The Personal Module Tale

We talk about Dead in the Water and how you can break down the modules you see and read to make them more your own and get inspiration for the campaigns you want to run. Continue reading “The Personal Module Tale”

The Party’s Problem Tale

We talk about how to make adversaries and villains build in power, how to make them build in threat relevant to your player characters, and how to make these characters be more of an actual character to your players than just cardboard cutouts. Continue reading “The Party’s Problem Tale”

The Obligation Tale

We have Kristine Chester on to talk about obligation and ways to braid it into your plots so they don’t become plot derailing intrusions into your story and complement the characters that are there.

Things talked about on the show:

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The Party Starting Tale

We talk about getting the players to be hooked for an adventure lead and how to make them more of a player party instead of just players. From discussing other RPGs to how to manage disagreements we have a jam packed episode for you today. Continue reading “The Party Starting Tale”

The Silhouette Zero Tale

Chris Ing has been a part of Heroes almost from the start, but Ben wanted to talk to him about his other podcast Silhouette Zero and two person gaming in general since it isn’t the typical way to run Star Wars RPG from FFG

Continue reading “The Silhouette Zero Tale”

The NPC Voice Tale

This week it’s Beka and Ben talking about how to make NPCs feel like PCs quickly or in more depth when you have time. We also hear about one way that doing world building can be of great benefit for you the GM.
Continue reading “The NPC Voice Tale”

The Scene Building Tale

What goes into making a scene an scene? How can you drive the players in the direction you want them to? What do you do to spur the players into motion? We talk about this and more in todays episode. Continue reading “The Scene Building Tale”

The Subplot Tale

This week we dive into Duty and Obligation and how to make them feel like a part of the whole story instead of a switch track stealing your plot. From simple ideas on how to weave a subplot into narrative, to ideas on where to look for incremental methods we have it here for you. Continue reading “The Subplot Tale”

The Rock Star Tale

We got thinking of the classic question, what do you do when you have a character that feels like a mismatch to your party? David and Ben talk about how to turn this seeming weakness into a vibrant strength. From snipers to faces and many places in between. Continue reading “The Rock Star Tale”

Interview with the People on Heroes

Ben interviews the rest of the cast of Heroes of the Hydian Way. The dependable editor Kristine, the personable Chris, the deep Brent, and the energetic Leslie all share bits of themselves with you in this episode. Continue reading “Interview with the People on Heroes”

The Inspiration Tale

We talk about where we get some ideas for campaigns and characters, giving special thought to how to turn movies into Age of Rebellion Campaigns. Continue reading “The Inspiration Tale”

Eyes Up – A Most Dangerous Dungeon

I came across an article about the Yucca Mountain waste facility and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) when the warning labels that they are trying to put in place for radioactive waste jumped out at me. This could be the label sitting over the enclosed domain of a lich or a warning for a great evil. It’s started to make me very interested in these ideas of how to best keep people out of an abandoned, and dangerous, facility. This is a very realistic but grim view of how people design these facilities.

Continue reading “Eyes Up – A Most Dangerous Dungeon”

Eyes Up – Starting to the Side of Things

Something weird happened with the last Eyes Up, people asked questions and commented. Here’s one that I knew would take me longer than a 5 minute response to have the answer be any sort of use.

Continue reading “Eyes Up – Starting to the Side of Things”

Confessions of a Newb GM: Vary Your Encounters

Few things leave me as bored as a GM or player than two sets of characters sitting at the opposite sides of a map running at each other. When several of these instances are chained together I start to wonder if I’m playing chess. I generally prefer chess in those situations. Those people can party like you’d never believe. Continue reading “Confessions of a Newb GM: Vary Your Encounters”

Eyes Up – Diamonds in the Rough

Here’s something I’ve been dealing with lately that keeps jumping to the front of my mind. How can I deal with a published adventure that has significant problems with it but has a single diamond in the rough that will drive some great sessions?

