Image Source: D&D Cartoon.
I’m working on a little series of posts where I will introduce each of my players with 5 RPG- related questions. While doing this, I thought it would be nice for me to answer these questions and post it too. Thing in, the questions were mostly player-related and I almost never play a PC.
I then sat down to draft a few DM-related questions and realized that this would be a perfect opportunity to submit them to the DM readers of this here blog so I could get to know you better (Shameless idea-stealing from Critical-Hits, I confess). I will do the same for players as soon as I start posting my player’s own answers.
Fell free to answer them in the comments (I know the editor sucks) or in your own blogs (link back in comments I’ll add the links to this page ).
Here are the questions:
- What’s your current campaign’s elevator pitch (if not in a game, tell me about your next one or last one)?
- What Quote would best summarize your current GMing style?
- What Role Playing games are you GMing right now (or plan on GMing soon)?
- What do you look for in a game session to make it a great session?
- What do you look in a multi-session adventure to make it a great adventure?
- What tends to decrease your fun the most in a single session?
- Tell me about your fondest RPG memory as a GM?
I really am looking forward to your answers.
I’ll post my answer to theses questions tomorrow.
P.S.: Go ahead Yan, you qualify as both a player and a DM. 🙂
The idea is hardly ours to have stolen, tons of blogs not only do questions or challenges every week or so, but also each one at some point does the “learn about you the readers” post. Nonetheless we’re very glad that we inspired you!
-What’s your current campaign’s elevator pitch (if not in a game, tell me about your next one or last one)?
This is set in the Star Frontiers universe. But with a grittier edge. You are a group of, jacks of all trades. I would say mercenaries, but that may be to strong a word. I guess It would depend on what direction you guys want to take it. Anyways you a rough and tumble crew making your own way in the frontier. You guys have entered a corporate contractual lease with a small Vrusk shipping company. Whats that mean? Well it means that the company is leasing you the ship. They take a slightly higher percentage than normal on the cargo you haul. Because its going toward the purchase of the ship. It also gives you axcess to their offices, to find and get freight loads. So the characters have to beat the bushes less themselves, to secure a load. Depending of course the port in question. Not to mention the company helps to put up the money to purchase cargo. Which is par for the course. Being that a company shipping goods doesn’t want its merchandise to disappear before delivery. Costing them money. It also gives the characters the opportunity to take the cargo to a place where you can maximize your profits. Or for the quick sale. Giving you freedom of movement. Not to mention if you decide to make a little cash on the side. Smuggling things in a hidden compartments, or what not. That money would be all yours. Of course it ups the risks too. I envision at least the beginning of the campaign to be similar to a free trader in traveller.
-What Quote would best summarize your current GMing style?
Loose.
-What Role Playing games are you GMing right now (or plan on GMing soon)?
Just put a campaign on hiatus. Basically it followed the characters Ranger LRRP team through vietnam in 73′. This section has ended. When we pick it up again. They will have been brought back together to work on a CIA SAD team in Angola, in 76′. After that section gets completed. We will again flash foward to 1983. Where they will be called to be part of a team again. Special Counter Terriorism Group Delta. Codename: “GI Joe”. (I was getting a little burnt on it. So we have put it down for now. It will be (I hope!) picked up again sometime in the future. It was a good time to end it though. Before they entered Angola.) I am using Ninjas and Super Spies, by palladium for the GI Joe game. The new Game I’m starting this sunday is using the classic Star Frontiers by TSR.
-What do you look for in a game session to make it a great session?
Action, Adventure. Keep the players interested, and asking questions.
-What do you look in a multi-session adventure to make it a great adventure?
The same thing. But cumulating in a climatic finally.
-What tends to decrease your fun the most in a single session?
Rules Lawyers. People who dont want to be there.
-Tell me about your fondest RPG memory as a GM?
Ooo..Tough choice! Probably the Burea 13 game I ran, useing Heros Unlimited in high school. Everything just clicked that night. It was fun and memorable for everyone.
What’s your current campaign’s elevator pitch?
Steampunk: Industrial Evolution. The age of Reason. Here’s the blurb that was sent to my prospective Players:
“For ages untold, war has plagued mankind. War with goblins, war with the Golem, war with each other. This war threatened to plunge mankind into a Dark Age that he might never recover from.
