A Sample Dan Adventure

After my 10th GM’s Guide Podcast, I’ve gotten some people asking for examples of how I combine the Climactic Event Structure I talked about in episode 9 with the Four Act Event Structure I talked about in episode 10. I mentioned that you should put the two of them together after all. So here it […]

Hostile Takeover – Almost Upon Us

Hostile Takeover, the ultimate game of card evaluation I’m working on with Reuben Covington, is almost ready for widespread play. New Years resolution to get a publicly releasable game ready each month is still alive! Check back in a day or two for the game.

Choices vs. Options

Recently I made a post dissecting the confusing and misleading parts of Mark Rosewater’s podcast on Choices vs. Options. Now I want to talk about the important idea in the podcast that I believe got obscured. Many game designers try to give players as much control over the game as possible. Let’s explore a rules […]

Responding to Rosewater

Mark Rosewater recently made a podcast explaining the differences between Choices and Options in his design terminology, and arguing for why he feels Choices are superior. I predict we’ll be dealing with the confusion from this podcast in the MTG design community for a while. Rosewater starts by defining Choices vs. Options in a useful way. […]

The GM’s Guide 9 – Story Structure

The GM’s Guide returns with an episode on one of my favorite topics, Story Structure. We dive into what makes for an excellent series of events for an adventure and why. No, it’s not the hero’s journey. This event structure is fluid, flexible and based entirely in a few simple psychological principles. It just works, […]

Meet the Master of Doves

I’m always surprised to find people are still playing and caring about some of my old games that I haven’t thought about in years. Today I was emailed a question by a player who sent me a character sheet with this description. I got a chuckle reading it. Yes, it’s all rules-legal in the system […]