Recent content by Andvari

Shadowdark avoids the mistake of describing the ability score as your character's ability to reason and process information, but maybe it should have been given another name. Just the fact that it is called "Intelligence" is already putting a lot of meaning into the mind of the reader. So I...

There is of course some element of luck, but as a GM you can do a lot to improve your group. If you pick up some random 4-5 people, most of them will probably be suitable, but you might have that 1 guy who's always late and that 1 girl who somehow causes tense social situations regularly. So you...

If you've ever played SSI's Krynn series of CRPGs (using AD&D rules), you know how delicious chain-exploding Draconians can be.

The Basic DM has run an adventure or two, probably official adventures, or even mediocre, homebrewed adventures that everyone still enjoyed, and for the most part, survived. The Expert DM has gone beyond "read the module", and has not only run adventures, but is already taken the players into...

Just make sure to abandon it when you are about 50% done so you can start making your own role-playing system instead. Then you will have hit peak GMing.

In my experience. 1. Players moving (as in geographically IRL). 2. GM burnout. I often hear scheduling being a major concern, but for whatever reason, that hasn't been much of an issue for me. Number 2 usually impacts when a new campaign is going to start rather than whether the current one...

Sounds pretty standard GM fare to me.

When I think of railroading I tend to think of two ways. Soft: Soft railroading is when you're playing a narratively-focused adventure where the characters are intended to follow along a certain story structure, with various degrees of freedom in how they reach these stages. So it requires...

I think this is a case where you can just tell the players he has this ability.

You definitely need to hack it for the best experience if the players have any tactical skill. Also the choke points at the doors can get repetitive.

The Deep Rock Galactic board game is a lot of fun and fairly easy to learn. I made some rules for generating random missions for more variety than the brief guide for it included in the mission book.

I should have realized that as I’ve been using Fritz Quadrata for hex maps the past few years.

At one point I’d just say “you find an onyx and two opals,” letting them appraise if they had appropriate skills, but otherwise letting them be positively or negatively surprised when they sold them in town for the then revealed values. But now I’d sooner avoid the hassle of tracking their...