Evil Machinations

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

Evil Does Not Equal Stupid: 8 Tips for Playing Evil Characters

Jade | February 26, 2010

Whether as a PCs or an NPCs, evil characters tend to get the short end of the stick. All too often, they’re portrayed as short-sighted, reactionary, shallow, and … well, stupid. Frequently, all evil characters look and act the same, like they are clones of one another. Which is a real shame; after all, what’s [...]

Product Review: Kobold Quarterly #11

Jade | November 2, 2009

I thumbed through my advanced copy of KQ #11 (okay, since it’s a PDF, I didn’t exactly thumb – more paged down through) — the first issue of KQ I’d ever seen, and started to feel the excitement I used to have when looking through early issues of Dragon magazine.
15 articles (counting Maps and Free [...]

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 [...]

Handling Problem Players

Jade | September 17, 2009

We all get them: the incessant rules lawyer who challenges your every call; the “loopholer” who will exploit everything not nailed down in the rules to gain that extra +1 advantage; the player who takes everything that happens to their character as an attack on themselves…
Dealing with problem players is never easy. Here’s a collection [...]

Fred’s Missing *Again*?

Jade | July 10, 2009

Every player has days they can’t make a game. Sometimes, a great conjunction of events happens and a player has to miss a session at the very last minute. It happens to all of us.
These aren’t the players I’m referring to.
It can be one of the most frustrating things about a running a game: having [...]

What Your Players Don’t Need to Know

Jade | July 3, 2009

I’m taking a break from Meadowbrook for a few days; I don’t want this blog to become “all Meadowbrook all the time”. I’m considering starting another blog devoted to world-building that would chronicle my development of Meadowbrook and it’s surrounding world; if this is something that would interest you, please leave me a comment. Now, [...]

Player Contributions

Jade | April 27, 2009

Said while making snacks for the group …
Dave [player]: Hey, can I have experience points for baking cookies?
GM: Sure, Dave can have 200 experience points; Billee [his character] can’t.
[12 Aug 2009 Note: There's an updated version of this post at Player contributions, Take Two.]
I first ran across the idea of player/character contributions when I [...]

DriveThruRPG.com