In the early days of RPGs when DnD was the only game available, wandering monsters served the mechanical purpose of whittling down the PCs’ resources based on the time they took, eliminating the possibility of players working around challenges via time consuming and convoluted plans or camping to regain spells after every encounter. Thematically, they displayed to players that an area was alive and dangerous.

Sadly, the wandering monster has fallen out of favor in modern games. While they can still be found with some searching, they’re no longer as prominent as they once were, mostly due to their reputation as an unnecessary time sink and the hobby’s attempt to be inclusive of as many play styles as possible. However, the noble and misunderstood wandering monster has much to offer your game if used effectively and with some care.

Wandering monsters still serve the function of giving an area a sense of life and danger, but a well thought out selection of wandering monsters can also serve to lend flavor to your campaign. Give careful thought to selecting wandering monsters appropriate to the area in which they are found. Also consider other factors that you may wish to showcase, such as season, weather, or holidays or other special events.

Dispensing clues and adventure hooks via wandering monsters is also a way to greatly increase their usefulness. Even if a particular encounter couldn’t plausibly shed light on the current story arc, dropping clues to possible side quests, hidden locations, or even the overarching story is a great way to get extra mileage out of the humble wandering monster without the hint seeming too forced.

Don’t forget that Wandering monsters don’t always have to be monsters. Weather patterns, tracks, hidden caches, small locales not linked to the story, and NPC allies and personalities are all good alternatives to monsters. These other options are usually faster than a combat encounter and can add the same kind of flavor to your game. These are especially good options to mix with standard wandering monsters. Fighting a monster in a storm, by a roadside shrine, or with a notable NPC are all good ways to make a seemingly mundane encounter memorable.

Wandering monsters also give your players new ways to exercise their roleplaying muscles, and try new approaches without the same risks as story based encounters. In games I have run or played, random monster encounters have led to magic item trades, formation of new trade routes, trophy hunting, unusual modes of transportation, cockamamie get rich quick schemes, and unlikely allies.

While wandering monsters can be an element of your game that requires careful planning or quick improvisation, they have the potential to be much more than time consuming speed bumps on the road to more relevant encounters.

Related posts:

1. Troy’s Crock Pot: Make My Monsters Modern
2. World Building: Monsters and Myths
3. The Decamer Campaign: Start with D&D’s 10 Stupidest Monsters…
4. D&D Burgoo: NPC creation finds a new path
5. Loose Prep, Detailed Play

Friday Night  6:00 PM – Westin : Grand Ballroom IV: The ENnies: The 10th Annual EN World RPG Awards
Saturday 10:00 AM – Marriott : Santa Fe – Eureka! Cooking Up Adventure Plots with Gnome Stew

If you can’t find us at one of those, here is a handy picture guide to the Gnomes in attendance, in reverse last-name alphabetical order -  because I felt like it.

“DNAPHIL” Phil Veccione	Kurt “Telas” Schneider	Martin Ralya	Scott Martin
Walt Ciechanowski	Patrick Benson	John Arcadian

Ok, with that self-aggrandizement out of the way, we wanted to answer a suggestion from the pot by BryanB.

For you GenCon veterans….

Where are the ideal places to park (cost v. location)?

What are some of the tasty places to eat in the downtown area?

What are some of the cool sites to see in Indy?

Well Bryan, we’ve got a fair amount of info for you from the Gnomes. There are lot of people out there more qualified than us, so lets point you to some links first.

Links

The Gencon Survival Guide – Nice, clean, helpful – Alan De Smet’s site is a great source for Gencon info. http://www.highprogrammer.com/alan/gaming/cons/gencon_survival.html

Madbrew Lab’s Restaurant & Pub Guide – A great little list of Gencon eating establishments.
http://www.madbrewlabs.com/gencon-restaurant-pub-guide/

The Gencon Community Forums – There are a lot of great things here for Gencon Attendees.

The Forums – http://community.gencon.com/
Places to Eat – http://community.gencon.com/forums/p/24045/269173.aspx
30 Quick Gencon Tips – http://community.gencon.com/forums/t/19953.aspx?PageIndex=1

Sean K Reynold’s Gencon Tips – Sean Reynolds has quite a few good Gencon Tips for you at his website.
http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/gaming/gencontips.html

Gencon Travel Tips – This forum post at tabletopgamingnews.com has a lot of good info regarding travel to Gencon.
http://talk.tabletopgamingnews.com/index.php?topic=340.0

Gnome Tips

We Gnomes have a few ideas about Gencon ourselves,  so in alphabetical order by last name here are our tips for Gencon.

John’s Tips:

• If you haven’t gotten registered for games, don’t fret. Walk around the areas where gaming goes on as there are usually open games or people looking to throw down for an impromptu game. You’ll probably find a lot of nifty games you hadn’t thought of trying. This holds true for bigger events as well. If you don’t mind not being with your group, True Dungeon sessions usually always have one opening or a few no-shows that they try to fill.
• The VIG is a great way to go if you can. It is expensive but provides a lot of extra options.
• Don’t forget to get stuff signed when you are at booths. It goes like this. You pick up a book at a table and say that looks nifty. You talk to a guy behind the table about it and have a good conversation. You realize halfway through this person made the game. You buy the book and forget to get it signed. I always get wrapped up in conversations with game creators and forget that I’m talking to a game creator. I’ve got so many books from people I know on a first name basis but don’t have them signed, and that seems like a pity. The same holds true for art in the Artist hall. My office walls are covered with art from artists I’ve worked with and am friends with, but very few are signed. The artists and creators are flattered when people ask them to sign stuff, but at the same time few creators push their fame and won’t mention signing a book. They are just happy for the sale. Remember, get stuff signed. The creators love doing it.

 Walt’s Tips

• When I drove, I usually parked in the lot in front of Conseco Fieldhouse. I preferred the Circle Center parking garage, but you have to get up pretty early in the morning for a space.
• Eating for me is catch-as-catch can. Circle Center mall has a decent food court and India Garden has a great lunch buffet but is several blocks away. There are plenty of restaurants in the area.
• I’m not sure about weekends, but there are food street vendors outside the Convention Center on weekdays. If you’re just looking to grab a hot dog or drink then you’re probably better off there than inside the Convention Center.
• The dealer hall is only open from 11-6. If you want to spend time there, then you probably don’t want to load up on back-to-back morning and afternoon events.
• Don’t get suckered by the Skyway. While it may seem convenient, if you’re trying to get from Point A to Point B quickly then you’re better off going outside.
• Also check out Walt’s “From Con to Con: I was a Gen Con Virgin” article for some more great advice. – JA

Martin

• Head a couple blocks from the convention center for breakfast. Get
  over by the war memorial, and you’ll find the same inexpensive
  breakfast options minus the giant lines. Avoid Einstein’s Bagels.
• I like passing by the war memorial because it’s a very cool plaza, but apart from that I’ve seen very little of Indy — which is too bad, because it seems like an awesome city. Sorry I can’t help with this one!
• This will be the first year I’m not parking at my hotel, as I’ll be
  staying with DNAphil and his posse. He knows all the sexiest parking
  spots, though, so listen to him.