Fortunately for residents of The City, the threat of war is a thing of the past. Relations with Ash City are better than ever. The Golem Empire has been crushed. COGs, Hybrids and even the lesser races have all integrated into a perfect society.
But a new era of prosperity can hide threats of a different kind. Armies that do not march across the plains now gather in secret. Governments grown bloated on the bloody spoils of war blacken with corruption. This is an age of oppression and civil bloodshed.
This is an age of poison and plots. Strange truths move beneath the streets the City.
Welcome to the Age of Reason.”
What Quote would best summarize your current GMing style?
“So, is that hit on the dinosaur with dynamite strapped to it, or without?”
What Role Playing games are you GMing right now (or plan on GMing soon)?
Savage Worlds is the rules set for Steampunk: Industrial Evolution. Next year, I will be GMing Warhammer 40,000 RPG, at least a few times.
What do you look for in a game session to make it a great session?
Chemistry between the players and between the Players and the GM.
What do you look in a multi-session adventure to make it a great adventure?
A cliffhanger that makes me care about the next session.
What tends to decrease your fun the most in a single session?
Looking things up in the rulebook (myself or others). As a GM, I often forget to even bring the rulebook to the table (one of my Players is not so forgetful).
Tell me about your fondest RPG memory as a GM?
I had just wrapped up Season 1 of a Shadow Chasers campaign. The heroes had beaten Merlin and found out that Excalibur drained the life force of people in miles for every direction to power it, making it responsible for the plagues that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages. Anyway, they won. The Players applauded and a long time Player and friend told me “Well played.”
For some reason, that stuck with me.
This is so cool guys! Thanks! Keep it up!
1. What’s your current last campaign’s elevator pitch?
The world is in the middle of a industrial revolution as the power of the steam gets mastered and the repeating pistol get invented the dark secret of the world seems to have been forgotten…
You on the other hand know better and have joined force to create the supernatural investigating bureau.
Thanks to your own supernatural power you will investigate weird cases and encounter creatures of legend. Vampire, werewolves, demons and dark necromancer are stirring in the shadows… Be prepared.
2. What Quote would best summarize your current GMing style?
World building improviser.
3. What Role Playing games are you GMing right now (or plan on GMing soon)?
None my DMing is currently on hold and a bit rusty 😉
4. What do you look for in a game session to make it a great session?
My best session comes when I sense that the player are immersed in the world I have built.
5. What do you look in a multi-session adventure to make it a great adventure?
Having the player saying “OH S…!” after a few session in realization of some major plot is pretty much my personnal indication of a successful multi-session adventure.
6. What tends to decrease your fun the most in a single session?
Having player not paying attention and forcing me to repeat again and again… I don’t mind the occasional repeat I mean its normal but some people just have the knack for it and always ask you to repeat what you said just second earlier…
7. Tell me about your fondest RPG memory as a GM?
I had this GURPS campaign running in a cyberpunk style world. The player where member of a gang that was running a small club and making side money with some smuggling. Every NPC in their gang had a full fledge psychology (which had took me a lot of work to put into place) and we could have full session just roleplaying around these guys.
I one point they got their hands on an encrypted CD that had been stolen and where trying to decrypt it so they could sale the content to the appropriate party. So one night when leaving from their club they where ambushed not the usual mob like ambush. A Pro liked one by a sniper from a far away point. To properly convey the message that it was serious stuff I had one of the main NPC sniped by a head shoot right in the middle of the group.
The shocked face of the player is one of my fondest memory… (I mean i had just killed one of my pet NPC that had took me a few days to flesh out what is one player or two after that…)
I think the message got through… 😉
1. The world of Armageddon Engines is a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting, almost 1000 years after an epic war. This was not a war between countries or even races, but between all races of the world and the Færie Kings who dominated and terrorized them.
Five titanic engines of destruction were created and fielded against this threat. But ultimately these engines fought each other to the destruction of everything. As for the intended (but side) effect, the Færie Kings were driven to the Underworld, because the incredible strain on magic rather than anything else.
