You've probably seen it being talked about around most of the other RPG blogs over the last week or so. BADASS is a free RPG system written by Jay Steven Anyong and published by Stargazer Games. I didn't see the point in adding my thoughts until I'd had a proper chance to look through it.

The basic premise of the game is that it doesn't make sense. Now I don't mean that in a surreal sense or that it has no real direction. What I mean is that if you take all those cheesy 80's action movies where the hero dodges thousands of bullets before leaping off the roof of a building and plunging a sword through the cockpit window of a helicopter to kill the evil boss and coming out unscathed then you might come close to describing this game. Your a BADASS and everything you do is BADASS. In fact the moment you stop doing anything that is BADASS you start to lose your power. The kid in me loves the premise! The adult in me is finding it very hard to actually get my head around it though.

Working your way through the PDF you'll notice that for for a free game it has been really well thought out and it looks good. The graphics and layout work well and it makes me want to read the rules rather than trudge my way through them in order to be able to play the game. In fact, and this is possibly more to do with the scale of the project, this game manages to pull off this kind of fluff writing that The Dresden Files failed at. I loved reading the DFRPG books but that style of writing didn't work well with getting the rules into my head. In BADASS's case though everything just seems far simpler and easier to take in.

Jay has put a lot of work into getting the feel of the game correct. Flava and BADASS points just scream the setting at you so loudly that it's hard not to start thinking of characters, backgrounds and finishing moves whilst your 'turning' the pages. Now bare in mind that I haven't actually played the game or even tested out the mechanics when I say this but it looks well thought out and easy to play. What you have to realise about this game though is that even if the played like worst combat mechanic you'd ever came across I'd still want to play this game purely from the setting. Many people have tried something similar in the past but no one has ever seen to have got the absurdity of the setting as well as Jay.

It's not all thumbs up though. As systems go there are a few things I think that could be improved upon. It's mostly layout issues though rather than anything of substance. I decided that this would be a perfect game to play with my stepson so let him have a look through the rules and before he was half way through he was asking me questions about things that aren't explained until further into the pdf. For example mentioning snake-eyes and boxcars pages before explaining what the terms mean or the mechanics of certain flava's confusing you until you read the rest of the rules at the end of the book. The robot and dinosaur race flava's just seem tagged on rather than an actual part of the game and in some places the physical layout of the pictures and text is slightly messed up and lacks that professional touch. These are all small issues and not one of them detracts from what looks like a great game but they still matter. The setting is that good that it demands to look it's best and with this distribution method so easy to fix.

Now all I need to do is find time to run the game with my stepson or, and I say this will all the love and respect in the world for my gaming group, that one of my normal players can't make it to a game so we can give this a shot to fill in for a week. In fact if what I hear regarding zombie version being in the works is true then I fear the news that World War Z is to be filmed less than 10 miles from where I sit will pale in comparison.

World building Part 1 can be found here.

The next step can be quite controversial. Everybody I've ever came across falls into one of two camps. You either draw the map first or draw it later once you've written all you can about the countries and cities. As you can guess I fall firmly in the 'get the map drawn asap' camp.

The benefits of this include being able to create a believable map without having to go back to your written work and reroute rivers or flatten mountain ranges. If your happy with the possibility of having a map that just doesn't quite look right then feel free to ignore this part and move onto Part 3 once it gets posted.  In saying all this unless you know a little about geography the placing of mountains and rivers are always going to look a little fake anyway. This is my house however so we're playing by my rules.

So to begin with we have a few questions to ask ourselves before we get our pencils out.

• How does any additional moons, suns, orbit or change in physical size affect the climate?
• Have there been any world-wide changes to the planet that mean drastic changes to the norm on a global scale? An
  Examples of this might be ice ages, super volcanoes or a massive earthquake along the entire length of a tectonic plate.
• Are any of your worlds inhabitants advanced enough that they can manipulate it on a scale that would be visible when looked at from this distance.

Once you've answered these questions your free get to work on your map. At this stage you are only looking for rough land masses and and vague ideas of the weather. Any more than this and you start running into the giant time-sink that is cartography. There will be plenty of time for that later believe me. Most people will probably sketch this out on a bit of scrap paper in pen or pencil and that will be that but because of how I produce my maps I actually fire up Photoshop and go for a little bit of overkill to get me started it. It makes things a lot easier for myself further down the road however and I'll detail how I go about this in my example post later in the week.

