Category: GM Notes
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Holiday Appeal: Run Honey Heist
Have the holidays put your campaign on hold? Bring some cheer to your table no matter who shows up by running Honey Heist set in your campaign world.
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Timing Tune Up
My last Monster of the Week adventure was a two-parter. However, part one dragged and we didn’t reach the cliffhanger I had planned. I improvised a cliffhanger ending and turned the original ending into part two’s strong start. Let’s compare the two sessions and how I handled timing between them. My players seemed to like…
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Star Trek Adventures in Action
I normally play in a Star Trek Adventures game, but last session I was the GM! I ran a bottle episode that had the crew go on a first contact mission. They got into ethical dilemmas as planned and we had some great character moments. However, some parts of my prep didn’t go as planned…
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Star Trek Adventures Bottle Episode
I wrote a Star Trek Adventures mission! Starfleet diverts the players’ ship to a nearby system to make first contact. The planet appears to be a pacifist agrarian idyll. However, under the surface, opposing forces stir. As the mission progresses, the crew is drawn into an ethical dilemma.
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Prepping my Trickiest Session Yet
We flesh out a mystery that pits our heroes against a centuries-old vampire. We have a McGuffin, a traitor, and plenty of secret history. Additionally, we review a few ways we can support a player who is new to roleplaying for their turn in the spotlight. Let’s apply some judicious preparation to a tricky session…
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Wanted: Better Monsters
My last Monster of the Week session ended anti-climatically. Our monster was tough on paper. Once the hunters figured out its secrets however, they dispatched it easily and with extreme prejudice. In this post I pick up the shattered remains of my monster and ask how to make the next monster better.
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How the Krampus Ruined Christmas
Io Saturnalia! We begin our Monster of the Week mini campaign. The team must hunt down a Krampus and unwind a centuries-old bargain the town made with the creature. To complicate matters, the child whom the Krampus wants to steal has topped the naughty list several years running!
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Monster of the Week: From One-Shot to Campaign
My Monster of the Week one-shot that grew to two sessions has become a campaign! What am I to do? In this post I plot the campaign arc, tie in character motivations, and discuss why a limited campaign is probably best for MotW.
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MotW: Ghouls’ Night Out, Part One
My first session of Monster of the Week went well. Case in point, we’ve already set a date to come back for the macabre conclusion of our story. But wait, wasn’t it supposed to be a one-shot adventure? We ended up running long. But let’s make some lemonade and prepare an even better part two.…
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A Monster of the Week Halloween One-Shot
Boo! Spooky Season is upon us once more! My group agreed to try out Monster of the Week this Halloween and now it falls to me to write the adventure. In this post, I use the MotW tools to create an adventure in which the players confront a cult that seeks immortality by ghoulish means.