Telas

• I prefer to stay at the Embassy.  Never underestimate the power of a good breakfast.
• The food court at the convention center is a last resort.  If you can make it to the mall, you’ll have a better selection and value. 
• The Claddagh is still one of the best pubs I’ve ever been to in or out of Indy, although the Ram supports Gen Con more.  Claddagh’s menu, beer selection, and (Irish) whiskey selection rock.
• The pizza joint by the CVS was surprisingly good; can’t remember the name now.  The CVS deserves a mention, if only for getting drinks and snack food at near-normal prices. 
• Buca di Beppo is a great place to take a crowd; the servings are massive.
• The entrees at the Weber Grill underwhelm me every year, but the deserts keep bringing me back. 
• The sushi place near the Ram was decent, and was mostly empty during an afternoon. 
• Finally, this thread at community.gencon.com is worth it’s (virtual) weight in gold: http://community.gencon.com/forums/t/22456.aspx

Phil

• Parking — The lot connected to the convention center is the most expensive and fills up quickly, but it is very convenient in terms of getting to you car during the day.  If the lot connected to the convention center does not work, then the Circle Center Mall parking is the next spot, as it is also connected to the convention center, though just a bit farther to get to.
• Caffeine Intake — If you have the Caffeine monkey on your back, you are in luck.  There are a number of places to get coffee.  I favor the Starbucks in either the Marriott or the Westin.  Here is a money saving tip.  There is like a $3.00 difference between Iced Latte and an Iced Coffee.
• Food– Stake ‘N Shake is always packed at lunch, so expect to wait on line for a burger. What is not as well known is that they also make a good and inexpensive breakfast, and not nearly as busy. 
• I do most of my eating at Circle Center.  It’s close, and you can find a good variety of food.  Seating can be tricky, so its best to find a table first, and then get a meal.  Kind of like college all over again.
• Also, PF Changs (if you like it, I do) has take out.  So call it in and then take it somewhere else. We do that typically at night, for our open gaming.  Get a table, call in an order to Changs, and then eat while playing.
• Things To Do At The Con– For $5 you can get an auction tag, and bid on items in the auction.  The auctions are pretty hit and miss, but I have seen some incredible things come up for bid.  I got a first edition Whispering Vault book for $5.00.  Plus its also fascinating to watch what items people will bid on.  After some time in the auction room, look at the auction shop, where there are marked down items, without the bidding.  I have never left the auction shop without something in hand.

Hopefully these tips are helpful to attendees. If you’ve got any tips for Gencon, drop them in the comments section. We would love to hear them.

Related posts:

1. Gnomespotting: GenCon Edition
2. GenCon Registration Tips
3. Tips On Herding Cats (or How I Organize My Annual GenCon Trip)
4. From Con to Con: I Was a GenCon Virgin
5. You Pick It, I Review It–Gen Con 2010 (Updated!)

A solution that works for me is to stick to the core rules.

The core rules of any well-designed game have been extensively balanced and playtested. The PCs generated are designed to overcome the challenges that the game offers and there are usually more than enough options for the players to choose from so that no two PCs are alike or stepping on each other’s toes.

The flip side, of course, is that players love options and if you don’t allow character options from the Unbalanced Third Party Product that Nonetheless has Really Kewl Powerz then you’re likely to get some resistance. Sometimes the player begs, grovels, or holds your puppy hostage until you allow such a product into the game, opening the floodgates to more such options.

Here are a few reasons I’ve collected over the years in support of sticking to the core:

Adventures are generally written with the core books in mind.

Sure your favorite game line might have over 30 books, but chances are that the adventures are written so that you only need the core rules to play. This is intentional, as the publishers want to cast as wide a net as possible for GMs to buy their adventures. Requiring that new GMs (and even old ones) purchase 6 or 7 books before they can make use of an adventure is a good way to not sell a lot of adventures.

Coupled with this is balance. If the adventure designer is limited to the core books, then she usually isn’t worried about the crunch in other supplements when plotting her adventure. This increases the probability that a party of splatbook empowered PCs can run roughshod over what were meant to be intense encounters.

Supplements usually introduce power creep.

The more crunch that is produced, the more niche the crunch becomes, usually with a corresponding increase in power. In D&D 3.x, making a decent fighter/wizard combination required lots of trade-offs and the resulting character was nowhere near as good as a regular fighter or wizard. Enter the splatbooks and suddenly there are dozens of fighter/wizard combos in which this is no longer true. Maybe the fighter/wizard doesn’t have proficiency in the breadth of weapons a normal fighter does and maybe his spell list is a bit more limited than a true wizard, but does it matter mechanically if he still has the same attack bonus and caster level as his single-classed counterparts?

I said it above but it’s worth repeating; by sticking to the core you are using the most balanced set of rules. PCs will have less of a tendency to step into others’ niches or cause headaches when they unleash over-powered abilities.

Allowing Supplements may actually limit player options and creativity.

I once ran a 7th Sea campaign not long after the rules and the first few splatbooks had come out. I had a policy of allowing splatbooks at the time and I noticed that my players wouldn’t make characters of a particular nationality or secret society unless the supplement was available (indeed, I had some players pestering me on when I was going to be able to get particular supplements so they could play those characters). I remember a similar experience back when the AD&D 2e class handbooks (the ones with the “kits”) came out.

In addition, having the players “make do” with the core rules usually results in less “cookie-cutter” characters. To pick on D&D again, back in the “basic” days the “fighter” class represented all characters with a martial bent, whether you wanted to portray her as a barbarian, noble knight, roguish swashbuckler, mercenary soldier, or wilderness hunter. Once you start allowing classes that are tailored to some of those niches, players tend to look for appropriate classes in other splatbooks or abandon their concepts rather than use one that is a “poor fit.”

Too much crunch may result in too many specialists

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen a party get stumped because the PC they relied on in a particular field lacked the skill/feat/power/class feature they needed because he was using a “substitute” version of an archetype that was tailored to a particular niche. This can certainly cause problems in published adventures if the “substitute” PCs are too easily exploited because they have weaknesses that weren’t taken into account.

Too many options slows the game down.

There’s nothing that’ll slow a game down more than if you need to reference and cross-reference seven rulebooks in a game session, especially when splatbooks conflict with each other (which is common after a game is launched and several splatbooks are being drafted at the same time). Similarly, a player that needs to create a character will spend far more time building her if she can flip through twelve books in order to do so.

Practical Reasons

Finally, there are practical reasons to keep the core books down. The first of these is cash. By limiting yourself to the core, you and your players don’t have to spend a lot of money to keep up with the game. The second of these is the floodgate. Once you allow a player to use one splatbook, you lose your moral high ground to prevent the next player from introducing another.

Also, if you don’t run the game out of your home then you’ll only need to lug a few books to the game. While advances in technology are making portabilitiy less of an issue, it’s always good to have a hard copy with you if the power goes out or you’re the only one with a laptop in front of you.

