Category: GMRic

What kind of homebrew campaigns have you designed for your players? Do they center in a western world city? Asia? Egyptian? How about setting? Is it modern, futuristic or fantasy? Many people center their campaigns on several of the following RPG Systems: Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder RPG, Shadowrun, Cypher System from Monte Cooke Games, Savage Worlds, Fate! RPG or others.

I discuss how to design an eastern European (which varies greatly from west) flavored campaign setting,. How is Eastern Europe (Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Czech Republic, Macedonia, etc…) different from West? What superstitions, mysticism and religion exist? I draw from references in the Underworld Movies, Rule of Fear (from Paizo Publishing), Irrisen, Dracula, Van Helsing and others to form a clear picture to help design this.

Have you thought about DMing a game of Dungeons & Dragons​ or of Paizo​ publishing Pathfinder Roleplaying Game​? What has kept you from trying it? Did you like a Basic Box for either game? Book costs? Cold feat? Being overwhelmed by the thought of running a successful adventure or coming up with a campaign everyone would like?

I go into 5-6 things for both systems that if you learn, will help you to be on your way to running a fun and memorable session or campaign. I try and focus things down to help a beginner overcome the jitters or overwhelming feelings that can come with learning to be a new Dungeon/Game Master.

This GM Tips I discuss things to think about when designing a campaign setting based in a Native American/Inuit flavored area. It can be a home brew based in an alternate Earth, or in Golarion, Faerun, Greyhawk, Ghostwalk, or Shadowrun Earth, even a Cypher System or Savage World Deadlands Reloaded system. What are the peoples like? The technology? The development? What would their spirituality be? Their magic?

As GMs and DMs, we put in lots of hours creating fun campaigns, adventures and story arcs. Fun locations, jaw dropping challenges and Titan like clashes fill our mind’s eye….until our players take a detour we didn’t plan for or expect. They took a hard left when we planned for straight.

So what does a GM/DM do? Railroad them back onto the path we had planned, right? They aren’t going to go somewhere we aren’t ready. And there-in lies the wrong choice. Railroading a party is forcing them onto a path we want them to take. Be dinged freedom of choice. And the fun for the party becomes fleeting at best.

Instead of railroading, we as GMs/DMs should consider:

1. Allowing the party to turn left. Adapt to the moment. Improvise. And then over time, gently guide them back to the goal.

2. Plan ahead for this. It will, ALWAYS occur at some point of a campaign. So plan for the possibilities. Have NPCs and story lines ready to insert for these occasions.

3.  Don’t panic or get angry. Remember, the players write the story. It’s our role to provide the framework and background locations and people. Let them have some creative license in where they take a story.

 

 

Player personalities can range from very helpful, animated, bored, sarcastic and conflictive. How does a GM handle the more troublesome ones? Here are some thoughts:

1. Write material in your campaign that will engage their personality.

2. Help the rules oriented experts in the group to be a vital part of making play more cohesive with rules. Ask them to help with clarifications, help settle questions and arguments between players and praise their contribution.

3. Ask the sarcastic and conflict oriented ones how you can improve the sessions to make it more exciting for them.

4. Use the background stories they come up with and include parts of the session to engage them on this.

5.  Use humor, cheering and animated dialogue to make the players feel epic and heroic/villainous.

Dont get upset with those more challenging players. Instead, get creative!

So often, as creatives, we GMs and DMs move from idea to idea and try to make them into reality. Using tools, such as template forms like:

1. Campaign sheets
2. Country Template Sheets
3. City/Settlement Sheets
4. NPC Sheets
5. Magic Item Sheets
6. Army Sheets.   Use of these kinds of sheets is a vital asset to overlook. It can sometimes feel like we are writing essays filling in the blank, but, it captures the key ideas of ours in an organized fashion. We can then go back and easily review these when experiencing idea lock or even burn-out. Use forms and keep them in a binder with sections for easy access.

A character’s background enriches campaign play. Often, tying subplots into these backgrounds leads to players being more invested in the campaign. Don’t just make them come up with a great background and fail to utilize it. Allow it to help write an epic adventure!

As we start the new year, I want to bring the following to mind. As GM’s, we have the following responsibilities:

1. Develop a compelling call to action that moves the party of players to accept. And, if they don’t accept the call, what will be the resulting fall out from not.
2. Design obstacles that will challenge/prevent the party from reaching the goal of the call to action.

The players then take over. It is not our job to decide how they will act, when they will act or what path they will take to act. They write the story from there, not us. It is not “our” story.

If you have questions or comments, please feel free to email me on here.