The world was left a ravaged place. The middle Álfheimr was blighted into an incredible desert; the few Alfar refugees disappearing into the Underground. The Aristocracy of all Dragons slumber in the hidden corners of the most inhospitable lands. Many horrible things were abandoned to the ‘Junkpile’ in the Alfar Wasteland.
Life did not end. Thus mankind inherited the world, but has only just begun to thrive…and has since spread across the continent filling in every slain kingdom. Whole new communities have grown up in the dark shadows of the Engines that nearly destroyed the world.
And magic is no longer lost, once tied up and used up by the hulking Armageddon Engines. The eldritch spells of olde, as you knew them, have vanished. But now great warriors practice incredibly devastating Kai Strikes; Witches briefly enchant all manner of common objects; shapeshifters travel about unnoticed but sought after; magical Wartifacts have been scavenged from the Junkpile; zealots fuel both healing and harming miracles based on faith alone; and so much more.
Into this world you have been thrust. You are unto a hero of olde; you cannot die, but can be killed, returning always as Fyglia. (Reappearing in the form of your ‘inner animal’, briefly.) And now the ancient prophecies have also begun coming true and they foretell the awakening of those dread Engines…and of a new Armageddon!
2. “…Read Fang’s depiction of A New Hope as an RPing session. [Different Link!] Print it out. Tack it up on the wall of your bedroom. Read it three times every time you sit down to prepare the next session. Read it three times before going to GM your next session. Write a little “What Would Fang Do” abbreviation on your hand to help when you get stuck.”
[Snip]
“PS: Fang…brilliant. Gol Darn Brilliant.”
3. Freeform Scattershot Armageddon Engines
4. Captivation
5. Only-escalating tension, good pacing and great cliffhangers
6. Non sequitur interruptions and wet blankets
7. I once ran ‘Anime Smash’, a spur of the moment game of over the top Japanese comic-style fun. We had a Scottish, cyborg bounty hunter (I swear the idea was stolen from us); an underage pyrokinetic; a catgirl; a missing heiress with a supercomputer hidden as her obi; and a hapless reporter, none of which I had expected nor prepared for. Mostly everyone ran afoul of the life-or-death tea party the catgirl forced anyone passing by to attend. The final scene was the greatest; amidst all-out bickering, the catgirl fired off a rocket launcher to get everyone’s attention. I let the silence amoungst the players hang for a moment and then quietly explained that in the distance a single rocket came down on an unassuming apartment building destroying the reporter’s home utterly. We laughed so hard we couldn’t continue.
Fang
What’s your current campaign’s elevator pitch (if not in a game, tell me about your next one or last one)?
“Guys, we’re going back to D&D. No, really. I swear it’ll be fun. Trust me on this one, ok?”
See this post for details. In short: it’s all 4E’s fault!
What Quote would best summarize your current GMing style?
Cinematic action with a heavy does of humour. Think Chicken Run meets Die Hard, and you’re there.
What Role Playing games are you GMing right now (or plan on GMing soon)?
Just finished a huge Mutants & Masterminds campaign, about to start D&D again after a 12 month break from the system. I tend to swing between several systems, a lot.
What do you look for in a game session to make it a great session?
If I can end it on a cliffhanger and the players all say “Awwwww maaaan!” at the end, I’ve done my job 🙂
What do you look in a multi-session adventure to make it a great adventure?
Continuity, a good change of pace between sessions (lots of chase scenes get boring fast, as does continual immersive role-playing. A mix is essential. A good understanding of episode-style play, and plenty of room for the GM/players to improvise.
What tends to decrease your fun the most in a single session?
Players getting sidetracked by non-game stuff. If they start talking about the latest movies/song lyrics/etc, I’ve failed.
Tell me about your fondest RPG memory as a GM?
A huge superhero campaign I ran about 20 years ago called The Pegasus Project; it was my take on the whole “government-hunting-the-heroes” thing where the heroes (and every one else) lose. Very dystopian, very atmospheric, likened by one of my players to “Batman meets Cthulhu”. I created a ton of props for the game, including a burnt superhero glove, a charred typewritten journal, etc. So much effort, but well worth it.
Good questions, all!
