Bard of Valiant

First, read Chgowiz’s post on a near TPK (total party kill for those not “in” with the jargon). About halfway down you’re going to find the phrase “I felt like a failure.” I read that and felt punched in the stomach. I know that feeling, the feeling a GM gets when he knows just how [...]

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Familiars for wizards are very… yeah, familiar. But NPCs rarely have much besides other NPCs, whether other allies or just hired guns. Make an NPC a bit more memorable by giving him a pet.
63% of the American population own pets and I’d bet numbers are similar for other developed countries. [...]

Things I’ve used lately:

Previous Installments:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
No one leads a party or a game like the Game Master will. His influence is by far the most pervasive on any gaming table. – Bard of Valiant
And one of the things the Game Master has a huge influence in is who is playing [...]

One of the hardest things about rpgs [sic] isn’t prep, or out-maneuvering fire-breathing dragons but keeping a group of players engaged in what you are doing on a long term basis. – Advanced Gaming & Theory

Part of the challenge of any game is that you can lose. People tend to be competitive in many endeavors, [...]