Okay so now you have your rough map and you know where the ice and sand are going to be that leaves just a few more things to work out.

Take a look at your land masses and sketch out the tectonic plates that cover the planet. Don't take to long as unless you are going to be covering millions of years or have a major plot point that involves them it's only to give us an idea where our major mountain ranges are going to be. In the areas near to or in the artic regions you'll also have mountainous regions scraped from the earth by glaciers.

Elsewhere you'll need to plant your major jungles and forests. Go and have a look at an atlas of Earth and familiarise yourself with where they are found. It's not just in rain forests or eastern European style climates. Tundra covering forests or fertile areas surrounding river deltas in arid lands are all possible. Again though we are looking at large scale areas here so we don't want to get bogged down in details.

Once we have all this we can start to look at how we wish to populate the land. Are we sticking with traditional races with the elves living in the vast forests and the dwarves under the mountain ranges? Are you going to concentrate on one particular land mass? This is something I would heartily recommend to start with. Your never going to finish the entire world before you want to play in it so pick an area that you like the look of and work on that. Remember the ideas that started you on this journey to begin with and try and work them into the land that you've chosen. Get your terrain looking just about right and the rest gets easier.

*This campaign setting was started in 2009 as part of the RPG Bloggers Network's collaborative setting. I think most people gave up after a few weeks but this one has been bubbling away on the back burner ever since*

It's only fair that if I throw all these questions and pointers at you then I should at least get my own campaign setting written down.

Is the planet earth-like in size, composition and place in the universe?
For simplicity's sake this setting is going to be based on a planet with roughly the same size, physical makeup and place in it's solar system. It has one moon with a 28 day cycle. For all intents and purposes it is the same as Earth except for the shape of the continents. The campaign setting will concentrate on one group of islands which sit in the middle of an ocean right in the middle between two large land masses.

If it is an alternative version of our own earth how does it differ?
The planet is not going to be an alternative history version of our own planet so we can forget about this question.

Are there any other sentient races other than humans?
The islands main inhabitants are human with Dwarves living on two of the smaller islands. The humans follow a lifestyle very similar to the Celts of ancient Britain. Sea based travel with very few permanent settlements. The Dwarves are also sea faring taking most of their style from the vikings. In fact the dwarves are possibly the greatest sailors on the planet. Other races on the island include Orcs, Minotaurs and Elves. The Elves are an evil offshoot of the other elves living on the planet but other than their alignment look like most of the other tree living elves.

Are any of the races on the planet further broken down into ethnic groups?
Elsewhere on the planet there is the full range of human ethnic groups that we are accustomed to. There are no highborn elves in the LotR mold. They are more akin to a cross between the Kagonesti and Qualinesti elves from Dragonlance in their living conditions. There is an breakdown of Dwarves which includes traditional mountain dwelling Dwarves, lowland Dwarves, the seafaring dwarves of our islands, arctic regional dwellers and a clan more at home in the desert than anywhere else on the planet. All over the planet goblinoid clans can be found but all are almost to primitive to be distinguished by anything other than the skills needed to live wherever they are based.

Does magic exist and if so how does it work?
Magic does exist. It comes from everything on the planet. For example a fertile cultivated field will be bursting with creative energies or a graveyard will be surrounded by destructive entropic energies. A lot of study is required to easily manipulate these energies but anyone can tap into them during extremely stressful or emotional moments. Those trained to use the energies can feel them on their skin in much the same way they can feel heat from a fire and is manipulated by using their own life energy to bend and shape it to their will.

Are there gods and if so do they interact or grant power to their followers?
Whilst there are religions all over the planet there are no real gods in the classical sense. Any powers that a cleric may have comes from manipulating the energies around them just like any other magic user. Their belief that it is their god granting this power is the only only difference between them. As the power comes from the planet it could be argued that the druids and other religions that worship the planet follow the only true god in this setting.

There we go. Six simple questions that have given us a rounded, if basic, look at how our campaign setting is going to look. There is no need to go into great detail about any of the points as we'll get to that at a later stage and if we're being honest most of my answers could be boiled down to a sentence or two for each of them. What it does do though is stake out the limits of our setting, in this case the islands, and introduces a few stand out points that make it different from other commercial settings out there.