What’s your current campaign’s elevator pitch (if not in a game, tell me about your next one or last one)?
Old-school, unconcerned fun with quests, monsters, swords…junk like that.
What Quote would best summarize your current GMing style?
“Run every game as though your pants were off, and you didn’t give a damn what anyone thinks of that.”
What Role Playing games are you GMing right now (or plan on GMing soon)?
Castles & Crusades, maybe some Classic Traveller — and I have notes for some Star Wars action! Mind, that’s PROPER Star Wars with d6s, none of this “I’m-a-4th-level-scoundrel” jive.
What do you look for in a game session to make it a great session?
Giving the players something to remember, whether it be something their characters did or something I came up with.
What do you look in a multi-session adventure to make it a great adventure?
The same things, really. I’ve really come down on my own demands to myself.
What tends to decrease your fun the most in a single session?
Being too tired to run it.
Tell me about your fondest RPG memory as a GM?
I can’t! I can’t pick just ONE!
Great stuff guys!
Random thoughts so far:
Ronin: interesting approach of moving a campaign through time from ‘season to season’
Tom: I gotta give Savage Worlds a read-through.
Yan: Great use of NPC rule Zero!
Fang: There’s a lot of work in your stuff! I’m impressed and daunted at the same time.
Greywulf: Chicken Run meets Die hard huh? I’d love to see that!
Dr. Rotwang: Come on doc, give us a memory! And those are cool boxers you have there…. 🙂
What’s your current campaign’s elevator pitch (if not in a game, tell me about your next one or last one)?
2 unsuspecting mercenaries get trapped in a rioting city.
What Quote would best summarize your current GMing style?
Organized chaos
What Role Playing games are you GMing right now (or plan on GMing soon)?
D&D
What do you look for in a game session to make it a great session?
PC hero potential. I want my players to feel like superstars.
What do you look in a multi-session adventure to make it a great adventure?
Actually finishing and wrapping up the adventure.
What tends to decrease your fun the most in a single session?
Green dragons. Why settle for green? Go for red!
Tell me about your fondest RPG memory as a GM?
I planned and manage to execute a 2 years long campaign. Form start to finish, I planted hints and clues and none of the player saw anything coming until the last game and they all said: “I can’t believe I didn’t see that one coming!”
Yax! I think you let Expy answer the ‘not-fun’ question…. 🙂
I promise to come back and answer this… but if I answered all the questions now, it would ruin some things in my current campaign for Danny. Next adventure, more should be revealed!
(Now there’s an interesting topic: how to keep D&D secrets when your players are online)
I’m flirting with the concept of creating a DM only Google Group.
Basically I’d invite anyone who DMs currently and we could exchange messages on our games.
Or you can do it the Roundabout way and tell it without telling it like I do in my Adventure Preps posts… 🙂 My players love the hints and can give me pre-game feedback.
# What’s your current campaign’s elevator pitch (if not in a game,
tell me about your next one or last one)?
To another DM who wasn’t going to play, I’d pitch something like:
Remember in Forgotten Realms when the gods got kicked to the prime
material? Well, in this world, that happens regularly because the
Father-God is punishing all the deities for deciding to abandon their
world. Every couple decades his giant hammer comes around (appearing
as a comet to those on the planet) and blasts them all into the world,
where they are forced to engage in a crazy reality-show like contest
to collect one of the keys to heaven. They are forced to play nice
with the mortals, but it’s always a world-shaking time.
So, anyways, the PCs haplessly manage to come across one of these
keys, having no clue what it is or what it means. They are slowly and
unwittingly turned into pawns (And then hopefully players) in a great
game of cosmic chess.
# What Quote would best summarize your current GMing style?
“Uh oh, I don’t think we’re in a module anymore.”
# What Role Playing games are you GMing right now (or plan on GMing
soon)?
D&D 3.5
# What do you look for in a game session to make it a great session?
Really, I get my best signs afterwards. Are the players talking about
what happened and what they are planning for next week as we are
packing up? Do they bug me all week about plans they want to put in
motion? Any good quotable quotes?
# What do you look in a multi-session adventure to make it a great
adventure?
When the players are talking about next session, and making big plans.