So those are a few of my reasons; how about you? Have you ever run a “core only” campaign using an RPG with splatbooks? If so, did you find it helpful or limiting? What other reasons do you have for sticking to the core or, on the flip side, allowing extra crunch?

Related posts:

1. Boss Around the Gnomes: D&D 4e Core Books
2. House Rules: Official Supplements
3. Character Fixes: Making Characters Enjoyable
4. We Now Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Campaign…
5. The Main Cast Rule

How do you handle a narrative combat? Mainly, if you are used to miniatures and maps, and don’t want to use them anymore.

Prior to D&D 3.0, the majority of RPGs used narrative combat — IE, combat that’s largely descriptive, with a sketchy map if a map is used at all. From D&D 3e’s launch onwards, battlemap-driven combat, complete with minis, grids, and tactical movement, has become much more common and popular. (For simplicity, I’m going to call the latter “tactical combat” from here on out.)

My GMing experience is primarily with narrative combat, although I’ve run my share of campaigns with tactical combat, too. As a player, my experience is pretty evenly mixed. I like both styles for different reasons, and this article won’t be about the merits of one approach over the other.

When the gnomes were kicking renner’s request around on our mailing list, DNAphil had this to say:

Here is where you need to think of combat as dramatic and not tactical. Narrative combat exists more in description and less in maps. I like to use a simple map, drawn on a white board, not to scale. Just something to give the players their barrings. In narrative combat, when you finish a player’s turn or full round, give a recap of the action that has just happened. Think of it like a movie. Wave your arms around, make crazy sounds, describe it so the players can feel it.

Finally, in a narrative combat, give your players more leeway with what they want to do. In a tactical combat, you move X squares and your gun reaches Y yards away. In narrative combat, you may have movement rules, but if a player is just outside their range, let them have it, its not like you have a detailed map to scale.

As an overview of the high points of narrative combat, and the ways it differs from tactical combat, this is excellent — Phil knows his stuff. Using Phil’s comments as a jumping-off point, here’s my take on narrative combat.

Get Everyone On the Same Page

Being on the same page with your players is critical, especially if your group is used to tactical combat — switching to narrative combat can take some getting used to.

It seems obvious, but make sure your group knows going in that the game you’re going to run will feature narrative combat, and if necessary explain what that will mean: No tactical grids, no round-by-round tracking of position, no miniatures, and overall a greater emphasis on roleplaying over tactics.

Use the Tools at Hand

If you’re running a game that’s built for narrative combat, the rules should cover not only how combat works but how to make it enjoyable — use those tools. Once your group knows how combat works, they’ll see that pinpointing where PC A is relative to NPC X doesn’t matter so much, and shift their focus elsewhere.

Many games don’t really address narrative vs. tactical combat, though, instead assuming you’ll pick whatever works best for you. With those games, you’ll have to choose what you want to emphasize about narrative combat in play.

Dramatic and Cinematic

Narrative combat tends to focus more on the drama of the scene, and is often more cinematic than tactical combat. This isn’t to say that there isn’t plenty of room for both of those elements in tactical combat, just that in my experience they’re backgrounded. In narrative combat, they’re foregrounded.

Like Phil said up top, play up these aspects of the scene. Use evocative descriptions and encourage your players to do the same. Let players who like to describe the results of their PCs’ actions themselves to it with a flourish, and for those who prefer to have you describe what happens, do it with gusto.

Describe with Precision

If nothing is precisely mapped, everyone has to rely on your description of the combat when deciding what to do. Just because you have a clear vision of the battlefield in your head, don’t assume that your players do.

Sketch out the area on a whiteboard, a sheet of paper, whatever you have at hand. Point out spots that afford cover, dangerous hazards, and whatever else the PCs would know about the area.

To Map or Not to Map?

While drawing a sketchy map of the battlefield up front is almost always a good idea, updating that map as combat progresses is a slippery slope. If you update it every round, you’re now edging into tactical combat territory — and giving up the flexibility that makes narrative combat so much fun.

But if you never update the map at all, or refuse to map anything as a matter of policy, that’s even worse. You can’t be sure your players know what’s going on without mapping things out at least occasionally, so don’t forget that a battle map — however sketchy it may be — is still a valuable tool.

Play Loose

Phil mentioned this, and it’s a great point: In general, play a bit looser than you would with a battlemap and minis. If some aspect of combat needs to be decided and there’s no obvious answer, give the PC(s) involved the edge or the benefit of the doubt.

Don’t ignore the rules, but don’t dick your players over by worrying about how many feet apart everyone is at every moment — and, conversely, don’t be drawn into arguments over precise positioning and the like. In narrative combat, that stuff takes a distinct backseat to just having fun.

Cool Stuff Should Happen Often

One of the things I love about narrative combat is that with the focus shifted off the minutiae of tactical movement, counting squares, precise positioning, etc., it’s a lot easier for cool stuff to happen.

I always find that when the constraints of the rules are less obvious, as tends to be the case with narrative combat, I and my players tend to try more wild stuff, do things that just sound cool, and generally relax and have a different kind of fun. Encourage this.

Give bonuses for doing cool things, hand out action points for awesome descriptions, and generally reward your players for using the narrative aspects of combat to make the game more fun for everyone.

Learn as You Go

Like any other aspect of GMing, if you’re transitioning from a tactical combat-driven RPG like D&D 3.x and 4e to a system that uses narrative combat, expect everyone to make the occasional mistakes.

In play, handle them however makes the most sense at the time: retcon something if it doesn’t require redoing whole rounds of combat, or say “We’ll table that one to discuss after the game” to avoid getting bogged down. It’ll get easier with time!

What Else?

This is a big topic, and I’m sure there are things I missed — what else would be good for renner, or any other GM trying out narrative combat for the first time, to know?

Related posts:

1. Player Narrative
2. Johnny’s Five – Five Ways To Get Your Players Into Shared Narrative When It Isn’t The Focus Of The Game
3. Narrative Phrases
4. Bite-Sized GMing Tips: Issue 1
5. Running A Minimal Prep Game

The goal was to be the reader who came the closest to guessing the total of a roll of 1,414 dice (which I made on camera, viewable here) without going over.

The lucky/math-savant winner would take home this pair of custom-made, metal-inlaid dice, handcrafted by Dicecreator:

The winner was close. Like, insanely close. And that lucky winner was Gnome Stew reader manicrobot, with his guess of 6,874.

The actual total was 6,881 — manicrobot was off by seven. Seven! Congratulations, manicrobot!

Including the weirdo dice that don’t have numbers on them, the final result was: 6,881 + 10 blanks + “G” + a chest critical hit + yellow square + blue dot + three stars + the directions SW and E + emoticons oo <:-)> <:( + 6./x + Superman + D’oh (x2) + closed door in the dungeon + magnifying glass + elf + a Jack and Queen.

Which is one hell of a roll no matter how thin you slice it.

Thanks to everyone who entered, everyone who preordered the Eureka print + PDF bundle, and everyone who has snagged the PDF — you rock!

