As a DM that runs a tabletop RPG, it is your right and privilege to strike towns, lands, and whole continents with whatever form of catastrophe or disaster that strikes your fancy. Whether it is a terrible plague, massive tidal wave, or vicious invading army that sweeps through the area and all but wipes out the native inhabitants it is up to you to determine what happens with that location once the initial catastrophe has passed. These events could have happened hundreds of years before the characters were born or they could be the climatic event that finishes off a chapter of your game and opens up a new one. No matter when it happens, it is up to you as the DM to figure out how these events will effect your game world and how the players will experience the event and the aftermath.
The Dungeon Master Guys, Episode 8
Our special holiday episode. Each of the DM Guys has chosen 3 products that they’d recommend for all our listeners out there. Happy holidays!
A Very Gamma Christmas
“‘Twas the night before Christmas” / (or so the book said) / not an Ancient was stirring / (because they’re long dead)
“Leverage” RPG: The Misidentified Dolphin Job
The Miami Crew helps out a disgraced football player by reversing a lookalike brother con into a Kansas City Shuffle within a Xanatos Gambit.
From Here to There: Finally Here!
In which Chatty announces that his 4e Adventure is FINALLY out, steals from the publisher to describe the product as a whole and shares his designer notes and the dark secrets behind the adventure he wrote.
The Architect DM: World Building By Process
If you think about the world around us and how it came to be the way it is, most things you’ll look at are the result of a process. Villages were created out of a need for shelter and then grew into towns and some eventually grew into cities, while natural formations like mountain ranges rise and fall due to the workings of plate tectonics. When we set out to create a world for an RPG, or even for videogames and fiction, we are attempting to create a world that is the result of a process that has never actually happened. Some worlds can certainly have mountains that don’t line up along a range and aren’t even created by plates of earth shifting and colliding, but my personal belief is that if you are creating a world the best foundation you can use is that of the real world that we see all around us.
Fiasco Friday: Chatty’s Tale of Suburbia, Act 2 and Aftermath
In which Chatty concludes his tale of drugs, meaningless sex and violence in an unnamed American suburb. Reader discretion is advised.
Fiasco Friday: Chatty’s Tale of Suburbia, Act 1
In my quest to play as many different RPGs as I could before settling on new campaigns after the holidays, I finally got to play Fiasco last Friday. Here be the game report, part 1!
The Dungeon Master Guys, Episode 7
Chatty DM talks to some of the Gnome Stew guys about their Eureka GM guide, Dave The Game interviews Sarah Darkmagic about new DMs running for experienced groups, and Newbie DM gives advice about roleplaying.
The Architect DM: World Building Basics
So far the Architect DM series has focused primarily on locations and building design, but today and over the next few weeks I’m going to take a look at the larger scale idea of world building and some factors that play into designing a realistic and believable world to play your games in. As with many of the design aspects I’ve talked about previously, designing a realistic world can feel like one of the most intimidating and daunting tasks to undertake but in reality if you apply principles correctly it can make your efforts easier and better at the same time.
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