Chekov's gun poses a real threat to some games. If a group playing Vampire: The Masquerade ('VtM') encounter a Ravnos, spinning illusions, and confusing mortals, then the next time they hear about unusual events, they will assume that the Ravnos did this. Clearly - the Ravnos is part of the plot! After all, VtM draws …

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Listen, engines and all that don't matter, as long as it works. It's the person driving the car you have to worry about. If the driver's a drunken lunatic, then driving the best care in the world won't help. This nonsense wouldn't usually fly, but somehow it's become a trained response to anyone discussing problems or …

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When looking at RPG Attributes, one fact returns to me constantly: Olympic Athletes cannot compete in every sport. Top wrestlers are stocky, and cannot compete in basketball. Top basketball players move quickly, and cannot compete in weightlifting. Weight lifters cannot compete in climbing events. A certain amount of …

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RPGs with a shared narrative mechanic - where players and the GM both come up with interesting people, results, and situations - come with a cost. They pull focus away from the puzzle elements of the RPG, and that's my favourite element, so I can't see myself enjoying shared narration mechanics. Let's start with an …

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Domination In Vampire: the Masquerade, the first level of the Dominate ability lets the vampire issue a one-word command, which the target instantly obeys. It might be 'sit', 'stay', 'fight', 'run', or any other one-word command. It's flexible genius, because it clearly defines what the ability does, but can still …

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RPGs have dungeons...well more often those dungeons are caves...no, actually RPG plots often feature caves, which we call 'dungeons'. Anyway, these caves look rather strange, because people began drawing them on graph paper, and later they made sure to fit the entire map onto a single square at the top of a page. RPG …

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Why is it always the same old elves, and hobbits, and +1 swords? Can't people come up with anything different? ...I hear this every so often, and I wonder if any of these people actually pick up the myriad gonzo-RPGs with novel races (or at least 'novelty races'). Of course, many have the extra barrier of 40 pages of …

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What's great about dice-pools is meaningful results, all the time. You'll struggle to get that with a D20. Listen... Example 1: Good Chances The party ranger wants to navigate through the forest. Forests are dangerous, and he might fail, but his bonuses mean he succeeds on the roll of 3 or more. A 90% chance of success …

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There are a limited number of ways one can write an adventure. Let's start with the famous railroad model: Choo Choo! PCs Get a Quest Part 1 Go to Part 2 Go to Part 3 Go to Part 4 Go to Part 5 Boss fight The tell-tale signs you'll find here are sentences like 'when the PCs reach the village', or 'when the PCs find the …

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This chronological rundown of how I approach RPG design will go over the most universal principles I've learned or copied from others. Attitude All rules are bad, but some rules are worth it. The rest of the ideas here will talk about technical implementation, but the core thought, riding alongside every notion, is …

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