A Butterfly Dreaming » Advice

The Year is 1806…

Scott — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:00:52 +0000

Fantasy roleplaying games, as a rule, are set in fictional medieval or early-Renaissance Europe. There’s certainly nothing limiting them to that setting, though; Dungeons & Dragons alone has featured settings derived from the ancient Middle East, China and Japan, and South and Central America. The ancient world, the medieval, and the modern era have all [...]

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The Year is 1806…

Dealing with Disconnects: Cautious Combatants

Scott — Mon, 30 May 2011 18:00:45 +0000

Sometimes when you’re running a game, you want to emulate a novel or movie. Being unscripted, though, a game is a different sort of animal: the gamemaster may be the main storyteller, but he doesn’t have control over the protagonists. This can lead to disconnects between the way heroes act in the “source” fiction and [...]

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Dealing with Disconnects: Cautious Combatants

Maps and Legends

Scott — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:30:42 +0000

This month, A Character for Every Game is hosting the RPG Blog Carnival. The topic is cartography. Maps are obviously pretty vital to most campaigns. You’ve got maps of fantasy worlds, of dungeons, of the city your superheroes are based in, of the star systems (or galaxies!) your space-opera heroes are flying between, of the [...]

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Maps and Legends

Launching a Campaign: The Ground Rules Sheet

Scott — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 14:00:03 +0000

As I mentioned in my previous post, it’s important to inform your players about some of your assumptions before you begin your campaign. I find the easiest way of doing so is to provide a handout that summarizes some of the basic information about the campaign. A cheat sheet, if you will. The sheet should [...]

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Launching a Campaign: The Ground Rules Sheet

Launching a Campaign: Realism vs. Ease

Scott — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:14:39 +0000

As I prepare to launch a new campaign, I’m running into the early decisions that help shape one. They seem like useful candidates for blog posts, so today I’m going to consider one of those early decisions: How much should I emphasize realism (or verisimilitude, if you want to get semantic) in the game? Most [...]

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Launching a Campaign: Realism vs. Ease

Cool Alone Isn’t Enough

Scott — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:57:11 +0000

So, it’s been a while. In the midst of that real-life stuff that I’m not going to get into, my games more or less evaporated, and lack of gaming leads to lack of inspiration to write about gaming. Things seem to be picking up on both fronts, though. Fingers crossed for the gradual relaunch of [...]

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Cool Alone Isn’t Enough

Adding Fear to Your Game

Scott — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:45:15 +0000

…Okay, obviously, my last plan didn’t quite work out. So, rather than tempt fate again, I’ll just say I’ll post when and as I’m able, and leave it at that. Moving on… Happy Halloween. In keeping with the spirit of the holiday, I thought I’d say a little about fear in your game. Maybe you’re [...]

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Adding Fear to Your Game

Rampant Sects

Scott — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:31:58 +0000

(This is a repost. This article was originally posted on November 24, 2008.) In my last post, I talked a little bit about how religions are rarely monolithic in reality — how they splinter into a network of related sects, some of which can believe very different things. Today I offer a brief illustration: three [...]

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Rampant Sects

Character Development: Flashbacks

Scott — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:01:39 +0000

(This is a repost. This article was originally posted on August 9, 2008.) We’re all familiar with the use of the flashback in literature, film, and television: The “current” narration fades out, showing us a sequence that establishes some event or events that took place in the past of the story. This device is used [...]

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Character Development: Flashbacks

Character Development: Quick and Dirty Backgrounds

Scott — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:44:53 +0000

Ever needed to sketch out a replacement player character or a major NPC when time is short? Want to add a little depth to that cult leader or the deputy mayor? Sometimes you just don’t have the time to dedicate to preparing a full, in-depth background — or you want to leave some room for [...]

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Character Development: Quick and Dirty Backgrounds