# What tends to decrease your fun the most in a single session?
I always get bent out of shape and suspect that I “ruin” the rest of
the session when a big climactic scene gets foiled by clever PCs or
something unexpected. I get “mopey”.
# Tell me about your fondest RPG memory as a GM?
Really, it’s whenever players fondly remember a moment I helped to
create.
1) What’s your current campaign’s elevator pitch (if not in a game, tell me about your next one or last one)?
Coming soon!
Star Wars: Shadows Return, the sequel to last year’s blockbuster, Star Wars: A Gravid Malignancy. Our intrepid heroes (well, the surviving/loyal ones), having failed to stop the spread of the parasite (Aliens) from the waterworld of Poseidon (stolen from Blue Planet), now chase the creatures past the Rim intent on wiping them out before they can regain a foothold and threaten the galaxy once more. But the parasite queen born of the captured Jedi (ex-PC) has other plans…and what do the Sith want with all this?
(SW: SR is set about 50 years before the Mandalorian Wars, so it’s a few more years than that before the events of Knights of the Old Republic.)
2) What Quote would best summarize your current GMing style?
“That sounds about right, and was a pretty cool description. Roll well enough, and the result is yours to tell.”
3) What Role Playing games are you GMing right now (or plan on GMing soon)?
SW: Shadows Return is going to be under either Normal, Texas, if it ever sees the light of day, or Risus. The latter is increasingly likely. I’m probably going to be running something simple for my oldest soon – maybe some Classic Traveller setting, or Star Wars, but I’m still not sure of the system yet.
4) What do you look for in a game session to make it a great session?
Something exciting enough to drag people into character and keep them there for as long as possible.
5) What do you look in a multi-session adventure to make it a great adventure?
Cliff-hangers or appropriate pause-points between sessions, a good balance of rising action and time spent/character development (or enough fun in the play that I don’t care how much time has passed).
6) What tends to decrease your fun the most in a single session?
Off-topic chatter while others are trying to play. This drives me quietly nuts as a player, and I do intend to have a ‘table talk’ rule for when I GM. Since our players simply can’t shut up, I’m going to rule that if you’re chattering and you missed something, then the PC was doing something distracting, like chattering, and missed something.
7) Tell me about your fondest RPG memory as a GM?
Whew…hmmm…
There was the point in Star Wars: A Gravid Malignancy, where the ‘Big Reveal’ of the ‘Aliens’ took place. Most of the players had deduced what was going on (exploring the deserted, damaged undersea colony, etc.), and they all played along nicely; less fear than ‘WTF?’ reactions. But one player, Mark, consistently misses the obvious. So when I said, ‘On the video playback from the security cam’s last recording, you finally catch a glimpse of what was moving around the passageways; this:’ and held up a picture of an Alien about to pounce, there were a couple of knowing smiles, a few mutters of ‘Man, we’re screwed’, and one genuinely shocked, ‘OH, SHIT!‘ Mark then immediately put on his In-Character ‘Concerned Technician’ face, recovering with a curious, ‘I wonder what that is…’
I still cackle at that.
Then there was another Star Wars game, long ago. This is mostly character dialogue; my responses and input should be obvious, if unstated:
“Okay, crap…look, he just rammed his hovertruck into the starport terminal…this could have been a traffic accident, why did you start shooting?”
“I know, I know – but we had to shoot him, he was still accelerating!”
“That’s odd…”
“Yeah…hey, look…he’s manacled to the steering controls…”
“Uh, guys, you might want to look here in the back of the truck. There’s all these cylinders of tibanna gas…”
(Far off BOOM.)
“What the frack was that?“
“…the comm station.”
“Uh-oh.”
Then again, those are my moments. The players, I’m sure, had others.
Great Stuff Chris and Noah!
And Noah, I wanted your moments… for your players’ best moments I would suggest a Beer & Pizza or Wine & Cheese before or during a game to reminisce. We did that for my 20th DMing anniversary last year (Complete with Catering Deli Sandwiches and a 1990 well-preserved Californian Bubbly) and it was a great night. (Being French rocks sometimes!)
Thanks all, I’m having a blast seeing all the different styles and it will feed my future posts for a long time!
