I would really enjoy it if we could find our NPC Meat Shield and I could stop burning Healing Surges…

Hello all.  Been a busy weekend.  On Sunday, we played Spenser’s D&D campaign, the second session of Keep on The Shadowfell.  I have to say it was a fun adventure, but the beginning of it opened, with our NPC Minotaur fighter, vanishing. Why we do not know, but I don’t have a good feeling about it.   For the next few encounters, my Warlord, had to step up and be the Meat Shield for the party.  I learned a few lessons.  First, meat shield is a tough roll.  Second, in 4e when you drift out of your assigned role, your power index drops.

I did ok holding my own as the MS, but I found that my own Warlord powers were not as effective, as they work best in conjunction with a fighter type.  My Commanders Strike power was rendered useless as the Ranger (bow), Warlock, and Wizard really don’t have good melee attacks.  Same for my wolf pack tactics, though I did find it was useful to shift my allies away from creatures as I engaged them.  I also spent most of my Inspiring Word abilities to heal myself.

Later we found or new NPC party member, a Warforged Fighter.  Once we were paired up again, it was smooth sailing, and I was able to get into my Warlordly goodness.  By the end of the session, we had amassed some loot and a few magic items, and decided to vacate the dungeon for a while to head back to Winterhaven so that we could level up and get some new gear.  I am all set to trade in my chainmail for some scale mail.

On the publishing front, the GM-Fu book has been doing quite well downloading.  Word is from, fellow GM-Fu master, Vicki, is that we are at about 500 downloads, from all around the world.  Totally awesome.

Also, there have been a few articles about my GM Consulting business.  Check out the article at 6d6 Fireball, talking about the trend of RPG businesses, as well as my comment.  There is also an article by my fellow Gnome, Patrick Benson, on Gnome Stew, today.

This week, I am going to, at the behest of some fellow bloggers, re-run my Session Prep article series.  If you were not a previous reader of Encoded Designs, this is a three part series I wrote last year, that describes my techniques for session prep, and formed the nucleus for my contributions to the GM-Fu: Session Prep book.  They will start running tomorrow, and through the week.

So stop by this week and good GMing to you.

Hey.  I just wanted to let people know that my second article from the Lessons Of The Long Campaign: Never Write The Ending, just published on Gnome Stew.

The article is about not writing the ending to your scenes, and how to apply that to managing your campaign arcs.  Head on over to Gnome Stew and check it out.

Early this morning, my fellow GM-Fu master, Vicki Potter, at Tabletop Adventures, announced that our PDF version of our workbook, from this year’s GenCon talk, Mastering Your GM-Fu: Session Prep had been released to the following sites:

• RPGNow
• DrivethruRPG
• EnWorld Store
• e23
• YourGamesNow

Mastering Your GM-Fu: Session Prep, is full of techniques and tips for how to improve upon your session prep, in order to enhance the content of your notes, as well as to improve the way you write them.  It is 30 pages long and even has a few homework problems for you to try.

Go and get yourself a copy of Mastering Your GM-Fu: Session Prep and make start on your path to Session Prep Mastery.

Having just run Iron Heroes for three years, I can say this is one crunchy system…

Hello all.  This weekend was a light gaming weekend for me.  I got together with my players for my upcoming Spycraft campaign, and we started character generation.  I was impressed with the level of detail and mechanical crunch in the system.  Not that I am some kind of crunch-hound, far from it, I have run my share of diceless games in the past, but I was impressed with the Spycraft designers, in that they put the crunch in all the right places.

I enjoy 2nd generation d20 products, like Mutants & Masterminds and True 20, where you get to see how other designers build upon the base d20 mechanic.  Spycraft is no exception, the designers added some great mechanics to the initiative system and combat system, their use of skills is well done, and I am dying to get reading the Chase system.

So Sargon, Spenser, and Captain Ron, all worked on their characters on Sunday.  The session was very light, and there was a lot of talking going on.  We did not finish the character prep yet (they are making 10th level characters), and we are going to meet tonight to work on characters for a bit, and hopefully get them finished.  If we finish up tonight, then on next Tuesday, we will have some test combats, with a quick made kill-house.

