Welcome to Evil Machinations, rpgGM.com’s blog of GMing tips and ideas. I’m glad to decided to stop by. Please feel free to look around. I’ve put a fair amount of information here culled from my own personal experience (three decades worth, this August) and the experiences from other GMs I’ve known over the years.
I love helping people. I particularly love helping people create truly immersive games. There’s nothing I enjoy more than watching my players get so involved at a session that they forget–just for a moment–they’re just playing a game. That’s really the goal of roleplaying, isn’t it?
What I bring to the table to help you:
- A background in live theatre, which helps me take adventure ideas, whether written down or still just bouncing around in your head, to life.
- Experience creating NPCs so real that my players once held a wake for one who died.
- Experience running games so vividly real that my players forgot the real world for a short time.
- A deep understanding of how details make a difference. It’s the small things that really help bring things to life.
- 30 years of experience as both a player and GM, with a focus on running character-driven games.
Don’t know where to start? Here’s some suggestions:
Want to know how to create better NPCs? Try:
- Evil Does Not Equal Stupid: 8 Tips for Playing Evil Characters
- Building Better NPCs I: Extras, Walk-Ons, Bit Players, and Major Characters
- Building Better NPCs II: 8 Steps to Memorable NPCs
- Building Better NPCs III: Character Webs
- Change Your Hat, Change Your Character
Want to know how to create adventures? Try:
- Your Teacher Was Right … Creating Adventures with the 6 W’s
- Web Resources about Writing Adventures
- More Resources for Writing Adventures
Want some help working with players? Try:
- 21 Sure-Fire Way to Loose Players
- 11 GMing Tips I Learned from Being a Parent
- Handling Problem Players
- Player Contributions
Or you can start with some of the most popular posts:
- Character Questionnaire
- “Where are we again?” Creating Unique Fantasy Cities and Towns
- 20 Unusual City Encounters
- What’s Good About 4th Edition?
- X Marks the Spot: 11 Map Making Tutorials
Don’t be afraid to join (or start) a conversation by leaving a comment. I love reading people’s comments and I try to respond, though I have to admit not as often or a well as I’d always like. Still, I do love to hear from you. You can find more information about leaving comments on the My Comment Policy page.
Please feel free to contact me:
Email: jade[at]rpggm[dot]com
Twitter: jaderpggm
Welcome
Cheri “Jade” Arbuckle
rpgGM.com
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