Game Master's Journey

We continue our discussion of characters, including our fifth PC. We then start with the first scene of the campaign.

We introduce the characters and tell a little about their backgrounds. Dwayne as Iorek, a Tiefling Wild Magic Sorcerer; Nathan as Samson, a Human Order of the Immortal Psion; Steve as Raith, an Eladrin Bladesinger Fighther/Wizard; Kyle as Sprout, a Goliath Nature Cleric of Primordia; and Chrissy as Azriel, an Aasimar Great Old One Warlock.

Nathan and I discuss the psion/mystic class, which he is going to playtest. We talk about how psionics will work in Primordia, and how it will interact with magic. We also discuss his character, Samson, and the Order of the Butterfly. Nathan does a great job of coming up with new lore in the world to support an Order of the Immortal psion. 

Dungeon Master Chris from the Dungeon Master’s Block podcast joins me on the show today to discuss game mastering and worldbuilding.

Today I set off again on the Obsidian Monolith to respond to your feedback and do my best to answer your questions about game mastering. These questions inculde: How do I control the pacing of my game? How do I make session notes that are easy to reference during play? How do I make published adventures not feel like a railroad? How do I make combat fast and interesting without feeling like a separate mini-game?

Today I set off again on the Obsidian Monolith to answer the question, “How do I become a game master?” In the second of my series of GM 101 episodes, I respond to your feedback and do my best to answer your questions about game mastering. I discuss session zero, speeding up and slowing down combats, when to house rule (and when not to), worldbuilding and thinking on your feet.

Running a game requires a lot of creativity and thinking on your feet. So what do you do when you’re out of ideas? Today I set off again on the Obsidian Monolith to share three resources that can help you out when your creative well has run dry. These products can be invaluable to you during your prep, and even during play.

For a show about game mastering, there are precious few episodes about how to BE a game master. That ends now. Today I set off again on the Obsidian Monolith to answer the question, “How do I become a game master?” In this first of my series of GM 101 episodes, I will do my best to share what I’ve learned in my over 20 years of experience as a game master.

John Marvin of Dread Unicorn Games joins me on the show today to discuss the art of game mastering. We discuss his recent series of blog post articles in which he unpacks the instant adventure format for designing and running adventures. We also talk about third party publishing in RPGs and John’s upcoming 13th Age supplement, Gods and Icons.