Actually… You Are an Author
As a Game Master, you are an author, but that doesn’t mean what most people think it does. What it mostly means is that you can learn a lot of stupid narration tricks from authors. And video games.
Let’s Build a Pretty Good Dungeon: Checkpointing
It’s time for the last piece of the four-part intro to the project that will eventually lead to a good, fun dungeon adventure. So let’s learn about path-depth and checkpoints.
The Battletoads Problem
How do you build a good monster hunt that feels like an actual monster hunt? It’s do-able, but you have to be careful not the make your game the Battletoads of D&D campaigns.
Let’s Build a Pretty Good Dungeon: How Players Explore
Now it’s time for the third and final short essay laying out the underlying design approach for our pretty good dungeon. Except this isn’t the final one and it isn’t short. This one’s all about how players decide where to go next.
Let’s Build a Pretty Good Dungeon: Exploring Spaces
Continuing my series of short, conceptual articles to set up the building a pretty good dungeon, here’s one about the idea of explorable space.
Let’s Build a Pretty Good Dungeon: Critical Paths
In the first of three precursor discussions to building a pretty good dungeon, let me explain why critical paths aren’t what they are and golden paths are better.
Let’s Build a Pretty Good Dungeon: Introduction
Hey! Let’s make a pretty good dungeon together. How about that?
The Anatomy of a Screwjob
Today, I’m going to tell you exactly how to screw over your players. That’s so you can stop yourself from doing it. Because screwjobs are bad.
Order Matters: Guided Nonlinearity and Closed Openness
When it comes to gameplay experiences, order matters. What comes first, what comes next, it’s literally a game changer. So what’s a conscientious adventure maker to do when roleplaying game is all about letting players explore any way they want?
The Lost Adventuring Day (Part I): Merely Building an Adventure Day
The new…ish D&D DMG is actually a pretty good resource for adventure building tips, except for omitting one thing everyone stupidly hated because they were stupid. Let’s talk about The Adventure Day and what it really means.
How Well Do You Know Your PCs?
How much of your prep time should you spend before the start of a campaign reviewing the players’ characters? How much time should you spend before each session reviewing their Reactions and Bonus Actions? I’m willing to bet the correct answer is, “More than you do.”
More Shapey Goodness
Before I move on from Scenario Shape, let’s talk a bit about we might apply these ideas to detailed Encounter building. When we actually get to that. Someday.
How Shape Shapes Scenarios
Now that you’ve learned how to break a scenario design into hierarchical levels, I can show you how to spot — and plan — a scenario’s shape. And what that means. And why its good.
The Campaign Manager’s Guide to Conflict Resolution: Part I
I may have put True Campaign Managery on hold, but I’m still delivering on my promise to teach you how to resolve table conflicts like a True Campaign Manager. Settle in; it’s a long ride.
Structure All the Way Down
More True Scenario Design and more on structure. Actually, the real structure discussion starts here. Last time, I breathlessly yelled about what makes good structure good and bad structure suck. Now I’m actually going to show you structure. I’ll even outline a crappy adventure you can finish for your own use if you suck at tone and genre.
Real Game Masters Run Half-Baked Adventures
Let’s celebrate the start of the year’s back nine with an inspiring and uplifting message about how you misunderstood everything I said about everything about whether or not you suck and you suck for that. Or, to say it another way, let’s talk about real, human Game Masters balance good design with practical prep and polish.
Struction: An Introduction to Structure
It’s time to open a new chapter in our True Scenario Designery journey. So let’s talk about how scenario structure is like the beams and masts that hold up a confection shaped like an animated porifera. You heard me.
Post-Play Pre-Prep Prep
Basic game mastering tricks anyone can use? Promises of brevity broken? Alliterative potty jokes? Sounds like classic Angry.
Open-Endedness, Open Challenges, and Hat Theory
This rambling rant covers a lot of ground about the many hats a Game Master has to wear and why you shouldn’t worry about worry about open-endedness or creativity when you’re writing adventures. Seriously.
Challenge Or Goal?
In this informal little digression from the main True Scenario Designery lessons, I’ll help you suss out the difference between goals and challenges. Because, as some of my supporters are about to learn, they’re easy to confuse.
Just Shut Up About Min-Maxing (Part II): No, Seriously, Shut Up
This is the rant about why Game Masters need to shut up about Min-Maxing I didn’t publish two weeks ago.
Just Shut Up About Min-Maxing (Part I): Understanding Player Motivations
This is not a rant about why Game Masters need to shut up about Min-Maxing. This is the lesson about player motivation that threatened to eat that rant. The rant is coming soon.
Momentous and Inertial Adventure Design
I promised you a big honking example of how to design an adventure with goals, challenge, momentum, and inertia in mind. This is it.
What Do You Do When You Lose the Plot (Part III)
Here it is, as promised, only three weeks later — I said weeks; did you hear days — the last part in the What Do You Do When You Lose the Plot miniseries. This is the part where I tell you my secret five-step recovery plan to bring any project back on track when it’s gone off the rails. As long as it’s a gaming project. This isn’t life advice.
True Character Creationism: An Introduction
It’s time for us to start talking about how True Campaign Managers handle the arduously awful process of Character Creation.
Momentum: Building Victory
Today, I teach you about the second of a pair of complementary gameplay dynamics vital to making winnable — and losable — adventures that feel great to play.
What Do You Do When You Lose the Plot (Part II)
This is the second part of a personal story about how I lost the plot in my current campaign and how you can to. That still has nothing to do with plots and outlines and stories and everything to do with totally burning yourself out.
What Do You Do When You Lose the Plot (Part I)
I want to tell you a two-part story about what’s going on with my AD&D 2E campaign because I’ve lost the plot and the campaign feels doomed and I have to fix it and I’m hoping that by telling you this story, I’ll help you launch a campaign you’re excited to run and then fix it when it inexplicably goes to shit for no obvious reason. If you’re one of the players, don’t panic; I’m being hyperbolic. Mostly. Kind of.
Office Hours: Is Attrition Inertia?
A quick — well, quick for me — aside about whether you can count on D&D’s Attrition Dynamic for all the gameplay Inertia you need.
Inertia: Fighting Failure
Winter break is over and it’s time to talk about True Scenario Design again. Today, I’m introducing the first in a pair of complementary game design forces, Inertia and Momentum, that separate the real True Scenario Designers from the Mere Adventure Builders.