Related posts:

1. Gnome Rodeo: And the Winner Is… (Plus GMing Links)
2. Gnome Stew’s Book, Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots, Is Now Available for Preorder! (Plus: Win Custom-Made Dice!)
3. Illustrations vs. Descriptions: And the winner is . . .
4. Troy’s Crock Pot: A dicey situation
5. Gnew Taglines Gnoming Their Way to You

Homemade dice tower made from HirstArts Castlemolds.

This is my dice tower, lovingly crafted from HirstArts Castemolds bricks. Simple little thing. Sits right in front of me at the game table.

Not too long ago I would have scoffed at using a dice tower. But then I started to get wrist fatigue during games. The tower started to have a lot more appeal then. So, a few castings (and some liberal application of Aleene’s Tacky Glue) and a dash of paint later, I made this.

I may have mentioned this before, but as GM, I roll in the open anyway. I think it builds trust between the players and the GM. And everyone knows going in — your player character’s fate hinges on the dice. No fudging.

The stars and planets align

So, a recent session begins with me calling for an initiative roll. It that first toss, three 20s were showing, including one produced by the tower. “Well, it looks like it’s going to be one of those days,” I said.

But even I wasn’t prepared for how prophetic my words would be.

I don’t know if the summer equinox had something to do with it, the rumbling of the washing machine in the corner or even the alignment of the planets in the heavens. But it became quickly apparent this was a day when we’d be seeing a lot of 1s and 20s.

Not every roll came up 1s and 20s. But there were a lot of them. One of our players delights in pulling from the Paizo Critical Hit Deck, it’s strange results notwithstanding (“I play this game for FUN,” he said). This was his day. Boom. Boom. Boom. The deck delivered a great deal of bleeding and strange critical effects.

But it wasn’t just the players. My tower kept producing 1s and 20s.  “Is it something I’m doing?” I asked. I even picked up the tower and shook it. “That’s not gonna make a difference,” one the players chimed in.

It was just one of those freaky days.

And the 1s and 20s kept coming.

Fumble deck shines

All those 1s and 20s meant the players had to keep reaching for my homemade critical fumble deck.

Usually, the thing gets only cursory use. In a given session, players might roll 1s on attack rolls a couple of times, at most. You can tell how little or much the thing gets used just by glancing at the discard pile.

Well, on this day, the discard pile kept growing.

More to the point, the fumble deck got a workout. And I have to say, I was pleased with how it played out.  It’s hard to get a feel for it when you only pull it twice a session. But when everyone — including the GM — is reaching in, you quickly get a sense of its effects on game play.

Basically, I want a fumble deck for flavor. I’ve never felt the fumble should be debilitating. It’s a house rule, after all, for what is just an automatic miss. There should be a slight penalty, but nothing that cripples a character’s ability to function.

To that end, each result on the deck also calls for a skill check or save throw (usually against a DC 20) to negate or diminish the fumble. I think giving players that second chance at avoiding failure encourages them.

Here’s what a couple of entries look like:

Melee and unarmed: Snag. Sleight of hand check vs. DC 20. Weapon inadvertently hooks on armor or clothing, preventing smooth attack motion. Suffer -2 penalty to damage for next 1d4 rounds.

Ranged. Ammunition jams. Strength check vs. DC 20. Missile stuck in quiver or pouch while loading. Take 1d4 rounds to dislodge.

Magic. Focus fails. Reflex save vs. DC 20. Spell components or holy symbol falls 1d4 squares in a random direction.

Each card include an 8-pointed star for easy reference for determining random directions, just like one for a thrown grenade attack.

Misfires into melee

The deck has one other function, which is also particular to our group. It offers a mechanic for resolving ranged attack misfires into melee.
Maybe it’s because the Saturday morning crew has had SCA* members with more than a passing interest in archery, but the fact the rules don’t account for where missiles land when firing into melee has always bothered them. Those arrows gotta stick into something, they reason.

Each card indicates that the missile was # squares off its target, either shy or far or to the right or left. You then roll 3d6. Comparing to the chart on the card, that roll determines the square (relative to the target) the missile actually landed in, and the amount of damage. Basically, damage is by probability, so rolling 10-11 is a miss for 0 damage, 8-9 or 12-13 is nicked for 1 hp of damage, 6-7 and 14-15 was a glancing blow for 1/2 damage by weapon type, 4-5 or 16-17 is for full damage and 3 or 18 are critical hits.

I’ve thought this approach keeps the mechanic results abstract enough to stay in the spirit of the rules without us going too deeply down the simulation road (too many attempts to simulate “reality” tend to bog down a d20 game — whose round-based combat resolution is already a time-consuming exercise). But I think this one strikes the right note.

Oh look. It’s time to roll more 1s and 20s.

Related posts:

1. Troy’s Crock Pot: A dicey situation
2. Troy’s Crock Pot: The Eyes Have It
3. Troy’s Crock Pot: Indy, why does the floor move?
4. Troy’s Crock Pot: A Little Thing Called the TPK
5. Troy’s Crock Pot: The Moldy Dungeon

Preorders for the print + PDF bundle of Gnome Stew’s first book, Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters closed July 22, and after a bit of behind-the-scenes work, the PDF version of Eureka is now available in the Engine Publishing online store.

The PDF is 314 pages, DRM-free, fully hyperlinked and bookmarked, and costs $16.95. Orders are processed by our e-commerce system, so if you buy the PDF you’ll receive it more or less immediately.

If you passed on the preorder due to price, or to the cost of shipping (we don’t charge for packaging for handling, but depending on where you live shipping can be expensive), this version of the book is priced at 52% off and, of course, there is no shipping!

If you passed on preordering Eureka because you wanted to see how the book was received by reviewers, here are three reviews to check out:

• Review: Eureka! 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters by Wolfgang Baur, Kobold Quarterly. “Much more than a simple book of plots, Eureka! stands as one of those essential tools that GMs and game designers will find themselves reaching for again and again.“
• Review of Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots by Zachary Houghton, RPG Blog II. “If you’re a Game Master who likes a little help with his brainstorming, Eureka will be a welcome addition to your bookshelf, virtual or otherwise.”
• Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters (in Croatian) by Stribor, Fantasy Hrvatska (English translation). “There is no doubt – Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters is a terrific reference book that could (and should!) be found on the shelf of every GM.“

You can also read a free 19-page excerpt of the book (including 12 plots), a podcast interview with me about Eureka, and several articles related to the book on Eureka’s product page.

Related posts:

1. Eureka Preview: Fantasy Plots from our Upcoming Book
2. Gnome Stew’s Book, Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots, Is Now Available for Preorder! (Plus: Win Custom-Made Dice!)
3. Sample Sci-fi Plots from Gnome Stew’s Upcoming Book, Eureka
4. Eureka Sample 3: The GMing Chapter
5. Gnome Stew’s Secret Project: The Cat’s Out of the Bag

Well it’s that time a year again, and Gen Con is just under 2 weeks away, and I would like to continue the tradition and ask those of you who cannot attend, what would you like me to pick up and review this year?

