{"id":707,"date":"2010-06-25T17:43:02","date_gmt":"2010-06-25T21:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/?page_id=707"},"modified":"2013-01-11T17:23:08","modified_gmt":"2013-01-11T22:23:08","slug":"new-start-here","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/new-start-here\/","title":{"rendered":"New Here?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to <em>Evil Machinations<\/em>, rpgGM.com&#8217;s blog of GMing tips and ideas. I&#8217;m glad to decided to stop by. Please feel free to look around. I&#8217;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&#8217;ve known over the years.<\/p>\n<p>Wouldn&#8217;t it be great to game all the time? Unfortunately, most of us don&#8217;t have that luxury. Day jobs, family obligations, chores, errands&#8230;it all eats into game time. And GMs have it even harder, since they need to find time to prepare for games. Since GMing isn&#8217;t your full-time job, <cite>Evil Machinations<\/cite> provides information to help make prep time and game sessions easier and more fun.<\/p>\n<p>What I bring to the table to help you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A background in live theatre, which helps me take adventure ideas, whether written down or still just bouncing around in your head, to life.<\/li>\n<li>Experience creating NPCs so real that my players once held a wake for one who died.<\/li>\n<li>Experience running games so vividly real that my players forgot the real world for a short time.<\/li>\n<li>A deep understanding of how details make a difference. It&#8217;s the small things that really help bring things to life.<\/li>\n<li>30 years of experience as both a player and GM, with a focus on running character-driven games.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Don&#8217;t know where to start? Here&#8217;s some suggestions:<\/p>\n<p>Want to know how to create better NPCs? Try:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/26\/evil-does-not-equal-stupid-8-tips-for-playing-evil-characters\/\">Evil Does Not Equal Stupid: 8 Tips for Playing Evil Characters<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/21\/building-better-npcs-i-extras-walk-ons-bit-players-and-major-characters\/\">Building Better NPCs I: Extras, Walk-Ons, Bit Players, and Major Characters<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/building-better-npcs-ii-8-steps-to-memorable-npcs\/\">Building Better NPCs II: 8 Steps to Memorable NPCs<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/25\/building-better-npcs-iii-character-webs\/\">Building Better NPCs III: Character Webs<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/19\/change-your-hat-change-your-character\/\">Change Your Hat, Change Your Character<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Want to know how to create adventures? Try:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/14\/your-teacher-was-right-creating-adventures-with-the-6-ws\/\">Your Teacher Was Right &#8230; Creating Adventures with the 6 W&#8217;s<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/19\/web-resources-about-writing-adventures\/\">Web Resources about Writing Adventures<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/20\/more-resources-for-writing-adventures\/\">More Resources for Writing Adventures<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Want some help working with players? Try:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/23\/21-sure-fire-ways-to-loose-players\/\">21 Sure-Fire Way to Loose Players<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/25\/11-gming-tips-i-learned-from-being-a-parent\/\">11 GMing Tips I Learned from Being\u00a0 a Parent<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/17\/handling-problem-players\/\">Handling Problem Players<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/27\/player-contributions\/\">Player Contributions<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Or you can start with some of the most popular posts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/character-questionnaire\/\">Character Questionnaire<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/24\/where-are-we-again-creating-unique-fantasy-cities-and-towns\/\">&#8220;Where are we again?&#8221; Creating Unique Fantasy Cities and Towns<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/27\/20-unusual-city-encounters-from-beg-borrow-steal\/\">20 Unusual City Encounters<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/17\/whats-good-about-4th-edition\/\">What&#8217;s Good About 4th Edition?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/02\/x-marks-the-spot-11-map-making-tutorials\/\">X Marks the Spot: 11 Map Making Tutorials<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Don&#8217;t be afraid to join (or start) a conversation by leaving a comment.\u00a0 I love reading people&#8217;s comments and I try to respond, though I have to admit not as often or a well as I&#8217;d always like. Still, I do love to hear from you. You can find more information about leaving comments on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/my-comment-policy\/\">My Comment Policy<\/a> page.<\/p>\n<p>Please feel free to contact me:<\/p>\n<p>Email: <strong>jade<\/strong>[at]<strong>rpggm<\/strong>[dot]<strong>com<br \/>\n<\/strong>Twitter: jaderpggm<\/p>\n<p>Welcome<br \/>\nCheri &#8220;Jade&#8221; Arbuckle<br \/>\nrpgGM.com<br \/>\n<em>Because GMing isn&#8217;t your full-time job<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to Evil Machinations, rpgGM.com&#8217;s blog of GMing tips and ideas. I&#8217;m glad to decided to stop by. Please feel free to look around. I&#8217;ve put a fair amount of information here culled from my own personal experience (three decades &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/new-start-here\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-707","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1790,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/707\/revisions\/1790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}