December 2, 2024: You Take The Good, You Take The Bad . . .

A real quick-and-dirty way to get inspiration for your tabletop RPGs is "good, but bad." That is, you start with a premise of something advantageous to the heroes (or others in the campaign world), but couple it with something troublesome. You make the two aspects intrinsic to each other, such that you can't have one without the other.

For even easier inspiration, use two different GURPS supplements as the foundation or spark. So, for example, you might have:

• Mecha that can only be interfaced with and piloted by vampires, possibly inspiring otherwise healthy folks to turn themselves into the undead.

• Strange fantasy weapons that can only be purchased with special coins the adventurers have to track down.

• A new form of magic that – each time it's used – provides more arcane data for a shadowy organization.

I'm sure you can come up with your own good/bad combos; if so, . . . [more]

December 1, 2024: Flames On The Sides Of My Face

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November 30, 2024: Make Your Own Mysterious Song

I recently told you all about how the Most Mysterious Song on the Internet had been found. That news continues to delight me, so my mind has drifted to it again for inspiration. Namely, I realize how easy it would be to make one's own mysterious song for a tabletop RPG.

Of the countless ways to do it, one is to find a song that fits the game's themes and that doesn't have too many views or likes online. Record it with a phone's "memo" function (audio fidelity is not important and is probably a detriment!), and then run it through whatever filters in the free audio-editing software Audacity make it sound suitably grungy, mysterious, or tantalizing. If need be, chop it to just a clip – maybe one without enough discernable lyrics to be searched online. Now let the players be intrigued.

What might the song mean? That's up to you! It could be a distorted clue left by an imperiled ally, . . . [more]