Keep em’ coming…
Becky from Imaginary Dilemmas has posted her DM profile at this address:
http://www.knuthart.com/rebekah/blog/?p=22
Here we go!
(Down at the bottom of the page)
Surveys are fun! Thanks ChattyDM!
http://www.knuthart.com/rebekah/blog/?cat=10
From Ve4grm, re posted here for easier access.
What’s your current campaign’s elevator pitch (if not in a game, tell me about your next one or last one)?
Pretty basic. I’m running a 3.5e Dark Sun game. I’m pretty bad at writing the elevator pitch on the spot, though, so bear with me.
A group of outsiders and ex-slaves, taking what jobs they can, and trying to avoid getting killed while doing so. You start off in the freed city of Tyr, but work and adventure will take you further than you may think. From caravan guards to ancient ruins to espionage, you will have the options to explore all of this.
What Quote would best summarize your current GMing style?
“I have handle animal. I get my mount to sit on his head.”
I run a game where I try to make my PCs comfortable enough to ask to do things like that. In this case, they were faced with a telepath prisoner, who had just convinced the two strongest party members to release him. The PC figured that having a horse on his head would prevent him from exacting more mental control, as well as render him unconscious. I agreed.
They then proceeded to take him back to the city strapped below the mount. Y’know, for easy sitting.
I also tend to run games that don’t follow the “default” rules. Alignments aren’t set by the racial writeup. In the current game, there are no Dragons (part of the setting). Things like that. If you’re hard-set in your ways, you may not enjoy my games. But three of my players are brand new, and they’re learning through this campaign. This makes it easier.
I also improvise a lot in my games. Over-preparing is often wasted, so I flex my improv muscles as much as I can.
What Role Playing games are you GMing right now (or plan on GMing soon)?
D&D 3.5e. I also run d20 Modern occasionally, and am looking forward to D&D 4e.
What do you look for in a game session to make it a great session?
Player participation and enjoyment. If they’re involved, I’m having fun. And if they’re enjoying themselves, so am I. Or more to the point, if they’re not involved or enjoying themselves, it’s impossible for me to do so.
What do you look in a multi-session adventure to make it a great adventure?
For a longer adventure, I want to see a bit of emotion at times. I’ve hit this a few times in my latest campaign, and hope to incite a bit of rage at the bad guy this session as well, regarding a friend of the party.
What tends to decrease your fun the most in a single session?
Sugar. No, seriously. My group has had, in the past, a bad tendency to bring sugary snacks. Way too many of them. So they place the snacks around the table (takes up room, and has to be moved in order to use the battle mat), pig out for a short time, sugar rush, and then crash after an hour. I’m trying to keep the sugary snacks down lately.
Tell me about your fondest RPG memory as a GM?
Besides the Wight Dragon?
Possibly the one-stroke death of the BBEG from City of the Spider Queen. That adventure was the most annoying adventure we have ever played. (“Hey look, a drow. Oh, there’s another identical drow.”) So when I tried to GM it, taking over from another GM who was getting sick of it (this was my first time GMing as well), I decided to shorten it by cutting out the last half of the tower and lowering the levels of the last encounter. The players were level 14, the BBEG was a level 17 cleric, with a level 15 wizard and some guards with her.
The fighter (who was rolled up hastily to replace the player’s wizard who got killed by a beholder in a single round) won initiative, charged, swung, and killed the cleric.
Outright. No massive damage. Just a swing, near-max damage, and she was down. She even had her defensive spells already up.
The round continued with a minion healing her back to consciousness, but it was no use. Another swing knocked her below -10, and the rest of the battle was over quickly. Heck, it may have been hand-waved, due to the single-hit kill of the BBEG freaking out the others.
It was a fitting, shortened ending to an awful, shortened adventure.
Thanks, ChattyDM.
I have one more thing to add for the “decreases the fun” point. This applies as both a player and a DM.
Save-or-Die.
Really, when your character hinges on a single die roll, it sucks. Always.
* What’s your current campaign’s elevator pitch (if not in a game, tell me about your next one or last one)?