*This is the first in what will become a multipart series in world building. It won't write the setting for you but will provide you with most of the questions you'll need to ask yourself and a structured method to get through the huge barriers most of us hit when we start such large tasks*

For those GM's out there that just have to create their own campaign setting from scratch it can be a very long and daunting task. It's not like the stories they conjure up week in and week out for their gaming group. To compare the work involved with that of writing an adventure for an established campaign setting is the equivalent to comparing apples and oranges. They are both fruit but thats it. There is so much more that goes into world building that you completely miss out in adventure writing. Everything that you take for granted such as the political and geographical layout of the world, the kind of monsters that inhabit the place or how magic works if there is such a thing. All these set the scene and fill in the gaps that a good adventure will not address. A good adventure shouldn't have to tell you any of this information unless it is designed as an all inclusive one-shot game.

So where do you start? The very basics to world building are generally the easiest to get into. Your looking at wide ranging subjects with no real detail. It is also the stage that a lot of people get to in world building and never get past.

• 
  Is the planet earth-like in size, composition and place in the universe?
• If it is an alternative version of our own earth how does it differ?
• Are there any other sentient races other than humans?
• Are any of the races on the planet further broken down into ethnic groups?
• Does magic exist and if so how does it work?
• Are there gods and if so do they interact or grant power to their followers?

You can write paragraphs about all of these questions or you can leave it at a single sentence. What's important is that you at least answer them.

The size and composition of the planet involved has never really been an issue for my own campaign settings over the years but in recent weeks with the Games of Thrones TV series being aired the question has came up a couple of times in various locations. Just how big a planet are you going to have? Unless you are going to for extreme accuracy there is no need to get stuck into the nitty gritty of what is the optimum size and composition of the planet for life to flourish. Your players generally aren't going to care if the planet is too small to have a molten core or if it's three moons are close/large enough to have stopped the planet forming in the first place. Your dealing with a setting we're there is a good chance that magic exists so if they really do have a problem with it then there are numerous ways to get around it.

If your campaign setting is only ever going to be based around one continent then it is still a good idea to at least roughly work out how the rest of the planet is going to work even if you never write about it or map it out. The continents location on the planet will give it it's weather, it's mountain ranges as well as information on whether it's inhabitants have any contact with civilisations on other parts of the planet.

If your going down the route of running an alternative version of Earth just how different is it going to be? Are only subtle things being changed? How obvious to the general public would these changes be? Has it always been like this or was it a cataclysmic occurrence that caused the changes? Examples of this would be The Dresden Files with is magic and otherworldly beings being unknown to the general public or The Awakening from Shadowrun

Next up is the inhabitants of the planet. Who do you want to live where and are you going to have more than just humans running around? This is a point where you can add a unique twist to your setting by including a completely new race or stick with the traditional fantasy races. Are you going to stick with stereotypes or will you break the rules? Will the dwarves be the tree loving race and the elves those that chose to live under the mountains? How will you deal with splitting all the races up into ethnic groups and how will the all differ? The classic example that I always go back to for inspiration is that of the original Dragonlance campaign setting. The very traditional split of elves alongside that of the dwarven clans gives a great basis to work from and the added twist of the reworked halflings that turned into Kender make it different enough from most settings to make it memorable.

With regards to magic and it's place in the setting it can be a huge decision to cut it out entirely. If you choose to include it then where does that magic come from? Does it use energy from within the caster? Is it a natural resource that players can tap into through skill and practice? Is it easy enough to wield that almost everyone has it or hard enough to manipulate that only those who dedicate their life to it's study can survive trying? Is it all in the mind or do you have to interact with the outside world to tap into it's power? Does every race use the same kind of magic or can one tap into something that is different from everyone else?

When it comes to religion we can choose to completely ignore it like we can with magic but there is also many degrees that we can include in the game. Do you have your gods walking your planet and interacting directly with it's inhabitants? Just how powerful do you make these land-bound avatars? Do they grant powers to their follower? Are these powers fueled by magical energy or directly from the god? How serious does the wider population take religion if the gods do not walk the earth?

All of these questions provide you with enough of a starting off point that the next stage of putting the meat on the bones does not feel to much hard work.

