GMs Reference Library

Cavegirl has this to share on Twitter.

I don’t know what instigated this, but this was my reply. I thought it good enough to make a blog post out of it.

What fool said this?

My role as both GM and player is a hodge podge of every book, comic book, TV show, movie, play, conversation, random thought, and past play experience.

I’ve taken ideas from they way we ran our games BITD, plus ideas of bloggers, and other games.

I like advantage/disadvantage, usage die, and other simple tweaks that can make a game fun and flow.

I’ve tweaked my GM style with the way other GMs do things. It may be subtle, but I still learn something from every game I run and play.

In recent weeks, it finally sunk in to my old set in my ways self, that I have a passive/aggressive streak that comes out in all my characters when I’m frustrated with what another player is doing to drive the narrative.

Strongly outspoken people who will talk nonstop really bring that out.

It was like I’m naked under a floodlight in a crowded room when the lightly went off.

I’ve been playing over 40 years and didn’t see it til now.

This may seem like a segue, but this illustrates the player growth aspect.

Now I can work on not doing that and changing my timing by anticipating these things and using my player agency to improve the session.

What are your resources? You should have an enormous reference library in you memory.

Work on utilizing it.

Brainstorming, free association, just writing whatever comes out, daydreaming, etc.

My whole blog is built on using my ever expanding personal library. My ideas that become PDFs on DriveThruRPG use that same library.

It’s OK to play or just read other games. You might find something you like, or think about something in your favorite game and get an idea to improve it.

Change is inevitable. We can either waste our strength resisting change, or we can ride the wave and see what we can do with new information.

Another Blog

As I have written in several recent blog posts, I had surgery for prostate cancer. To keep this blog’s focus on gaming, I started a new blog to share my story from diagnosis to prognosis. I hope to learn more and also help other men navigate prostate removal surgery from my experience.

If you’re a man, or otherwise interested in men’s health issues, check out my new blog: Men’s Health In My Perspective

I also have social media for the new blog, so you can follow on Twitter and Facebook.

I’m currently doing a brain dump of all the ideas for the new blog, so I may not have another new post here for awhile.

A Village Of Healing

Imagine a remote village with a remnant of an ancient tradition. Every decade of life, a person gets a cure disease. End to parasites, cancer,etc. As long as one does not meet an accident, or disease they can’t survive, hey will reach their maximum age.

As a remnant of a past age there is only a 5th level priest who can only do one 3rd level spell per day, baring an 18 wisdom and time to rest and relearn spells.

Twins and triplets would be a challenge as oldest gets the day, etc. Get 23 plus people together and 2 of them will share a birthday. (I had a logic professor who proved this in every class.)

I see an overworked aging cleric with a young assistant not up to the task.

The aged would be honored. Death would have a grand ritual to show the deceased into the nextv realm.

In ancient times, all healing spells would be available. Healing, restoration, disease, etc.

A lost or hidden town or city where this is still the case would be a fun adventure.

Customs and norms a party would wreck, or be a welcome relief.

A healing fountain that is broken or lost to living memory would fit well here.

My inspiration:

I got home from surgery for prostate cancer and would love a cure serious wounds to get some energy back. Then I realized cure disease would have handled the whole thing. My mind naturally wandered to an adventure scenario.