Tomb of Horrors, Part 1 Four adventurers (and a host of backup adventurers) set out on a quest to conquer the most notorious dungeon ever constructed. How did we fare? This is our tale… After a morning of pushing your barges through the stagnant waters of the Vast Swamp, you arrive at the presumed site…
Tag: tips
An Army of One There is beauty in organized play, tabletop RPGs, like the Pathfinder Society or the Adventurers League. To be sure, it’s a different kind of beauty than is to be found in a ongoing campaign with its engaging story arcs and sense of consistency, both player and plot. In many ways, organized…
Whew! It’s been quite a year – a little over a year since I decided to take Roadtrip! beyond the living rooms of my family and closest friends. I mean really, that’s the true test of a game. Most experienced game designers, as I discovered, blatantly laugh at you if you speak to them enthusiastically about your…
A little more than a month ago, I posted my top three tips and tricks on GM’ing. Shortly thereafter a reader took exception with one of my tips, pointing out that the players, not the GM, own the story. Of course, the reader is correct. The players control how the plot unfolds. Their PCs are in…
As I decompress from the wonderful time I had at Double Exposure’s Metatopia, I thought I would share the top 3 insights I learned from my experience. Admittedly, I don’t have a time-turner; I couldn’t be everywhere and meet everyone (to my sadness). Like most cons this one was overflowing with panels, events, LARPS, tabletops, and…
Prose, Props & Pungent Odors I love to GM. There is something so fundamentally creative at its core. Though I’d really love to have the time to create worlds and adventures from scratch, running published campaigns still affords plenty of opportunities to flex my imagination muscles. The trouble with GM’ing, however, rarely comes from the creation, consumption,…
For the last several years, I’ve attended many game design workshops and playtest events at a variety of conventions from Gencon to Kublacon. In them I have taken notes diligently (like any proper engineer and/or Capricorn would). In hopes of finding some sage advice for new-to-the-industry designers, considerable time was spent frittering over and re-re-rereading…
There are many ways for a designer to have a game playtested at Gencon. Your goals for playtesting (and you need to write them down, not just contemplate them) and your resources will determine what avenues you follow. Stonemaier Games just put out a great lessons learned from Gencon 2015 that encompasses broader concerns for exposure….
Naming a board or card game can be a tricky thing – one I had not remotely experienced until time came to finalize my 60’s summer vacation game’s name. Though I eventually settled on Roadtrip!, the agonizing process brought about a good deal of reflection on the subject. Not that I expect a name alone…
Roadtrip!’s Game Board Kludge – When Flavor Dominates, Everyone Cries Well, I’m nothing if not obstinate. Perhaps it’s the Capricorn in me; maybe it’s because I’m the first child; possibly it’s just because I don’t like the word impossible. Whatever the reason, I recognized that it took me entirely too long to fix some of…