23 DM Answers

[Havard]

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

A kind of motto for my most successful campaign was "Return to Innocence". The basic idea was to recreate what fascinated me about gaming when I was a kid, while at the same time avoiding it becoming childish or stupid. Not sure if I succeeded, but the players loved the campaign.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

Last October

3. When was the last time you played?

3 weeks ago.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

Castle Amber.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

Plan ahead. Or eat snacks.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

Nothing healthy, that's for sure.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

No.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

Stealing a magical protective gem from the tower it was supposed to keep safe against Orc invaders.

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

Both. Villains are often ridiculed. But sometimes players seem to demand too much coherence into a setting as well, while not everything needs to make sense in a fantasy world IMO.

10. What do you do with goblins?

No Goblins in my Blackmoor. Just Beastmen.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

Red Dead Redemption has provided alot of inspiration at least.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

When a PC facing the judge in court after having pushed an old lady aside in order to get to a healing potion before her, unpon which the lady died. His plead of defence was: "But I didnt mean to kill her!" You had to be there I guess. : :lol:

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

Pathfinder: Inner Sea Gazetteer. Looking at it for inspiration in terms of style and layout.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

Larry Elmore.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

No. We are there to have fun

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

B10. Although I almost never use published adventures, at least not without making dramatic changes.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

Comfortable seating, music, food supplies and no disturbances from the outside are the most important things.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

The FFC and the Pathfinder Books.

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

Frank Herbert's Dune and a book on dinosaurs that I used to read when I was a kid.

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

Someone who is interested in the game, but also looks out for the needs of his fellow players.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

A Mediterrean holiday turned into an adventure on the Savage Coast (Mystara).

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

DA5 City of Blackmoor

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

I have one friend who write movie scritps and we sometimes bounce ideas back and forth between my RPG ideas and his movie ideas.


-Havard