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Introductions

cakemonitor

Member
Wizard of Story
Dydh da! I'm Martin from Cornwall in the UK.
I haven't GM'ed for a year or two due in part to time constraints and also because I'm currently playing in a couple of campaigns that some friends are running. However I started out with 2nd edition AD&D, and ran a little D&D 3.5, a fair bit of Pathfinder, then on to 5th edition D&D, and in recent years I've been getting more interested in rules-light systems to focus my games more around story creation and less around calculations, min-max'ing, and look-up tables. Currently I'm in the early phases of building a setting & initial adventures for use in a custom system which draws inspiration from F# and Powered by the Apocalypse.
My favourite specific dice is the blue and white d20 from my first ever set of polyhedral dice. After that a weird d16 that I came across just because of its strangeness. It's essentially a d20 with some faces stretched a little to replace where four other faces would have been - it's not remotely balanced or fair! :D

d16.jpg
 
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ejnotts

Member
Wizard of Story
Hello all, I'm Ed from London in the UK.

I've been running a D&D5e campaign for a couple of years, as it's easier to find players than DMs in London! I got into playing TTRPGs having been drawn in by Critical Role, and then pursued DM tips from Matt Coville, The Alexandrian, and Johnn Four, which brings me here!

I've also started an ad hoc "The End of the World: Zombie Apocalypse" online campaign since Covid hit, which is great because it's rules-light, and let's me leverage Google Maps and Streetview for scenarios! I'm also spending the lockdown brainstorming ideas for a home-brew Low Fantasy Gaming campaign, which strikes me as a more gritty, less fantastical version of 5e. Whilst I spend time digging through the various free material on running TTRPGs, I find my ideas bounce around too much, so never quite get a coherent structure to build a world and adventure. I'm hoping the resources here can help with that!

Favourite sided-die... D6, if only for its universality. I have a lovely, cheap, ivory and gold plastic dice set with a lovely weight and bounce - it's my preferred set!
 

ejnotts

Member
Wizard of Story
Lots of grognards here, it seems, very nice.
I couldn't agree more - before now I didn't know anyone who'd been playing TTRPGs for more than 5 years. Now I find myself amongst such a group of elite veterans! Feeling in equal parts impressed, trepidatious, and keen to learn from your experience...
 

ejnotts

Member
Wizard of Story
For anyone interested in free maps, I also operate a site at atlas.monsen.cc containing a community atlas, a collaborative world. All the maps for this world is made in Campaign Cartographer by various people from the community, but for those not owning the product, all maps can also be downloaded in high-quality png format. It's over 400 maps there now. Feel free to use the maps individually, or if you want to, use the world as your new campaign setting. It is a great starting point if you want to provide the lore yourself, but don't feel like drawing all the map.
This is AMAZING! I love the nested map setup. Having the link between the world-continent-region-area-city maps is so satisfying to explore. Totally going to use this for my upcoming campaign :)
 

ejnotts

Member
Wizard of Story
I'm looking for the equivalent of the laws of perspective for roleplaying design. What structures or frameworks can be used to make good roleplaying experiences? I'll throw this out there--modules are written like stories, sometimes plays, but instead should be written solely as stage directions.
This is a really interesting analogy. By laws of perspective, do you mean something like this? I'm also keen to understand the (presumably universal) principles that underlie great TTRPG experiences.

And Your point about "modules being written like stories ... but should be like stage directions" really chimes with my experience running recent D&D 5e modules. They can be far too rigid to run.
 

ejnotts

Member
Wizard of Story
Hello!
Bought my first Dungeons & Dragons kit (the starter kit) in November 2019. Became the prophet spreading D&D in my group of friends (and city. and country)
I've found others who play - and now, running a D&D Homebrew game with 8 players.

Fan of Johnn and his Loopy Planning technique. Joined here as I bought Johnn's new course.

Excited!
Another relatively new initiate to TTRPGs - hello! :D It seems like everyone here has decades of experience (not that that's a bad thing), but I'm pleased to meet someone who's been playing for less than 10 years!
 

ejnotts

Member
Wizard of Story
the campaign (partly created with a couple of games of Microscope to flesh things out and include them)
I'm planning to use Microscope with my players to generate a new low fantasy world/campaign. I'm hoping to balance core elements of the world that are already formed in my head with their creativity. Do you have any hints/tips of how to run microscope effectively for the purposes of transitioning to D&D?