It would have to be the last one, I am taking a turn as a player. The last adventure I ran it was on a homegrown world of mine called Ter’Wasser (basically a great war turned the planet into a bunch of islands). They PC’s where in with a pirate band (which they assume the leadership of this band later) that started out with a supposely simple task of getting a treasure map fragment from a former captain had. This led them on a series of adventuring to discover this map lead to a uncharted island on the far side of the world where lived the last living land dragon and to a cleric/mage that was going to use this dragon to clone to create a army of dragons..
* What Quote would best summarize your current GMing style?
Never let the rules or dice get in the way of a good game.. or nothing is impossible just assign
the right modifier (case in point I gave a PC a million to one change ie rolling 7 0’s on d10’s to give a demi-god a orgasm.. well the PC did it)
* What Role Playing games are you GMing right now (or plan on GMing soon)?
I am taking a break from GMing to work on my own games, playtest them and try to get a group together that works to create a better RPGing community and one that can reach out to help others (ie offer something other than the streets)
* What do you look for in a game session to make it a great session?
Lots of RPGing, making characters and NPC memorable. not trying to railroad characters, allowing much freedom in character design and behavior. Interesting new monsters, spells and villians
interesting plots and subplots..
* What do you look in a multi-session adventure to make it a great adventure?
Freedom of choice, interesting plots and subplots, interesting villians
* What tends to decrease your fun the most in a single session?
Rule lawyers, crybabies, people that legally or iilegally munchkin characters,
PC killer DM’s etc.. etc..
* Tell me about your fondest RPG memory as a GM?
When I had created a adventure that evoked strong emotions in the PC’s when they actually cared about the NPC’s, when one of them cried when his familar died.. another was visibly angered that the bad guy walked from justice and then finally the tore emotions between trying to find some way to find him guilty or killing him outright and risk jail time themselves..
Thanks for taking the time to comment Orion. Fell free to browse and comment on anything, I keep an eye on things. 🙂
1 What’s your current campaign’s elevator pitch (if not in a game, tell me about your next one or last one)?
‘Ordinary’ folk caught up in an ancient struggle with the world’s fate in the balance. While they seek to live out their lives peacefully and quietly, events force them into action to defeat the universe’s oldest evil.
2 What Quote would best summarize your current GMing style?
“All aboard Wiz’s Monty Haulish Railroad!” Am improving, but my lack of experience has me being overly cautious where withholding treasure and dealing pain are concerned and a tendency to push the players in one direction or other (so I can use what I’ve prepped).
3 What Role Playing games are you GMing right now (or plan on GMing soon)?
System: 3.5 D&D, Setting: Ptolus
4 What do you look for in a game session to make it a great session?
Heroism and humor within (and even outside of) the game.
5 What do you look in a multi-session adventure to make it a great adventure?
A building of tension and drama that makes everyone want to play the next session as soon as possible.
6 What tends to decrease your fun the most in a single session?
Confusion, takesy-backsies, nondescript combat and RP encounters, grumbly players or DM.
7 Tell me about your fondest RPG memory as a GM?
When my players started thinking like their characters and virtually ‘living’ in the setting.
1 What’s your current campaign’s elevator pitch (if not in a game, tell me about your next one or last one)?
– Zombies attack a large mage enclave. Heroes are brought in to defend them, but something happens. . . Something always happens . . .
2 What Quote would best summarize your current GMing style?
– Quote? Hmm. I can’t think of a quote, but I have to say it is very character and improv with the situation based.
3 What Role Playing games are you GMing right now (or plan on GMing soon)?
– Silvervine, going to be running a DND eberron soon.
4 What do you look for in a game session to make it a great session?
– If the players are having fun and engaged.
5 What do you look in a multi-session adventure to make it a great adventure?
– Players involved in the story that is going on. If they aren’t engaged in the story then the story should morph to bring them in.
6 What tends to decrease your fun the most in a single session?
– Lag time where nothing goes on.
7 Tell me about your fondest RPG memory as a GM?
– Doing a one on one battle with the DM and my self acting out the attacks just for pure reasons of making it look cool. We tried to cut it short because the other players weren’t involved, and they asked us to keep going, they were enjoying the cinematic battle.
Thanks John,
This reminds me that I should do something with all that good stuff!