I recently had a really interesting conversation about how we differ in designing a session of a game.
About Ben Jackson-Ellery
Genre Police: The Big Short
The classic ‘white whale’ of any RPG gamer’s experience is the long-form campaign.
Genre Police: Vampire’s End
Each of those endings taught me something about GMing that I think we can look at when we are ending the game.
Genre Police: Dragon’s End
This last fortnight, I finished two massive campaigns. Both of the games have been running since 2020 and so together represent about eight years of effective play. This meant a level of pressure – a story is often only as good as its ending.
Genre Police: Notes From The Field Part 2
It’s also crucial to make sure that you pace yourself in game prep. Make sure you’re not overdoing it. You owe it to yourself to occasionally take a breath and make sure everything feels like you can handle it.
Genre Police: Notes From The Field Part 1
Every so often, I have a bad season and a series of game sessions that don’t fire how I expect them to.
Genre Police: Progress, Challenge & Growth
Ok, so let’s talk about the big elephant in the room. Plot NPCs are the people who move the plot forward.
Genre Police: Friends, NPCs And Countrymen
I want to talk about how using the word ‘NPC’ actually means a lot of things. Because each one you introduce to any RP game has an intent, role to play and ways they can expand.
Genre Police: Looking Back, Over My Shoulder
While I’ve been recently writing about the dark in games, my newest campaign has been, in fact, running a far more whimsical experience.
Genre Police: Love The One You’re With?
I was totally blindsided. I’d talked about Mage and advocated for it as a game but never pitched anything specific, compared to sitting in my kitchen as people left for a game and talking about finally running an in-person Cthulhu game. What was I to do?
