17 Gamemaster Tips the Manuals Won’t Tell You

Ready for the full on geek? I’ve been a Game Master of roleplaying games since the term GM related specifically being a Dungeon Master.  From old school dungeon crawls to post-modern Storytelling, I’ve done it all and have roleplaying game books from more game systems than I can remember. I took a decade break from roleplaying but recently have gotten back into it and have had opportunity to speak with a few beginning GMs. In those conversations I realized I have specific knowledge that isn’t kept in those tomes of rules, er, I mean rulebooks.

Here are 17 tips you won’t find in any single roleplaying game rulebook.

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No Brainer

nobrainer
For eleven hours a day, six days a week, over the course of three years Gerris mastered the Scylla Console. He knew every strength and flaw of this elite piece of technology. He knew the optimal temperature of the processor was 72.3 degrees Fahrenheit. He knew that in most of the Scylla Console’s constructed, the third memory module would short out if there was an electrical feedback over 14 milliamps. Most importantly and the easiest thing to learn about the Console, megacorporations security feared it.
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Don’t Play With Yourself on Valentine’s Day

I’ve written about St. Valentine’s Day a lot in my life. Something about this day sticks in my craw. I’m a romantic but like New Year’s Eve, every Valentine’s Day I’ve tried to make special usually fell flat. The expectations of certain events are difficult to meet and exceed. I really do think of myself as romantic, but I’m also very closed and cautious. Romantic gestures can also turn into really cheeseball moves if the person on the receiving end isn’t on the same level.

Normally, this time of year, I pimp out a piece I wrote a long time ago called Valloween (read my anti-Valentine’s Day rant).

This year instead of just pushing cynicism, I’m doing something different and fighting the banality I hate about Valentine’s Day. Think outside the box regarding what you do with your loved one on the 14th. What I’m going to suggest is play a game. The following are games perfect for two people to learn and play together. Some are quick, some are strategic, some are luck based, and some will end in flipped tables and angry words, but this is Valentine’s Day, that was bound to happen to someone anyway. Sorry, I just can’t keep my cynicism at bay.

Instead of Seven Deadly Sins, this year, you get Seven Fun Games For Two People. See? I’m capable of change!

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The Neuroscience of Creativity

I still believe that sitting down and reading a book is the best way to really learn something. – Eric Schmidt

Recently, I wrote about the role of noise in creativity and how to use the sense of smell to encourage creative problem solving.  I even wrote a small post on conflict spurring creativity.  Yes, there is a trend. I’ve been pondering creativity for a long while.

Baroness Susan Greenfield gave a speech at an event called Mind and Its Potential where she discussed the brain and its role in creativity.  It isn’t as simple as you might think.

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Why Writing Your Novel at Starbucks Isn’t a Bad Idea


Listen.

Hear the hiss of steam coming from the nozzle of the espresso machine? The murmuring sounds of people in conversations about their upcoming vacations, their late night escapades, and their fears about their careers fill in the gaps between the tinny sounds of the cash drawer opening and closing and the occasional electronic noises emitting from nearby phones, laptops, and tablets. Welcome to the coffee shop – filled with so many different noises writing a novel, planning a project, or doing any sort of creative work must be incredibly difficult. Yet, look around and you’ll see people tap-tap-tapping away at keyboards writing the next great bit of fan fiction.

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Does Smell Hold the Secret to Creative Success?

The idea of ‘sleeping on a problem’ is well known and accepted as a perfectly acceptable way of dealing with a mental block.  A new study performed by a team led by Simone Ritter of the Radboud University Behavioral Science Institute in the Netherlands successfully linked smell with the success of ‘sleeping on it’.

Participants in the study were asked to watch a video on volunteerism before being asked for ideas on how to motivate people to volunteer more of their time. The participants were to sleep on the problem and provide ideas in the morning. Two-thirds of the participants watched the video and told the problem while exposed to a vanilla-orange scent.

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