====== GURPS Core Resources: Game Mastering ======


The Game Master (GM) is the referee of a roleplaying game. But that’s putting it
too simply. He is like a mystery writer . . . a storyteller . . . an umpire . . . a cosmic bookkeeper
. . . the “house” at a gambling casino . . . and (to the characters) a minor deity.
The GM is the final authority. Rules are guidelines . . . the designers’ opinion about
how things ought to go. But as long as the GM is fair and consistent, he can change
any number, any cost, any rule. His word is law!
Many things are left up to the GM to decide. A game world gets realism from its
completeness. The GM adds all the details that make it come alive. With a good GM,
even a bad set of rules can be a lot of fun. With a good set, the sky’s the limit. We semimodestly
believe that GURPS is a very good set of rules indeed – but without the GM,
the rules are nothing.
Read on . . .


Customizing the Rules
Throughout Basic Set, we have included assistance for GMs who wish
to tailor the rules to their liking. For quick reference:
• New Advantages (p. 117), New Disadvantages (p. 165), Creating
Techniques (p. 229), Alternative Magic Systems (p. 242), Other Powers
(p. 257), and Creating Templates (Chapter 15) provide guidelines for creating
and customizing character abilities.
•Character Development (Chapter 9) presents options for handling character
advancement.
• Tactical Combat (Chapter 12) and Special Combat Situations (Chapter
13) add optional extra detail to Combat (Chapter 11) for action-oriented
campaigns.
•Sections titled “Optional Rule” offer tested, optional add-ons. Examples
include Limited Enhancements (p. 111), Wildcard Skills (p. 175), Malfunction
(p. 407), Maintaining Skills (p. 294), Influencing Success Rolls (p. 347), and
Extra Effort in Combat (p. 357). Even a novice GM can quickly customize
the rules by specifying which options are “turned on” in his campaign.


CHOOSING A
CAMPAIGN TYPE
Before you make any other decisions, you should discuss the style of your
campaign with your players. There are many alternatives:
• “By-the-book” vs. “tweaked” (with many GM rules interpretations).
• “Realistic” vs. “cinematic” (see The Cinematic Campaign, p. 488).
• “Humorous” vs. “serious.”
• “Puzzles and mysteries” vs. “combat and adventure.”
• “Death is common and permanent” vs. “death is rare or easily remedied”
(by magic or high technology).


All of these are legitimate
approaches to roleplaying, but if the
players and GM have different expectations,
everyone will end up disappointed.
The game should be a story
that develops in play – not a battle
between the players and the GM (for those who want a battle between the players and the GM, try the Munchkin RPG series at:
www.sjgames.com/munchkin/rpg/. Really.) To
achieve this, a little mutual understanding
is necessary. A few minutes
of pre-game discussion can increase
everyone’s enjoyment.
POWER LEVEL
A crucial step in choosing a campaign
type is determining the number
of character points the PCs start out
with. This has a direct impact on the
campaign style: powerful heroes stampede
through realistic challenges with
cinematic ease, while a lighthearted
romp for supers might be a deadly
nightmare for normal humans.
As the GM, the surest way to
choose a suitable power level is by
“feel.” During the course of your first
few campaigns, you’ll learn how your
players spend their points – and how
their PCs cope with the adventures
you cook up. You can use this experience
to choose a good power level for
your next campaign. But that won’t
help you this time, so you might wish
to choose the most appropriate power
level off the list below.
Some example power levels, with
suggested starting points for the
heroes:
Feeble (under 25 points): Small children,
mindless thralls, zombies, etc.
Unsuitable for PCs in any but the
darkest or most humorous of campaigns.
Average (25-50 points): Ordinary
folks, such as accountants and cab
drivers.
Competent (50-75 points): Athletes,
cops, wealthy gentry . . . anyone who
would have a clear edge over “average”
people on an adventure.
Exceptional (75-100 points): Star
athletes, seasoned cops, etc. With a
little experience, these individuals
could become full-time adventurers.
Heroic (100-200 points): People at
the realistic pinnacle of physical, mental,
or social achievement; e.g., Navy
SEALs, world-class scientists, and millionaires.
Most full-time adventurers
start their careers at around 150
points.
Larger-than-Life (200-300 points):
Leading roles in kung fu movies, fantasy
novels, etc. Typical of the professional
adventurer who has already
made a name for himself.
Legendary (300-500 points):
Protagonists of epic poems and folklore.
This is the best power level for
“gritty” supers and for mortals who
rub shoulders with gods.
Superhuman (500-1,000 points):
Those who have transcended humanity
(e.g., supers who can take on tanks
barehanded) and powerful creatures
of fantasy (e.g., dragons who can best
entire armies).
Godlike (over 1,000 points): True
demigods who can do as they please
most of the time.
HIGH-POWERED
CAMPAIGNS
Player characters built on a high
point total can tax the GM’s ability to
provide meaningful challenges, weaken
the integrity of the game world, and
push the limits of game balance. As a
result, high-powered gaming merits
special discussion.
“High-powered” is a subjective
term – these guidelines assume PCs
with well over 200 points. Even so,
most of this advice stands at any
power level!
Character-Design
Problems
Some players spend lots of points
in one area, resulting in PCs with abusive
levels of ability. Others use their
ample points to prepare for almost
every conceivable situation, thereby
poaching on the territory of more
focused PCs. And still others try to do
both, investing many points in a single
trait and then coming up with
“creative” ways to use that ability in
place of almost everything else. A few
countermeasures:
Offer a broad selection of abilities. In
a high-powered game, there should be
all manner of expensive options available
to soak up points: great wealth,
exotic advantages, magic, psionics,
powerful racial templates . . . preferably
several of these. Let your players
know what is available, and use the
expanded rules for special abilities
whenever possible.
Divide starting points between “base
points” and “experience points.”
Consider giving the players only a
fraction of their starting points to
begin with. Ask them to create
focused, balanced characters for your
approval. Once you approve a PC, give
the player the rest of his points to
spend as if they were earned in play –
which means he cannot acquire large
numbers of new advantages, or new
skills that don’t fit his character story.


Require certain abilities. Heroes can
be worth a lot of points without giving
the players control over every last
point. A modest discretionary budget
in combination with a fixed set of abilities
works well. For instance, every
super might have a package of
“mutant abilities” (effectively a racial
template) and get 200 points to spend
however he wants; every commando
might start with a 100-point “basic
training” template and get 50 points to
customize with.
Require certain categories of abilities.
If required abilities seem too
rigid, consider requiring PCs to have a
certain number of points in a few
classes of abilities. For instance, secret
agents might have to spend at least
10% of their points on each of “social
traits,” “combat abilities,” and “technical
skills”; supers might have to spend
at least 20% of their points on each of
an attack, a defense, and a movement
power.
Limit attribute levels. Attributes
affect so many things in the game that
a PC with lots of points in attributes
can sometimes cause problems. To
combat this, set an upper limit on
individual attribute scores or on total
points allowed in attributes.
Emphasize the value of relative skill
level. When a character concept calls
for many skills, there is a temptation
to buy high attributes and put relatively
few points into skills. This might
be a cheap way to get good skill levels,
but it leads to “attribute inflation.” To
encourage more balanced designs, tell
your players that you intend to make
heavy use of the Relative Skill Level
rules on p. 171.
GM Limitations
Even balanced high-powered PCs
can wreak havoc on your adventure or
game world if you aren’t ready for
them! Here are a few ways to prepare
for a high-powered game:
Know the heroes’ abilities. There is
a lot of information on the character
sheet of a powerful PC. If you are not
familiar with all of it, the game can
grind to a halt when the player invokes
a rarely used ability. Even worse, a forgotten
ability can lay waste to your
careful plans!
Know the rules. The more abilities
the heroes have, the greater the
number of special rules that will
see use during the game. Do your
reading before the game begins. This
keeps things moving and prevents
players who like to abuse high-powered
abilities from ruining the game
for everyone.
Fit the challenges to the heroes.
Read through your campaign notes
with the PCs’ character sheets in hand.
This simple procedure will often alert
you to foes, mysteries, and dangers
that will not challenge the heroes’ abilities,
and gives you an opportunity to
patch these holes before the players
drive trucks through them.
Present a variety of challenges. Make
sure the heroes cannot meet every
challenge with Guns-20 or Fast-Talk-
25. Run the game in such a way that
single-focus characters have to rely on
their friends for help. At the same
time, be sure that a few success rolls
involve sufficiently large penalties that
jack-of-all-trades characters have to
defer to the true experts in the group.
Know the stakes. Campaign power
level doesn’t just determine the heroes’
abilities and the scale of the threats
they face – it sets an upper limit on
any imbalance between the two.
Challenges that are merely amusingly
weak or annoyingly tough in a lowpowered
game might become boring
or lethal when scaled up to a higherpowered
one. Be ready to think on
your feet! If the heroes are chewing up
the opposition so easily that the players
are yawning, have tougher reinforcements
show up; if they are getting
mauled, give them a lucky break.
Be flexible. Powerful PCs can do
more, which makes it tricky to secondguess
them. Again, you must think on
your feet. Don’t penalize your players
when they finesse your plot with their
abilities . . . but when they use their
powers as blunt instruments to knock
holes in the plot, be ready to come up
with creative countermeasures that
look like you planned them all along.
System Limitations
GURPS is designed to work at any
power level, but it is impossible to
offer a special rule for every combination
of “problem abilities” possible in
a high-powered game. When the rules
do not handle a situation well, try one
of these fixes:
Use optional rules. In many cases,
optional rules exist specifically to deal
with high-powered characters – for
instance, Maintaining Skills (p. 294).
Such rules can often make the difference
between a playable and
unplayable game.
Exercise judgment. If a rule implicitly
assumes a certain power level, and
the PCs are beyond this, feel free to
extrapolate. For instance, Task
Difficulty (p. 345) lists penalties down
to -10, but if your campaign includes
heroes with skills of 25 or 30, there is
nothing wrong with assigning a penalty
of -15 or -20!
THE CINEMATIC
CAMPAIGN
For the most part, GURPS stresses
realism. Heroes can get disappointed,
injured, sick, or even dead. So it goes.
The GM is expected to stretch realism
in an emergency (defined as “whenever
realism would ruin the game”), but
the rest of the time, realism rules.
The “cinematic” campaign is one
where realism doesn’t rule – because if
it did, it would constantly get in the
way of the story. In a cinematic campaign,
swashbuckling heroes can
defeat dozens of foes because the story
calls for it. Spacecraft whoosh or roar
in the silence of space because fast
things whoosh and powerful engines
roar. Rightness always overrules mere
correctness.
The cinematic style of play requires
both players and GM to understand

