In general, I like the stuff that gets posted over at the Treasure Tables. It’s a good site full of useful information for GMs. This article, in particular, embodies a large part of my GMing philosophy. I like to give my players as much power and freedom as possible (in fact, this [...]

This is sort of a double-purpose post. First, I just wanted to let everyone know that Gamecraft 2.0 is pretty much done (though it needs some playtesting yet), and that I’m working on the setting that I’m going to bundle with it, which I’m calling Wild Blue. Wild Blue is a setting that [...]

I was going to write a post explaining the mindset that I had while I was creating the conflict system for Gamecraft 2.0, but I thought it might be more to the point if I just post a snippet of the text, itself. So, here you go, your first look at a portion of [...]

It should come as no surprise to people who regularly read this blog that I am a fan of the d20 System. I’ve got a number of d20 products on my shelf, and I mostly play d20 (or d20 derivations, like Mutants and Masterminds). That said, one thing that’s always bugged me a [...]

I just downloaded Dogs in the Vineyard a few days ago, and I’ve been reading through it since then. I must say, I’m intrigued. It’s got an interesting premise and some very cool, very simple mechanics for conflict resolution. One big thing that it’s done for me, though, is it’s got me [...]

I distinctly remember Monte Cook talking about how Arcana Unearthed was geared toward experienced GMs, and deliberately left certain things vague in order to allow the GMs to fill that stuff in for themselves. I’m a big fan of this methodology, and I am using a similar methodology in Gamecraft 2.0. The difference [...]

From The House of the Harping Monkey:
Yes, good roleplaying should be its own reward . . . in a perfect world. However, you have to ask yourself which is more important: being upset that the world isn’t perfect, or using in-game tools to aspire to something that might one day approach perfection (or, at [...]

Once again, something I posted over on Treasure Tables bore repetition here. I’ll probably be doing this sort of thing from time to time.
Always, always remember that, as the GM, you are within your rights to cheat like crazy. In fact, it is absolutely your responsibility to cheat, provided that you’re doing so [...]

I recently replied to a thread on Treasure Tables’ Forum, and thought that it would make a pretty good post for my own site. So, here is my reply, modified for clarity since there’s no real context.

When I start a campaign, I usually dedicate the entire first session to character generation, before I start [...]

This is a mechanic that borrows heavily from Serenity: The Roleplaying Game, by Jaimie Chambers and Margaret Weis. I re-tooled it for the d20 System, specifically for a varient that I’m working on right now. I’ve edited the below entry to make it more generic and less specific to my varient. Disclaimer: [...]