Last week, we began looking at the essentials of designing your campaign. It was a big topic, so I had to split it into two sections. Today’s entry will finish what we started, as we look at the remaining three basic campaign arrangements. In case you’ve forgotten, last week we discussed the ‘Episodic’ and ‘Set-Piece’ design systems. Today, we will cover ‘Branching,’ ‘Puzzle Piece,’ and ‘Enemy Timeline.’
Category Archives: Game On!
Board Game Review: Kingsburg
There’s a game called Kingsburg that I’ve played a few times with the local tabletop gaming club. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to play, which is a shame, because I really enjoy this game. So I think the time has come to review it for all my fine readers out there! We start, as always, with our ratings.
How to GM Part 3: Designing Your Campaign (1st of 2)
Things are looking up for you; now you’ve chosen a game and have a group of players willing to play it. What do you do next? The first step, obviously, is to design the overall campaign. This sounds like a daunting task, so let’s look at some advice and tips on how to do that in the most effective manner possible.
Please note that this section is going to cover a lot of material. I don’t want to overwhelm you, though, so I’m going to break it up into two parts. We’ll do part A today, and I’ll finish with part B next week.
How to GM Part 2: Finding Players
So you’ve found a game that you want to GM. You’ve looked at the systems, examined the genres, and decided which one was best for you. Now you have to complicate matters by adding extra people to the mix. You need to find some players to play in your game.
Today’s entry will be an examination of the things to consider when selecting players. We’ll look at fitting players to your game, fitting players to each other, choosing a group size, fitting players to you as GM, and (some might argue, most importantly) fitting everyone’s schedule together.
Divisive Behaviour in the Gaming Community
I was thinking about the way that people exclude one another. Once upon a time, humans lived in a society in which inclusion was essential. Before the advent of agriculture, humans did not tolerate behaviour that benefited an individual over the tribe. After we started farming, though, ownership became important, and it changed everything. Now we live in a society that stresses individual good over group cohesion. The divisive nature of modern society has a far reaching impact; it even affects the gaming community. Today, I would like to discuss the nature of that division.