The Meme-Mandated, Semi-Regularly-Updated, Occasionally Coherent Thoughts of G.M. Skarka
Outside of the art of the game itself (which is the first inspiration), I tend to use “mood boards” of images, saved to Pinterest — although, to be be honest, that’s mostly been for design projects, not for games that I’m playing recreationally.
(Although, since I haven’t done much recreational gaming in a while, maybe I will use it for that as well.)
For example, here’s my Pinterest board for pulp gaming.
The best compliment I’ve had while gaming is a silent insult.
One of my players in college, Matt Harrop, had taken to exclaiming “COCK!” whenever I’d throw something difficult at the group — an unexpected twist, a complication, etc.
Then, so as not to interrupt play, instead of shouting it, he started miming the action of putting a rubber stamp down on an ink pad, and then stamping on my forehead (or, rather, in the air, across the room, but at the level of my forehead). He referred to this as “the cock stamp.”
When I’d come up with situations that the players got so emotionally invested in that I’d earned “the cock stamp?” That was when I knew things were going well. This was the best compliment I’ve ever gotten.
Today’s question: Describe your plans for your next game?
I currently do not have one, sadly. Too busy with projects that are far too late, plus it’s difficult to get a group together and find a regular time to play. (I’m currently running a STAR TREK ADVENTURES game that only meets once every 5-6 weeks or so.)
I have TONS of ideas for games I want to run. Too many, really.
• A Far West game (which I want to do once it’s done, to “wash my mind out”, replacing the stress I associate with it’s seemingly-cursed production with the joy I have of the setting).
• A Doctor Who game (for that combination of nostalgia and a setting I love).
• A 5th Edition D&D game, in an original setting, different from the usual “D&D epic fantasy standard.”
• A 1930s pulp game, as a playtest for a new edition of THRILLING TALES (you heard it here first, folks!).
• Something Hammer-Horror-esque, maybe for Halloween.
• …and too many more to list.
Someday.