Beyond ‘Fred’:...

Sometimes the hardest part of building a character is  coming up with a good name. You can always take a name from Tolkien or other fantasy novels, but you’ve... Read More

Teaching the Game: August ...

First off, thanks to Mad Brew Labs for hosting the July carnival on Growing the Hobby. It really got some great discussion going. This month’s carnival actually... Read More

11 GMing Tips I Learned fr...

Sometimes running a game feels like herding a group of toddlers through the glassware department of  a department store while carrying an armload of wet cats. While... Read More

Beyond ‘Fred’: Ancient Egyptian Names

Posted on Aug 13 2010 | 1 Comment
Beyond ‘Fred’: Ancient Egyptian Names Sometimes the hardest part of building a character is  coming up with a good name. You can always take a name from Tolkien or other fantasy novels, but you’ve seen those names over and over and you want something a... Read More »

Class Is in Session: Running a Convention Teaching Game

Posted on Aug 06 2010 | 2 Comments
Class Is in Session: Running a Convention Teaching Game Game conventions are a great place to introduce new players to your favorite system. But running a game designed to teach a new system is a bit differently than running a game for experienced players. For one thing, you can’t... Read More »

Teaching the Game: August Blog Carnival

Posted on Aug 01 2010 | 10 Comments
Teaching the Game: August Blog Carnival First off, thanks to Mad Brew Labs for hosting the July carnival on Growing the Hobby. It really got some great discussion going. This month’s carnival actually (and inadvertently) extends that discussion. Much of the... Read More »

Beyond “Fred”: Anglo-Saxon Names for Charac...

Posted on Jul 22 2010 | No Comments
Beyond “Fred”: Anglo-Saxon Names for Characters Finding a good name is sometimes the hardest part of designing an NPC. You want something more exotic than “Fred the Fighter”, but “Frewxyque the Grand Thunder Duke” becomes too hard to say with a straight face... Read More »

11 GMing Tips I Learned from Being a Parent

Posted on Jun 25 2010 | 2 Comments
11 GMing Tips I Learned from Being a Parent Sometimes running a game feels like herding a group of toddlers through the glassware department of  a department store while carrying an armload of wet cats. While most of the time players act like the responsible adults... Read More »

Games…Must Have Games…

Posted on May 28 2010 | 1 Comment
Games…Must Have Games… I hate gaming dry spells. I think the longest period I’ve gone without gaming was two years, if you’re talking about actually sitting at the table, either as GM or player. If you’re counting game preparation... Read More »

27 Surefire Ways to Get Kicked Out of a Game

Posted on May 21 2010 | 5 Comments
27 Surefire Ways to Get Kicked Out of a Game Awhile back I did a post on 21 Surefire Ways to Loose Players. With this being Player Month here at Evil Machinations, I thought it time to do a post for the players. Even the most die-hard GMs will change sides of the table,... Read More »

What’s My Motivation?

Posted on May 14 2010 | No Comments
What’s My Motivation? Your GM picked out the adventure, did all of the background work, fleshed out the NPCs, balanced treasure and other rewards. Now it’s finally time to run the adventure, it’s up to the GM to find a way to motivate... Read More »

How to (Respectfully) Disagree With Your GM

Posted on Apr 16 2010 | 2 Comments
How to (Respectfully) Disagree With Your GM Here it is–the first post of our “Player Month”, designed to give advice to the players on how to make a game better. After all, the GM isn’t the only one playing and the players share some responsibility... Read More »

Livin’ the Good Life: More Random Background Even...

Posted on Apr 09 2010 | No Comments
Livin’ the Good Life: More Random Background Events for PCs Image via Wikipedia Stumped for a background for your newest character? Why not try some randomly generated ones? Last week, we covered the steps for generating a random background event and the tables for bad things... Read More »

12345»...Last »