and agree with this principle, and to
cooperate in telling the story. GURPS
includes some rules that can help –
but everyone must realize that an epic
story is apt to transcend the rules.
Cinematic Power Level
It is possible to run a cinematic
game at any power level. Cinematic
games are frequently high-powered
games – and vice versa – but “cinematic”
is a style, not a point level.
Crack commandos in a grimly realistic
campaign might have huge point
totals, while many of Robin Hood’s
Merry Men would come in under 100
points yet be quite at home in a cinematic
campaign.
Still, cinematic heroes should be
markedly more capable than ordinary
people . . . and perhaps even more talented
than most heroes. Players find it
easier to believe in cinematic stories if
their characters are capable enough to
accomplish what the story calls for
them to achieve without too much
“fudging” on the part of the GM.
How the players spend their points
is somewhat more important. GURPS
provides many abilities suitable for
cinematic gaming. Epic heroes often
have a Destiny. Most possess “luck” –
although Daredevil and Serendipity
are often more appropriate than
plain Luck. The GM should permit
Gadgeteer, Gizmos, Gunslinger,
Rapier Wit, Trained By A Master,
Weapon Master, and Wild Talent. He
should also allow any skills associated
with these traits, and might even want
to use “wildcard skills” (see p. 175).
Cinematic Characters
Advantages and skills do not, by
themselves, create cinematic heroes.
The player must have a character concept
that turns the statistics on the
character sheet into a person. In particular,
epic heroes need two things:
A motivation. Love and honor are
classic, but not all cinematic characters
are honorable, good, or even nice.
Evil dreams and goals – such as blind,
unreasoning vengeance – are perfectly
acceptable as long as they are appropriate.
However, obsession can lead to
a simplistic character. The player must
make a conscious effort to round out
his character’s personality.
A place in the world. Cinematic
heroes have loved ones, mentors,
lovers, ex-lovers, enemies, birthrights,
family curses, and so on. They do not
simply appear, play their role, and
vanish – they need to be part of the
game world, since their story is part of
what defines the game world.
Cinematic Play
Cinematic campaigns have certain
conventions:
A cinematic world is ordered.
Events have reasons – reasons that
relate to the story. These might not be
obvious, but few things happen arbitrarily
and nothing significant happens
at random. This doesn’t mean
that the plot has to be linear or predestined.
Reversals of fortune are
common setbacks, and even if the
final goal is set in stone, the way to get
there is not.
The only details of importance are
those that directly advance the story.
Unnecessary detail is the bane of cinematic
gaming. The GM must know the
difference between important details
and irrelevant ones. For instance, if
the heroes must cross the Burning
Wastes to reach the Dark Tower, they
will find enough water along the way;
the story would be very short if they
didn’t, and it would not advance the
story much to play out their searches.
The GM must be prepared to overrule
any die roll. If the dice determine
every outcome, the players learn to
put probability ahead of dash and
style. Furthermore, the dice can be as
tyrannical as a heavy-handed GM;
the players are likely to revolt if a
brave adventurer dies suddenly from
a random disaster! On the other
hand, the GM must not overrule the
dice so often that the players feel as
though nothing they attempt can
change the outcome of the story.
The GM must allow dramatic
actions to succeed. If the hero tries to
swing from the chandelier, the player
must have confidence that the GM will
not sneer at him and announce that he
has broken his back – and must now
play a quadriplegic – because his
hands slipped off the wax caked onto
it. The GM certainly shouldn’t bog
down play by requiring endless skill
rolls modified by the dimness of the
tavern!
The players must not take inappropriate
advantage of conventions. Yes,
the heroes will make it across the
Burning Wastes – but they must still
make proper preparations. A player
who remarks, “Don’t worry about
water. We’re heroes; we’re sure to find
some,” is playing in the wrong campaign.
The players must provide dialog
and attitudes in keeping with the
style of the campaign.
The GM must handle heroic deaths
satisfyingly. An epic death cannot be
purposeless. If a PC dies, he dies gloriously
– bravely saving his comrades’
lives, or taking an impressive number
of foes with him. Fate (in the person of
the GM) will be generous. There is no
need for stinginess, as the PC won’t be
around to be a problem later on! The
players must not abuse this convention.
A dying hero might be almost
invincible . . . but only if he’s selling his
life to take action that directly
advances the plot.


Damn the Rules, Full Speed Ahead!
Many gamers prefer a “rules-light” game, in which the action moves
along quickly rather than being bogged down in die roll after die roll.
This is similar to cinematic gaming, but it is possible to have a quick,
realistic game just by choosing which rules you use. For instance, combat
slows down a lot when the GM uses hit locations or critical hit and
miss tables – so leave them out. Rather than fuss with the detail of
selecting a dozen skills to round out a character, use a wildcard skill –
and maybe a Talent or two (p. 89) to boost that skill even more. If the
GM and players want a free-wheeling, fast-paced game, it’s easy to do –
just pare GURPS down to its essential elements and be willing to make
a lot of judgment calls on the fly.


STARTING A GAME SESSION

There are a few things the GM
should do before play actually starts,
to make things easier for himself and
the players:
Introduce the characters. If you are
in the middle of a continuing campaign,
you can skip this step! But if
you are just starting out, each player
should have the opportunity to
describe “himself” or “herself.” If there
is an artist in the group, he may help
by drawing the characters as they are
described.
Check for skills, etc. improved since
the last play session. In a continuing
campaign, the PCs earn character
points that they can spend to improve
their abilities. Sometimes the PCs can
study, work at jobs, etc. between play
sessions. Therefore, some characters
may have better skills or abilities than
they did last game session. This is the
time for the players to work out such
matters with the GM. (If everyone in
the group has net access, it might be
better to work on this via e-mail
between games, to avoid slowing
things down.)
Fill out the GM Control Sheet.
While the players are getting to know
each other (or each other’s characters),
the GM should check over the
character sheets, make sure everything
balances, and copy necessary
information onto a GM Control Sheet.
This reference lists attributes, secondary
characteristics, special advantages
and skills, etc. for each PC. When the
GM rolls in secret to determine who
sees something, who understands
something that everyone sees, who
resists a spell, or who that bad-tempered
dwarf takes a dislike to, this
sheet is valuable.
Brief the players. Tell them what’s
going on, give them some idea what
the adventure will be about, and (in a
continuing campaign) refresh their
memory about the last game session.
There are many ways to do this. You
can always just tell them. But it’s much
more fun to start play and then “set
the scene.” Let the characters immediately
find a map or old book . . . meet
someone who tells them an interesting
rumor . . . befriend someone in need
of help . . . witness a wrong that needs
righting . . . or whatever.
Let the game begin!

Advance Preparation
There are several things for the GM to do well in advance, before the
players arrive on the scene:
Prepare the adventure. If you are playing a prepared adventure, all
you need to do is read through it, and possibly make up some character
sheets. But if you are designing your own adventure, you may spend
weeks of work – a labor of love – before it is ready for the players. In
any event, be sure you’re fully familiar with the adventure before the
players show up!
Brief the players about the adventure. If your players are already
familiar with the system, you should tell them in advance (before they
arrive to start the game) what sort of characters are “legal” and how
much money, equipment, etc. they are allowed – and perhaps give a
hint about useful skills. If everyone has his character made up in
advance, you’ll be able to get right to the action when the players arrive.
Set up the play area. You need pencils, paper, and dice; maps and
miniatures if you are using them (and a table to play them on); and a
supply of snacks (for yourself, if not for the whole group)!
Who’s Got the Sheets?
Much of the advice in this chapter assumes that you, as GM, have
access to the character sheets during the planning process, or at least
are maintaining a detailed GM Control Sheet. Some GMs ask the players
to leave their character sheets with them, both because it helps them
plan and because then the players can’t lose them. However, there are
situations (for instance, a campaign in which GM duties rotate through
the group) where that’s impractical – and some players really don’t like
to give up that much control. You should at least have a control sheet
with each PC’s primary abilities, updated as major changes happen. It’s
not as good as having the actual character sheets, but it’s much better
than trying to plan and run the game blind. Of course, a photocopy or
digital copy is even better!
To Screen or Not to Screen?
Many GMs prefer to use folders, books, or other opaque items to
screen their notes and die rolls from the players. Others find that it distances
them from the game, and like being right out with everyone else.
This is largely a matter of taste; we point out only that there are situations
in which a GM should roll secretly, and you should have some
easy way to do that.

MAPS
The GM may wish to prepare maps
in advance, to help him plan and to
keep track of events. He may also give
maps to the players as clues. And the
players themselves might want to map
their progress – whether it be through
jungles, dungeons, or downtown New
York City – to make sure they can find
their way back . . .
Maps in GURPS use hexagons, or
“hexes,” to regulate movement and
combat. Each hex is adjacent to six
other hexes. See Hexes (p. 384).

