The Austrian GM - Gamemastering the Cypher System

A GM's Toolkit Your Adventure is prepared, you got your players all together and its time to start the session. Now its time to put everything together and let the magic happen! Your most important tool in your toolkit is your imagination! If you use it right, you can keep your players entertained, shocked and give them the opportunity to create great moments in your game! Use the ideas of your players as well and have use them if you can. I wanted to tell you what other tools I use during play sessions, use what you like and test how it works for you! Fun is key A lot of things can come up during play, concerning certain rules, abilities or NPC's. If your players confront you with something like that, don't spend time on arguing just go with, and see how it works. You can always change your mind later, if this decision gets abused by a player. Refusing everything your players want to do, and just letting them stand in your scenes like puppets isn't much fun fo

Bullet journal for Gamemasters I have been running role playing games for over 15 years but never a long lasting campaign. So when i started planing for my Dune campaign, i mostly used my computer to write down things and notes. It took a lot of my time looking things up during play sessions so i started a simple notebook to aid me on the table. Some time after this i stumbled over Shanna Germain's amazing article about bullet journaling.   I adapted my notebook to a bullet journal format and have been it using ever since, and can't imagine using anything other to plan my future games and campaigns.So how can you get started with using a bullet journal for planning your games? Pick the journal you like! Notebooks come in all different sizes, styles and prizes. If you are just starting you may wanna get a inexpensive notebook with a soft cover. Hardcovers are very useful if you plan on writing everywhere and often come with a pen holder and a pouch for loose papers. Just v

Building your own cypher chest or the power of index cards You may remember these handy things, when you desperately tried to remember new vocabulary back in school. But fear not. We will not these things to get you to learn something. We use them so the players can see on one glance, what there items, artifacts or cyphers are capable of doing. Monte Cook Games offers a lot of great cards for your gaming experience, but if you have a specific setting in mind, a lot of numenera cyphers just don't fit in quiet well. My native language is German, so i can just translate the cyphers i want to use, or adapt them for my setting. Players can write the rolled level on them so the actually remember when they use it. Players don't write cyphers down, they get a card and toss it like UNO game if they activate it.  When it's used, it goes back to the stash for future games! Don't wanna roll lists for loot? Shuffle the cards and let them pick some. Need inspiration for a Combat