Behind the Screens Archive

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Mixing sci-fi technology with sword and sorcery in RPGs seems like an incredibly polarizing topic. In my experience it’s either “Yeah! I want robots with my wizards and dragons with my...

If you’ve GM’d long enough eventually you get into a situation where the type of game you want to run isn’t necessarily the type of game your players want to play. There’s an old adage that goes, “Treat others...

Cheating is widely regarded as a social taboo. In the context of an RPG, cheating can range from lying about dice rolls to fudging inventory on a character sheet to reading the spoilers of an adventure the GM is...

In all the years that I’ve GM’d, I’ve come to learn one valuable and undeniable truth. Players will always surprise you. It doesn’t matter how much reading you’ve done, how many contingencies you’ve come up with, or how long...

Are you a new GM or a veteran looking for ways to improve your GMing skills? Take a peek Behind the Screens, a twice-monthly advice column dedicated to making you a better GM. A seasoned gamer and GM, Anthony...

Are you a new GM or a veteran looking for ways to improve your GMing skills? Take a peek Behind the Screens, a twice-monthly advice column dedicated to making you a better GM. A seasoned gamer and GM, Anthony...