Travel Maps
Draw these maps to any convenient
scale. Examples include maps of
continents, highways, and cities.
These are purely for information; they
are not “playing boards.” In a modern
adventure, the players have access to
travel maps. In a far-past or far-future
campaign, the travel map might be the
GM’s secret. (Finding a map can be a
great adventure objective.)
Area Maps
The standard scale for these maps
is 1” = 18’ (6 hexes). Each hex is still
one yard across – it is just drawn to a
smaller scale. Use this scale to map an
entire building, dungeon, arena, etc.,
and use a different sheet for each floor
or level, indicating shafts and stairways.
Mark each room (or other point
of interest) with a letter or number for
use with a map key.
For each room, the map key should
give:
• Its size (although this might be
clear from the area map).
• A general description.
• A description of the people or
creatures in the room, if any. This may
be as simple as “Two ordinary wolves,”
or as complex as “This room is empty
except between midnight and 9 a.m.,
when two guards are there. There is a
50% chance that each one is asleep.
They are ordinary guards from the
Character List, but one of them also
has a gold ring worth $200. They will
surrender if outnumbered more than
2 to 1, but will not cooperate, even if
threatened with death.”
• If necessary, any special notes
about the room, and descriptions of
anything that might be found if the
room were examined carefully.
• If necessary, a room map (see
below) to show the precise location of
furniture, characters, etc.

The GM should keep this sort of
map secret from the players –
although they can try to make their
own map. He may wish to place a
marker on the area map to show
where the party is at any given
moment.
Room Maps
Draw these maps to any convenient
scale. A useful scale is 1” = 6’ (2
hexes) – half the size of a combat map.
Use these maps when you need to
sketch a room in some detail but do
not want to draw up a combat map.
Combat Maps
Combat does not require combat
maps – although they can be handy to
help the players visualize the action.
Tactical Combat (Chapter 12) does
require combat maps.
Combat maps are drawn to a scale
of 1” = 3’; each hex is three feet, or 1
yard, across. When the characters
enter an area where combat might
occur, lay out a map and have them
place their figures on it to show exactly
where they are. If combat occurs,
play out the fight on the combat map.
Treat any partial hex as equal to a
full hex. This allows a realistic representation
of either a hex-walled room
or an irregular cavern.


Player-Made Maps
Whenever the PCs enter an area for which they have
no map – be it a dungeon, a laboratory complex, or a
network of jungle trails – the players will want to map
it themselves. (That is, they will if they are smart!)
However, mapping is not trivial. Unless the party
carries a tape measure and spends a lot of time using it,
you should not tell them, “You go 12 yards down the
stairs and turn north. The tunnel is seven feet wide and
nine feet high. It goes north for 120 yards and then
turns northeast. In another 20 yards, it opens out into
a room 10 yards by 6 yards.” That sort of information
would require several minutes per measurement and a
skill roll against Mathematics (Surveying) – not just a
stroll through the tunnel!
Instead, give them information like this:
“You walk down the stairs – they go down a little farther
than an ordinary flight of stairs. At the bottom,
there’s a tunnel going right. It’s wide enough for two to
walk side by side, and so high you can barely touch the
ceiling with your swords. It goes on for a ways in a fairly
straight line . . .”
“How far?” asks a player.
“Is somebody pacing it off? Okay. Around 128 paces.
It then turns to the right a bit . . .”
“How much?”
“Did you bring surveying tools? Anybody got
Absolute Direction? No? All right. Standing at the intersection,
with the old tunnel behind you at six o’clock,
the new tunnel looks like it turns away at between one
o’clock and two o’clock. Got that? Now, it goes along for
another 19 or 20 paces, and then opens out into a big
room. The door is in the middle of the long wall. The
room is roughly rectangular. From where you stand, it
might be 10 yards long, 6 or 7 yards wide.”
Very different, yes? But also much more realistic.
The players receive only the information the PCs
actually get with their senses. In the example above,
the GM fudged all the distances a little bit, assuming
that whoever was pacing would have a standard pace
a bit less than a yard.
If you do this, the players might come up with
ingenious ways to measure time and distance. Let
them!
Note that if mapping is difficult in ordinary circumstances,
it becomes next to impossible if the party is in
a hurry! Suppose the group is being chased through the
area described above. The GM would say:
“Okay. You’re running? Stop mapping. Here’s where
you go. Down the stairs! Turn right! Run for several
seconds! The tunnel bends to the right! Run a little farther!
You’re in a room!”
And so on. When the party stops running, they can
sit down and try to remember where they went.
(Eidetic Memory is a big help here!)
Mapping Overland Journeys
If the PCs are traveling through unexplored territory,
the players may wish to keep a large-scale map. The
GM may make it automatic if they are following rivers,
canyons, and the like. If they are trekking through featureless
wastes, or trying to map a specific tiny inlet of
a great river, making a map good enough for others to
follow requires a Cartography roll. This defaults to IQ-
5, Geography-2, Mathematics (Surveying)-2, or
Navigation-4. Absolute Direction is good for +3 to the
roll.
This can be an adventure in itself: the party is sent
to explore and map the trackless waste, virgin planet,
mysterious dungeon, steaming jungle, dead city, or
whatever.


RUNNING THE GAME

The GM’s task during the game is
simple. All he has to do is listen to the
players describe what they’re doing,
then use the rules of the game to tell
them what happens, so they can
describe what they want to do next . . .
and so on. Well, perhaps it’s not quite
that simple!
The sections below will help you,
as GM, determine “what happens
next” in a variety of situations. But the
most important things are not “rules”
at all, but guidelines for good GMing.
Use common sense. When any rule
gives a silly result, follow common
sense instead. No matter how much
we playtest, no rules are perfect –
including these. Don’t let the players
turn into “rules lawyers.” Your decision
is final.
Be fair. Give all the players an even
chance, and try to keep all of them
involved in the action. And when you
change a rule or make a special exception,
apply it equally to everybody.
Keep the action moving. A roleplaying
game is like a story. As the GM,
you’re the author. Your main characters
have free will, and often the story
goes where they want it to go! But
when things lag, it’s your job to liven
them up. Improvise an encounter . . .
introduce a clue . . . do something to
get things back on track, or to help the
players get some ideas.
Don’t lean on formulas. This definitely
includes the various formulas in
the rules! Use them when you need
them – but don’t let them become
crutches. And don’t let adherence to a
formula spoil the game. For instance,
if the hero really needs to lift that rock
to keep the action going, let him lift it.
Thou shalt not kill. Not much, anyway.
In some RPGs, life is cheap. A
GM doesn’t think he’s doing a good job
unless he slaughters half the party
within the first hour of play. But most
players don’t find this fun. GURPS
allows complete, detailed character
creation. It’s a shame to turn such
carefully crafted characters into cannon
fodder. Remember: good adventure
stories don’t kill off their heroes
without a reason. This is discussed in
greater detail below; see Keeping The
Characters Alive (p. 496). Of course, if
you and your players really like hackand-
slash games, go right ahead . . .
SETTLING RULES
QUESTIONS
In any question of rules, the GM’s
word is law. The GM decides which
optional rules to use, and settles any
specific questions that come up. A

