Pieh asked:Its around midnight, you are scheduled to play some RPG at about 10am. All of a sudden you find out the DM is sick (sore throat, ect) and he knows you're planning a game. The problem is you only have a world map. You don't want to disappoint everyone by letting them show up with no game to play, what do you do?

Excalibur. Stormbringer. Sting. I blame fantasy authors and history professionals that have over simplified things for this preoccupation with swords.

Thinking about my game world and what should happen in it in the not so close future, I came to a simple decision: WAR. This is an article on the topic of war.

Traps need to make sense. Somebody must of made it for a specific purpose.

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia.' But only slightly less well known is this: 'Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.'

Great drama is at the core of the Gaming Experience. The character's can't be fighting the destruction of the world every session (though that can be fun), but there is great fulfilment in the climatic scenes of a campaign or long term adventure. Every climax is not seen in terms of violence (though it is very common). The personal stories of PC's and NPC's should also have meaningful expression in adventure climaxes. Yet all Climaxes in a campaign have similarities.

Treasure is both the bane and boon of gaming campaigns. The purpose of all this was to bring up some more obvious, but often overlooked, types of treasure. The focus too often is on gold, gems, and magic items when the fun could be enriched by recognizing some awkward, but just as valuable, alternate items. Don’t pass up that ornately carved throne gathering dust in the lair of ogres. Don’t pass up that odd colored flower that your character has never seen. Take it all with you. You never know what you might get for it.

World Packs are the ONLY WAY TO GO!

Some GMs, and the computer game industry too, seems to think gemstones, gold and magic weapons are the only way in which to reward the players. Most experienced GMs know this isn't true, so I created this thread here to let us remind each other of the different alternative rewards a player can receive, and to have a place where ordinary item descriptions can be posted.

Game environments are not built with a ruler and some tape, they are built with imagination and an understanding of what is needed to make the game environment. If you take the time to learn about what you will need to do before you being the process, it will make for better results in less time with less work.