It's possibly a stronger reaction than if I'm being honest. I hate being told what I can and can't do.

In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official", in a fictional universe's fan base.

As Wikipedia says it relates to a work of fiction but in a game where part of the GM's job is coming up with some of the world what does 'canon' have to do with it?

I can understand that need and desire to stick as close to canon for limited settings like the old World of Darkness where there is a very definite end to the setting. If you mess with one part of the story then it's probably going to have a huge impact on the later books. There is one thing most people miss however and that is the books that are published are not the be all and end all of the setting. They are source books. A resource for the GM to pick and choose what they want for their setting. If they choose to use everything in one book there is nothing to say they have to use everything from the next.

The reason this topic has sprung to mind is that a comment I read today reminded me of shouting match I had with a player at another table during few hours at the Glasgow University's Gaming Society. I was explaining that in the AD&D Forgotten Realms game I was playing in at home that Skulldeep was just like almost any other port area of a fantasy city and wasn't the separate lawless city it is supposed to be in the source books and that Elminster was an grumpy, almost evil, mage that looked out more for himself than others when the other player almost exploded in disbelief and rage. How dare I question and change what was described in the setting books. How dare I allow another GM to sully such a beautiful setting with their ill thought out changes. I'm guessing they would have had real issues with fan fiction!

As I said earlier I can understand sticking to it in certain circumstances. Certainly in most cases your going to want to stick to the official story lines for things like Star Wars and major story arcs in Star Trek but you just have to look at episodes of ST:TNG like Where No One Has Gone Before where they basically made it up as they went along just as almost any GM would do given free reign to do so. When a GM opens up a source book they shouldn't be looking at a set of rules where they are handcuffed to the storyline within. From the first page they look at the mindset should be of every fact, every story, every plot point being a stepping off point for their own imagination and they shouldn't feel bad for doing that. 

To this day I cannot believe that someone who played pen and paper RPG's would ever think like that!

© Penny Arcade

* I meant to post this earlier in the week but found that Bob had beaten me to the punch, then a browser crash killed off my fully typed post, so I'm only now getting back around to it.

Dungeons & Dragons has a lot of amazing features going for it. Having blazed a trail during the 70s and 80s it has an amazing wealth of history and back-story. Countless novels have been written covering the countless realms that exist. It's still one of my favourite childhood cartoons.

I think a lot of people have love for D&D because that's how they got introduced to role-play. Like a lot of things rose-tinted spectacles can certainly add some shine. As an example I often play on my ZX Spectrum emulators and despite the happy nostalgia it can only hold out for so long until I realise what these games of old miss compared to the games of today (not always, but most). You see, for the most part I've skipped D&D. I started out with the Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone "Fighting Fantasy" books, then we found "Tunnels & Trolls", then the White Wolf "World of Darkness" series. I missed out on D&D when I should have been playing it the most.

Certainly part of the problem I had with D&D was personal preference. I had read most William Gibson’s catalogue by 12 and could imagine every inch of The Sprawl; the cities of neon, steel and glass. I didn't read Lord of the Rings until much later, which I did also love, but if I had to choose then cyberpunk would win every time.

It was around this time that I bought GURPS and GURPS Cyberpunk. GURPS did, and still does, seem like the perfect way to get just enough rules into a role-play without drowning in them. I prefer story over mechanics.

I did eventually find my way into two AD&D games, both of which I certainly enjoyed much to the credit of two very good DMs. My time spent playing and running White Wolf games still remain my favourite experiences of role-play.

I'm a geek at heart and, being a geek, I’m in love with our geek community icons. I find Penny Arcade a riot, I want to hug Wil Wheaton, and if ever given the chance I'd like to sniff Felicia Day's hair (honestly not in a creepy way though). So when I started listening the D&D podcast with the Penny Arcade guys, and Wil Wheaton later joined, D&D had finally found a way to win me over. Listening to them play reminded me of the fun we had, along with the silly side conversations and jokes. It was good to see that for other people a RP session wasn't just about the game and the story, but also about the social comedy that fuels a group of players.