good GM discusses important questions
with the players before deciding
– and a good player accepts the GM’s
decisions.
The GM should know the rules
thoroughly. When the rules do not
cover a situation – or when a decision
about the “real world” is needed – the
GM can use several techniques:
Success rolls. A “success roll” is a
roll that tests one of a character’s
attributes, skills, etc. – see Chapter 10.
Use a success roll when a question
arises about someone’s ability to do
some particular thing.
Random rolls. A random roll is
often best for a question like “Are the
keys in the car?” or “Does one of the
soldiers have a horse the same color as
mine?” The GM decides what the
chances are, then rolls the dice. Some
things have a 50-50 chance; others are
highly unlikely. The GM decides what
the odds should be, and leaves the rest
to fate.
Arbitrary fiat. You don’t have to use
the dice at all. If there is only one
“right” answer to fit the plot of the
adventure – then that’s the answer.
“Luckily for you, the grenade bounced
down the stairwell. Nobody was hurt.
But now the guards are alerted!”
DEALING WITH
THE PLAYERS
Players are individuals, with opinions
and biases, and there will be
times when the GM needs to keep the
peace. Here is some advice for doing
just that.
Arguments
As the GM, you should always listen
to reasonable suggestions from the
players – and if you make a mistake,
you should be willing to reverse your
decision. But you are the final authority,
and the court of last resort. If you
make a decision that you think is fair,
and someone insists on arguing . . .
invite him to leave the game, temporarily
or permanently. Games are
fun. Arguments aren’t. (The other
players may step in and shut this
down before you get a chance. Let
them!)
“I changed my mind!”
Certain players try to “take
back” actions when they suffer bad
consequences. Don’t let them do it
unless they could realistically have
changed their minds in time to avoid
trouble.
If George says, “I’m dropping the
nitroglycerine,” and you roll the dice
and tell him, “It just blew up. Take 3d
damage,” George can’t take it back.
But if George says, “I’m setting fire to
the building,” and then changes his
mind – let him. “All right. You lit the
match and found some newspaper,
but then you changed your mind.
Stomp out the newspaper.” Buildings
don’t burn that quickly, so George had
time to reconsider. (If George had
used a flamethrower, of course, it
would be different!)
In general, if a player announces
that he is performing an irrevocable
act . . . he really did it, and that’s that.
Follow the Leader
If the players select a leader,
the leader should speak for the party,
telling the GM what they are doing –
except in emergencies. Then, it’s every
man for himself. The leader can
give orders, but he cannot enforce
them unless his character can enforce
them in the game world. If the leader
appeals to you for help, tell
him, “You’re the leader. You keep
discipline.”
Table Talk
If your players are too noisy, tell
them, “If you say it, your character
says it.” This means that the characters
cannot be stealthy unless the players
are quiet, and the characters cannot
make a speedy decision unless the
players decide quickly. Enforcing this
rule can save the GM’s sanity, especially
if he has a large group.
PLAYING
THE NPCS
A “nonplayer character” (NPC) is
anyone played by the GM. The GM
gets to play dozens of characters
throughout an adventure – from
chance-met travelers to powerful
patrons and villains.
As the GM, you may create your
NPCs in any way you like. You should
design important NPCs just like player
characters, but you can give “cannon
fodder” and “bit players” logical abilities
by using templates (see Character
Templates, p. 445) or by assigning
appropriate traits on the spur of the
moment without regard to point value.
Once you create an NPC – major or
minor – play the role! Your NPCs will
try to earn money, look important and
admirable, protect their skins, and
achieve their goals – just like anybody
else! The more skilled you become at
roleplaying, the better a GM you will
be and the more fun you (and your
players) will have.
Some of your NPCs will automatically
be friendly to the PCs; others will
be “natural enemies.” These reactions
will be preset when you work out the
scenario. But many NPCs have no
“automatic” response to the PCs.
Instead, you will use the Reaction Table
(p. 560) to see how they respond.
Playing the Adversary
When the GM plays an NPC who is
an enemy of the PCs, he should try to
limit his knowledge to those things that
the NPC would really be aware of. The
GM knows all about the party’s
strengths and weaknesses – but their
enemies don’t. One good way to solve
this problem is to have another person
play the adversary characters.
The GM should tell the Adversary as
much as possible about the characters
he is to play. But the Adversary should
know no more than is “realistic” about
the overall situation. In particular, he
should know very little about the PCs
and their abilities – especially at the
beginning of an adventure! For total
realism, you might even want two
Adversary players – one for knowledgeable
enemies who are familiar with the
party, and one for stupid cannon fodder.
The Adversary is like an “assistant
GM.” His job is to roleplay the foes as
well as possible. He should not play
them as mindless killing machines
(unless they really are). If the “appropriate”
thing for those particular enemies
to do is to attack, they should
attack. But they might also throw rocks
from ambush, shout insults, or even
run away immediately!
In any disagreement between the
Adversary and the GM, the GM’s word
is law. But a good GM gives the
Adversary as much leeway as possible,
and takes any disagreement into another
room to avoid distracting the players.
Playing the Adversary is a good
way to build up experience if you
would like to be a GM someday.

Gaming Online
If you don’t have a gaming group in your area, or
you still want to game with college buddies who are
scattered all over the country (or the world!), you may
want to try roleplaying online. There are a number of
ways to go about it:
Play by e-mail (PBEM). In this style of play, the GM
describes the scene for everyone. Each player then
sends his next “move” to the GM, who compiles everyone’s
moves, figures out what the NPCs are doing during
that time, resolves all the actions, and sends out the
next installment.
Advantages: no one is forced into hasty action; just
about everyone with any sort of net access has e-mail,
and it works just as well on a 10-year-old computer as
it does on the newest model; the GM can attach files to
the messages if he wants to show the players something
their characters would see; games aren’t held up waiting
on the perpetually late player to arrive; and no one
can steal your munchies.
Disadvantages: it is a lot more work for the GM,
especially if he is a poor typist; a single encounter can
take weeks to complete if the players are slow about
replying; and it’s just about impossible to run any
detailed combats – in fact, many PBEMs actively avoid
combat.
Play by real-time chat (IRC, M*, instant message,
etc.). A compromise between e-mail and face-to-face
gaming is using an online chat room or instant messaging
service. This has many of the good and bad features
of both approaches – games have to be scheduled,
but the players don’t have to be in the same physical
location; it’s possible to have real-time interaction
among the players, but if someone is a slow typist, he
bogs the game down (or gets left behind); no one steals
someone else’s munchies, but no one buys the GM
pizza, either. Some chat sites do have dice rollers, however,
which makes gaming easier.
Massively multiplayer online RPGs. These are computer
games that allow the players and GMs to interact
online. Some let you use any game system you like; others
come with built-in rules.
We have made some efforts along this line, but so
far nothing has come of them. It definitely seems that
MMPORGs are the future of online gaming for many
people. These are getting better all the time, and rather
than discuss the state of the art as of this printing
(which will be outdated in six months and laughably
crude in two years), we’ll just mention them and suggest
that you ask around for help getting started.
Other Online Resources
Even if you aren’t gaming online, there are lots – no,
lots – make that LOTS – of great places to find support
for your tabletop GURPS game. Here are a few:
Pyramid. Our online magazine is not a “house
organ” – it covers games from across the industry – but
it does have a lot of GURPS content, with more added
just about every week. The archives of the print issues
of Pyramid (and its GURPS-only predecessor,
Roleplayer) have many articles which have never been
adapted in later GURPS publications. With an online
chat zone (including gaming areas), message boards,
and new content every week, Pyramid is a steal.
e23. Our new e-publishing venture has both out-ofprint
and brand new adventures and source material. It
is also growing all the time, so check back frequently to
see what new items we’ve added!
Our website. The SJ Games web page is loaded with
extra content (and, eek, errata fixes) for almost every
GURPS book ever published. It also includes downloadable
software to help you run games in person
or online. Our webforums cover everything we do,
including, of course, GURPS, and are a great place to
ask questions.
URLs
And here are the URLs:
SJ Games main page: www.sjgames.com
GURPS main page: www.sjgames.com/gurps/
Forums: forums.sjgames.com
Pyramid: www.sjgames.com/pyramid/
e23: e23.sjgames.com
GURPS errata: www.sjgames.com/errata/gurps/
GURPS Online:www.sjgames.com/gurps/online –
As of this writing there is nothing at that page but an
announcement of a canceled project, but if something
new happens, that’s where it’ll be.

REACTION ROLLS
When the PCs meet an NPC whose
reaction to them is not predetermined
(see below), the GM makes a “reaction
roll” on 3d. The higher the roll, the
better the reaction. The GM then plays
the NPC according to the guidelines
on the Reaction Table.
The GM should keep this roll secret
from the players. They don’t know, for
instance, whether that friendly-looking
old farmer is giving them straight
advice or sending them into a trap.
A reaction roll is not a success roll.
There are three important differences:
1. There is no “target number” to
roll against.
2. A high roll is good, not bad.
3. Reaction modifiers apply directly
to the die roll. A reaction bonus is any
factor that will make NPCs friendlier,
while a reaction penalty is something
that will bias NPCs against the PCs.
Some common reaction modifiers:
Personal appearance and behavior.
This is especially true for the PC who
does the talking! Above-average

appearance gives a bonus, as do such
traits as Charisma, Fashion Sense,
Pitiable, and Voice. In most situations,
so does a high apparent Status. Belowaverage
appearance and many disadvantages
give a penalty.
Skills. A successful roll against a
skill appropriate to the situation can
give +2 to reactions. Examples include
Administration when dealing with
bureaucrats, Carousing when partying,
and Politics when interacting with
politicians. In a few cases, skill 20+
gives an automatic +2 to reactions.
Diplomacy and Fast-Talk work this
way if you are allowed to talk – as does
Merchant skill, during commercial
transactions. The GM may give similar
bonuses for other skills.
Racial or national biases. Elves
don’t like dwarves, Frenchmen don’t
care for Germans, and so on. These
are usually penalties, and take the
form of a Social Stigma disadvantage
for the PC or an Intolerance disadvantage
on the part of the NPC.
Appropriate behavior by the players!
Here’s a chance to reward good
roleplaying. A good approach should
be worth +1 or more! A wholly inappropriate
approach that antagonizes
the NPCs should give the party -1 or
-2 on the reaction roll. Don’t tell the
players, “You blew it!” – just roleplay
the offended character, and let them
figure it out.
Random reaction rolls are great
when they add a note of unpredictability
to the game – this is more
fun for the GM, too! However, never
substitute random die rolls for reason
and logic.
Predetermined
Reactions
Certain NPCs might have reaction
modifiers (mostly bad) worked out in
advance. For instance, a street gang
might have a -5 reaction to anybody.
Predetermined reaction penalties
sometimes come with a “best-case”
reaction. Treat any reaction better
than the best-case reaction as the bestcase
scenario; do not roll again. For
instance, a mountain man might be a
loner, with a -2 reaction to any outsider
– and no matter what, his reaction
will never be better than
“Neutral.” In this case, the GM would
lower any reaction better than Neutral
to Neutral.
Predetermined bonuses and worstcase
reactions (e.g., “never any worse
than Neutral”) are possible for unusually
friendly NPCs.
Second Reaction Rolls
If the players get a reaction roll
they don’t like, they may change their
approach and try again (unless the
first roll started a fight!). Changes in
approach include offering a bribe,
offering a better deal, having someone
else ask, presenting new information,
and using a particular skill (see
below). If the NPC, as played by the
GM, feels that the PCs are becoming a
nuisance, apply a cumulative -2 to
each reaction roll after the first! The
PCs can avoid this penalty by waiting
a reasonable time between requests.
“Reasonable” is entirely up to the GM!
Influence Skills
The PCs can substitute a roll
against Diplomacy, Fast-Talk,
Intimidation, Savoir-Faire, Sex
Appeal, or Streetwise for a regular
reaction roll in certain situations – see
Influence Rolls (p. 359). The GM still
applies any modifiers that would
apply to the reaction roll, but treats
them as modifiers to the skill roll.
KNOWLEDGE
One challenge of roleplaying is to
limit a character’s knowledge to the
things he “should” know.
PC Knowledge
Part of the GM’s job is to keep players
from making use of information
that their characters could not know.
Anachronistic technology. Players
can’t use high-tech knowledge that
their characters could not have. If a
medieval character wants to invent
gunpowder, or build a compound
bow, or use moldy bread for penicillin,
you don’t have to let him. Of
course, time travelers can take knowledge
into the past.
Similarly, modern characters
should not be allowed free use of
ancient techniques. Gunpowder is an
example here, too . . . how many 21stcentury
people know exactly what to
combine to make gunpowder – or
how to mix, grind, sieve, and use it
without blowing themselves up?
Modern characters can always try to
“remember” ancient techniques, by
making appropriate (and difficult)
rolls against History skill or the particular
specialty involved.
Knowledge of history. If your game
is set in the “real” past of Earth, the
players – if they paid attention in
school! – have advance knowledge of
how things “really” came out. Don’t let
them use it – unless, of course, they
are time travelers from the future. And
remember that, in a game, history can
be changed – so some of the things the
players know might not be true.
Literacy. This is important – and
lots of fun. If a PC is illiterate, don’t let
him read anything! It is amazing how
many players claim -3 points for a
written comprehension level of None
in their native language . . . but
assume they can still read maps, street
signs, and shop windows!