Update– After reviewing the comments and talking to the Gnomes, I have selected Apocalypse World, by Vincent Baker, and Walt is going to take the Pathfinder Advanced Players Guide.

No promises, but if I run into a copy of Kagematsu, that may wind up in my bag as well.  Thanks to all of you who put in your comments.

Lets Review The Rules

Just like last year, there are a few conditions on what I will pick up for review. These are the same as last year, but let’s review, in case you forgot:

• RPG Rules or Gaming Accessory only—While I like board games, card games, and such, The Stew is an RPG blog, so lets keep it to an RPG rulebook or gaming accessory. I would rather not review an adventure either since they rarely are meaty enough for a full review.
• Something new—While just about anything can be found out on the convention floor, I am not going to review the AD&D A-Series adventures (though they are awesome). Please pick something that has recently come out that you have not had a chance to pick up at your local gaming store.
• Something we have not reviewed before– While we are not product review site, we have had the chance to do some great reviews. Check out our Review section for all our past reviews. Obviously, don’t pick one of those.
• Let’s not break the bank—While I love you guys, my bank account has its limits. So lets keep this to about $30 (or a bit over…).

Get Picking

Now that you remember the rules, start tossing out ideas on what you would like to see me review. In the comments section, put down your choice of what you would like me to pick up. On Monday, I will announce the item that I am going to pick up, and after GenCon I will put together a review of the item for you.

Related posts:

1. You Pick It—I Review It: GenCon Edition
2. Gen Con Wrap-Up I – RPGs
3. Gen Con Wrap-Up II – Everything Else
4. Confessions of a Gen Con GM: Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned
5. From Con to Con: The Journey Ends

Hi, Guys.

Something I would find very interesting and useful would be a collaboration article from all of you about one unique magic item you have each had in a campaign you ran.

Also I think the comments for such an article if you asked the readers would be interesting reading and certainly useful. I, and I assume most GMs, are always looking for good ideas that have worked for other GMs.

Thanks!

When I offered to organize the replies, my fellow gnomes were quick to start throwing cool items at me. (Some of them were thrown a little hard… I have some ugly bruises guys!)

Matthew Neagley shared the spooky Torc of Golgothas

The Torc of Golgothas takes up a neck slot. It confers an unholy bonus to the wisdom of the wearer of +1 for each soul they have stolen with it in the past 24 hours up to a maximum bonus of +5. To steal a soul, the wearer first takes a standard action to allow the tortured souls in the Torc to speak through him to a target. The target is then marked. If the target dies while so marked, their soul is pulled into the Torc and slowly tortured over the course of the next day before being released to it’s final resting place, though the day of torture often destroys the sanity and morality of the soul, condemning it to a dire fate.

The process of marking a soul allows any of the souls currently being tortured, or that were tortured in the past to speak. This is often a cacophony of wails and gibbering, but sometimes (DM’s fiat) relays a piece of cryptic information that might be useful.

Phil followed that up with The Sand Temple (epic level/artifact)

This is a temple made of flowing sand. It is granted as a gift, to the follower of the deity (in my game the All Father). Once daily on the command of the follower, the Sand Temple can appear, anywhere outdoors, regardless of weather. The interior is large enough to house a 20 people. In the center of the temple is a pool of water. This pool of water can perform Heal 5/day, Cure Disease 5/day, and Raise Dead 1/day. The temple also provides food and water for up to 20 people. Finally, the Temple can travel anywhere in the world once daily, and appear in a location as determined by the follower. Though at times the deity will re-direct the Sand Temple to deliver the follower (and party) to a location of his desire, for the followers to perform some task.

Telas went above and beyond with two items for two different game systems.

Bag of Teleportation – D&D 3.5 – The Dustdiggers of the Academy of Lore are famous for their ability to acquire relics of the distant past, whether from dusty tombs or the locked vaults of their improper owners; one of their less-talked-about tools is the Bag of Teleportation.

This sturdy sack seems to be a Bag of Holding, as its internal volume is greater than it appears to be. However, when a certain time of day passes (usually sunset or sunrise), anything inside the bag is Teleported to a specific location. The location is determined when the bag is manufactured, usually a locked cell in the Academy grounds, although it can be altered by an enchanter of sufficiently high level. Many consider these to be a Bag of Devouring, but divination magic will determine the truth.

(The most fun way to use a Bag of Teleportation is to have the party find it on a dead Dustdigger…)

Vengeance – Savage Worlds – When the hero Cayden was mortally stabbed with an orc’s spear while trying to rescue his son Taggart, the child squirmed free and pulled the spear from his father’s chest. Healing energy flowed from Taggart to his father, closing the wound. Taggart was dragged away by the Dark One’s minions as Cayden fell unconscious. Awakening, Cayden found that he still had the spear, and that its healing power continues.

Vengeance is a simple but well-built spear with a leaf-shaped blade and a strong butt-spike. Even in the coldest weather, it feels very warm to the touch. Once per session, the wielder may make a Soak roll without expending a Bennie.

John Arcadian had to match Telas item for item.

Spirit Shard of Unending Interstice
Created by the mage Vascily, this item is in truth a split spirit elemental which is fused to a person’s soul and grants strange powers that prevent them from ever being contained within a barrier or locked within an area. The other half of the spirit elemental is held by the mage controlling the item. The item was created to undo barriers from the inside and to release ancient evils, or open the way for the controlling mage to enter areas forbidden to him.

Crafted onto the spirit of a person with less taint in their soul, preferably an adventurous sort, the enchanted will travel the world engaging in their business and often entering places which they were prompted to explore by third parties hired by the mage. Once the unwitting pawn is past the barriers or doorways, the magic activates and prevents them from being closed again, alerting the mage responsible for the item to the presence of strong magic or items of interest.

The item works by a variety of means and has one single purpose, to unlock any door that it is trapped behind. It will use telekinesis, opening spells, magic dispelling effects, teleportation portals, etc. and will combine its powers to the greatest effect all with the intent of bypassing any barrier so that the mage who controls the spirit shard can get inside. Guided by the intellect of the shard of spirit elemental, and powered by his seemingly endless reserve of energy (constantly refilled from the unwitting pawn it is merged and sometimes draining manna or healt), the spells are truly devastating to all but the strongest of barriers. Though normally invisible, certain effects which reveal magic can reveal the words “Let this door never be closed to me” floating above the head of person the shard is merged to.

Sagacitem-Via Table
Originally created by the powerful race of world conquering elves, Sagacitem-Via tables were used to chart courses throughout the seas and airways by making any map which was placed on top of them accurate to the current time and location. If a known location, such as the hidden base of rebel forces, was on a map with at least a passing resemblance to the actual location the magic of the table would place the marker for the base at the exact spot and align all landmarks accurately. It would also create scale and distance markers, enabling accurate navigation to any point that is represented on a semi-detailed map. The table will not make accurate the locations of non-terrain elements, such as ships or soldiers, but it will place towns and other locations in their proper places.

