of Dice and Dragons

Over the weekend Johnn Four posted the last three issues of the Role-playing Tips E-zine the first two deal with encounters while the third deals with using a timeline.

The first two issues #363, It’s About The Character, Not The Player Serving Up Characterization Encounters, Part 1 and #364, Encounter Tips: Characterization Encounters, Part 2 come from a request from a reader about encounter ideas where the emphasis is on having the choice be made from the character perspective and not what is best from a game mechanic perspective. Johnn does an excellent job (once again) in providing some excellent ideas backed with examples and suggestions - if you’re a GM building encounters you should really take a few minutes and read these issues.

The last issue posted, #365, Craft A Timeline Tool - Prepping A Game World For GMing and Play Johnn suggests using timelines when prepping. It’s acutally a very good idea, one that I wish I had used more in the past. The basic idea is that you build a timelne of events as you read through the materials for a campaign setting. In doing so you not only get a feel for the material but it also make it easier for you to see the “bigger picture” or what things look like from 20,000 feet.

On the whole some really good tips and information, well worth your time.

Issue #363 - It’s About The Character, Not The Player Serving Up Characterization Encounters, Part 1
Contents:
–> A Brief Word From Johnn

–> This Week’s Tips:
1. Aim For Character Representation, Not Acting
2. Top 6 Character Details To Develop
3. Create Backstories As You Play
4. Ask: What Would Your Character Do?

–> Readers’ Tips Of The Week:
1. Steampunk Resources
2. Supernatural Weather Ideas

You can read Issue #363 online here.

Issue #364 - Encounter Tips: Characterization Encounters, Part 2
Contents:
–> A Brief Word From Johnn

–> This Week’s Tips:
1. Lead The Way With NPCs
2. Use Automatic Successes To Reward Representation
3. Design With Character Details In Mind
4. Add Character Stakes To Conflicts
5. Use Description To Help Players

–> Readers’ Tips Of The Week:
1. Hallmark Cards For Sound Effects
2. Give Players Refunds
3. Quick Map Creation Tip
4. Manage Campaigns With Google
5. Dressing Up Combat

Issue #364 can be read online here.

Issue #365 - Craft A Timeline Tool - Prepping A Game World For GMing and Play
Contents:
–> A Brief Word From Johnn

–> This Week’s Tips:
1. Prepare A Global Snapshot
2. Create A Timeline
3. Timeline As History
4. Timeline As Game Log
5. Timeline As Plotline
6. Update Your Timeline
7. Ptolus - An Example Timeline

–> Readers’ Tips Of The Week:
1. Watch Where You’re Stepping - Interesting Combat
2. Tool Tip - Graphviz
3. General World Creation
4. Making More Dramatic Combat Scenes (D&D 3.5 Specific)

Issue #365 can be read online here.

If you don’t already subscribe I would recommend it, you can do that here.

May your dice roll well.

Comments(0)

Over the weekend Johnn Four posted the latest two issues of the Role-playing Tips E-zine Supernatural Weather, Part 1 & 2

The two issues combined are a great read, especially for those of us that like to do world-building. They start out with some interesting supernatural weather effects gathered from a discussion on the gmmastery discussion list and then follow up with some tips on how to go about designing your own.

You’ll also want to check out the reader tips as well, included are some tips on Excel, rules lawyers and even sticky notes!

Issue #361 - Supernatural Weather, Part 1
Contents:
–> A Brief Word From Johnn

–> This Week’s Tips:
1. 39 Supernatural Weather Event Ideas
2. Start With A Concept
3. Design For All Six Senses
4. Give Supernatural Weather A Fixable Cause
5. Design Pre-Event Anticipation

–> Readers’ Tips Of The Week:
1. Let Players Change Your World
2. NPC Personality Matrix Tool on the Web
3. Advanced Excel Sheet Examples
4. Treat NPCs Like Heroes From A Different Angle

You can read Issue #361 online here.