“I open the door, duck under
the poisoned blade trap, step on
every third brick, and make sure
not to trip the hidden laser sensors.”
If you’re using a pre-packaged adventure, it is possible that some of
the players have already seen it, or even played through it. (If you’re
really unlucky, one of them GMed it!) As soon as you get a hint that the
players are acting from knowledge that they, themselves, should not
have, it’s time to throw them a curve ball, such as an unplanned
encounter, a room that “shouldn’t” be there, or a trap they weren’t
expecting – and, perhaps, to re-evaluate whether you want to be gaming
with people who are willing to cheat at the expense of everyone
else’s fun. Or at least yours.

NPC Knowledge
Likewise, the GM and the
Adversary should not use knowledge
that their characters could not logically
possess. This is the main reason for
having an Adversary in the first place
. . . so the GM can’t use his total knowledge
of the PCs against them. The
warnings under PC Knowledge apply
equally to NPCs, but there are some
additional things to watch out for:
Objectives of the party. The GM
knows the players’ true objectives; the
Adversary may know. But when he
plays “ignorant” characters, he must
roleplay his ignorance. This might
mean that an NPC acts hostile when
he “should” be friendly, or vice versa.
It also means that when the party
sneaks into the castle, the guards can’t
all rush to protect the treasure room.
They don’t know for sure where the
PCs are going!
Abilities of the party. All NPCs –
especially adversary characters –
should react according to the apparent
strength of the party. A simple example:
if the PCs are exploring a dungeon
populated by roving bands of orcs,
each new band should find out the
hard way that the party’s wizard uses
the Explosive Fireball spell – until
some orc escapes to spread the word.
Special weaknesses of the party. If
(for instance) two members of the
party are deathly afraid of snakes, the
adversary characters shouldn’t know
this unless there is a way they could
have found out. In fact, the GM
shouldn’t tell the Adversary things like
this in the first place. Let him find out
for himself! But even after he finds
out, he can’t use this sort of fact unless
he is playing a foe who should know.
KEEPING THE
CHARACTERS
ALIVE
There is a basic contradiction in
RPGs. On one hand, the players are
looking for adventure, and adventures
are dangerous. On the other
hand, nobody wants to get killed! The
GM must walk a fine line between a
“giveaway” adventure – where
nobody is in real danger – and a
wholesale massacre.
The GURPS rules are designed for
two main things: good roleplaying and
realism, in that order. “Realism”
means that, in any serious combat,
someone is likely to get killed or badly
hurt. And, since in real life nobody
wants to get killed, “good roleplaying”
means that most people try not to
fight until they have to! That goes for
your NPCs as well as the PCs.
Good roleplaying (and having a
good adventure) is the most important
thing, though. When good roleplaying
conflicts with realism, roleplaying
should win out. As the GM, you
should try not to let such a conflict
occur. But if it does happen, tip the
scales toward fun.
In particular, try not to kill too
many of the PCs! In a hack-and-slash
game, where the PCs are no more than
sets of numbers, a death is no loss. In
a true roleplaying game, with fully
realized heroes who took a long time
to develop, losing a character can hurt.
That is not to say that PCs can’t die.
They can. But in the best games, they
don’t die too often.
Keep in mind that RPGs are meant
to be fun. They simulate the “reality”
of heroic fantasy, not the reality of
day-to-day life. An RPG is a story that
the GM and the players write together.
And in the best stories, the heroes
(most of them, anyway) survive and
triumph. This is more important than
“logic.” Logically, Luke Skywalker
would have been shot down . . . Frodo
and Sam would have starved in
Mordor . . . Tarzan would have been
lion-bait before he was six years old. A
classic story defies logic, and still you
believe it – because you want to. A
good game is like that, too.
There are several techniques you
can use to keep from killing off your
“main characters.” Some of these are
totally contradictory. As GM, you’re
the boss. Use whichever methods you
like.
Intelligent scenario design. Don’t fill
your adventures with traps and foes
designed to slaughter the PCs. Design
a scenario to make the players think
and roleplay, and to give them a fair
chance – or perhaps a better-than-fair
chance, since they are the heroes.
Realistic NPC behavior. Most realistic
NPCs won’t risk their own lives
unnecessarily. Not every encounter
turns hostile; not every hostile
encounter turns violent; not every violent
encounter involves weapons. Of
course, some game worlds are more
violent than others, but “life is cheap”
usually makes for a very poor game.
Even in a violent game world,
enemy NPCs will often have a reason
to take the PCs prisoner rather than
kill them outright: interrogation, ransom,
imprisonment, slavery, sacrifice,
or what-have-you. Capture and escape
are staples of adventure fiction, which
is what the game is all about!
And if the PCs are winning a fight,
your NPCs should try to save their
skins. In real life, most guards, beasts,
or bandits flee – regardless of duty,
hunger, or greed – if a fight goes
against them. Play them that way.
Realistic NPC abilities. In most
game worlds, the PCs start off with
more points than the average person.
This means that most NPCs are no
match for them, physically or intellectually.
There are exceptions . . . interesting,
dangerous exceptions. But the
“man on the street” should have poorer
attributes and fewer abilities than
the PCs. For the most part, the PCs
should be facing inferior foes. This not
only keeps the game in balance – it
preserves the “reality” of adventure
fiction.
This is not to say that an “average”
person cannot be dangerous. A 25-
point thug can be a nasty fighter, if he
takes a couple of disadvantages that
don’t affect combat and specializes in
ST, DX, and combat training. He is
more than a match for a 100-point
intellectual in a fight. But a 100-point
fighter can chop him to bits.
Safety-net rules. Make use of rules
that serve to keep the PCs alive. Let
them expend FP for bonuses to
defense rolls (see Extra Effort in
Combat, p. 357), or even spend bonus
character points to buy successes (see
Influencing Success Rolls, p. 347). In
action-oriented campaigns, consider
making Luck a required advantage to
give the PCs “rules protection” from
bad die rolls.

Deus ex machina. This is miraculous
outside intervention that saves the day.
The cavalry comes over the hill . . . the
starship beams you up . . . the Governor
issues a pardon. When the players did
their best and things just went totally
wrong, arrange a miraculous escape,
against all odds. If it was good enough
for Edgar Rice Burroughs, it’s good
enough for you. Needless to say, the
beneficiaries of a deus ex machina
should not gain bonus character points
from the situation, since they did not
escape on their own.
Cheat! When all else fails, roll the
dice where the players can’t see – and
then lie about your roll. “It worked! You
finally got the door open. You rush
through and slam it behind you. The
orcs cannot follow.” When an “honest”
roll would result in a bloody massacre,
it is forgivable for the GM to cheat in
the players’ favor.
One last note: There will come a
time when the players insist on getting
themselves killed – through gross carelessness,
total stupidity, or even (we can
hope) good roleplaying, right down to
the bitter end. You can’t rescue them
every time . . . that’s no fun, either! If
they really ask for trouble, let them have
it. So it goes.


When in Doubt,
Roll and Shout
Often, in spite of your most careful preparation, something surprising
happens. It could be anything. No matter how much you plan
ahead, your players will come up with something you didn’t expect.
That’s all right. If they didn’t come up with anything surprising, your
duties as GM would be much less fun. But you still have to cope with
the problem.
Let’s say, for instance, that the heroes have just discovered the
Shrine of the Mother Goddess. Suddenly, they realize that they have
been followed! A dozen huge, ape-like creatures stalk through the door
and approach menacingly. There are no other exits.
There are several things the players might do, and you’re prepared.
If they want to fight, you know the combat stats for the ape-things. If
they try to make friends, you’ve already decided that they’ll be dragged
away to the ape-cave and fattened up for dinner. If they try to flee, or
use magic to make a barricade, you know there is a secret door behind
the altar – if they can find it in time. If they try to call on the Mother
Goddess, you’ve decided it won’t work – they don’t know the spells or
rituals.
However, one of the younger characters panics when he sees the apethings.
Running to the giant statue of the Mother Goddess, he clasps
her around the knees and bawls for help. He doesn’t pray . . . he just
pleads, like a terrified child. And you weren’t ready for something like
that!
Of course, you can just say, “Nothing happens. It doesn’t work,”
whenever your players try something original. But that’s no fun.
Or you can always say, “I wasn’t ready for that. Do something else.”
But that’s no fun either.
The good GM uses his imagination to match the players’ creativity.
In a really dramatic situation, like the one described above, just go with
the flow! There’s a very good chance that the Mother Goddess takes pity
on that poor, sincere fool. Maybe she swats the ape-things out the door.
Maybe she just picks up that one character and holds him safe, leaving
the others to fight the apes. Who knows? You’re the GM. In an unusual
situation, anything is right if it’s fair to the players and makes the
story better.
Whatever you do, it’s a good idea not to let the players know when
you are improvising. Let them think you had it all planned in advance.
If you want to admit afterward that you were just “winging it,” that’s up
to you. But don’t interrupt the flow of the game. Roll the dice, shout
“You did it!” (or “You blew it!”), and keep going.

