Author Archives: Patrick Benson

Patrick Benson

Just another tech and gaming geek dreaming of doing something really big and, well, geeky!!

My New Game for the New Year! (& Other Stuff)

By Patrick Benson | Published: January 2, 2012

So I launched my “Santa as a Villain” contest on Gnome Stew and Martin Ralya (the Gnome-in-Chief) contacted me to see if I wanted to use some of the Gnome Stew funds to pay for the prize. I declined, but we got to talking about contests and I tossed out this idea for a “New Year, [...]

Posted in Updates | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

My Christmas Contest for Gnome Stew

By Patrick Benson | Published: December 9, 2011

Today I announced a contest over at Gnome Stew asking GMs to create an RPG adventure using Santa Claus as the villain. Go there, write up your idea in 250 words or less as a comment, and you may win a $25 gift certificate to us at my favorite online store Drive Thru RPG. Good [...]

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Your Team First, Your Ambitions Second

By Patrick Benson | Published: December 8, 2011

A recent conflict with a friend reminded me of a vital lesson that I think all gamemasters should keep in mind. I will not go into details, but I and a friend had a significant disagreement on how a project should proceed. We were not going to resolve our differences and I stepped down from [...]

Posted in Good GMing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

More Gamers Should Play Sports

By Patrick Benson | Published: December 7, 2011

Today I heard a gamer talk about how he loves his hobby and that at least it does not make him stupid like “all of those dumb jocks!” I stunned him when I said that his claim was ridiculous. That stereotype just does not hold up under scrutiny. Neil deGrasse Tyson, arguably this generation’s Carl [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Chris Crawford’s Game Design & Creativity Lecture

By Patrick Benson | Published: December 2, 2011

If you want to do creative work, any type of creative work, watch this video: Wax on! Wax off! Write code!!!   Yes, it is dated from way back in 1989 before humanity had discovered the Pluto was not a planet, and that what we all really wanted was instant access to porn from the [...]

Posted in Advice | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

RPGs Can Survive Learning Some New Tricks

By Patrick Benson | Published: December 1, 2011

A friend responded to my articles on artwork in RPGs being sexist and the sexism that I felt was apparent in my review of an RPG aimed at children with the following: While I agree with you that sexism is bad, I don’t think it’s something that can be divorced from RPGs. RPGs are essentially [...]

Posted in RPGs in General | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Potential Plot: Old Law vs. New Technology

By Patrick Benson | Published: November 30, 2011

I live in Illinois, which is known as a “two-party consent” state. This means that in order to legally record a private conversation the person doing the recording must have the consent of everyone who might be recorded, so it really should be called an “all-parties consent” state. Whatever. The point is that if I [...]

Posted in Good GMing | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Questions to Design a Scene With

By Patrick Benson | Published: November 29, 2011

Here are some questions from my current project which is a GM’s campaign planner workbook. I decided to share these with everyone after receiving some positive feedback from a friend who has been helping me design and complete this project. Please use them when designing the next scene for your game and let me know [...]

Posted in design, Good GMing, Tools | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Bigger is Better

By Patrick Benson | Published: November 28, 2011

I bit the bullet and went and bought an LCD television to use as my computer monitor this weekend. I ended up getting a 42″ television and I was worried that I had made the wrong decision. I definitely did not! With 42″ of real estate and 1920 x 1080 resolution I am definitely seeing [...]

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Donate to Wikipedia

By Patrick Benson | Published: November 27, 2011

Ryan Macklin wrote an article titled Donate to the Ultimate Gaming Resource in which he appeals to gamers to support Wikipedia. His point is pretty solid – we pay $25 to $40 for gaming materials, but he (and I am certain many GMs) uses Wikipedia for free when doing research for a game. I had already donated [...]

Posted in Tools | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

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