Go Ahead and Get it Wrong the First Time (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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I just started reading The Making of Star Wars (which, if you geek out for behind the scenes stuff, is fabulous), and was struck by how wrong most of the original concept art for the main cast actually was.

Take this guy on the right, for example. That’s Chewbacca.

Specifically, it’s a 30th anniversary figure based on Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art for Chewie from 1975. At that time, Luke was a girl and Han was a Jedi who looked suspiciously like George Lucas.

And Chewie, here? He looks awful. Not because Ralph’s not a gifted artist (which he is), or because it’s not a cool design for an alien creature (which it is, although it makes for a kind of goofy-looking action figure), but because it’s almost entirely wrong for Chewbacca. Can you imagine if Chewie looked like this in the films?

Which is where the GMing angle comes in. This struck me as a great reminder that, just as in writing, your first draft of anything for your game — campaign setting, region, encounter, NPC or lovable bowcaster-toting sidekick — doesn’t need to be perfect right out of the gate.

If you dislike something you’ve created, don’t stress about it. Move on to something else, or just take a break, and come back to it a little bit later.

You don’t need to endlessly rework every little thing you design, but it’s good to consider re-examining the major elements (and as many of the minor ones as you have time for) at least once before putting them into play — just in case you start out with ol’ bug-eyes here.
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Normally there’d be a discussion going on in the comments below, but due to time constraints I’ve turned off all comments during reruns — sorry about that! You can read the comments on the first-run version of this post, and if you need a GMing discussion fix, why not head on over to our GMing forums?

Applying Stross’s Law (Aug. 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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Over in his LiveJournal, Mike Mearls recently set out what he calls Stross’s Law of RPG Design (after Charles Stross, inventor of the githyanki and other iconic D&D creatures):

A setting element should never require more than two paragraphs to explain it in full.

Assuming that “explain it in full” means “sum it up,” and not that those two paragraphs are the whole description, I like this concept. With that in mind, I’d like to propose a framework for applying Stross’s Law to setting elements in your game.

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Pacing: Five Key Things to Consider (Mar. 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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Pacing came up in the comments on Have You Ever Padded a Session?, and TT readers Cliff “kaelbane” Nickerson and Rocket Lettuce suggested that I cover the topic in a follow-up post (thanks, Cliff and RL!). It’s a big topic, so I’m going to come at it from a few different directions.

In thinking about pacing, it’s important to consider these five things: how you start sessions, how structured your sessions are, what bogs your players down, how to pick up the pace and how your sessions end.

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Oops Moments: You’re Not Actually Dead (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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The PCs are fighting a tough, dramatic battle. Their foes are pulling no punches, and an ogre’s lucky critical kills one of the PCs, the fighter.

The battle continues, and a couple of rounds later you realize that you made a mistake: you forgot a modifier, and if you’d remembered it that ogre wouldn’t have hit the fighter, and she wouldn’t have died.

Oops. Now what? Here are five simple ways to fix this mistake.

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NPCs: Drive Like It’s a Rental (Dec. 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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A perspective: NPCs exist to be fucked with by you, the GM, in pursuit of making the game more fun for your players.

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Groom Like it’s a Workday (Apr. 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 I GM, I nearly always shave before the game — just as if I was going to work that day.

I’ve found this to be helpful, as it puts me in the right mindset: I want to bring my A game, pull off a polished performance and present the evening’s session well. I have no idea if shaving sends that signal to my players, but it certainly sends it to my brain.

(When I play, I usually don’t shave. It’s the weekend for a reason, right? I tend to be more relaxed as a player, and this ties into that, but not shaving doesn’t mean I can’t bring my A game — somehow, it’s different than when I GM.)

Apologies for the flat-out guy-centric tip, but it seemed useful enough to share. Is there a corresponding grooming chore for women that has a similar impact?
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Normally there’d be a discussion going on in the comments below, but due to time constraints I’ve turned off all comments during reruns — sorry about that! You can read the comments on the first-run version of this post, and if you need a GMing discussion fix, why not head on over to our GMing forums?

5 Steps to Encourage a Player to Roleplay (Nov. 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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I recently got an email from Jeff King asking me for help with an age-old gaming problem: What can you do about a player who just doesn’t seem interested in roleplaying their character?

Jeff’s situation isn’t unique, and there are 5 steps you can take to tackle this problem.

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GMing Milestones: How Many Are There? (Apr. 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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This idea isn’t fully formed yet, but lately I’ve been doing some thinking about GMing milestones. The thing that’s most interesting to me is that I see quite a few that cross genre, system and stylistic boundaries, and therefore apply to all GMs.

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