GAME TIME
“Game time” is the time that passes
in the game world, as determined by
the GM. It rarely passes at the same
rate as time in the real world.
Time During Adventures
Combat is played in “slow” time. A
turn in combat equals one second, but
it might take a minute or more in the
real world to resolve that turn, especially
if the players are inexperienced or the
battle is a large one. Since combat is
usually a life-or-death situation, you
need to give your players time to think.
Conversations, planning sessions,
attempts to escape from traps, and similar
situations are played in “real” time.
If the players spend 10 minutes discussing
how to best approach an NPC
merchant . . . their characters spent 10
minutes talking outside the shop.
Routine travel, long tasks, etc., are
handled in “fast” time. For instance,
when the party is walking along a trail,
the GM can simply skip the time
between encounters: “You walk for
another two hours, and then, coming
toward you, you see two young
women with long poles . . .” Tell the
players when they meet someone,
when they enter a town, when night
falls, and so on. Just compress the rest
of the time. Under some circumstances
– a long sea or space voyage,
for instance – the GM could compress
months of uneventful time into
“Nothing happens until July, unless
you make it happen yourself.” This is
a good time for the characters to
dream up some interesting deviltry, or
to fill out Time Use Sheets for study
and self-improvement (see Time Use
Sheets, p. 499).
Time Between Sessions
If you can’t finish an adventure in
one session, just “pause” the game
until the next session. For instance, if
the party confronts a rampaging
Tyrannosaurus just before the session
ends, the Tyrannosaurus gets no closer
in the real-world week before you can
play again.

Time Between
Adventures
If you are running a continuing
campaign, you should keep track of
time between adventures, so characters
can study, travel, and age. This
can always be the same amount of
time, or the GM and players can simply
agree on a “logical” time to pass
between the end of one adventure
and the beginning of the next. It is
often a good idea to let a month or
two go by, to allow time for healing,
earning money at “ordinary” jobs,
and study of new skills – see Time Use
Sheets (p. 499).
There is also merit to shaking
things up occasionally – ask the players
what their PCs are doing, and then
interrupt their activities with the next
adventure! Once in a while, this can be
really effective, especially if the adventure
is meant to be a “double red alert”
emergency. If the party is widely scattered,
this might be a chance to try
some new techniques, such as one-onone
adventures or play by e-mail. Let
them deal with the crisis alone for a
bit before bringing them back together.
You don’t want to do this too often,
however, especially if some of the PCs
were in the middle of training for a
new skill or long tasks (enchanting,
inventing, etc.). Even fictional heroes
need some downtime . . .
Alternatively, you can let X days of
real time equal one day of game time,
all the time. For instance, if X is 7, one
day equals one week; therefore, if it
has been seven days since your last
adventure, seven weeks have passed in
the game world.

ENDING A PLAY SESSION

At the end of each play session, the
GM should do the following:
Discuss the adventure with the players.
What went right and what went
wrong – and why? If the session was
part of a continuing campaign, the
GM should be careful not to give away
any secrets!
Award character points for good
play (see below).
File away the play material. NPC
records, GM Control Sheet, etc. will all
be useful later – be sure to keep track
of them! You can often “recycle” NPCs
in later adventures.
Plan the next session with the players.
This is especially important in a
continuing campaign. Decide where
the game will take up next week, how
much game time will have passed, and
anything else that the players need to
know before the next session starts.
AWARDING BONUS
CHARACTER
POINTS
At the end of each play session, the
GM should award bonus character
points for good play. “Good play” is
anything that advances the heroes’
mission or shows good roleplaying –
preferably both. But roleplaying
trumps mission success! If a player
did something totally outside his character’s
personality (for instance, if a
total coward performed a brave act),
this should not be worth any points,
even if it saved the day for the rest of
the group!
The GM is free to award any number
of points . . . but in general, he
should give each player between zero
and five points, averaging two or three
points, per session. The low end is for
bad roleplaying or mission failure,
while the high end is for good roleplaying
or mission success.
Remember that a character gets no
points for a session in which his
Dependent is killed, seriously wounded,
or kidnapped and not recovered!
The GM might also wish to give an
award – perhaps equal to that for a
successful play session – upon the
conclusion of a lengthy adventure,
story arc, or major plot thread. This is
in addition to any points for the session
during which the plot was
resolved!
The GM should award bonus
points separately (and probably
secretly) to each player. The player
should record his points on his character
sheet if he intends to play that
character again; the GM might also
want to keep his own record. The player
can use these points to develop and
improve his character – see Chapter 9.
These are only guidelines. The GM
can award as many or as few points as
he wishes. Some games call for faster
character advancement than others!
Avoiding Character
Inflation
As GM, you should try to balance
the number of points you give out.
Characters should improve fast
enough to keep things interesting, but
not so fast that they outrun their foes
and unbalance your campaign. Also,
if the original characters are now

extremely powerful, new players – and
their characters – are liable to feel useless
unless you specifically bring them
into the action.
Some of this depends on the background;
superheroic types are expected
to improve quickly (and their enemies
improve, too), while ordinary cops or
soldiers gain skills or promotions at a
slower pace. In the final analysis, it’s
up to the GM to determine what is
right for his own campaign and his
own players.
Controlling Character
Development
Given the chance, some players
will spend points without regard for
their characters’ origins and stated
goals. Of course, when a player asks to
use bonus points to buy a wholly inappropriate
ability, you can always say
“no.” But there are other options:
Discuss all improvements. Don’t just
let players buy whatever they want –
ask them to explain why, especially if
they wish to increase attributes!
Attempts to make inappropriate
improvements most often occur when
the player discovers an unintended
weakness in his character design and
believes the new ability will compensate
for it. If the desired ability doesn’t
fit the character concept, try to discover
the perceived weakness and suggest
more appropriate alternatives that
address it directly.
Keep awards small enough that
players must think about their purchases.
If players must save points for
many sessions to afford larger purchases
(e.g., attribute levels and
advantages), there is, in effect, a “waiting
period.” Many players will reconsider
their “need” for character-distorting
abilities during this time, and
instead use their points to raise skills
that will be useful during the current
adventure. This leads to well-rounded
veterans whose skills reflect their
actual activities.
Don’t make it too easy to learn new
skills. If you let the PCs learn new
skills whenever they have enough
points, their skill lists will eventually
grow indistinguishable from one
another. If every PC can tackle every
task, the players might conclude that
their characters no longer have any
need for companions. This can break
up the party – and possibly the gaming
group. It is realistic to learn some
skills quickly under pressure, but you
should feel free to rule that others
(especially magic spells and secret
martial-arts skills) are hard to learn
except as part of a dedicated career.
Give awards other than points. Give
out the occasional award in the form
of specific abilities instead of discretionary
points. Social advantages –
Patrons, Rank, Reputation, Status,
Wealth, etc. – make the best awards,
as they often make sense as “rewards”
in the game world. Another realistic
possibility is direct improvement of a
well-exercised ability. Few players will
complain if you give them a skill level
worth four points in a well-used skill
instead of two discretionary points!


Time Use Sheets
A “Time Use Sheet” is a record prepared by the player
that describes how his character spends the time
between play sessions. (There’s a sample on p. 569.)
The GM sets the amount of time covered by each
sheet. An even number of weeks works best. At the end
of each play session, the GM tells the players how much
game time will pass before the next session. When they
show up for the next session, they can bring the records
of how they spent the intervening time.
When an adventure “stops in the middle” – when
one play session ends at night in the inn, and the next
one starts the next morning – obviously no Time Use
Sheet is necessary. Use one when there is a hiatus in an
adventure (for instance, when the PCs must wait two
weeks to catch their ship). And use one between adventures,
to give the characters a chance to rest, earn
money, and improve their skills.
GMs: If this seems like too much bookkeeping, don’t
do it! Feel free to think of a substitute – or forget all this
entirely – if it does not add to your players’ enjoyment.
There are three major reasons to keep track of time
outside of play:
Long Tasks
Characters may have important missions between
play sessions. These might be tedious to game out, but
vital – which is why you do them “between times” and
cover them with a few die rolls. For instance, in a treasure-
hunting adventure, the group’s scholar might need
to spend a few weeks in the library making Research
rolls to find useful maps. Meanwhile, the thief is visiting
taverns and making Streetwise rolls to pick up useful
rumors. The GM checks their sheets, notes how
much time they spent at it, and rolls (one or more
times) to see what they found.
Study
Characters may wish to improve existing skills or
gain new ones through study. (If some characters are
students, this is unavoidable!) The GM keeps a running
total of the time spent studying each skill. When it’s
enough to buy a skill increase, the skill goes up immediately.
See Improvement Through Study (p. 292).
Jobs
Time spent at work counts as study of the skill
involved (but at only 1/4 rate – that is, an eight-hour
workday counts as two hours of study). It also pays
enough to live on, and maybe a little extra. (In most
societies, those who do not show up full-time for work
will soon be fired, and hurting for money!) A job can
be a great springboard to adventure in the hands of a
creative GM. See Jobs (p. 516).