Continue reading “Eyes Up – Diamonds in the Rough”

Confessions of a Newb GM: How to Not Win an RPG

In Dungeons and Dragons I was able to game my DM because we never went up against a group of NPCs that were smart enough to attack the real healer. Every single one of the NPC groups had an INT score high enough to go for the healer, I just made sure I wasn’t the first one to heal. They would never retarget after the other healer stopped and I started. This realization allowed me to win D&D. Winning any RPG is one of the most pyrrhic things I can think of doing. It’s boring and you should never let this happen to your group. Continue reading “Confessions of a Newb GM: How to Not Win an RPG”

Eyes Up – Taking the Boring out of Randomness

GMs have to strike a weird balance in ongoing campaigns. Don’t do too much preparation; so that when players go off the blazed trail you aren’t starting the nights campfire with your notes. But, also have enough structure so they aren’t just spinning on the log flume again and again going nowhere. All while having a little bit of fun while doing it. Many people look to random tables to solve the preparation issue to avoid burning out from creative fatigue. The problem with that is many of the encounters I’ve seen using encounter tables have been horrible; worse than just throwing a dart at the index. There is little life to the encounter and the GM doesn’t understand how the monsters are to be utilized in the scene.

Continue reading “Eyes Up – Taking the Boring out of Randomness”

Eyes Up – Directing Your Campaign

You need direction at the table. If you’re reading this I’ll assume you aren’t trying to flesh out your Imperial Assault or Descent games just for that little extra bit of story. I mention this because the standard villain of the week approach is boring. It’s boring on TV and it’s boring on the table. A campaign has structure. A campaign needs structure, even if it’s loose, otherwise you and the players will spin your wheels after a while and people will drift away.

Continue reading “Eyes Up – Directing Your Campaign”

Confessions of a Newb GM: Rooms as Costume

When setting a scene you should have a reason for the players to be in the encounter whether that reason is a piece of information, a contest that one is going to participate in, or an NPC they have to deal with for other reasons. Any situation the party has in front of them has multiple solutions to it and as a GM you should be trying to show at least a few of these solutions. Continue reading “Confessions of a Newb GM: Rooms as Costume”

Confessions of a Newb GM: Skills and Structured Events

I want to help clear up a misconception that I’ve seen again and again in discussions. Skills are skills. It doesn’t matter if they’re knowledge skills, combat skills, bow hunting skills, or computer hacking skills it all comes back down to: The way you use a skill in one situation is the same as in any other situation. Continue reading “Confessions of a Newb GM: Skills and Structured Events”

Confessions of a Newb GM: Making NPCs That Care

Getting a group together and sitting down to play can be fairly nerve wracking for a GM. Building the world that people are living in is a weird sort of skill to expand. I see the expectation time and again in many RPG products, GMs are expected to be able to go create something and make it wonderful for players off the top of their head. Continue reading “Confessions of a Newb GM: Making NPCs That Care”

Confessions of a Newb GM: Scaling the Story

As I have done more and more planning for different campaigns, I find that beginnings and endings to have to be the most solid points. Without these two points set in stone the wild twists and turns that the players throw at me have a knack for throwing me into a tailspin that takes quite a bit to recover from. Continue reading “Confessions of a Newb GM: Scaling the Story”

Confessions of a Newb GM: Loudly Thinging

Creating a good atmosphere with your games locations is both amazing and hard to accomplish. Adding to the tale that is retold over drinks another day is a great feeling for a GM, but a problem arises when the setting is all there is. A carefully crafted setting can bring great excitement and create an eerie mood, for instance, but if the encounters are all similar the setting slowly loses its majesties. If every room and hallway that the players get into is of a similar style, everything around it becomes routine; making any positive impressions made fade into a faint grey shroud. Continue reading “Confessions of a Newb GM: Loudly Thinging”

Confessions of a Newb GM: Communicating Trust

I’ve just started a group in my Lepskin campaign. I trust that they’ll be playing to have fun and to try to tell a good story while working to bring what is cool to them to the table. They trust that I am making adventures that have direction to them, but also that I’ll let them go and explore the sector I have made up a framework for.  I’ve advertised that the players are able to make a sizeable contribution to this campaign setting and, at the moment, I’m trusted to follow through. Continue reading “Confessions of a Newb GM: Communicating Trust”

Confessions of a Newb GM: The Fuzzy Future

You’ve read GM sections so you know preparation is the key to a successful session, you’ve probably heard this in regards to almost everything. For a newer GM it’s true. Preparation ahead of time means having the depth of knowledge to react to a party that wants to go anywhere but the nice little path that you have lain before them. Continue reading “Confessions of a Newb GM: The Fuzzy Future”