What makes combat interesting? A lot of GMs think the answer is giving the monster secret powers, to be revealed at the worst moment. I’ve even seen articles that suggest misleading players about the monster’s abilities. Which is a shame, because that tops my list of what Not to do.
RPG Tips Articles
Explore Geek Native's articles tagged with RPG Tips. This collection covers topics in Tabletop & RPGs and Books.
Genre Police: Rule Of Lore
Roleplaying games are an odd beast, aren’t they? Explaining one of them to someone who has no idea what one is is quite complex, because you’re both explaining telling a story & playing a game at the same time.
A (chaotic) review of Venger’s Guide to Mastering Chaos at the Table
Yes, the focus is random encounters, but the book is so thoughtful that it will give you more confidence as a GM. Promise kept.
Genre Police: Mechanical Shutdown
The response floored me. ‘That’s not how this works, right? We failed the roll, so the information is locked off’. I was totally baffled.
Genre Police: A Sense Of Place
When we look at any scene in an RPG, it is taking place somewhere.
Genre Police: Big Damn Heroes
I have hit a player issue that I hadn’t thought about before that actually goes back to the first ever Genre Police article I ever wrote.
Genre Police: Expectation Traps
I recently had a really interesting conversation about how we differ in designing a session of a game.
“Dungeon Dressing” – a clever DM tactic and now a bundle deal
The retail value of this bundle tallies in at $63.50 and offers a wealth of system-neutral resources designed to empower gamemasters in this very craft.
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.
