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Game Master's Laboratory

262 members • Free

20 contributions to Game Master's Laboratory
Blades '68
There's something about moving Blades forward 100 Years that seems really appealing. Maybe it's just because I recently rediscovered the game Deathloop, or the more modern geo-political themes that can be woven into the narrative, I'm not sure. https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/bbd583d2-7c42-478b-a4f2-4c73f30e7022/landing
Stonetop or Coriolis The Great Dark?
I like rules light, narrative and story games like PbtA, and have been thinking for a while about picking up Stonetop, but playing it with a Science Fantasy twist (Barsoom, Skyrealms of Jorune, some Ghibli inspiration thrown in, etc.). But after reading this: https://www.indiegamereadingclub.com/indie-game-reading-club/the-pretty-good-dark/, I am very, very fired up to play Coriolis The Great Dark. Maybe using Foundry (there's a sale on). I play mostly Theatre of the Mind and don't really use maps that much, but I'm tempted, rather than hacking a PbtA game to play it.
1 like • Nov '25
@Eric Person Wow, pro tip, thank you, Eric! I like that-- and I think for the types of games I'd like to play, having that kind of thing front and centre would be great.
Collaborative Campaign + Proactive
I'm currently setting up to play Monster of the Week - Interdimensional Crisis Team (from Codex of Worlds), but after that 5 session run, I think I'm going to set up a Collaborative Campaign and a Proactive game to follow, in the online community I'm in-- the Open Hearth. I prefer PbtA as a system, though, so it will most likely be Stonetop, which as I think I've said before, seems perfectly suited to a game like this. Though I've had a bit of a Science Fantasy craving of late, so will likely encourage those kind of worldbuilding elements (like the venerable Skyrealms of Jorune, or Barsoom/John Carter, etc.).
0 likes • Nov '25
@James Willetts Yeah, this is a superb way of doing this. I love it. I want to try and ask more questions, and luckily in story game circles people are used to it and enjoy it. Not only that, but some Carved from Brindlewood games (based off Brindlewood Bay if you didn't already know) have it baked into the mechanics. Great for a group of players who are also GMs, but not only exclusively for those kinds of groups.
1 like • Nov '25
@Jay George Yes, exactly-- side note, I really want to play Teeth.
Storycaster
I have waaaaaay too many of these types of things (I have a few storyengine decks, preordered the perpetually in funding hell Reckless Deck Psyche, bought the Tome of Adventure Design, etc.), but this worldbuilding game feels like taking Microscope or A Quiet Year and melding it with board game and those other generators I mentioned. It seems like it is trying to do a lot of the same kinds of things recommended in collaboratively setting up a campaign in the brothers' latest book, though, which is why I'm posting it here. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/storycaster/storycaster-fantasy-realms
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A Free Proactive Adventure
Hey everyone! @Jonah Fishel and I have been working on a new style for TTRPG adventures, and the first test of this method is now available in the classroom tab! These are meant to facilitate proactive play and emergent narrative. At the same time, we're working on making resources that both make this style of play easy to introduce to players, or are easy to bring to your friendly local gaming store and set up a new group. When we released the Game Master's Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying, we weren't quite satisfied with the adventure provided in the back of the book. We'd been scratching our heads on how to combine a prewritten adventure with the player-driven narratives of proactive play; they seemed to be at complete odds with one another. After lots of discussion and failed drafts, we're very happy with the result, and we think the core of what makes an adventure useful is preserved in this type of module, alongside the freedom to tell stories with friends around the table. We're almost done with a Proactive Adventure Manifesto that explains the details of this format and why we think it's an improvement on the industry standard, but for now, we can offer a quick explanation. These adventures are built around encounters as the fundamental unit of play, and those adventures or organized and altered by player goals. We've tried to reduce lengthy prose and make it as easy as possible for GMs to run these at the table with minimal prep, while keeping enough information to minimize prep and put newer GMs at ease. We also threw in some small changes we find useful: color coded highlighting, mechanically interesting monsters, stat blocks placed in the encounter where they are used, etc. Down the line, we'll be adding premade character sheets and pools of goals to choose from for groups in an extra hurry, and a compendium of stats (right now they're all only found in the encounters where they appear), but for now we want to get the basic adventure design down. We'll also be creating more game aids like printable paper miniatures, a map of the area (as opposed to battlemaps), a video walkthrough on how to use the packet, and possibly some art. For now, please check out the packet, and let us know what you think! We'll be making it available outside of the lab eventually, but in the meantime, you're welcome to run it, show it to whoever you like, and otherwise use it as you will. I'll post a feedback form on here in a few days, but feel free to discuss it in this post and chat with your fellow gamemasters.
1 like • Jan '25
One other quick comment, recently I’m keen to dive into Sly Flourish’s Lazy DM advice and books, as I think a lot of advice dovetails with what we’re talking about with Proactive campaigns here. But there was also a lot of great stuff in Ben Rigg’s Encounter Theory (https://www.writerbenriggs.com/encounter-theory), and one of the things he tried to provide were “workbooks” (things that he called “Play Plans”, I think), that tried to help give fillable sheets and prompts and things to help people get organised. Today, I think they might just be better as clean form-fillable PDFs or some kind of Google Doc, in all honesty.
1 like • Apr '25
@Jamison Burton A bit! I mean, I’ve watched a couple of the videos and there’s a lot of stuff on his site, enough that maybe for me, buying the books is probably not necessary. They’re still on my reading list, though! I also interacted with him, and he was super gracious and helpful (one of his newsletters talked about prepping a 1-pager and I was curious about examples). I really feel that that style of prep is working well for me, in any case. I used it to run a two-shot of Venture (a weird west TTRPG still in development— side note, there seem to be a lot of weird west TTRPGs either out or on the horizon), and it was great.
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Jon Jones
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9points to level up
@jon-jones-5045
Former Londoner from California, love story games like PbtA, etc.

Active 16d ago
Joined Aug 10, 2024
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