapping program, currently in beta. It’s available from TogaMario.com as a ZIP file: FreeCountry beta (direct link to .zip).

There’s a screenshot in their forums, and according to the site you’ll need DirectX and the .NET 2.0 Framework installed to run the final version (it’s not clear whether that’s true for the beta, too), although Mac and Linux compatibility is also mentioned.

The finished product will also be free, and will come with a small set of tiles. You’ll be able to create your own tiles, and tile sets will be available for purchase from TogaMario, too.

From the screenshot, it looks somewhat like Dungeon Crafter, which I quite like (and wrote about in Three Mapping Options). (Via EN World.)

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