Never Enough Games

Out of curiosity, what do you do when you want to run more games than you reasonably have time for? Because lately the bug has been hitting me a lot. I love the two games I'm running, I don't want to end them, but there are so many other games out there right now that I also really want to run. It's pretty much the reason I made the "Campaign Proposals" series on here, but I'm not even sure if it's enough right now.

What You Show = How It Feels

As a quick warning, there are very minor spoilers in this for Man of Steel.

Sunday I brought my dad out to see Man of Steel. We've always done movies as a 'thing' together and now with me being older and out in the work place I try to find an excuse to go see movies with him whenever I can really. Now, the qualities of the movie aside, the end of the movie is a wonderful example of how you can control the feel - and relative brutality and darkness - of a world and work by what you show the audience. Today I want to talk about that, as it is a key component for lots of games but especially for folks trying to run more light hearted Super Hero adventures or cold/dark/brutal black trenchcoat type games.

Theme And Why It Matters

This post was originally supposed to be about breaking away from the canon of an established setting. It ended up being about Theme and why Theme is important. It's a bit disorganized, but theme is a weird topic for me. Hopefully you'll still find it worth pondering.

Happy Father's Day

Mother's get a lot of credit. Year in, year out we're constantly told to appreciate our mothers. Good fathers very rarely get the credit they deserve, and are often the reason why mothers are given as much vocal appreciation as they're given. Don't take this wrong, I don't want to take anything away from mothers, but this year for Father's day I want all the dads out there to feel extra special and loved.

Happy Father's Day. Keep on being a great dad! Your sons and daughters need you.

Discussion: Your Prep to Winging It Proportion

Everyone has a different level of comfort when it comes to running their games. Personally, I love being fully prepared for a game session. If I have the time to get everything set up I find that things run a lot better. Unfortunately, I don't always have the time and end up having to wing things.

Today I want to discuss just how much you like - or can get by with - having planned versus how much you like to wing it. Now, both have their advantages. Winging it shines when the players go off the plan and end up going in new directions. Preparation shines when the players dig into something and find that there is a lot of meat on the plot's bones.

So, how much do you like of either?

Like I said, I prefer having a lot planned, but generally I can get by with the broad strokes being planned and winging some of the linking stuff. I dislike having to wing the entire session - though I can and often do for the first few sessions of a game or arc to get  afeel for what is going on. How about yourself?

Politics

Politics is one of the harder things to pull off in a game. In all honestly I've been playing RPGs for about 20 years and I've played dozens of games with dozens of GMs in that time. You know how many GMs I've played with that I'd say were actually good, not just passable or decent but actually good, at running politics? Two. That isn't a shot at all the other GMs either by the way. Politics is hard. It's one of my weak areas. Still, there are some things to keep in mind that can help you out. Let's talk about those.

Starting A Conspiracy

I have lofty ambitions. It sounds strange saying it, but I do. The problem is that I'm not exactly sure how to enact my lofty ambitions, which could be problematic because I'm hoping to get started with them tonight. See, today - when you are reading this - is the Wednesday night that my Shadowrun game falls on. The game has been going well. We have a nice mix of Pink Mohawk and Black Trenchcoat going on. I mean, sure, the game started with the intention being to go fully Pink Mohawk, but my and my regular players natural tendencies seem to be straying away from that, and so we're hitting a happy mid point (still well on Pink Mohawk's side, of course.) However, today I want to start a conspiracy. Or rather, I want to start a mission that will get the PCs embroiled in a conspiracy.