WRITING YOUR
OWN ADVENTURES


Sooner or later, every GM wants to
write his own adventures – or at least
modify store-bought ones to fit his
own group. More power to you!
Homegrown adventures can range
from simple “dungeons” to entire
worlds, intricately worked out over a
period of years.
WHERE DO
YOU GET
YOUR IDEAS?
You can get ideas from novels,
movies, comics, RPG supplements,
other GMs, and of course the players
themselves. Whatever your source,
you’ll want to come up with enough
new twists to keep your players (and
yourself) interested.
Some GMs give their players a lot
of voice in the type of adventures they
will have. If the players want to hunt
for treasure, the GM comes up with a
treasure-hunting scenario. Other GMs
see themselves as Blind Fate, and the
players never know what will happen
next. It’s all a matter of taste.
ADVENTURE
DESIGN
When you design an adventure,
you are writing the outline for a story.
The full story will begin when the PCs
appear on the scene. To set the stage,
you must prepare the plot, maps,
character descriptions, etc. and a
number of “encounters” involving
these things.
Level of Difficulty
The first thing to decide is simply
how “hard” your adventure is going to
be. Are you planning an adventure for
four beginning-level characters – or for
a half-dozen experienced adventurers?
The rewards should be commensurate
with the risks. In a fantasy campaign,
don’t let the PCs butcher two
halflings and a senile goblin, and then
rush back to town with a chest full of
gold! (Or, if you do, have the king’s taxman
there to welcome them!) The real
rewards in this game come in the form
of bonus character points (p. 498).
These result from good roleplaying,
and have nothing to do with the
amount of wealth you drag home.
Still, material things have their
uses. Ask any fighter who can’t afford
to buy armor! Don’t make wealth (or

power, or fame) too easy to come by, or
you will unbalance your campaign.
Continuity
You should also decide whether the
adventure needs to fit into (or kick off)
a campaign, or if it is just a “one-shot.”
In a campaign, each adventure has
to follow naturally from the last one,
and leave room for future adventures.
It also has to take the PCs into
account. If they are famous – or notorious
– certain NPCs should recognize
them. The adventurers should recognize
some of the NPCs, too, and possibly
some of the locations in the adventure.
Most importantly, the adventure
should not render the PCs unplayable
no matter what the players do . . .
because the whole point of a campaign
is to keep playing the same
characters!
In a one-shot adventure, however,
you have no continuity to worry
about. Future play balance is not an
issue, and neither is character survival.
You can experiment with certain
death, transcendence to godhood, and
other extreme outcomes without the
risk of destroying a campaign.
Background
This is the setting of your story. In
what game world does it take place?
When and where? What are the events
leading up to your tale? Who are the
important NPCs, and what are their
motives? In short, what is happening
behind the scenes, and what is the “big
picture?” If this adventure is part of a
campaign, a lot of the background is
set. If it is a “one-shot,” the background
can be sketchy. But if you’re
starting a campaign, give the background
a lot of thought.
Plot
The “plot” is your plan for the
things that are supposed to happen
during the adventure. In a simple
adventure, the GM guides the PCs
from one “encounter,” or scene, to the
next. Each encounter starts when the
heroes arrive; then it is played out, and
the next one can begin.
In a more sophisticated adventure,
certain things happen at certain times,
regardless of the PCs’ actions. If the
heroes must solve a murder, for
instance, some clues might vanish if
they are not found in time – and others
might not exist yet if the investigators
come on the scene “too soon.” The
murders might even continue as the
players investigate (that’s one sure way
to eliminate a suspect). Likewise,
important NPCs may come and go,
with little regard for the adventurers’
wishes. And there is no limit to what
can happen “offstage.” Elections, wars,
and alien invasions . . . many events
can present new challenges.
This sort of plot is harder to write,
and demands more from the GM during
play. But it gives the players a
sense of urgency that is missing in a
plain, linear adventure.


Dungeons
The term “dungeon” refers to a simple fantasy adventure. Typically,
the PCs wander from room to room, killing monsters and grabbing
treasure. There is often no rhyme or reason to the contents of the rooms
– in children’s fantasy games, every encounter may be rolled randomly!
However, a dungeon setting is good for a beginning adventure; it
teaches basic game mechanics quickly. And an underground labyrinth
does not have to be “kid stuff” – it can be part of a very realistic background.
A “dungeon” can also be a building, battleship, space station, etc. If
the adventurers are dropped into a limited area, with little or no goal
except to grab what they can and get out alive, it’s a “dungeon.”
A dungeon is easy to map, since its area is limited. When treasurehunters
go too far, they just run into a blank wall and have to turn
around. The typical dungeon is a collection of rooms, connected by corridors,
shafts, or tunnels.
Dungeon Inhabitants and Plot
The GM should populate his dungeon (or building, or whatever)
with appropriate men, beasts, and monsters. If you are just creating a
“hack-and-slash” dungeon, you don’t need to worry about what they are
doing there, what they eat, why they attack the party, or anything else –
just stock the rooms and go.
Likewise, the “plot” for a hack-and-slash adventure will be very simple.
“Joe the Barbarian, with his friends Ed the Barbarian and Marge
the Barbarian, went down into a cave. They saw lots of monsters and
killed them and took their treasure. A dragon ate Ed. Joe and Marge ran
away. The End.”
If you want to create a situation that actually makes sense, you have
advanced to the level of adventure design. Congratulations. Read on . . .


Introduction
The purpose of the introduction is
to get the players’ characters into
your plot so that the game can begin.
If the players are not familiar with
your game world, you should tell
them a little bit about it. If they know
the game world (or are part of a continuing
campaign), you can just set
the scene with a few words and start
the action. You should not give them
the whole background. In a welldesigned
adventure, one of the players’
objectives is to find out what’s
really going on. Don’t give away all
your secrets right at the beginning!
The most hackneyed introduction
of all (but still one of the best) is
the Old Man in the Tavern: “You are
all strangers in town, looking for
adventure. You are sitting in the local
tavern when an old man comes up to
you . . .” The old man can ask
for help, order the PCs out of town,
sell them a map, offer to guide them
to fame and fortune . . . it doesn’t
matter. Whatever he does, he is a
mouthpiece through which the GM
can give the players a little background
and start them off in the right
direction.

Some other good “mouthpiece”
characters for an introductory
encounter:
• An officer briefing a group of soldiers,
spies, supers, etc. to perform a
mission.
• An injured stranger who staggers
up and gasps a few cryptic last words.
• A strange story in the news (the
“mouthpiece” in this case is the person
the PCs contact to ask about it – a
reporter, a scientist, etc.). The GM
might instead let the party witness the
mysterious event.
• A storyteller, herald, or town
drunk, passing on an interesting
rumor.
• A wealthy person who offers to
hire the party for a dangerous mission.
• A retired adventurer telling about
the treasure he couldn’t quite get.
• A spirit or deity visiting the faithful
(or fairly faithful) with commands
– perhaps in a dream.
• A villain’s henchman, delivering a
threat, ransom demand, or boast.
• A friend of one of the characters
– or, for that matter, a total stranger
rescued from immediate danger – who
needs help.
• A lawyer reading a will, which
sends the party on a quest for an
inheritance.
The “mouthpiece” NPC can end the
introductory encounter by providing
the maps, passwords, or whatever else
the party needs to start the adventure.
Maps
As described under Maps (p. 490),
you will need a number of maps – one
per area you consider “important” to
the adventure. Prepare combat maps
in advance for any location where a
fight is likely.
The experienced GM can save a lot
of time by “recycling” maps. One
house is a lot like another. One tavern
is a lot like another. And so on. Of
course, if you always use the same
one, your players will kid you about it
. . . “Aha, here we are, back in the
Generic Tavern!”
Commercially produced combat
maps (from SJ Games, or any number
of other companies) can also save
time. Often an interesting map suggests
an appropriate encounter, helping
you to design your adventure!
NPCs
Nonplayer characters – whether
played by the GM or the Adversary –
are vital to an adventure. The GM can
even plan an entire adventure around
a few interesting NPCs and what happens
when the PCs become involved
with them!
Design the most important NPCs
before you work out the encounters
and other details of the adventure.
Their abilities, personalities, motivations,
and backgrounds set the tone
for the whole adventure, and give you
ideas for encounters and lesser NPCs.
Build important NPCs just like PCs,
complete with full-scale character
sheets and brief character stories, so
you can roleplay them well.
Create less-important NPCs –
spear-carriers, cannon fodder, shopkeepers,
and the like – after you plan
the first encounters. You do not need
complete character sheets for these
characters; all you need are notes on
their important statistics. Some trivial
characters require no planning at all!
If you suddenly need to know (for
instance) a skill for one of them, just
roll 3d and use the result.
Finally, work out a few “generic”
NPCs to use, as needed, in improvised
or random encounters. For instance,
in an adventure set in a fantasy city,
you could prepare a few city guards, a
couple of storekeepers, a couple of
thieves, and maybe a strolling minstrel
or wandering drunk. If you need
them, you have them . . . and if you
don’t need them now, you’ll have them
for next time. Guards, like taverns, can
be recycled over and over again!
Encounters
An “encounter” is a meeting with
NPCs, animals, a trap, or anything else
the GM wishes. There are three kinds
of encounters: planned, improvised,
and random. Ideally, as you run the
game, your players should never know
which kind is which!
Planned Encounters
The GM works these out in
advance: when the adventurers come
to this place, they meet these people
(or animals, or whatever). All the
important encounters in your adventure
should be planned.
Be aware that few encounters go
exactly as planned! You should always
be ready to adapt to the characters’
actions. Suppose a planned encounter
involves the bouncer at the “Blue
Boar” – but the PCs don’t go near
there. You can drop a hint to send
them there, of course . . . but it might
be easier to change your plans and let
the innkeeper at their rooming house
serve the same purpose. The more
flexible you are, the more you can
avoid the appearance of manipulating
the players. And appearance is more
important than reality!
Improvised Encounters
The GM makes these up in order to
keep the adventure moving along
planned lines. The simplest “improvised
encounter” is the little old man
(looking a lot like the one you met at
the tavern) who appears in your path
and says, “Turn around! You’re going
the wrong way!” Such encounters can
provide extra clues, hints toward the
“right path,” etc.
Improvised encounters are often
necessary when the players do something
really unusual. For example,
suppose you have the PCs encounter a
traveling duke who is beset by bandits.
The heroes drive off the bandits and
save the duke, who offers to pay them
generously to track down a family
treasure. The players accept, but conclude
that the bandits were after the
treasure, too, and decide to hunt them
down to find out what they know.
Since you only intended the bandits as
a means to introduce the duke, you
could say, “You can’t find the bandits.
You must have scared them off.” Or
you could let the party find the bandits
and defeat them in a meaningless
battle. But it would be more fun to
improvise an interesting encounter.
If the heroes skillfully track, overwhelm,
and interrogate the bandits,
you could reward them with a clue.
Perhaps one of the bandits snatched
the duke’s heirloom cloak clasp, which
broke open when he tried to pry the
jewel from it – revealing a fragment of
an old map!
Random Encounters
The GM might wish to generate
some encounters at random. One
technique is to use a “random
encounter table”: a list of encounters
keyed to a roll of the dice. See Sample
Encounter Table (p. 503) for a simple
example. Some “adventures” consist

