Evil Machinations

No scenario survives contact with the PCs … No system survives contact with the GM

Campaign Worksheet

Jade | May 29, 2009

Yesterday, I talked about the adventure / story worksheet. Today, I’m covering the campaign / chronicle / saga worksheet. The campaign worksheet is very similar to the adventure sheet, but expanded to cover the entire arc of the campaign. For my campaign sheets, I use basically the same questions and topics, but answer them from [...]

GM Tools: Story Worksheet

Jade | May 28, 2009

White wolf publishing introduced the idea of a story worksheet in their Vampire Storyteller’s Companion (first edition) . Basically, it’s a “quick reference” sheet that covers key details of the adventure at a glance, such as a plot summary, key NPCs and situations, any rewards for the characters should receive and the conditions for success [...]

My Appendix N

Jade | May 21, 2009

Dice Monkey posted a blog entry on is site titled My Appendix N about inspiration sources. So, here’s my “Appendix N”:

Tolkein, J.R.R., The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, of course. But not for any material from Middle Earth itself. Tolkein’s works are pure inspiration for me — they challenge me to [...]

Kids & RPGs: Passing it Down

Jade | May 20, 2009

Just recently, I’ve started a new campaign. I think I’m more excited about this game than any other I’ve run (which is saying a lot,  given the fact that I practically live for running games). It’s nothing fancy: just a plain, vanilla, out of the box ADD3.5 game, using largely canned adventures. The adventures aren’t [...]

Character Questionnaires

Jade | May 13, 2009

I’ve mentioned how useful character questionnaires are to me as a GM. I can draw reams of campaign ideas just from the questionnaires I receive. My questions run the gambit from “What does your character look like?” to “What gives your character’s life meaning?” I ask players to answer the questions in character, except for [...]

Character Backgrounds

Jade | May 4, 2009

There’s a continuum about character backgrounds. I use detailed character backgrounds in my games; in fact, I warn players that I reserve the right to fill in any character history they don’t. Other GMs don’t bother with backgrounds at all — a sentence or two at the top of the character sheet. It really depends [...]

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