In modern times these tables are very rare, due to cartographer’s guilds disliking their tendency to cut in on business. Grave consequences occur for any guild cartographers who are found using a Sagacitem-Via navigation aid. More expensive, and much more rare, versions of the item are sometimes available as compasses which can be touched to maps. These are great boons for people attempting to travel into fey enchanted lands, where the terrain often gets up and moves, or to sea and airship captains who wish to navigate safely through hazardous shoals or locate constantly moving airborne islands.

Martin contributed the Sphere of Total Observation:

This magic item comes in three parts: an uncomfortable-looking crescent-moon-shaped bench and a tiny golden sphere, which is suspended from the highest point of the crescent, and a much larger crystalline sphere (3′ in diameter).

When the user lays on the bench and grasps the sphere, their senses fade away entirely, save for their sight. Their sight expands to encompass 360 degrees, extending outwards from the crystalline sphere. The larger sphere can be placed anywhere within one mile of the bench and the smaller sphere.

After a few minutes to adjust to the rather unpleasant sensation of all-around vision, the user can manipulate their field of view to focus on particular objects or take in everything around them at once, making this item a fantastic defensive mechanism. With due care for its fragility, it can even be used for scouting in military operations.

In my last campaign, I introduced Cylinders of Communication:

This magic item is created as a linked pair of scroll cases. The cylinders often appear as battered leather containers for scrolls, like any courier or poor wizard might carry. At dawn and dusk the contents of the cylinders are switched via teleportation, allowing field agents to secretly report the information they gathered over the last few hours. Similarly, getting new orders to isolated agents is easy… as long as they retain their communication cylinder.

More powerful cylinders might be equipped with magic linking the case to its owner. These special cases prevent enemies from intercepting orders and reports by failing to work when they aren’t in their owner’s possession. Another popular enchantment is to conceal the magical aura, so the scroll case doesn’t reveal its unusual nature to casual inquiry. Whichever version of the cylinder of communication is used, orders and reports are often written in ciphers or obscure languages to prevent the critical information from falling into enemy hands.

Your Turn

Now that you’ve seen what gnomish craftsmanship is like, it’s time to display your own handiwork. Like Zig asked, please share a cool item from one of your campaigns– and its effect on your game– in comments.

Related posts:

1. D&D Burgoo (3.0): Making Your Magic Manifest
2. Troy’s Crock Pot: You Can’t Take It With You
3. Intelligent Design, Evolution, and The Heist
4. How To Make Skill Checks Not Suck
5. Inheriting a Game that You Played In – What To Do With Your Character?

Gnome Stew was nominated for Best Blog in the 2010 ENnies, and we’d love to have your support. Vote for Gnome Stew here — it’s free, takes 30 seconds, and requires no registration.

Eureka

Today is the last day that you can preorder Gnome Stew’s new book, Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters, in the Engine Publishing online store.

For $34.95, you’ll get a PDF copy of this 312-page book immediately, with your print copy to follow in August. You can check out a 19-page PDF excerpt, reviews, and articles about the book on Eureka’s product page.

Dice contest

Today is also the last day you can enter our dice contest. I rolled 1,414 dice on camera, and if you guess the total die roll you can win a pair of custom-made, metal-inlaid d6s from Dicecreator.

Eureka at GenCon and in stores

Engine Publishing has signed with Studio 2 Publishing, which means Eureka will be available at GenCon at the S2P booth, #320, and in retail game stores later this year. They’ll have 50 copies on sale at the con, and what with this being our first rodeo I have no idea how long that stock will last.

The Eureka standalone PDF

After preorders close, we’ll start selling the PDF version of Eureka — DRM-free, fully hyperlinked and bookmarked — in the Engine Publishing store for $16.95. We’ll post an announcement here when it’s available.

Lots going on here at the Stew lately — I can barely keep up!

Related posts:

1. Gnome Stew’s Book, Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots, Is Now Available for Preorder! (Plus: Win Custom-Made Dice!)
2. Eureka Preview: Fantasy Plots from our Upcoming Book
3. Eureka Sample 3: The GMing Chapter
4. Sample Sci-fi Plots from Gnome Stew’s Upcoming Book, Eureka
5. Read The Book, Meet The Gnomes

However, this love of theory can actually detract from your GMing, especially if endless discussions of theory distract you from getting down to brass tacks, and actually working on a game.

In order to become more than just talk, theories must be put to the test. To have any value, all this conjecture must be brought into the real world. And the only way to do that is by running a game.

So step away from the bull session every now and then, and run a game. Put some of your pet theories in the crucible, and see what happens. At the very least, you’ll get some more data points for your next discussion.

The classic pinball game Eight Ball Deluxe would taunt and annoy nearby (video) gamers with the catchphrase “Quit talking and start chalking!” Perhaps we should modify that phrase for tabletop RPG use: Quit trolling and start rolling!

Agree? Disagree? Sound off in the comments and let us know!

Related posts:

1. You Should Quit GMing, Right Now
2. The Rambling Gnomes: How to Start a Side Game in the Shadow of an Epic Campaign
3. The Decamer Campaign: Start with D&D’s 10 Stupidest Monsters…
4. Get 21 Free Dungeons in the One-Page Dungeon Codex
5. Add a Touch of Original Game Theory to Spice Up Your RPG!

But what about really, really shitty GMs? Not just bad, but so bad that after gritting your teeth and clenching your sphincter for four hours in one of their games, you just want to scrape your face off with a fork — is there any hope for them?

If you play a session with a GM like this, are you obliged to help out the greater gaming community by giving them some constructive criticism? Should you tell them how much they suck? Give them a link to the Stew?

Or should you, as I suspect most of us would, just never play with them again — leaving them out there like an unexploded land mine waiting to trap the next unsuspecting schlub who comes along looking for a game?

I’m certainly guilty of that. Life is too short to waste on crappy games, and in my experience GMs this bad — not merely so-so, cocky, or otherwise less skilled than is ideal — are reasonably likely to be chock full of personal issues that give me the howling fantods. I usually flee, never to return, and if the real issue is that I think the GM in question is just a creepy and unpleasant person, I don’t feel the least bit guilty about that.

But I’ve also gamed with my share of awful GMs who seemed like nice folks, and that’s murkier territory. Fleeing is no longer clearly the correct approach, and my greater-gaming-community spidey sense starts tingling a bit. I wonder if I should have stuck my neck out and tried to help, but I also wonder whether my “help” would have been welcome.

Things get murkier still if said GM is one of your friends, as opposed to, say, someone running an event at a con who you’ll likely never see again. (Note to friends who read the Stew: No, this article isn’t inspired by anything that’s happened or is happening in our games! It’s just something that hit me while I was in the car.)

There are blueprints for kicking out a player, but I’ve never seen one for dealing with a godawful GM.

Do you have a responsibility to try to help them improve? Can you abandon them guilt-free? Is there a certain approach to providing constructive criticism that’s more likely to work in this situation?

I don’t have the answers, but having thought of the question I’m now deeply curious to hear what others think about this topic — it’s a real head-scratcher, at least for me!