mainly of such tables, allowing play to
proceed for hours with no planning at
all! This is great for a quick game, but
not in the same league with a “real”
adventure.
Another method is to invent a character
on the spot, rolling dice for any
important statistics.
If you don’t let random encounters
become a crutch, they can provide
variety and free you from planning
every single encounter. Don’t let the
players know that you are rolling a
totally random encounter, however. If
they realize an encounter is not “part
of the plot,” they will act differently.


Sample Encounter Table
A table of trivial roadside encounters for low-tech settings. Roll 1d
per hour of travel.
1 – A group of farmers (roll 2d for number).
2 – One holy hermit.
3 – One not-so-holy beggar.
4 – One merchant with horse, wagon, and 1d/2 guards.
5 – A single horseman.
6 – Nothing.


Traps
Fantasy adventures traditionally feature a variety of
traps. The novice designer can overdo this, with a
crossbow behind every door and a pit in every corridor.
If this doesn’t kill the whole party, it slows the game to
a crawl as they check everything in sight for traps – and
then check again, to make sure. But a few strategically
located traps can make an adventure more interesting.
All of the above remains true in other genres! A
criminal stronghold or millionaire’s mansion might
hold some unpleasant surprises in store for the unwary
intruder. Primitive natives encountered by explorers
might have some upsettingly sophisticated defenses.
Some common types of traps include poison needles,
hidden crossbows (or guns, or lasers), hidden
giant crossbows (or cannon, or homing missiles), pits
(with spikes, snakes, or both), falling weights, rolling
boulders, sliding walls (or descending roofs), slippery
slides, poison gas, acid sprays, land mines, and many
more. Think of the last hundred adventure stories you
read!
Not all traps are deadly. The intent might be to cripple,
capture, annoy, embarrass, or just frighten the victims.
A burglar alarm is nothing more than a trap that
only produces sound!
Traps, like rooms, should appear on the map key –
or a trap in a room can be part of the room’s description.
For each trap, specify the following:
• How hard the trap is to notice, and what skills can
detect it; e.g., “To spot the concealed pit, roll against
Architecture-5, Vision-5, or Traps.”
• How hard the trap is to disable or set off harmlessly;
e.g., “To disable the trap door, roll against
Carpentry or Traps+4.”
• What sets off the trap; e.g., “The trap door swings
open if anyone who weighs more than 50 lbs. walks on
it.”
• What happens if the trap is set off; e.g., “Unless
the victim can make an Acrobatics or DX-6 roll
to catch himself, he falls into the pit and takes 3d
crushing damage.”
Some GMs delight in the invention of fiendish traps
to test their players’ wits. Such “puzzle traps” require
more than a simple skill roll to disable or escape – the
players have to think their way out! A very simple example
might be a sliding-wall trap that will crush the
strongest adventurer to death . . . unless he opens the
manhole in the floor. It’s too small for him to fit into –
but the lid is of such solid metal that, if held in place, it
blocks the closing walls!
Much more complex traps are possible. Have fun.
“Puzzle” traps can add flavor to an adventure when
simple deathtraps become boring.


Finale
This is the climax of the adventure.
Most adventures have only one finale
(unless the party gets killed along the
way). As the GM, you should guide the
party, as subtly as you can, toward the
“big ending” and resolution of the
adventure.
The players’ earlier actions affect
the details of the finale, but its basic
nature remains the same. If the players
make “wrong” decisions along the
way, it takes them longer to finish, and
they should have a harder time dealing
with the situation – but they
should make it to the finale eventually.
The exception might be a case where
they have blundered so badly that the
finale would certainly kill them all, in
which case the merciful GM will drop
a hint that they are in over their heads,
and let them give up and run for
home.
A more sophisticated adventure
could have several possible finales,
depending on decisions made by the
players during the adventure. This
sort of “branching-path” adventure is
harder to design, but sometimes easier
for the GM to run, as it calls for less
improvisation.


Shared Campaigns and
Travel Between Campaigns
Two or more GMs may agree to let PCs travel between their campaigns.
In general, this simply means that one GM will replace another
at a preordained time or place. The old GM may remove himself entirely,
or introduce a character of his own and remain as a player.
The more similar the GMs’ campaigns, the more closely they can
be connected. If they operate in the same game world, and if the GMs
interpret the rules in the same way and have the same “play style,”
then the border between their jurisdictions might be as trivial as a
river-line or even a city boundary. This is sometimes known as a
“shared” campaign.
One good system for GM cooperation involves (for instance) cities.
A single “chief GM” is in charge of overall maintenance and development
of the game world. A number of the campaign’s players also have
GM responsibilities of their own. Each such player designs and controls
one city. The player controlling that city referees all adventures within
its confines. Needless to say, that player’s characters should take little
part in the action there, even as NPCs. Even the best GM might become
somewhat emotionally involved with the PCs he has developed over a
period of months! The chief GM runs adventures outside the players’
cities. Thus, several players can have the fun of GMing an occasional
adventure, while doing no more support work and world-building than
they care to.
The same system works in a space campaign, except that each player
controls a whole solar system. In a setting with parallel worlds – like
the Infinite Worlds campaign in Chapter 20 – each player might control
an entire universe!
For this kind of campaign to work, the GMs must consult regularly.
Minor “cultural” differences between cities or planets are acceptable –
in fact, they’re fun. But the GMs should agree among themselves about
the overall nature and goals of the campaign, if PCs are allowed to
move freely back and forth. If two or more GMs wish to “share” players
and characters while maintaining significant differences between
their worlds, they need a different procedure.


FEATURES
OF A GOOD
ADVENTURE
A good adventure (by the standards
we use for our own publications)
includes:
• Many opportunities for the PCs
to use noncombat skills – including
some difficult rolls, and some involving
unusual skills (forcing the PCs to
roll against defaults).
• Contests between PCs and NPCs
– and possibly between PCs as well.
• Situations where the players have
to think about the right thing to do . . .
puzzles, moral choices, or both.
• Situations where proper use of
social skills, like Fast-Talk or
Diplomacy, will avoid combat.
• Situations where no possible use
of social skills will avoid combat!
• Interesting descriptions of people,
places, and things, to give the players
the feeling that they are really there
with their characters.
• A clear introduction, a plotline
that builds tension or mystery, and a
clear conclusion.
• Opportunity for roleplaying and
character development. This should
be present in even the most lighthearted
hack-and-slash adventure! Fighters
are interesting people, too – at least,
they should be.
• A reward for characters who
complete the adventure successfully,
and a consequence for characters who
fail!
ORGANIZING A
CONTINUING
CAMPAIGN
Even more complex (and more
interesting) than a full-scale adventure
is a series of adventures involving the
same characters. This is called a campaign.
If a single adventure is the
equivalent of a novel, a campaign is an
epic trilogy – the kind that is still going
after seven books!
A campaign consists of one adventure
after another – or possibly several
overlapping adventures at once. Each
adventure may take many sessions to
resolve. The GM decides what goes on
in the game world in between game
sessions – and especially between
adventures. Important NPCs go about
their own affairs. Wars, weather, politics,
and trade can go on in the “background”
of the campaign, giving rise
to new adventures. Your players can
be a good source of suggestions . . .
and they will be tremendously pleased
if their adventures affect the “whole
world” in some way, whether they turn
aside a catastrophic war or simply
find a cure for the Queen’s wart.
A large campaign can have dozens
of players (not all playing at once!),
several cooperating GMs, planets
worth of mapped territory, and
hundreds of significant NPCs, from
kings and popes down to thieves and
beggars.
DON’T PANIC. You don’t have to
do all this at once. Most campaigns
just “grow,” a bit at a time. One adventure
leads to the next, and before you
know it, you’ve been playing for a year
and you’ve got a campaign going.
Much of the flavor of a good campaign
comes from the players themselves.
The PCs’ Dependents, Allies, Patrons,
and Enemies become continuing
NPCs . . . old foes reappear when they
are least wanted . . . maps become
more detailed each time you play.
Players come and go, but the campaign
goes on. And nobody learns to
run a campaign by reading the rulebook.
Experience is the best teacher.
To help, we’ve included a Campaign
Planning Form on p. 567. Filling
this out will put you well on your way
to adventure!





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This is the end of the file.