There is not much to report on the GM4Hire front.  I am spreading the word along various blogging sources.  There was an article in GamingReport.com, to which someone asked if I was serious; I will take that up in a post on Friday.  I just finished an interview with my fellow Gnome, Patrick Benson, for an upcoming article or podcast at Gnome Stew.  I will post an article here, when it comes out.   I will this Friday, and subsequent Friday’s post about my efforts as the GM Consultant.

This week I have a few things going on.  I am writing an article for Gnome Stew, a second part of my Long Campaign series, talking about how to listen to players wants and needs, and build upon them.  That may drop this week, or next, depending on how busy my fellow Gnomes have been.  As I said before, I will be putting up a post on Friday about GM4Hire.  I am also going to toss out a quick article on my gaming sheet for 4e, a little sheet I put together to aid me when I am playing 4e.    Should be a busy blogging week….hopefully.

For the past few weeks I have been working on my “Secret Project”.  I have talked to several of my close friends, and discussed the idea with them, and all gave me very positive responses.  Inspired by my friend Philippe, aka The Chatty DM, I decided that I would jump off my own cliff, so to speak, and venture into the business side of Role Playing Games.

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As part of my Secret Project, I needed to create a document that listed my gamer credentials. A document that detailed my better campaigns, game systems I am familiar with, blogs that I have written for, and talks that I have given.  So I created a Gamer Resume.

Take a look. The resume (in PDF) can be seen here.

I did not do this for any kind of bragging rights. When the Secret Project is revealed, it will be clear what it is for. But for now, I found this to be an interesting exercise and a great way for me to document my own journey through this hobby; starting from the “Pink Box” D&D all the way through my Iron Heroes campaign.

I am encouraging everyone to create their own Gamer Resume.  Take the time to document the campaigns you have run, all the things that you have done in this hobby.  Over time, you may forget some of the games you have played in, but if you document them in your resume, there will always be a reminder.  Take time each year to update your resume, so that it stays current.

So if you want to start, I am offering up this MS Word document located here (Word 2007 format).  Feel free to change it up, add sections that I don’t have, remove sections you are not using, etc.  Make it your own.

Here are the major sections I included in my Resume:

• Entry into RPG’s– I listed the first game that I played as a player.  This is to establish just how old I am.
• Campaigns Game Mastered– Here I listed all my major campaigns.  I did not list the failures or any short run campaigns (less than a few months); only the more successful ones.  I don’t think I could even remember all the failures and short run campaigns now.
• Blogging Experience– This section lists all the blogs that I have written articles for.
• Presentations Given– These are the talks I have given at various GenCon’s of the past few years.
• RPG Systems Proficient– This lists all the game systems that I have played more than one game in.  No claims I remember the rules to every game system, but at one time or another I have played these systems.
• Collectible Card Games Proficient– I was never much of a CCG player, other than the requisite time playing Magic in the mid-90’s,  but you may have be a much more robust player.
• Miniature Games Proficient– CMG experience.  My only experience was a run of Mage Knight and MechWarrior a few years ago.
• Conventions Attended– I have been to a few conventions over the years.  Not as many as a lot of people, but enough that I thought I would list them.

So what is missing?  There are a few sections, that could be added to the format.  If you have experience in them, you may want to add some of these sections:

• Games Playtested– If you have playtesting credits, I would list them here.  Be careful about the non-disclosure agreements you have signed with various companies, before you list them.  I would say a safe rule of thumb is that if you are listed in the book’s playtesting section, add it.
• Publications– If you have officially published any gaming material, or have authored, or co-authored any published product, I would put it here.
• Convention Games Run–If you have experience running convention games, list that as well.

I am sure people will think of others, so if you do, list them in the comments section.

So go and create your own gamer resume, and when you do, add a link in the comments to your resume, so that we all can see it.