Related posts:

1. Emerging Complexity for GMs: It Rocks for NPCs
2. For Inventive GMs There Are No Bad Christmas Gifts
3. GMs Should be Raging Kleptomaniacs
4. What GMs Can Learn From Gaming Comics
5. Sometimes to Run a Fun Game You Need to Ignore the Game

Save for one other member of the table, I got a round of quizzical expressions. “Steampunk? What’s that?”

I was surprised. I really thought the genre of brass goggle-wearing adventurers and steam-chugging flying contraptions was more widely understood. No matter, it was an excellent chance to share with them, by example, what steampunk can be.**

It’s Sherlock Holmes meets mad scientist.

(I picked that example first, because one the group members is well-known for his collection of the great consulting detective’s adventures in book and DVD).

It’s also …
… the electrified gothic horror of Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein.”
… Jules Verne’s Nautilus from “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.”
… the “Wild, Wild West” TV series and motion picture.

And the other member of the table familiar with it piped in with Phil and Kaja Foglio’s “Girl Genius” and China Mieville’s “Perdido Street Station,” both excellent examples, and then pointed out the steampunk aspects of Eberron and Alan Moore’s “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.”

And to help out, he even used the Facebook messaging system to share even more examples with the group.

Of course, steampunk is all of that and more — or if your tastes differ — just some of that. But it appears that the players are willing to give a game of gears and gothic horror a go.

Venturing into the Known World

Settling on a setting has been a process.

Initially, I’d given thought to the party being the Baker Street Irregulars — but mostly grown up — and taking up the departed Holmes’ legacy under Watson’s patronage. While that would have been a cool one-shot, it didn’t have the scope of adventure I thought would appeal to my players. Victorian London, while very cool, might prove to be a bit daunting.

Next, I considered using Eberron as a base — but with the volume turned way up on its steampunk aspects. There is a lot of material to work with. Anyone who wants to give D&D Fourth Edition a workout would find Eberron to be the perfect vehicle. Eberron’s kitchen sink approach fits 4E hand in glove.

But I’m not sure the group’s teeth will sink neatly into Eberron’s cog. When I introduced the steampunk option — the group’s affection for Steffenhold really came through in the ensuing discussion. True, my little medieval frontier town holds a lot of charm — and untold stories. How do I mesh a desire to continue that with an infusion of steampunk?

Do I dare turn the clock ahead 500 to 600 years, and see how steam technology and magic have transformed the history and landscape of the region?

Ultimately, that’s what I may end up doing. But the most important element, the setting narrative, is missing.

One of my players observed that the narrative of Steffenhold is the clash (or intrusion) of the old and the new. The lines of conflict in every adventure have been the faiths and traditions of the classical world (Olympian gods and monsters) and established feudalism against the emerging faith of the Shepherd (a Christian analog), town economics (and crime) and emerging nationalism. It sounds like a mouthful (and a bit pretentious) for a game whose central adventures have been dispatching goblins, but there it is.

The question now — which I haven’t answered — is: What will the narrative of Steampunk Steffenhold be?

The inner conflict of dark and light (“Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde,” “Frankenstein”) comes immediately to mind. There is also the very dirty, stinking, concrete reality of industry compared to the pristine, fanciful fascination with mysticism, magic and spiritualism. In that same vein, there is the tension between social classes, the widening gap between labor and luxury.

Or do you turn it on its head (the way Eberron did)? The big machines (trains and airships) don’t represent the gritty (and flawed) progress of steam technology — they are the epitome of clean, colorful magic given a practical purpose.

I have a lot to think about before presenting a steampunk campaign on the table. But one thing I know for certain:

The first adventure will have animated skeletons wearing tops and tails, and brandishing large wrenchess. Very victoriana, very creepy — and very steampunk.

*—Isn’t every GM thinking about the next two or three games down the road? It must be in a GM’s DNA, I suppose.

**—It was actually one of those quaint and special moments that takes me back to the early days of D&D, when you’d try to explain to people what this game is all about. Invariable, you’d end up saying, “it’s a game where you’re a hero, like Robin Hood or Lancelot or Merlin, and you’re adventuring in a land out of Grimm fairy tales, of ogres and trolls, black knights and dragons.” Because, if you’d said instead: “It’s a roleplaying game inspired by the pulp-era fantasy and horror stories of Fritz Leiber, Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft in which you challenge street-wise thieves guilds and kill monstrous nightmares in underground caverns so you can take their stuff and level up,” you’d get a completely different reaction — and probably not the buy-in you were hoping for.

Related posts:

1. Troy’s Crock Pot: Indy, why does the floor move?
2. Troy’s Crock Pot: It’s an ooky, spooky month
3. Troy’s Crock Pot: Make My Monsters Modern
4. Troy’s Crock Pot: TV for the gamer in me
5. Troy’s Crock Pot: A map-making groove

One question that comes up over and over when I talk to different GMs is about how to take notes for their session. It is a topic that I take personally, as I have gone through a number of different note taking styles and used all sorts of different tools, over the years. Thanks to Stew reader Tabulazero for suggesting this article topic.

Rather than this being an article all about types of notebooks, special pens, and templates, I want to discuss the philosophy of note taking, so that through the understanding of the core issues, you will be able to find your own best way to take notes.

Let’s start with the most important question…

What Is The Purpose Of Session Notes?

The purpose of session notes is to give the GM the information necessary to run a good session. For this article, let’s say a good session is: a logical story, few pauses for looking things up, and important information conveyed to the players at the right time. The notes then become the tool to capture and organize those elements, so that they are easily accessible to the GM during the session.

When a GM does not have something in their notes, they then have to improvise that detail during the game. There are those rare  GM’s who are very comfortable with this, and are able to make up names and places, weave stories out of thin air, and divine stat blocks for the most complex monsters. The rest of us are good at a few of these activities, and for the other parts we are not as good at, there are the session notes.

Time To Ponder: What kind of GM are you?  Are you a strong improv GM, or do you require more things to be written down?

For me: As a GM, I like to write complex campaigns, which makes it harder to keep details and plot lines in my head, so I like my session notes to keep track of those for me.

What Goes Into Your Notes

As stated above, the purpose of your notes is to document the information that you need to run a “good” session. What exactly is that information? It falls into a few groups:

• The Critical Details– these are the clues, the key dialog, room descriptions, and elements of the plot that are needed to make the session run in a logical fashion. These are the details that allow you to deliver the clue at the right time, and help you from retconing previous scenes.
• The Nuts and Bolts– these are the stat blocks, excerpts of rules, and other parts of the mechanics of the game, which will slow the game down, if you have to look it up in the book during the game. These can be NPC stats or obscure rules that will come up because of an encounter.
• The Stuff You Forget– there are things that as a GM you don’t remember to say or use during the session. They are not critical, but including them makes your sessions look more dynamic and vivid. These can be things like the weather, monster descriptions, name of the barmaid at the tavern, etc.

What you need to include is often a combination of your own strengths and weaknesses and the type of game you are running. If you are a GM that has trouble making up dialog for NPC’s then you want to make sure you include dialog into your notes. Likewise, if you are a running a game that has a lot of crunch, you will want to include stat blocks and some rules info into your notes as well.

