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Classyd20

Ask a Pro: Question Seven

... Ask a Pro: Question Seven Thursday, July 9, 20097. You are running an Adventure Path, and one of your players is ignoring the obvious hook. Do you gently nudge him in the planned direction, or do you go with the flow and see where this digression might take you? ... Lisa Stevens: Basically I try to nudge, or I may come up with a different hook. For example, in Shackled City, there is an adventure where the players need to be convinced to go to an evil plane, and I just knew the hook as...
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FireD20

Ask a Pro: Question Six

... Ask a Pro: Question Six Thursday, June 25, 20096. Many GMs feel that deus ex machina is cheap, and simply refuse to ever use it. Others feel it is okay if it is properly set up ahead of time. Do you ever use deus ex machina as a storytelling device? ... Lisa Stevens: Yeah, but hopefully they didn't know it! (laughs) I think that's the trick for something like that though, right? If you're playing the hand of god, you need to make it feel like a natural part of the story. I think probably...
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darkblued20

Ask a Pro: Question Five

... Ask a Pro: Question Five Monday, June 22, 2009 5. You have a scene where a large orc tribe is attacking a village. You have all of the orcs and various NPCs represented on the map. Do you roll for each and every orc and NPC, or do you, in the interest of saving time, just decide how many of each side dies each round? ... Lisa Stevens: Usually the background, especially if it's a bunch of no-named NPCs. But if it's a bunch of NPCs that maybe they know and had invested a little time with,...
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Yellow20

Ask a Pro: Question Four

... Ask a Pro: Question Four Monday, June 8, 20094. You have been playing a campaign for many months, and your group suffers a TPK. Do you fudge the rolls, contrive a reason for them to be brought back, have them create new characters and pick up where the others left off, or just scrap the campaign? ... Lisa Stevens: I've never had a TPK; it's been close! (laughs) I'm a big believer in creating and building a campaign over time. I've had key NPCs die and had to completely reinvent the story,...
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Purple20

Ask a Pro: Question Three

... Ask a Pro: Question Three Friday, June 5, 20093. Do you encourage your players to create well-thought-out backgrounds complete with hooks that you can insert into your campaign? ... Lisa Stevens: I do, but don't reward. I basically tell my players that if they come up with interesting backgrounds, then they'll get more out of my campaign; it will be more personal for them, as I'll take their hooks and use them in the plot. If you don't create a background, then you'll still have fun, but...
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Blued20

Ask a Pro: Question Two

... Ask a Pro: Question Two Tuesday, June 2, 2009We continue our Ask a Pro series with what is either the most important part of NPC interaction or the silliest part of a roleplaying game, depending with whom you speak. ... 2. When delivering the lines of NPCs, do you prefer in-character or third person? ... Lisa Stevens: In character. ... F. Wesley Schneider: Depends... Important, named characters usually have a voice of their own, but if someone is just going to the blacksmith for a quick...
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d20AndiPhoneEtc

Ask a Pro: Question One

... Ask a Pro: Question One Friday, May 22, 2009After I started my internship at Paizo, one of the things I found really intriguing was seeing how the pros did things—little things, really, like how they pronounce tarrasque, for example. Then it occurred to me that most people who roleplay often never experience anything outside of their own group of players, so I figured maybe some of you might be as interested as I am in knowing how the pros GM, so I whipped up some questions for the...
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