With this article the series “A stick and a carrot” is finished. I really hope you enjoyed reading this posts over the last months. Honestly I do not like the concept of experience points very much. When you kill ten people you may be more experienced, but you can hardly say that this can lead to better skills in reading and writing. I have always preferred to take down notes who did what. (more…)

This is a complex issue. It happens that a PC dies during gameplay. In the end most games are more or less combat oriented. Combat rules occupy major parts of the rulebook and there are few adventures totally free of combat. So you should be prepared to let them die. However do not kill them. There is no bodycount you have to achieve to be granted entrance to the Hall of Fame of GMs. (more…)

Respect is also important. Treat your world with respect. Do not hesitate to kill a NPC, but try to play them as human beings. I have seen more than once that a NPC that followed the party was used as cannon-fodder. No one does this. Except for absolute fanatics and dumbheads no one is willing to sacrifice his live for someone else. Play the NPCs this way. (more…)

Coming to the most important aspect of your game mastering: The world itself. The world with all its inhabitants, being it monsters or civilised people, is your medium to the players. They will judge you very much according to the setting and the reactions of the players.
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Sooner or later the adventure will lead to a combat. Combat rules should be fully understood, it is the place where flipping through the rulebook destroys most atmosphere. You should make notes of the combat procedures, copy the relevant tables and charts. When combat involves more than one opponent keep a journal. This should include the relevant skills for all opponents, room for notes (like modifiers) and room for projectiles. The last is especially important, since during combat people tend to forget to write down how many arrows or shots have been fired. The PCs may, after combat, search for fired arrows that are intact, but first of all keep note of this. (more…)

Traps are a difficult issue. First of all, do not overuse them. How many times have you seen a trap in real life? I have never. The reason is pretty simple: If you would be built a fortress and probably inhabit it with mentally challenged guards, you would never include complex and possibly deadly traps. (more…)

The classic riddle is almost extinct in modern games. There are few niches where it could survive, but most adventures that built on intellect rather than sheer muscle power do not have them. Sure they have a lot of investigations and things like this. But the classical three line riddle as seen in J.R.R.Tolkien’s hobbit, rarely does exist. (more…)

Whether you want to use pregenerated professional adventures or make your own is up to you. Generally it is better to start with pregenerated adventures. Even if you are an experienced game master, these adventure help you a lot to get a feel for the world. Pregenerated adventures however have some disadvantages: First of all, you must transport an idea that was thought out by someone else and probably you do not find it 100% convincing. (more…)