Fool's Moon Entertainment

"I'm not here to coddle my players." "I'm not here to protect their feelings." "I'm not here to be their therapist." To me, that's shorthand for I don't have empathy, and don't care about my players. A good game master wants their players to have fun. Which means being acutely aware of what a player can and can't handle. Which means listening to the players, listening to the tone of their voice, and watching their body language. The goal is to make sure the players are enjoying themselves, and that means being acutely aware of your table. Does that mean the game master has a bit more work? That they need to put a bit more effort into the game? Yes, it does. But those steps should be automatic for the game master - it should be second nature to be aware of your players and how they are feeling at the table. And it means knowing your player's triggers. There's a reason there's a lot of talk about safety and lines and v...

A group rides down a road.  On either side is farmland, peasants working the fields. There's an inn near the village, and in the distance is a walled city, with a castle in the centre. The group sees wagons with barrels, or hay, there's carriages carrying those of status, and people lug around wheelbarrows, ploughs, and farming tools. Yep.  That's medieval fantasy. But where's the fantasy part? A lot of world building for fantasy games completely ignore the fantasy aspect when it comes to actual civilization. Sure, there's elves, and dwarves, and dragons, and orcs, and wizards and priests. But ... civilization doesn't seem to acknowledge that the very presence of magic and monsters would fundamentally alter how civilization would be changed. Some anime are taking this into account now -- magic items to mimic things we'd see in the modern day and age (the 'magic microphone to broadcast in arenas' being a good example, flying podiums, teleportation gat...

Let's talk Superman. And as part of this discussion, let's look at it through the lense of roleplaying as well. Because I think that the issues people have writing for Superman are possibly the same issues game masters have with powerful characters. A bit over a decade ago, I wrote a piece concerning Superman on io9 (back when it existed), and I think it's still relevant in this day and age -- and especially when it has to do with gaming. Which any number of game masters complain about power gamers and min-maxers, and yeah, it's the same issue.  First, I'll post the article (with a little editing), and then I'll get back to this.

So, story for you. TL;DR: GM has to deal with two players who are hyper-prepared, take pages and pages of notes, and actively uses everything at their character's disposal to get their goals accomplished in a way that crushes any thought of opposition by the sheer force of temporal power they can bring to bear to satisfy their schemes. I was at a table with a group of hard-core players, and a GM who didn't know what he was getting into. Two of the players kept extensive notes on everything that happened in the game: names of NPCs they met, deals and oaths made, people they saved, and damn near wrote a portfolio on these people. If we wound up going to the same town / city, they'd touch base with these people, cement ties, do favours, etc, etc. Me? I was like 14. I was not ready for this either. I was just along for the ride. Well. One day, the players tell the GM 'we're going to stage a coup'. The region we were in had a tyrant ruling it, and the PCs decided the...

Sometimes, the Heroes lose. Sometimes, the Heroes lose horribly. Not every threat encountered is meant to be defeated with violence - or is ever able to be overcome with violence regardless of how 'good' the group is. Not every threat can be negotiated with. Not every threat can be avoided. And this doesn't mean the GM is being malicious, or 'out to get the players' -- yes, there are game masters like that, but that's a different problem to discuss another time. No, this is the game master showing that - no matter how good the PCs are, there is always something out there bigger than them. A good GM gives warnings -- signs that things aren't right.      You come across a village - one that's not on any maps. The colours are grey, the people fidgety and you see strained smiles when you walk in.  One comes up to you, all smiles.      "Think happy thoughts," he says. "Only happy thoughts. Keep any angry thoughts or sad thoughts or anything els...

First Published at ShintoNephilim Our playing group likes to open most encounters with parlay. It just happens to be their thing. If it is at all possible, the party tries to prevent combat - they'll talk things out, try to negotiate, look for common ground, and even win over enemies if there's an opportunity. The excuse that D&D is mostly a 'combat' game doesn't hold water. Yes, most of the rulebook is on how to hurt your opponents - but that doesn't mean that's the best path (or first option) people should take. There's social skills for a reason - so why not use them? "Well, I don't want the BBEG to be defeated with a single roll." Then think of a way to draw it out. How many successes are needed? Each success prevents combat for a few rounds, as the PCs try to work on the opponent's resolve. But it goes beyond this. In 1st edition Mummy (World of Darkness), they discussed what a character with higher-than-human social charms cou...

 VooDoo Dolly here, bringing you part one of the Queer and Present Danger charity stream giveaways!  Find out more about our upcoming stream here .  First up, from House Dok Productions :  3 softcover copies of Metahumans Rising [$30 donation] 3 softcover copies of Fractured Kingdom [$30 donation] 6 art prints from Metahumans Rising [Any donation] We ourselves will be giving away the following: 6 softcover copies of Fox Magic [by FMEI] 1 copy of The Very Good Dogs of Chernobyl [ 9th Level Games ] 1 copy of Savage Sisters [ 9th Level Games ] 1 copy of Classics...But Make It Gay hardcover artbook [ Nova & Mali ] Landscape digital art piece by PsychoScion Hatchlings Games is giving away three PDF copies of Inspirisles ... ...and Session Zero Games is giving away two download codes to redeem PDFs of their published works on their website . The World Anvil has donated three download codes for Broken Tales! Possum Creek Games is giving away three $10 gift c...