So I asked Bob to run D&D 4th Edition and the other players agreed. I know Bob was worried about the "Wargaming" slant that combat had taken, and admittedly I was a little too. In actually playing the game though I think it helped with the immersion. You do care about that little plastic you, and you're much less likely to run carelessly headlong into a group of enemies. It has only been our first session but the combat tabletop has left a very good impression on me. I look forward to session two.

I do still think the rules may be a little over complicated on some fronts, I prefer to play fast and loose. For my own comparison I had a look at the latest GURPS iteration, also now in its 4th edition. Without knowing the ins and outs of both systems I'm still drawn to GURPS and would probably run this should I take over the DM mantle. That said though D&D seems to have far FAR higher production values and if you're an existing D&D fan then I'm sure they've more than met expectations.

I wouldn't quite say it's yet a favourite, but D&D4e has raised my opinions on the series.

I've played the game once before. It was a lunchtime campaign at my old work and I was basically given a character to play while someone was on holiday. I didn't bother to learn the rules and relied on the DM telling me what I could or couldn't do. It was sort of fun in that respect as I didn't have to put much work into it but the game itself never sparked an interest in me.

(download)

Click here to download:

first-attempt-at-dming-d-d-4e-thoughts-EossqsavqzbEkBhakpze.zip (145 KB)

Fast forward just over two years and I've just finished the first session as a DM running D&D 4e. I thought I'd manage to survive and get through life without ever doing it except my group got it into their heads that it would be a fun thing to play. So what are my thoughts on it? Our game was fun and everyone, myself included, came away with a smile on our faces. I learned some new lessons and found a few problems that I'll need to iron out so over all it was a positive experience.

What did I like about it? In all honesty the only thing I can say is that it worked. That could be down to just how little combat we managed to get through though but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

Where does it falter? There is just too much going on. It's not complex in the way that advanced mathematical theory is complex but there is just too much to choose from. List upon list of possible combat actions and the various feats and talents the characters all have make it feel far more imposing that it has any need to be. Don't get me wrong it's not as bad as grappling in the previous edition but compared to the previous systems I've played it's up there. In fact I'd go as far as to say Rolemaster is easier to run combat with.

So how did the players get on? They managed to interview all the immediate suspects in a murder investigation, track down and break into the 'deceased' womans house to look for evidence and then get into a fight with a bunch of drunks because Mark laughed at one of them falling off a chair. I do wonder about my players intelligence at times...

All in all a good nights gaming and hopefully this overwhelmed feeling with disappear over time. And bonus points for anyone that recognises the DM screen...

Images courtesy of m0ok

I'm new to this game. I don't use minitures in my games so when my players decided they wanted to play D&D 4e I panicked a little. I threw out or sold all my old Warhammer Fantasy wargaming figures a long time ago and I don't have the disposable cash to go out and buy a whole new set of minis just for a the game. In time I'm sure I'll pick up the minis I need though.

So I had a few choices with regards to tokens. I could cut out 25mm squares of paper and write the monsters name on it like I did back in the old days. I could print off tokens I found on the internet and glue them onto card which as I've mentioned in a previous post I hate having things look like I've tried and failed. I don't mind it looking hand made as long as I don't over reach myself, I'm funny that way. Another option would be to follow Newbie DM's lead and use metal washers instead of card to make them last longer. The last two require access to a printer which for most people isn't a problem. My printer sits in a shop 10 miles away from my house where it doubles as the printer for my business and I only ever see it once every couple of weeks so I came up with a way that took the best bits of Newbie DM's method but worked perfectly with my thriftyness.

(download)

Click here to download:

cheap-diy-counters-and-tokens-jkAxGjxcbtDACGIswyqr.zip (198 KB)

What you need is:-

• 25mm round bases (I still had a big bag of unused GW slotted bases from my 40k days)
• A roll of masking tape
• Scissors
• Various felt tip pens

It's as simple as cutting a square of tape from the roll, sticking it to the base and cutting the excess off.

Where I think this really works well though is with recording conditions. Sure you can use Newbie DM's cardboard tokens but they don't stack well, or you could use pipe cleaners but I think they just look messy. The best way I've found to record conditions have been with 25mm poker chips or specially made magnetic condition tokens both of which cast a fair bit around these parts. With this method it's just a case of marking the condition on the token itself. Once the condition has finished you cross it out.