Also, great to see some other folks from the UK around here :)
 

Gerald.Lock

Active member
Wizard of Story
Kia Ora koutou, originally from New Zealand and now living in Melbourne, Australia.

I've played RPGs since age 13 (1983) and got into DM/GM role early when I realised I was both dissatisfied with the efforts of my peers and that I had a passion for writing and designing. I'm now a practicing architect and hobbyist writer. Last campaign I GM'd was in 2013-14 just prior to my son's birth. Since then my spare time has been taken up with the usual parenting responsibilities, but now finally feeling like I have a reasonable amount of me-time back to devote to my favourite hobby.

I began with D&D, and since those early days have played Space Opera, Classic Traveller, Gamma World 2e & 3e, Twilight: 2000, Traveller 2300, Warhammer Fantasy RP 1e & 2e, and most recently Star Wars (WEG D6 & d20 Saga Edition) and Pathfinder.

I've signed up for Johnn's up-coming Adventure Building Workshop and looking forward to what promises to be an excellent course to really 'fill in the blanks' and 'sharpen my tools' as a writer and designer.

Ever since my first D&D game, my favourite dice have been the d20 and d12, for reasons that became clear while studying sacred geometry and the like.
"The same circle circumscribes both the pentagon of the dodecahedron and the triangle of the icosahedron inscribed in the same sphere."

1597322875859.png
image source: https://cage.ugent.be/~hs/polyhedra/dodeicos.html
 

dmw71

New member
Wizard of Story
My name is Dave (dmw71), and I live about an hour outside of Chicago, Illinois (US). I started playing AD&D (now known as 1e) around 1980 and played it almost exclusively until trying and preferring 2e in 2012. Five years later I (reluctantly) joined a 5e game and, after a short adjustment period (the whole d20 system was a bit of a shock), it has become my edition of choice.

"Life" makes it difficult for me to participate in live games, so my gaming is almost entirely online, via play-by-post, but I mix in a rare face-to-face or Roll20 game when possible.

My goal is to write one-shot adventures for publication. Yes, I understand this course may not be geared towards that end, but I'm confident I will still be able to benefit greatly from it. Worst case, it will improve the games I run on the play-by-post forum I frequent.

For no specific reason, I've always been fond of the d10. 🤷‍♂️


Looking forward to the course!
 

ExileInParadise

RPG Therapist
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Howdy howdy!

My name is Allen and I am both from, and in, Houston Texas.

I am currently guiding a Cyberpunk Red game for coworkers and laying out my own interstellar sci-fi game on my own homebrew rules base.

I've been a guide on and off since around 1984, for games such as AD&D, Star Frontiers, Battletech, Living Steel, Paranoia, Cyberpunk 2013/2020, etc.

I really enjoyed the D20 3.0 open game movement and jumped hard into 3.0 and 3.5 and the RPGA, at one time doing their Herald-level GM program and stomping around the updated Forgotten Realms for a couple of years.

My favorite die is the venerable six-sider - because you can always find a hand full of them when you need them, even if you have to go on a couch-raid side quest.

The problem I need to solve is not how to be a guide, but how to be a *good* one - my players don't complain, they do compliment - but I struggle mightily with every... single... session... prepping cool locations, cool NPCs, and cool plots is exhausting and unfun and I figure its because I am going about it all wrong.

One-shots I can prep for I can ace and people have as blast.

Extended adventures over multiple sessions or full campaigns inevitably flame out ... and not because of the players.

So here I am to see how others do it better and have more fun doing so.
 

Le Bon MJ

Member
Wizard of Story
Hi there, nice to meet you all ! My name is Hugo.

Young GM, always trying to improve.
I have my own youtube channel (french) on the art of GMing : "le bon mj"
Usually I am a low prep GM and i used to do short campaigns and oneshot.
However, I now want to try to write more and prepare long campaigns.
My favorite RPGs at the moment are Coriolis and Symbaroum (still trying to chose the one I am gonna play).
My last campaigns were in homebrew settings, using DW, Beyond the wall and other adventures, SaWo, DnD 5e and Brigandyne (a D100 based system from an indie french creator).

