Seven of the Worst Ideas in GMing History (July 2006)

Treasure Tables is in reruns from November 1st through December 9th. I’m writing a novel as part of National Novel Writing Month, and there’s no way I can write posts here while retaining my (questionable) sanity. In the meantime, enjoy this post from our archives.
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Treasure Tables is usually pretty upbeat, discussing good stuff and challenging stuff, but rarely bad stuff.

For a change of pace, let’s take a look at seven of the worst ideas in GMing history.

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Making the Gods Matter in Fantasy RPGs (Jan. 2007)

Treasure Tables is in reruns from November 1st through December 9th. I’m writing a novel as part of National Novel Writing Month, and there’s no way I can write posts here while retaining my (questionable) sanity. In the meantime, enjoy this post from our archives.
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Most fantasy RPGs feature a variety of gods, and those gods tend to play a prominent role in the world. There’s a spectrum, of course, ranging from settings where the gods are in the background to worlds like the Forgotten Realms — where, in the form of their avatars, the gods literally walk the earth.

Either way, though, assuming a pseudo-medieval baseline, the gods are generally pretty important — and by extension, they should be important to the PCs. The problem is that in my experience, this is rarely the case.

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Creating Ambience (Oct. 2005)

Treasure Tables is in reruns from November 1st through December 9th. I’m writing a novel as part of National Novel Writing Month, and there’s no way I can write posts here while retaining my (questionable) sanity. In the meantime, enjoy this post from our archives.
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Halloween is coming up (along with the end of the Blogging for GMs project, currently on day 18), so this seems like a good time to offer up 5 tips on creating ambience for your game.

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Help Your Players Hone their PCs During Chargen (Jun. 2007)

Treasure Tables is in reruns from November 1st through December 9th. I’m writing a novel as part of National Novel Writing Month, and there’s no way I can write posts here while retaining my (questionable) sanity. In the meantime, enjoy this post from our archives.
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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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GMs, Always Do Your Own Mapping (Oct. 2006)

Treasure Tables is in reruns from November 1st through December 9th. I’m writing a novel as part of National Novel Writing Month, and there’s no way I can write posts here while retaining my (questionable) sanity. In the meantime, enjoy this post from our archives.
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I touched on this briefly in TT’s first PDF (Player Tips: Everyone Likes a Three-Way; 273kb PDF), but it’s worth bringing out into its own post.

When you’re running a game and someone needs to draw a map, that someone should always be you, the GM.

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The 7-Sentence NPC: A Tool Worth Tracking Down (July 2007)

Treasure Tables is in reruns from November 1st through December 9th. I’m writing a novel as part of National Novel Writing Month, and there’s no way I can write posts here while retaining my (questionable) sanity. In the meantime, enjoy this post from our archives.
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Way back in 1992, Dragon Magazine #184 featured an article by C.M. Cline entitled “The 7-Sentence NPC,” and it’s by far one of the best GMing tools I’ve ever used. I mentioned it in 2005’s Vibrant NPCs here on TT, but I thought it deserved a post of its own.

The basic concept is that you can use a seven-sentence template to describe nearly any NPC — and although it appeared in Dragon, it’s not limited to fantasy characters by any means. Each sentence covers a specific aspect of the NPC, from appearance to memorable quirks, and the end product is both remarkably detailed and simple enough to reference on the fly.

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Inspiration from Movies and TV Shows (Sep. 2005)

Treasure Tables is in reruns from November 1st through December 9th. I’m writing a novel as part of National Novel Writing Month, and there’s no way I can write posts here while retaining my (questionable) sanity. In the meantime, enjoy this post from our archives.
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One of my favorite things about GURPS books is that they nearly always have great bibliographies — and one of the best parts of those bibliographies is the section that lists TV shows and movies that can serve as inspiration for your game.

Movies and TV shows can serve not only as sources of inspiration with a very low “buy-in,” but as easy handles to describe your game.

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The Power of Names: Choosing Good Ones (Feb. 2007)

Treasure Tables is in reruns from November 1st through December 9th. I’m writing a novel as part of National Novel Writing Month, and there’s no way I can write posts here while retaining my (questionable) sanity. In the meantime, enjoy this post from our archives.
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When you’re choosing a name for an NPC, place, sinister ritual or sci-fi gadget, if you nail it on the first try, you usually know it — “That’s the perfect name!”

But what about when you’re naming an important campaign element and you’re not sure it’s the best choice? Here are five ways to make sure you picked a good name.

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