• How Rules & Settings Drive Play Differently

    I. Dear Reader, Games have engines. Like a car, something creates the kinetic energy that keeps the game moving. The GM switches on the car and then steers it, but ideally they aren’t just powering the whole thing, legs secretly pumping under the car, Flintstones-style.  Sometimes the engine is the rules. Sometimes it’s the setting.…

    Thomas Manuel

  • So You Want To Be a Game Master

    I. Dear Reader, I was reading Justin Alexander’s book So You Want To Be a Game Master this week and something very obvious sneaked up on me. When someone says a book is for “new GMs”, they’re going to have to imagine some kind of person when they say that. When you say “new GMs”,…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Jarring Combat

    I. Dear Reader, The recent Quinns Quest reminded me of one of my least favourite traits of modern RPGs. It’s there in lots of games. It’s when a game which is predominantly very narrative, very loose suddenly tries to become more granular and tactical in combat. There’s nothing wrong with granular, tactical combat. It’s just…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Playing with Politics

    I. Dear Reader, Mostly when someone talks about “politics in games”, they’re about to say the worst thing you’ve ever heard in your life. But it’s good to be reminded that there can also be posts on that subject that are only mildly annoying. This is one of them. Why do people put politics in…

    Thomas Manuel

  • GM Advice: Theatricality versus Transparency

    I. Dear Reader I find that broadly there are at least two kinds of GM advice – and they have a very different philosophy underpinning them. The first kind of advice aims at all costs to maintain verisimilitude. It’s a solution that you can implement without breaking the players’ immersion in their characters. This can…

    Thomas Manuel