Do you know what my favourite part about these tokens is? Once I'm finished with them and the monsters are dead I tear the tape off them and put new tape on and I've got a whole new creature to fight with. No more bags of tokens and being unable to find the one I want when I need it. And no spending hours painting minis. That;s the big one for me. Once I start painting I generally can't stop so one less time sink in my life is a win in my eyes.

I've long wondered just what goes into other GM's prep for games. I'm sure I've asked the question before with regards to what they use to prep but never actually what they do. I've no doubts that there will be many similarities but every GM is going to have their own idiosyncrasies. Every system I run has a different workflow for game prep.  I don't know why this is. Well actually I do now that I think of it. Each system I run has a different feel to the rules which translates over to how I prep. For instance in a WoD game I throw some notes together on a notepad or if I'm feeling generous on my computer and thats about it. Maps and encounters are little more than a bullet-point until I scribble them down on paper just as we get to them in game.

When it comes to D&D it's a whole other board game and one that I have to admit I've not really done in anger for about 8 years. I do however write campaign settings and adventures during down time so my methods are sound and well practiced.

The Spark
For someone that has played RPG's as both a player and a GM for more than half my life I have a very big confession to make. I have almost no imagination. Well I do but it's grounded in my memory and it's very rare for me to come out with something unique to use in game. I can easily imagine walking into a castle's courtyard because I have actually done that or seeing a line of archers firing arrows into the oncoming hordes because I've seen it in a film. Where I have problems is setting up the story or finding a suitable twist without resorting to outright theft from movies, TV or the written word. So that's what I do.

I never take 'inspiration' for the whole adventure from the same source as I would just end up having players recognise the story and know what was going to happen next. All I need is an idea from here and and idea from there and I meld them together and hopefully get something that makes sense at the end. For instance in our latest campaign my players are part of a special task force set up in Sharn by the Kings Citadel which brings in specialist knowledge from outwith the organisation to chase down the enemies of the state that the watch can't find but the Citadel are not equipped to hunt for. Basically I watched Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior and ran with the premise. The first case we are going to be solving started off in my head after watching an episode of Criminal Minds that involved a taxidermist and marrying that up with watching The Walking Dead. Almost none of this gives anything about the story away to the players though. The taxidermist gave me the idea for finding dessicated eyeballs at the scenes of abductions where as The Walking Dead gave me the idea for group dynamics for some of the bad guys. All little things but as the saying goes 'from acorns might oaks grow' and it lights the touchpaper in my head and memories of other TV shows or books start bursting into my head and I need to start writing down what I'm going to use.

Organising
Over the years I've tried many different methods of organising my ideas but I've managed to settle on one way that I like.

I used to use a notepad and carried it everywhere I went so that I could write down those ideas as they came to me. The problem with that though is that my dyslexic brain constantly forgets that notepad. I'll carry it about in my bag wherever I go but as soon as I don't need to the bag I'll forget to lift the pad from it. The one thing I carry everywhere with me though is my mobile phone which lives in my trouser pocket. There is a piece of software that I use called Evernote that works on my PC as well as my phone and allows me to access my 'notepad' wherever I go.

For every game I run I start off with a blank note and bullet-point all my ideas that I want to include. This list can be anything from an idea for the whole storyline to a link to a map I like that someones already drawn up. There is no order to this but once I've got enough to start putting together the story I'll start a new note and break it down into an introduction and the various chapters of the story. I'll highlight where I think there should be encounters but leave them until later. In fact the encounters are generally the very last thing I'll write up as I want the story in place first before working on stat blocks or refining just how many beasties the players need to fight to make it a challenge.

NPC's
When it comes to the bosses or supporting cast I either go minimalist or all out.

There is very rarely any in between. With the latest campaign the group the players are part of is filled out by a handful of NPC's that fill the skill gaps. Each and every single one of them has been created in the same way as the players with the same level of background put into each one. Again my inspiration comes exclusively from book and TV. The head of the unit is a cross between Pratchett's Vimes and Criminal Mind's Hotchner. I cherry picking the aspects of their character that fit with the storyline and fill up the gaps with random information from characters in the multitude of pre-written adventures that I've never ran.

