Maslow’s Hammer, or “How to encourage non-combat gameplay”

Abraham Maslow said in 1966 “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail”. This applies quite nicely to a commonly asked RPG question – namely, “How do I get my players to stop killing everything as the default response?”

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Saving your players subtly

We’ve all done it. We’ve given the players a fight we thought they could take, and then watched in horror as we realise we’ve vastly overestimated their abilities and now they’re going to get stepped on by an Iron Golem that they can’t even damage. So, what can you do to pull them out of a bad situation you created, whilst still maintaining challenge?

Bag ‘Em and Tag ‘Em (Or: When to kill your players)

There seem to be two extremes of thought on the role of the GM in role-playing games. The first, which I shall refer to as the Gygaxian school of thought after D&D creator and Tomb of Horrors writer Gary Gygax, is that the GM’s role is to serve as an antagonist to the players – To set deadly traps, play the monsters as efficiently (but also as fairly) as possible, and generally try to kill them at every opportunity.

So, you want to be a GM? (Part 3) – The Sublime

In the previous two posts, I talked about the important, base requirements for starting a group, as well as how to handle basic story flow. Now, let’s learn how to tie it all together into a cohesive narrative.

So, you want to be a GM? (Part 2) – The Fluff

So, you’ve got your players, your game, your first session where they fight spiders in  a sewer…But what on Earth are you going to do when they’ve killed all the spiders? What’s the story, and where do you begin?

So, you want to be a GM? (Part 1) – The Crunch

I felt the best way to start hurling my opinions at you through your router would be to cover the basics for aspiring tellers of fantastical stories, enablers of fun and creators of content. This will be a three-part series detailing the process of starting a game, and why you should be very excited to! It will be split into “The Crunch” – the more mechanical aspects, including game choice, tone and preparation – “The Fluff” – The more story-focused aspects including starting a larger plot arc, how to handle errors, and general story advice – and finally “The Sublime” – Tips on how to tie everything together into one big, impressive whole and look like you totally meant to do it all along.