Snapshot of the GMing Q&A Forum

The current front page of TT’s GMing Q&A Forum offers a pretty good snapshot of the kinds of discussions we’ve been having there recently. Here’s the first nine topics, with links:

The TT forums are relaxed and friendly, and they’re a great place to discuss a wide range of GMing and general RPG topics. If that sounds good to you, but you don’t have a forum account yet (crazy talk!), why not sign up today?

Free Fantasy Map Tiles

Dream Weaved Worlds offers free 1″ gridded map tiles for fantasy RPGs in PDF form.

Along with full-color artwork — which looks great — their tiles have GM-friendly touches, like using pips at the gridpoints when the grid itself isn’t shown (in the space beyond dungeon walls, for example).

If you play D&D, or any other minis-oriented fantasy fame, scare up a color printer and check these tiles out. Kudos to DWW for making these not only attractive and useful, but free. (Via EN World.)

How Do You Sustain an Epic Campaign?

Saving the world is a pretty common epic goal, and it’s one that works well in several genres (notably fantasy, supers and some kinds of sci-fi).

But how do you keep a campaign where the PCs regularly save the world fresh and exciting?

Is there a middle ground between zero (we can barely afford bullets) and sixty (we’ve saved the world — next, the universe!) on the epic speedometer?

Your Games Now: New PDF Shop

You may remember last year’s kerfluffle over the formation of OneBookShelf, a merger between RPGNow and DriveThruRPG that resulted in some interesting fallout.

Expeditious Retreat Press was pretty vocal about their concern over OBS’s new fees, and their frustration has just borne fruit: YourGamesNow.com is a brand-new (as in January 1st) PDF retail site, helmed by Joseph Browning of XRP.

And there’s a promising twist: Your Games Now is a publishing cooperative. As their about page details, every YGN publisher earns a small percentage on the sale of any YGN product — not just their own material, but any product. Eeeenteresting.

Per their press release, the companies onboard at launch are: 0one Games, Arion Games, ComStar Media LLC, Dog Soul Publishing, Expeditious Retreat Press, Fiery Dragon Productions, Goodman Games, Hinterwelt Enterprises, Ki Ryn Studios, Majestic Twelve Games, Misfit Studios, Victory by Any Means Games and The Le Games. That’s a pretty solid opening lineup, particularly with XRP, Fiery Dragon and Goodman Games in the mix.

I see the potential in what YGN offers to PDF publishers, and it will be interesting to see how that relates to what YGN has to offer to PDF buyers — especially GMs. (Via Jeff’s Gameblog.)

Drifting White Wolf Preludes into Other RPGs

Some game elements are easier to drift than others, and White Wolf’s preludes fall into that category. They’re mechanics-free, so there’s no conversion work, and the underlying concept — as well as the end results — are excellent.

For those who’ve never played a WW game (Vampire: The Masquerade, Mage: The Awakening, etc.), a prelude is a brief solo session that you run for each player.

It takes place before the campaign begins, and is used to flesh out the character, lay the groundwork for the game, test out the PC’s abilities and give your player a chance to see what playing their character is like.

Like most solo gaming, preludes are intimate in ways that group play is not — it’s an interesting experience, and one that’s quite enjoyable as a player. (See Two to Tango: GMing a Solo Campaign for more about solo games.)

Most GMs I’ve gamed with allow players to tweak their characters after a prelude, which works quite well. You can also mix it up a bit and run a prelude for more than one player at a time, although I wouldn’t recommend going past two — at that point, you’re pretty much just running a regular session.

Offhand, I can’t think of any RPGs where this wouldn’t be beneficial, but there might be some exceptions out there. Have you drifted the prelude concept into other games? How did it go? Do you tweak WW’s basic formula in any way?

Google SketchUp for 3D Modeling

Google SketchUp is a free 3D modeling program aimed at modern-day construction projects — adding an extension to your house, for example. But that’s not all it can do.

I downloaded SketchUp and played around with it for a bit, and it’s got some surprisingly robust tools built right in — like the ability to draw a 2D shape and then stretch it in any direction to create a 3D object, as well as view your creations from any angle (useful for tactical maps).

With a bit of time invested in it, creating simple structures looks like it would be pretty straightforward, from modern buildings to sci-fi ships, medieval castles and open areas like jousting fields or combat zones.

Graphics programs aren’t my forte (to say the least), but I can see some good potential in it for GMs. Update: And based on the comments so far, there’s a lot you can do with SketchUp for your game!

If you give SketchUp a shot, or if you’ve already tried it, tell us in the comments!

New Year’s Eve/Day in Your Campaign?

Happy New Year from Treasure Tables!

I hope you had a good night, whether you boozed it up or spent it on more nerdy pursuits. Alysia and I played boardgames with my gaming group and their significant others, which was a perfect way to spend New Year’s Eve.

Now it’s time to get back to thinking about GMing, though! So, a question — one I’ve never much considered in my own game:

Is the new year celebrated in your campaign? Both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day? What happens in your game world?

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