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Pure director. That paragraph describes my game style to a T. Set up the scene, push conflict at the PCs, see what they do with it. I don't really care about setting beyond what I need to set up a conflict, rules are a tool, nothing more. I'm not interested in my own plot, I want to see what...

I agreed to write a review of Year of the Zombie, and as a result on therpgsite won a contest for everyone who submitted a review. I got a copy of Hollow Earth Expedition for my efforts. So I got the YotZ PDF and the HEX book for free!

I've seen this exact thing happen. One guy started with a halfling rogue, planning to go into sorcerer and whatever that PrC is that lets you combine them. In the game, he gets a lucky sneak attack + critical at low level taking out a powerful ogre chief. When the local barbarian tribe hears...

Never. Seeing my character evolve and change through the game is part of the fun for me. Truthfully, if I started a character out and planned it out that far I'd be bored of it.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - This game has seriously made me rethink how I look at RPGs, and has gotten me from thinking in terms of sessions, encounters, and campaigns to episodes, scenes, and seasons. I find these far more useful. It also has the best metagame mechanics, an excellent balancing...

There's nothing intrinsic to any White Wolf games in the stuff that you quoted. Anyone who tells you different, one way or another, is being pretentious. Not to mention the irony that White Wolf is one of the largest d20 publishers. :)

What I mean by that is they reach a consensus faster, not as many people to argue and discuss and so forth, so they go through the plot faster and faster. The more people you have, the slower your game will go.

I read an interesting article on the Forge on how to do exactly that. I've not got a chance to run it, but it sounds like a hoot. In most mystery stories, the detective will spot seemingly innocuous clues and put them together into a whole, figuring out whodunit. Now, how do you run this...

I really like the approach Exalted has taken. The core book and all suppliments are all set at the same moment, five years after the Scarlet Empress disappeared. The big challenges of the setting - the impending Realm civil war, the invading Deathlords, the return of the Solar Exalted - these...

Absolutely. This is why setting doesn't really matter. Your players don't really give a crap if they're in the Realms, or Eberron, or Greyhawk, or your funky homebrew. They give a crap about their characters and what's happening to them. A movie or TV show might have some nice sets, but...

And this is why you fail. You do realize the reason he's telling you to look in the cabin is because in his plot it says for you to look in the cabin. Give up the plot, it isn't yours to create. Set up a scenario and watch and as you and the players create one together.

Again, they'll only pay attention to what matters. If the exposition matters, they'll pay attention. Otherwise no matter how florid your prose, its nothing but a +2 long sword. A handout can be cool, but if its just presenting the same information with no other context just in a different...

4 is about right, but I'll roll with 3 or 5. Even with three, I feel that there's not enough interplay between characters and with 5 I feel like I'm always shorting someone of spotlight time.

Agree that reading exposition about your imagined world isn't going to wow anyone. If you want to be a good or great DM, your goal should be to run awesome games. That's what I'm in the hobby for. Exposition sucks. Its boring. No one cares. But you need to get that information out there...

I like good metagaming, and I like games that mechanically reward players for doing it. Examples are Buffy's Drama Points, which give you a very useful resource for making everyone laugh, and Exalted's Stunts, which give you a bonus on your roll and your magic points back whenever you describe...

On my list of games I want to run someday is a 'Mythic Forgotten Realms' game. The characters are from some small community, maybe one of the Dales. They can use anything they've read in a sourcebook or novel as in-character knowledge. They've grown up hearing these tales or great figures...

Awesome. As soon as Arr Thar be Zombies comes out I can realize my dream. Combine the following sourcebooks All Flesh Must Be Eaten + Terra Primate + Enter the Zombie + Arr Thar Be Zombies + All Tomorrow's Zombies. With these rules, create a party of characters consisting of a zombie...

You can put a lever in a dungeon with a sign over it that says "PULL LEVER FOR TRAP" and someone will have to pull it. I've tested this theory with good results. :D

Unisystem works like this, in Cinematic anyway. Weapons have a set damage, or are a multiple of strength. So a gun might do 16 damage, while a punch does 2 times strength. There's also modifiers to damage types, so a bullet does double damage to living targets for instance. Then you add on a...

A pretty good take on the Matrix is a free game called There is no spoon. As I recall, one of the rules is that there was only one Matrix movie, and if any player suggests the existence of any sequels, the GM may slap them.