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Most all GMs have some bad moments, or even bad habits. I certainly do! Stuff I've run into as really bad GMing; fortunately, my home group has very little of this kind of nonsense... --GMs who don't know the rules - or, at a convention, run the event using a different set of rules than was...

Just as another idea, you could also have encounters that are more than one 'encounter' - multi-wave attacks, response to the noise of battle, that kind of thing. Really, though, it depends on what folks at the table want to do. In a sense, an undertaking as dangerous as a dungeon crawl, it...

Not a bad idea - the icons are nicely done. Some label besides 'merit badges' would be better, since they reperesent no inherent, earned, or demonstrated merit of any kind, but labels of preference and habit. Here's what I clicked on: Tactics are an important part of my games. (Almost as a...

Pick a foreign language and find a baby-name list online for it (for place names, find an atlas/map of a foreign/obscure area). If you can't pronounce it readily, try either practicing before you spring it on the players, or swap some letters around until it rolls off your tongue. If you pick...

Legend lore brings to your mind legends about an important person, place, or thing. If the person or thing is at hand, or if you are in the place in question, the casting time is only 1d4x10 minutes. If you have only detailed information on the person, place, or thing, the casting time is 1d10...

GM: Star Wars Saga edition, 4e, 7th Sea, Savage Worlds, Hero System (5th ed.) Played: Star Wars Saga, 4e, Savage Worlds, Horror Rules Mind you, I'm coming off a long slowdown/shutdown of GMing (long-term burnout), and it's only the last year or so I've started propping up the screen again...

I play monster the way I run my PCs: the rules say all the info is transparent, fine. On either side of the screen, I take the mark/threat/zone as a piece of information: If I have a good reason to challenge the mark or trigger the zone, I'll do it. Granted, I'm a little looser with my NPCs hit...

First, decide what your focus really is: if it's just about what the PCs are going to do, then you really are better off just narrating/handwaving the rest of the battle. SPend your time creating encounter maps and NPCs, and preparing fllavor text to describe the battlle around them. This is...

By and large, this is pretty good stuff, giving a basis for character expression and roleplay. The crystal is a good idea, you can use that as-is. As additional flavor, the specially prepared gem is a dull stone until used, at which time it transforms, sparkling as a real gem in its own light...

I always take a grain of salt when I hear things like 'the GM should be the best <x> at the table.' Yeah, that's a good theoretical, maybe even a good goal, but the biggest effect I've seen with statements like that is to intimidate otherwise capable people away from GMing. But be that as it...

Multiple choice on the poll would be good. I marked Warlord, 'cause I got two of them and it's my favorite class. I've got two human tactical warlords, one RPGA, the other in a home (currently on hold) campaign; Deva (Retribution) Avenger of Amanautor, for RPGA; Dragonborn Cleric of Bahamut...

Played LFR, a couple one-shots, and just started my own campaign, which is based on my old War In The East wargame map (WW2 Russian front), but populated with assorted sites from default/Nentir (for example, Arkhosia is where Astrakan is; Bael Turath is somewhere in Romania). The first couple...

As player: Fantasy Hero, I'm playing a sun mage, with light-based powers, one of which is a little teleport spell which turns him into a sunbeam and shoots him where he's going (LOS only, flashy, etc.). We're part of an assault on a badguy castle, so I decide I'm going to be clever and get...

It really depends on how your gun rules work. If they're ranged weapons like bows, there's not much need to make different sutff, just make 'em ranged weapons like anything else, including magic ranged weapons (that's what I'm trying in my campaign). I could see a few specials like...

Me too - prep on the computer and print it out, run with paper & pencil. I actually resent laptops at the table - they invite distraction (which to some extent I can deal with fine), but it feels like there's a sudden wall between me and the player. Tablets don't evoke the same reaction, I find...

Very nice article! In planning my own campaign (just about to get rolling in a few weeks), I'm trying to have an idea of where it's all going in advance, and I've been having the most trouble with epic tier. I'm starting with a huge war where the PCs have to help defend the Empire, and going...

I've got a strong distaste for player-puzzles, riddles, and so on. If a group likes doing that sort of thing, great, but I find it's way too easy to run it improperly. Almost every time I've tried it or had it run on me, the puzzle is either pointlessly easy or shuts down the session as the GM...

An interesting concept; I'll have to follow this thread. I may even be able to use some form of it early on in a campaign I'm pondering. (Fleeing a massive enemy invasion) One question, though: if the entire dungeon floor, or even an entire zone, is designated as a single encounter, what...

I'm a pretty soft GM, as my whole home group - it's been ages since we had a PC death (other than one-shot horror games). I find that killing PCs in a long campaign is hardly fun for anyone. I haven't played in a campaign where permanent/semi-permanent disabilities (amputations, level drains...

My take, in planning apotential 4e campaign: In Heroic, the PCs change history; In Paragon, the PCs make history; In Epic, the PCs break history. Which is to say, in my thinking, in Heroic, the heroes are just that, heroes and recognized great woman and men (or whatever), the ones who...