Time To Ponder: Considering your own strengths and weaknesses as a GM, what elements do you need to have in your notes? Looking at the game you are running, are there rules you need to keep handy to avoid looking at the book as much?  What are the little things that you could add to your game to make things more dynamic?

For Me: As a GM, I like to have key dialog in my notes, but I am comfortable improvising other dialog.  I also include page numbers for lesser used rules, or sometimes include the rule itself.  I am also terrible about varying the weather in my scenes, so I include a section at the top of my notes to pick the weather.

How Much Do You Need To Write

One of the most frequent questions I have been asked about notes is: “How detailed do my notes need to be?” or  “How much do I need to write?” This is a loaded question, because there is no one answer. Your session notes need to be detailed to a level, where you, feel comfortable to run the session. If your notes are too sparse, then you will be moved out of your comfort area while running the session, causing you to pause, break tempo, etc. This can shake the confidence of GM’s and can disrupt the mood of the game. So your notes need to be of a sufficient length and detail, such that you are confident that with notes in hand, and rule book at your side, that you are ready to run the session.

The flip side to this, is that you write too many notes. With too many notes, the downside is not a faltering of confidence during the session, but rather that your notes take too long to prep. If prep becomes so long that you cannot get your notes written between sessions then it becomes a problem. Then without your notes complete, you cancel the game, for not being prepared, which can be its own killer of a game.

Somewhere in the middle is that nirvana where you take enough notes to be comfortable in running the session, but not so much where all you do in your spare time is prep notes.Getting to this middle ground takes a little trial and error. By focusing on what goes into your notes, keeping your writing to those necessary elements, and keeping your writing brief, you can find that balance of writing only what you need.

Time To Ponder: Do you think you take too many notes for your sessions?  Based on the section above, are you putting things into your notes you don’t need? Are there sections of your notes you never use in a session?  Of the flip side, do you find yourself making up too many things, or spending too much time looking up things in the rules?

For Me: Compared to some of the Gnomes, who are much more improv GM’s, I take more detailed notes. I am able to get my notes done between sessions without much stress, and I am very comfortable with what information I have in my notes when I am running.

Your Notes System

Up to this point we have talked about why to write, what to write, and how much to write. We have not talked about a medium to use for note taking. The most important thing about your note taking medium is: that whatever medium you use, and whatever technique you use, it must be enjoyable, and you must have confidence in it.

As a GM you will always be writing session notes. If the medium you use is difficult to use, prone to crashing, running out of paper or ink, is too small, is too large, etc, then you will not want to write your notes on it, or procrastinate from writing, which leads to being unprepared, which can lead to canceled sessions.

A good medium is one that is easy to use, can be fun to use, and is stable. There are two general categories for taking notes:

• Hand-written– these include plain old notebook paper with Bic pens, to hand bound Italian journals and a Montblanc fountain pen. There is something personal about hand written notes, but you cannot spell check hand written notes. You can hand write notes nearly anywhere, at work, on a bus, in a park, and there are no batteries to run out, or having your notebook crash.
• Electronic– using some kind of text, word processing, or note taking software, this can be done on a desktop computer, laptop, iPhone/Pod/Pad.  Electronic notes tend to be easier to read, spell-checked, and can include embedded pictures or other media. The downside is you have to have the device with you in order to write and need to consider battery life, and platform stability and backups.

One last point about your note system, it does not matter what your notes look like. In most cases, you are the only one reading them.  So cross things out, write notes on the margins, draw on them. Don’t waste time on them being neat.

Things To Ponder: Can you read your own handwriting? How fast can you type? Do you have backups to prevent you from losing your notes in a computer crash?

For me: I make a lot of spelling mistakes, and I type faster than I can write by hand, so I like to record my notes electronically.  I also make sure that I have my notes backed up, and that I have more than one way to access them in a crash.

Jot This Down…

The GM’s notes are the blueprint to the evening’s session. They keep the details of the session so that the GM can focus on what counts the most, creating an enjoyable experience for everyone at the table. How we take our notes will vary from GM to GM, but by understanding what you need to write, how much you need to write, and finding the most comfortable medium, the GM’s notes become a simple task and not an unbearable chore.

I have shared some insight on my own method of taking notes. Now its your turn, tell us about your GM notes, what do you write, how much, an what medium do you use?

Related posts:

1. The Reference Guide For Better Understanding
2. Sharing Your Notes
3. From Con to Con: Playtest Notes
4. French Vanilla or Mint Mocha? Fleshing out your Character
5. 17 Steps to GMing a New RPG for the First Time

Gnome Stew has been nominated for Best Blog in the 2010 GenCon EN World RPG Awards, the “ENnies,” and I’m here to ask for your support: Please vote for Gnome Stew!

Voting takes about 30 seconds, is open to everyone, and doesn’t require registration or any other fiddly stuff. You can vote in just the Best Blog category, if you like, and voting is open through July 25th.

It’s this easy:

1. Visit the ENnies voting page
2. Scroll down to Best Blog
3. Click the down arrow symbol next to Gnome Stew
4. Enter your vote (1 is the highest score you can give us, 5 is the lowest)
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the “Submit my votes” button

That’s it! Thank you VERY much for your vote!

In more than two years of running this site, this is the only thing we’ve ever asked of you, our readers. This is our 700th article on the site (purely by accident!), and we’ve written all of them because we love GMing, we love gaming, and we love sharing our knowledge with you.

I’ll speak only for myself, here, but your support means the world to me, and I would like to personally ask for your vote.

I’ve been nominated for an ENnie twice before, and I put those nominations on my resume; I believe that they helped me get my current job, which I love, and I also believe that if Gnome Stew wins an ENnie that will open additional doors for the site and the creative team behind the Stew.

I encourage you to vote in as many categories as possible, because the ENnies mean a lot to the many folks who toiled to produce the excellent products, sites, and podcasts that have been nominated this year. But if you only vote in one, I hope it’s ours!

And please don’t think that your vote “doesn’t matter” — past ENnies have been decided by margins in the low two digits! Every single vote is important.

Want to Send Even More Support Our Way?

The ENnies are open to anyone, and at this stage popular vote count determines the winners.

If you love the Stew, please ask your friends, players, gaming group, forum buddies, family, coworkers, and anyone else you think would donate 30 seconds of their time to vote for Gnome Stew. (We’ll be doing exactly the same thing behind the scenes.)

Grassroots support like this is what wins ENnies. Once again, thank you for your support.

Good luck to all of the nominees!

Hey, why are you still reading this? Get thee to the voting booth!

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2. Gnome Stew Reader Mailbag: Gaming Stuff You Should Check Out
3. What’s Changed in Your Gaming Life Since Gnome Stew’s First Article?
4. Gnome Stew’s Book, Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots, Is Now Available for Preorder! (Plus: Win Custom-Made Dice!)
5. Sample Sci-fi Plots from Gnome Stew’s Upcoming Book, Eureka