For my next roleplaying game campaign, I’m writing the foundation for a social drama campaign that I’ll then pass off to a co-GM who does a much better job at portraying Non-Player Characters and figuring out the logical (not just conventional) implications of choices. I lamented on social media that writing up the campaign so that someone else can take it and run with it is much more challenging than writing up a traditional, linear story adventure. This post deals with my approach to tackling those difficulties and provides tips for prepping social drama campaigns...
Hi, my name is Kat and I love bad guys. I have a bit of a reputation around the office as harboring “dark side force-princess fantasies,” and always being cast as the example dark side-using player during meetings. To be fair, it’s the Witches of Dathomir I think are sweet, not the Nightsisters, but the perception remains. Maybe it’s like Sam said, and I like breaking the taboo around Sith and Imperial characters, or maybe it’s because the bad guys I know and love have deeper and more nuanced motivations than the shallow...
Here is a little game I developed for use on my own RPG, but is generic enough to be of help to any forum game. Perfect for your Character Want Ads or Classifieds section, it is meant to help people flesh out their plot pages (or equivalent) by helping someone else before posting a request of their own. Step One – Request First, pick your parameters. What are you looking for in particular? Pick one or a couple from each of the following three headings: Category Family E.g. Spouse, Parent, Child, Sibling, Cousin, In-law Business E.g. Boss, Client, Coworker,...
Some weeks ago I’d mentioned I’d run One Seven Design’s one shot, Lady Blackbird: Adventures in the Wild Blue Yonder. I forget where I initially heard about it, but I was immediately struck by the quality of the publications, and moreso the price. Free! Thinking to indulge my players’ known love for steampunk, I sent the project to Staples to be printed and called my friends over. But not before picking up some lemon-raspberry coffeecake and mini muffins, and brewing a pot of black tea with orange and sweet spice notes. As opposed to starting...
As you may well have guessed from my inclusion of astrology, Tarot, and totemic/polytheistic home-brew material in my discussion of role-playing games, I’m a practicing pagan. Today is one of those days that’s kind of a big deal: it’s simultaneously Midsummer and the First Day of Summer (yeah, explain that one to me), also known as “Liþa” (Litha) in the Saxon tongue. It’s a celebration of love, fire, and growth, be it of the land, body, or soul. Intwischa has a rather timely article up on Ritual-Driven Adventures: the Rites of the...