Issue #362 - Supernatural Weather, Part 2
Contents:
–> A Brief Word From Johnn

–> This Week’s Tips:
1. Design Weather Effects
2. Make Weather A Plot Element
3. World Building With Supernatural Weather
4. Give Your Villain Special Weather
5. Avoid Apparent GM Agenda
6. Use Weather During Wilderness Treks

–> Readers’ Tips Of The Week:
1. No Plot? No Problem!
2. Metagaming Tips To Create Paranoia
3. Use Post-Its To Prepare Published Adventures
4. Sample Tracking Spreadsheets
5. Two Types Of Rules Lawyers: De Facto And De Jure

Issue #362 can be read online here.

If you don’t already subscribe I would recommend it, you can do that here.

May your dice roll well.

Comments(0)

The June update to the D&D 3.5 FAQ has been posted to the Wizards’ website.

I took a quick look and the largest group of additions deals with summon monsters - so if you have a spell caster in your game that likes to do that I’d suggest grabbing a copy.

May your dice roll well.

Comments(0)

Issue #360 of Role-playing Tips Weekly is available online - 9 Ways To Recruit New Players

A couple of days ago I posted about issue #359 and while it was posted at the same time I held off mentioning #360 so that it wouldn’t be missed in a double post.

Issue #360 takes aim at a common concern for a lot of gaming groups - where to get more players? Johnn gives a lot of interesting advice (I liked the suggestion about getting a funny T-Shirt) and if you’re in need of a new player or two there are plenty of things to try.

Be sure to check out the readers’ tips as well especially the first one about techniques learned from strategic games. There are also some GM links included as well.

Enjoy!

Contents:
–> A Brief Word From Johnn

–> This Week’s Tips:
1. Relate RPGs To Pop Culture
2. Recruiting WoW Players
3. Check Out Free RPG Day (June 23, 2007)
4. Offer To Do A Single-Shot, Short, Exclusive Session
5. Ask A Specific Group To Play
6. Get A Funny T-Shirt
7. Try A Different Gaming Medium
8. Advertise On Player Registries
9. Related Links: Finding Players

–> Readers’ Tips Of The Week:
1. Top Techniques Learned From Strategic & Historical Games
2. GM Shining Moment - No Combat
3. GM Shining Moment - Plot Connection
4. Transparencies For Maps Tip
5. Example Simple Excel Worksheets

–> Interesting Game Master Links
1. Great Maps Site
2. Paper Soldiers For Junior Generals
3. BrickQuest
4. The Geek Gazette

You can read it online here.

If you don’t already subscribe I would recommend it, you can do that here.

May your dice roll well.

Comments(0)

Role-playing Tips Weekly issue #359 is available online - GM Organization - 5 Tips

The bane of most GMs (including myself) is a lack of organization. Being able to find and use that piece of information, whether during a planning session or an actual game session is of major importance and Johnn tackles this topic with five more organization tips for us.

In particular I would recommend you take a look at tip #3 - A place for everything, and everything in its place - some really good suggestions in there about getting your materials organized based on David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done. I would recommend that book to anyone as I have found it useful in getting myself on the road to being organized (I’m not there yet - soon I hope!)

There’s also an interesting Reader Tip about superstitions in gaming - well worth the read.

Enjoy!

Contents:
–> A Brief Word From Johnn

–> This Week’s Tips:
1. Layer Transparencies Over Maps
2. Store Tiles In Binders
3. A Place For Everything, And Everything In Its Place
4. Use Internet Bookmarks For Session Planning
5. Record Character Stats

–> Readers’ Tips Of The Week:
1. Customizable Poker Chips
2. A Kewl New Dice Bowl
3. Get Inspired By Personal Campaign Websites
4. Superstitions In Gaming

You can read it online here.

If you don’t already subscribe I would recommend it, you can do that here.

May your dice roll well.

Comments(0)