I don’t think that most GMs sit at the right spot at the table. As a GM I’m always trying to think of ways to keep my players more engaged in our games. Besides storytelling and funny voices, I...
Longtime listener Joker wrote a response to Ryan’s recent Behind The Screens article, A Balanced Game. Hey Ryan (and readers!) I was inspired by your recent blog to write a response, not to dispute or even argue against your...
SimCity is a landmark city builder video game that launched a franchise and defined a genre. Players are given a plot of land with some amount of urbanization and have to manage a budget and public appeal to expand...
I arrived at PaizoCon with no intent to run a game. Within a few hours of breathing in that Pathfinder atmosphere, I realized that this was foolish. Furthermore, I realized I had a table worth of KD staffers on...
When your characters aren’t roleplaying or in combat, they’re probably facing a number of other obstacles impeding the progress of their objectives. Or they’re complaining about Game of Thrones in vague terms so as to not spoil it for...
Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame. Listener Andrew M (not to be confused with network member Andrew Marlowe) suggested I elaborate on a comment I made in Know Direction 198, where I said Nickelodeon’s 2012 Teenage...
There’s been a lot of buzz around the network about backstories lately, between Know Direction 196’s proposed topic and Andrew’s Burst of Insight companion piece to it. Today’s blog is a make-up of sorts for Know Direction 196. While the...
Continuing the topic suggested by Discord chatter AJ, today we look at the importance of balance between rules in the game. Mechanical Balance A game is balanced when all options have equal effectiveness. Rock–Paper–Scissors is balanced because every option...
Discord chatter AJ suggested I discuss my take on balance in games, specifically how necessary I thought it was. This being Behind the Screens and not Dear DovahQueen, I’ll keep us GMs in mind as I address this topic,...
“Different players play for different reasons” is the core of this blog’s philosophy, so naturally I am interested in the topic of player motivation. As should you, GMs. I was recently reintroduced to one of the game industry’s most...