Aside from stat blocks for the monsters and beast that the players will come across most of the big bosses never get more than a handful of bulletpoints to highlight info that isn't in the standard stat block. For instance the likelihood of the someone running if it looks like they are loosing or a favourite tavern that they might frequent with the percentage chance they'll be there if the players turn up. They only time I ever write anything more is if the bad guy is going to stick around for more than a couple of sessions. If it is the main protagonist in the campaign then they get the full work up. Not only do they get made up as if they were a player character but I'll write several paragraphs on thier background and maybe even write some fluff to help round out the character.

Maps
If I'm ever going to procrastinate during adventure design then it will always end up with me drawing maps or designing buildings. I've never been one for designing encounter maps as until I started this 4e D&D campaign I'd never needed them. A scribble on a notemap was always enough. What I loved though was drawing out the campaign map and designing the buildings the players might come across.

I'll know by this point the main locations that will be used in the adventure and I can start researching both the location and how I'm going to represent them ingame.  In our recent Dresden Files game I used Google Maps to create a map of Glasgow that had all the places of interest pinned to it allowing the players to see exactly what was going on in the town. I gave Streetview a kick to familiarise myself with some of the areas we'd be using that I'd never been to myself and everything went swimmingly. The website Hidden Glasgow is a fantastic resource for finding locations that my players would never really think of when it came to game time. For instance we had tunnels under the river and streets built under the existing city centre all of which started as sparks on reading the Hidden Glasgow forums.

With the 4e game coming up I've broke with tradition and stole some encounter maps from the official books and I'm in the process of repurposing one of Dyson Logos maps which I'm hoping I'll do justice to and might see the light of day on here once it's finished. As always though most of my map making inspiration comes from the Cartographers Guild forums. I cannot draw a dungeon or cave system to save myself but once I have a design to work from it will always be my time sink for the game. When I have 10 minutes to spare you will find me working a little more on the main map for the adventure. I know I complained about spending four hours drawing up encounter maps but when it comes to the centrepiece I'll gladly spend every free moment I have working on it. If I didn't have a game to play, or a family to look after, or a job to do you'd find me twiddling with settings in photoshop for most of my days.

So there you go. From idea to finished article in four 'easy' steps'. If your a GM how does your routine differ? Am I missing out any huge steps that would make my games better?

I've never really had to make battlemaps before. I enjoy making a good map or making scenery for wargaming tables but when it comes to drawing up maps for fights if I don't draw it on an A5 pad very quickly with a pencil it's on a scrap bit of paper with one of the kids crayons. For our previous campaigns it's worked but now that I'm GMing my first D&D 4e game I'm having to sit down and make mini scale battlemaps like everyone else using this system.

I know I can buy dungeon tiles but I've never been a fan of them. It's why I preferred playing Heroquest to Spacehulk as a kid. It was purely a cosmetic thing as I loved the fact the tiles could be put together however you wanted them to but I hated the fact that they were always the same tiles we used. I longed to be able to make my own and put my own stamp on them without having them look like I'd stuck some paper onto corrugated cardboard and went at them with some felt-tip pens.

I see people quickly draw maps out on paper but I don't see why that is any different to my scribbles on notepads. Unless your working from a previously designed map how do you get the scales right and as your using using mini's does the hap-hazzard way of drawing the map detract from the asthetic of it all? One person I've seen builds 3D cardboard battlemaps and I wonder where he gets the time? Personally I spent way to long copying the layouts of existing maps and changing them slightly to fit my campaign. Rooms were drawn to scale but the contents of those rooms were very quickly thrown on and a little colour added just to make them look slightly more than a black and white floor plan. It still falls far from where I'd like to be though.

I've tried a few of the programs out there and they are either too simplistic for my liking or do not ship with anywhere near the amount of tiles I would like. I know that with a few of them you can import your own graphics but where do you learn to create tiles like that on your computer? I've dug through hundreds of blogs as well as the Cartographers Guild website for help and unless I'm doing a country or city sized map there isn't a lot of help out there. Sure there are a lot if pretty maps to look at but very little help with making your own encounter maps.

I guess what I'm getting at is how long is too long when creating your battlemaps for games? I don't think five minutes of story and bad guys really justifies three hours of drawing and it's not as if my draughting skills are lacking as I scored a perfect 100% in my tech drawing prelim exam at school. *Puffs out chest*

So hints, tips and shortcuts. Throw them at me!

Please?