d20 Magazine Rack - GM's Perspective

More from True STEEL & STEAM

whtknt — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:48:16 -0700

Continuing the conversion of my STEEL & STEAM campaign from d20 System to True20, I present details on the elves, half-elves, and orks. If you don't use True20, it should be easy enough to convert these over to d20 System.

True STEEL & STEAM

whtknt — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 08:14:04 -0700

Some of you may have heard me mention my STEEL & STEAM campaign setting, which takes place on a Victorian Earth very similar to the one we know from history. The exception is that magic, though faded, never really left the world. I was recently inspired to run Expedition to Castle Ravenloft as a True20 adventure (I’ve really come to like True20 of late), but I wanted a unique twist. I chose to set the adventure in STEEL & STEAM, making a few changes where necessary. To that end, I also needed to convert my entire campaign setting over to True20. I’m still working on that aspect.

As I progress in making the conversions, I’ll post what I have here, so that you can follow along. If you find it worthy of comment or praise, please chime in. And if you find it worthy of using in your own campaign, all I ask is that you credit me where applicable.

You See an Orc, Guarding a Chest

whtknt — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 11:30:42 -0700

by John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer

Every GM worth the title has felt it at one time or another. This weekend is your turn to run and you just don’t have any ideas. You could throw together a quickie adventure using a map from an old adventure you have lying around, but that lacks any coherence and the atmosphere suffers. You want something with some meat in it. But your idea factory is dry. What’s a GM to do?

Hook Generators
You’ve seen these before, I’m sure; a table of ideas that you can roll on to help get the creative juices flowing. Such a table appears in nearly every Wizards of the Coast manual, and they’re scattered all over the Internet (usually in automated form). A single roll (or two, or three) is often enough to provide a glimmer of an idea for this week’s delve.

GM Tool #7: Population Charts

Casey — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:32:52 -0700

by Paul Connolly

This chart is to determine intelligent beings that occupy particular regions of a world. Creatures below are capable of being part of a society; be it rulers, common folk or slaves. Use the Major entry for dominant race(s) of an area. (This can either be the most populous races or in the case of tough unique individuals, such as a dragon, it may reflect the ruler). Minor races make up small pockets of the population.

Use the Civilised column for areas where kingdoms are set up that are likely to contain more than one race. If a race has communities that are always isolated then they are represented by the Wilderness column, as are actual areas of wilderness.

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 -0700

n/a

GM Tools #6: NPC Physical Traits

Ghostwind — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 18:36:37 -0700

By Connors

This GM Tool marks a sad time for me. Including this will mean the first chart I did (Random Encounters) will slide from the front page of "GM's Perspective" ;)

Anyway this is part of a larger document I wrote for our CS entitled 'Creating NPCs for Kage CS'. It deals simply with generating an NPC's appearance. Firstly are a few charts I think are important for all NPCs and then a larger chart to generate a couple of distinctive features.

Go by the typical appearance given for members of the NPC's race and Homeland/Region, modified by the following charts.

Raynia’s Rock

Ghostwind — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 08:02:25 -0700

By Deacon Rayne

"Land of our Lady of the Maritime Stars" or more simply "Raynia's Rock" is a flying port city built on asteroids over the ocean in the far west. These rocks were wrenched from the main land mass during the Sundering and due to an aberration of gravity, have managed to stay above the newly formed sea.

Raynia's Rock is home to a well known society of swashbucklers who worship Raynia, the Goddess of the Sea. They call themselves "Suitors of Raynia" and have a near-suicidal sense of bravery and flair.

Resources & Trade Goods

Ghostwind — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 08:01:19 -0700

By Connors

This generator was created to help determine what a kingdom or realm's exports were. However it can be used for a community, a tribe or even an area. Rolls on this table reflect physical resources, not services, though some of the items may be crafted goods.

Resources rolled could simply be an indication of an abundance of said material or the realm may be well known for its crafting or use of the materials. In any case the realm has plenty of the resource and is in the position to trade it.

GM Tools: SET ENCOUNTERS

Ghostwind — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 13:18:12 -0700

By Connors

Unlike random encounters, set encounters require detailing by the GM and should be done ahead of time. Basically all of the following are just ideas for creating detailed encounters or places, people and events that can impact on the PCs. Some will directly affect them and others will simply occur around them. I find it best to mold events to the adventure a group may be doing.

Most GMs will generate ideas directly from what they read or see (there was a recent poll on this site about such a thing), but sometimes when I find time to write encounters I don't know where to start. That is where this table comes in; it gives a starting point.

GM Tools: Community Traits

Ghostwind — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 07:03:11 -0700

By Connors

This material follows on from the "Generating Towns" in Core Rulebook II p137. What follows will generate ideas on how to give communities more character. The chart is most useful when preparing ahead of the game, but I am sure a few ideas could be elaborated upon on the fly when the PCs wander into a random community that was only a dot on the GM's map.

To see how many traits any given community has, roll 1d6 and then apply the Community size modifier used to determine the community's power centre (same as the one in Core Rulebook II p137). Roll at least once on the Community Traits table no matter what the result. The results for large communities may be applied to different sections or quarters of the town or city.