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The Heart, Head, and X Factor

If you are running your first game, chances are you are stressed out. If you have just run your fist session and nothing went right you are probably completely overwhelmed. The first step to running a...

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Rules Lawyers and How to Deal With Them

This week James tackles the subject of rules lawyers and how to talk them out of slowing down your game. Players can be difficult but sometimes all you need to do is choose your words carefully to...

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Putting Together Your First Game Part 1

This is a big one folks. This is the first installment of a series where James walks you through the steps to setting up your very first game. In this part he breaks down a game into three essential...

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Putting Together Your First Game Part 2

James continues his walk-through for making your first game. In this episode you’ll learn about accounting for player strengths, using differences in scale and differences in kind, and the ever...

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Kickstarting Your Party Dynamic

In this episode James gives us some techniques to build strong party dynamics starting with the first session. He also shows us how to make it easier for players to live out their original character...

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Picking the Right System

This week, James discusses how one should go about picking a roleplaying system that works best for your story, players, and schedule. James’ articles on RPGs and Mood and RPGs in General...

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Rules Heavy vs Rules light

This week James continues his thoughts on how to approach picking a system to run your game. Lots of players have preferences for rules heavy systems or abstract rules light systems. What sort of...

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8. Giving Players the Right Amount of Information

QUESTION: Over the past year I have gotten back into DMing for a group of players, after an almost 10 year hiatus from tabletop rpgs I have come to realize that I am not as skilled as I once thought....

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9. Getting players to Participate

QUESTIONS   A couple years ago I DM’d for the first time for a game with my girlfriend (now wife) my friend Matt and his wife and a couple of our female friends.  Other than myself and Matt, no one...

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10. Interview With David Ewalt

Parting with the usual format, James sits down with Senior Editor of Forbes Magazine and author of “Of Dice and Men” David M. Ewalt to discuss David experience running his very first campaign. Their...

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11. Cultivating Atmosphere

What separates basic play from role-playing art? For game masters it is almost always a question of atmosphere. In this episode James teaches aspiring DMs how to create and maintain atmosphere. He...

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12. Designing Monsters

This week live from CODcon James invites Kat Murphy and Jim Hepplewhite on the show to discuss customizing monsters thanks to a question from Jeff Chaffe @infocorn on twitter. The post 12. Designing...

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13. Voicing Characters

One of the things about your GM’ing style that I love the most was your presentation of NPCs. Specifically their voices. Your assortment of voices you draw from sound so natural. And they give NPCs...

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14. When Things Go Wrong

What do you do when your party doesn’t follow your plot? The post 14. When Things Go Wrong appeared first on Peaches and Hot Sauce.

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15. John Harper

John Harper is responsible for some of the most fun and influential micro systems on the internet. With games like Lasers and Feelings, Lady Blackbird, and Ghost Echo in his portfolio Harper is the...

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Rapid Fire 1

James answers three listener questions in one episode! Gain insights on stronger performance and portraying ambivalence, co-GMing, and intrigue based role play systems. The post Rapid Fire 1 appeared...

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17. Alignment Part 1 with Ben Dutter

Plenty of OD&D concepts have fallen out of favor. Most of them died out because they put limitations on play. These days swords and sorcery systems are way less restrictive and f20 games are...

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18. Metatopia 2014

James discusses the outstanding Metatopia and talks game design with fellow rookie designers Jason Pitre and Mark Richardson. JASON PTIRE http://www.genesisoflegend.com MARK RICHARDSON...

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Strong, Unreasonable Villains

This week James takes on a new listener question: When my players come up with what seems like a reasonable bargain or deal, my antagonists accept, as long as they’re not giving up more than they...

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Maps and Minis

This week James McGhie asked the simple question: “Tiles and minis, yay or nay?” The post Maps and Minis appeared first on Peaches and Hot Sauce.

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