I am glad to be here and happy to meet you all !
(sry for my english)
 

saps

Member
Wizard of Story
Hi everyone , I'm Richard and I live in Norwich, England - originally from the outskirts of London.

I've been a roleplayer since my early teens in the 1980s. I played mostly fantasy stuff, almost always as a player, throughout that decade.

I started to lose interest in the genre as I hit my twenties and then, sadly, adult life got in the way for my gaming group. As I wasn't a confident GM I didn't start my own group and this has meant that the amount of gaming I've done as an adult has never matched up with my love for the hobby. I probably only play a handful of games each decade which seems a real shame.

I find myself buying games systems and never playing them. Mostly because I don't have the group to test them out with but also because I'm put off by the sheer amount of rules. I'm much more interested in feel and setting than I am in actual mechanics, although I could probably be endlessly fascinated by an elegantly simple system. I prefer games where you're not reaching for the rule book every few minutes and where every combat doesn't take a half hour to resolve.

While I like to read some SF I find it a bit too expansive a setting for gaming, I like to feel like I really know the world I'm gaming in. I tend to be mostly interested in modern day, real world settings for gaming. Something based in reality but maybe with a touch of the weird or esoteric.

I've had an idea for a horror adventure that I've been toying with for years now and I find that I'm paralysed by not knowing how much detail to include in the building. And also by not understanding how open or controlled the final scenes should - or even whether I should plan for the final scenes. Overthinking has really held me back.

I'm hoping that the course will give me the boot in the rear that I need and give me the tools to overcome the problems I've always had with creating adventures so far.
 

Ryder_MT78

Member
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Hello everybody. I salute you all.

My name is Rodrigo, from the most dystopic Mexico City. I started playing Star Wars D6 by West End Games in the middle nineties, and explored D&D, World of Darkness (MAGE The Ascension was my favorite, but played a lot of Vampire, and we had one shots of almost every game ), and other games for variety. I made some home-brews along the way. In later years I played 4th edition Dark Sun and currently I am a player for two characters in D&D 5th ed.

Life happened and I have much less time to play, direct or prepare. It is, however, one of the most rewarding sharing experiences directed toward my friends, to prepare and direct a campaign. I enjoy traveling inside my imagination for adventures, I listen to music, make tables, design NPC, but not currently mastering anything.

I have read John's newsletter since MSN Messenger was in trend. I love his approach toward gaming. I enjoy the random tables and the challenges he proposes. I am looking forward to be refreshed and make some easy to play, fun campaign to enjoy with my friends. Specifically they asked me for a Star Wars campaign.

For pure nostalgic reasons, my favorite die is the six sided one. I have very fond memories of the surprising stories we have told using D6 based systems. I find them very elegant.
 

Ryder_MT78

Member
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Hi everyone , I'm Richard and I live in Norwich, England - originally from the outskirts of London.

I've been a roleplayer since my early teens in the 1980s. I played mostly fantasy stuff, almost always as a player, throughout that decade.

I started to lose interest in the genre as I hit my twenties and then, sadly, adult life got in the way for my gaming group. As I wasn't a confident GM I didn't start my own group and this has meant that the amount of gaming I've done as an adult has never matched up with my love for the hobby. I probably only play a handful of games each decade which seems a real shame.

I find myself buying games systems and never playing them. Mostly because I don't have the group to test them out with but also because I'm put off by the sheer amount of rules. I'm much more interested in feel and setting than I am in actual mechanics, although I could probably be endlessly fascinated by an elegantly simple system. I prefer games where you're not reaching for the rule book every few minutes and where every combat doesn't take a half hour to resolve.

While I like to read some SF I find it a bit too expansive a setting for gaming, I like to feel like I really know the world I'm gaming in. I tend to be mostly interested in modern day, real world settings for gaming. Something based in reality but maybe with a touch of the weird or esoteric.

I've had an idea for a horror adventure that I've been toying with for years now and I find that I'm paralysed by not knowing how much detail to include in the building. And also by not understanding how open or controlled the final scenes should - or even whether I should plan for the final scenes. Overthinking has really held me back.

I'm hoping that the course will give me the boot in the rear that I need and give me the tools to overcome the problems I've always had with creating adventures so far.
I feel you bro. :)
 
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