GMing Advice from Mike Mearls

Over on the Worldwide Adventure Month blog, Jeff Rients has posted three pieces of GMing advice from prolific game designer extraordinaire Mike Mearls: Tips from the Pros, Part 1.

It boils down to “Do rather than thinking, talk about games and don’t worry about failing,” and as with all of Mike’s advice that I’ve ever read, it’s excellent — solid, simple and easy to grok. It also correlates well with leading with the cool stuff and owning a pink shirt.

If you enjoy reading Mike’s advice, you might also like his 2006 interview here on TT.

Gleemax: MySpace for Gamers?

Via Gaming Report, I saw that Wizards of the Coast has just launched Gleemax, a social networking site for tabletop gamers (think MySpace, Facebook, etc.). It’s black, green and confusing — or maybe I’m just getting old?

According to WotC: “It’s a massive expansion of our web presence, designed to give gamers a place online where they can hang out, play games, and most importantly, find other gamers.” And: “We want to give all gamers their own personal pages with tons of features that make it convenient to talk about games, find people to play games with, and get more out of the games they choose to play.”

It takes some digging to pull that out of the site, though — there’s not much there yet, and what is there is garish and unappealing. But the core idea, even though it seems to be mainly focused on CCG and minis gamers, piques my interest as a GM.

I see potential there for driving gamers to stores (another of Gleemax’s stated goals), linking up with other players and GMs and otherwise taking advantage of the networking aspects of a site like this. But what I’ve seen so far is an instant turn-off, and it doesn’t seemed to be aimed at me in any case. What do you think?

Help Your Players Hone their PCs During Chargen

Part of your role as the GM involves stewardship of the game as a whole, and that includes your players’ characters. The goal is to make sure that each of your players creates a character that will be fun for them to play, while at the same time not treading on anyone else’s fun.

There are five main ways to help your players achieve that goal — let’s take a look at them.

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Story Games Name Project

I heard about the Story Games Name Project a few months back, and checked in to see if it was nearing completion. Apparently, it is: here’s a sample PDF that will give you a good idea of what to expect from the SGNP.

It looks good — tons of names, friendly layout, simple and useful. If you want NPC names from different cultures, have trouble coming up with names on the fly or need a bit of name-related inspiration, this is one to keep an eye on.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any info on when it’s coming out or in what form (if you happen to know, please tell us in the comments!). In the meantime, Coming Up With, and Using, NPC Names, here on TT, offers 27 ways to name your NPCs.

Story Games itself, the forum that’s home to the SGNP, is a pretty neat place. They specifically requested that folks only be told about Story Games “One on one, or in small, controlled groups,” which is why I didn’t link to them sooner. I’ve since seen links to Story Games in a variety of other places, so I figured it’d be okay to share.

Campaigns are Like Radio Serials

Commenting on Your Voice is Your Most Important GMing Tool, TT reader Walt C. said:

For the longest time, I envisioned my campaigns as if they were television series. The analogy, while useful, didn’t quite gel.

That’s when I realized that running an RPG in a “tv style” is actually more akin to a radio serial.

I see the TV series analogy as applying more to the structure of adventures and campaigns (my friend Don’s primer on writing TV-style scenarios is a good example of this), while the radio serial analogy offers insight into how to handle presentation and ensure clarity in your descriptions. Definitely a useful anaology — thanks, Walt!

(Here are four more GMing analogies, from most useful to least useful: Being a Player is Like Using a Flashlight, Being a GM is Like Using a 150 Watt Bulb, The Four-Legged Stool and — stretching the definition of “useful” — GMing is Like a Sausage.)

What Do You Like Least About TT?

Whether you’re a first-time visitor (in which case, welcome to TT!) or a longtime reader, what do you like least about Treasure Tables?

I’m always trying to improve TT, and I’ve never tried this approach before. (The mic is always open in the Site Questions, Ideas & News forum, but that’s not quite the same thing.) Thanks in advance for your help.

Your Voice is Your Most Important GMing Tool

Yesterday’s guest on NPR’s Radio West was Fred Newman, the extraordinary sound effects artist who uses his voice to do all of the effects for traveling shows of A Prairie Home Companion (can you tell I grew up on public radio?), and he said something fascinating that seemed directly applicable to GMing.

As a GM, I know that my voice is my primary tool in running a session, and in making that session fun. That’s pretty obvious, really. But knowing it instinctively and actually considering it are two different things, and before hearing Fred’s comment, I had never thought of it in those terms.

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Nine Steps to Help You Run a Great One-Shot Adventure

When you’re going to GM a one-shot, there are nine steps you can take to make sure things go smoothly.

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