Setting as Sandbox

John Kim’s post about thinking about licensed settings as real places is sharp, simple and full of broader implications for worldbuilding and campaign creation.

In riffing off a quote from Gregory Maguire, the author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, John points out the benefits of prying up the corners of familiar settings and see where that prying leads.

For Maguire, the hook was the fact that, unlike many of the good characters in The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch never lied. That led him to imagine her as a person, not just a personification, and the same technique can lead you in some interesting directions when you apply it to game worlds.

Alysia and I are in Florida until the 23rd. There’ll be a new post here every day, as always, but I won’t be able to respond to comments or email. See you soon!

Two Hooks for Memorable NPCs

The next time you create an NPC, give them two hooks that your players will pick up on in their first encounter with that NPC.

For example: Dorian is a middle-aged cop who speaks with a strange cadence, one that’s a bit like William Shatner doing Captain Kirk (the obvious hook). He also wears at least a half dozen religious symbols of different faiths around his neck at all times (the one that begs for follow-up from your players).

I’ve never tried this myself, but it seems like it’d be a sound technique for quickly building NPCs that your players will enjoy interacting with. (For lots more tips and discussion on this topic, don’t miss the NPC section of the TT archives.) What do you think?

Alysia and I are in Florida until the 23rd. There’ll be a new post here every day, as always, but I won’t be able to respond to comments or email. See you soon!

WoAdWriMo: It’s in the Air

Jeff Rients announced the Worldwide Adventure Month project back on December 1st, and the past six weeks have seen several updates on the project blog and quite a bit of activity in the WoAdWriMo Forum here on TT.

This is a neat project, and I encourage you to take a peek at the official blog or the forum if you haven’t already. And if you’re planning on writing an adventure for WoAdWriMo, sound off in the roll call thread and let us know about it!

Alysia and I are in Florida until the 23rd. There’ll be a new post here every day, as always, but I won’t be able to respond to comments or email. See you soon!

Free PDFs Galore

Need something to read, or a bit of spice for your next session?

RPGNow currently offers 162 free PDFs, and Your Games Now adds another 26 freebies to the mix (with some overlap between the two).

I heartily recommend A Magical Medieval City Guide (available on both sites), which I found very handy for my last urban fantasy campaign — and with this many PDFs available, chances are you’ll find something you’ll enjoy.

Alysia and I are in Florida until the 23rd. There’ll be a new post here every day, as always, but I won’t be able to respond to comments or email. See you soon!

What Was Your First GMing Session Like?

A simple question that can be answered many ways: What was your first session as a GM like?

Neither of my own answers are terribly satisfying — I hope you can do better!

I say “neither” because I got my start as a GM by running very loose storytelling sessions that had very little connection to actual rules, and those don’t really count.

And when I crossed the line — bought books, read them, asked my best friend to give it a shot — and ran my first real session, other than it being a lot of fun (and having a heavy improv element, which I still enjoy), I don’t remember it at all.

How about you?

Alysia and I are in Florida until the 23rd. There’ll be a new post here every day, as always, but I won’t be able to respond to comments or email. See you soon!

Silly NPC Names: The Mockery Filter

Unless you’re deliberately aiming for humor, don’t give your NPCs silly names. Sounds easy enough, right?

The problem is that just like your kid’s class at school, your players probably have a knack for finding ways to mock NPC names that are even slightly dubious.

Case in point: Dolemite, from my friend Matt’s enjoyable D&D 3.0 campaign a few years back. His name wasn’t really Dolemite, but it was Dole-something (equally telling is which one I remember).

The first time we heard it? Poof. Dolemite. And later, Doleslaw — because we hacked him up like cabbage. Neither of which added to his Dark Villain street cred.

When you’re naming your NPCs, take an extra moment to do the baby name thing: How will my players make fun of this name? Most of the time, they won’t — but this will help you avoid the times when they might.

Alysia and I are in Florida until the 23rd. There’ll be a new post here every day, as always, but I won’t be able to respond to comments or email. See you soon!

Micro-Prep: Little Bites of Organization

A simple GMing prep timesaver: Whenever you have a moment — and not necessarily while you’re doing all of your other prep work — take a couple of minutes and get the small stuff out of the way.

That small stuff is micro-prep: stock your RPG to-go box, sharpen your pencils, set aside the books you’ll need, photocopy your monsters, bookmark commonly-referenced rules, make sure your Tact-Tiles are wiped off — in short, all of the myriad little tasks that you don’t want to leave until the last minute.

The nice thing about micro-prep is that you can do it at any time, and in fits and starts. Even if you only have a minute or two, chances are you can knock out one of these smaller tasks.

Community Building on TT

Yesterday on the forums, I posted an open call for suggestions for ways to build community here on Treasure Tables.

Over on the blog side of things it’s been very enjoyable to watch as the comments went from responses to discussions. Blogs and forums build community in different ways, though, and this is my first time running either of them.

There’s already a thriving community here, but I’d like to get to know more of the folks who read and participate in TT — I don’t know nearly enough of you as well as I’d like to.

If you feel the same way, what are some of the ways you can think of that we could continue building the TT community? The floor is open, and I look forward to hearing your suggestions.

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