Tag / prep

by guyeatsfood

Keeping to Time – GMing to a Schedule

We’ve got nearly 25 episodes of Unconventional GMs recorded now, all Actual Plays of less than 2 hours – and a frequent question I’ve got is how to keep it below that. While we did it as a creative constraint and because we got frustrated with Actual Plays that took half an hour to get going, it’s an interesting one to consider, and I think both me and Gaz have run enough times to have some hints and tips to help this.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Dungeoning Done Right – How To Run Dungeon Crawl Classics One-Shots

I’ve had a chance to start running a few games of Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) and its derived games recently – a one-shot of Weird Frontiers for Unconventional GMs, and a “vanilla” DCC at MORPCon in Manchester. It’s a system I’ve always enjoyed playing, but except for a couple of 0-level funnels, I’ve not run it before. And it’s an awful lot of fun. 

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Step-by-Step Prep: Ghost Mountain (Index Card RPG), Part Two

Just like in Part One, I’m continuing to share my prep for an upcoming one-shot for a system I’ve not run before – the Weird West setting Ghost Mountain, for Index Card RPG. In part one, I did my pregens and randomly generated a plot that I modified and started to flesh out. The next step is to write it up – a full write up is below.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Step-By-Step Prep: Ghost Mountain (Index Card RPG), Part One

I thought I’d try something new for this week’s post – a worked example of how my prep looks for a one-shot, from conception to delivery. After Deadlands and Weird Frontiers on the Unconventional GMs Channel, we talked (me, Gaz, and the players for those games) about doing some more wild/weird west games. It seemed as good an idea as any – and of course what could be more authentic than a bunch of British people playing at America’s great mythic tradition – and so I started looking at other RPGs.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Drifting Systems – Not Quite A Hack

I’m thinking about some game ideas for next year, and here are a few I’m pondering. I don’t really get the urge to properly hack games, as there are just too many games still to play, but I do like the idea of a quick shift in emphasis to give a game a different feel. Here are three that I’m pondering where I think a slight tweak in emphasis would change the game in a positive – or at least interesting – way. 

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

2023 – Year In Review

With a blink, 2023 is behind us – or almost behind us if you’ve the good taste to be a Patreon supporter of mine – and we can look ahead to more gaming goodness in 2024. Before we do that, I thought I’d take a look back at personal highlights from this year, and look forward to 2024.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Starting From Scratch – Prepping a New System

Over the past couple of months, I’ve run a few games on the Unconventional GMs channel that I’ve not GMed – or played – before. I’m normally a bit cagy about doing this, as I like to get to know a game before putting my GMing out publicly, but building up content for the channel has meant reaching further quicker than I’d normally. 

But games of Candela Obscura and Cortex Prime seem to meet our intent of bringing examples of one-shot play that people want, so I’m in the middle of prepping Weird Frontiers, a spooky weird west DCC game. Come to think of it, the first time I ran Vaesen it was recorded, too. So I thought I’d share my process of prep for a game where the system is new to me.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

The “How To” book the Hobby’s Been Waiting For – Review: So You Want to be a Game Master?

For a hobby with a lot of techniques and ideas to master, we’re terribly short of advice books. Aside from a wealth of excellent blogs, there’s really only the occasional book that looks at how to start GMing. The chapters in RPG books can be variable at best, and there’s a lot to the craft of GMing.

One of the best blogs out there for GM advice is The Alexandrian, and Justin Alexander has focussed a lot of his thoughts from there, and expanded on them, to release “So You Want to be a Game Master?” – a book focused on taking you right from the beginning of prep to running successful games.

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by guyeatsfood

Guiding the Ironlands – how to run Ironsworn as a One-Shot

Ironsworn, Shawn Tomkin’s RPG of dark fantasy with solo, guided, and GMless modes, is one of the most exciting releases to the hobby in recent years. With its sci fi sequel, Starforged, now established it’s beginning to get some decent play on the convention circuit – and it plays really well with a GM (in ‘guided’ mode) as well. So here are some tips if you want to get it to the table.

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