Evil Machinations

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

Goolies and Ghosties and Things That Go Bump in the Night

Jade | October 27, 2009

In keeping with the Halloween spirit, here’s a list of horror RPGs to check out:

All Flesh Must Be Eaten. An award-winning zombie survival game. Try to keep your brains intact .
Call of Cthulhu. The granddaddy of horror RPGs. Based on H.P. Lovecraft’s world. Remember, once your sanity score reaches 0, you no longer [...]

21 Sure-Fire Ways to Lose Players

Jade | October 23, 2009

Problem players are a perennial subject on GMing blogs. But problems can go both ways. Here are some GM behaviors guaranteed to cause friction in your group. Please feel free to add more.

Force your PCs into a predetermined plot line and refuse to let them deviate from it.
View the players as opponents to be beaten.
Don’t [...]

Post Round-Up: EM’s 10 Most Popular Posts

Jade | October 21, 2009

I haven’t done a round-up in a while, so here’s a list of Evil Machinations’ ten most popular posts:

“Where Are We Again?”: Creating Unique Fantasy Cities and Towns. A list of web resources to help you build a city of your own.
What GMs Really Want. A survey about what type of articles you want to [...]

Unintentional Sexism in RPGs (Even Women Do It!)

Jade | October 19, 2009

We’ve all seen a lot written about women in roleplaying games. We’ve read about the kinds of games women prefer (roleplaying vs. combat-heavy). We’ve read about how the “boys-club mentality” tends to discourage women from the gaming table. About how the depiction of women in rpg game books can turn female players off…
This isn’t one [...]

Your Teacher Was Right … Creating Adventures with the 6 W’s

Jade | October 14, 2009

The six “W’s”. You know — the questions your teacher talked about over and over. The ones that every book on how to write covers: who, what, when, where, why, how. These questions are good for more than creative writing and literature analysis; they form a framework you can use to build game adventures.
We’ll take [...]

Dancing with the Dark

Jade | October 12, 2009

Morality. A big topic, with even bigger answers. What is good? What is evil? Are evil actions ever justified? Can we ever truely overcome evil? If we can, should we? Do moral issues have a place in RPGs?
Undoubtedly, yes. One of the wonderful things about our hobby is that it allows us to explore the [...]

What GMs Really Want (Poll)

Jade | October 7, 2009

As a GM, what information are you looking for? What kinds of topics would help you run your game better? Where do you find yourself struggling? What ideas do you want to see more of? Take the poll below and tell me!
<br /> <a href=”http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/2088406/” mce_href=”http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/2088406/”>What aspect of GMing would you like more information [...]

Beyond ‘Fred’: Roman Names for Characters

Jade | October 5, 2009

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 after the first first time.  Baby name books can help, but some of the best names come from [...]

From the Basement: In Nomine

Jade | October 2, 2009

Angels and demons. The core of In Nomine. If you’ve ever dreamt of playing one of the Heavenly Host or a Satan spawn from the depths of Hell, this is your game. Even if you haven’t, it’s still worth checking out. In Nomine ranks in the top five of my all-time favorite games.
Excuse My French
In [...]

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