Somehow, the stars have aligned, the schedules enmeshed, and all (or enough) players are present.  Now, whether you’re thoroughly prepared or winging it (you will always be winging it), it’s time to get things going. But how do you roll it all out, making sure that everything happens in the best possible places, and for the most appropriate length of times? How do you know when to ramp up, slow down, turn the tables, or call the cops it a night? Let’s talk about pacing your gaming sessions. - B B : Working out how to pace a gaming session is something GMs have had to deal with since the very beginning, and even though there’s never been a one-size-fits all approach, it must have been particularly vexing in the early days, before there was any basis of comparison. Board games and wargames have rhythms entirely determined by their rulesets and the players’ actions, concluding only under specific circumstances: when someone wins, or everyone gets bored and stops playing. Besides tria...

Greetings, Citizens! For scheduling reasons Due to Commie sabotage, the benevolent and exceptionally well-prepared individuals in charge of Never Say Dice have chosen to follow up the recent Paranoia post with another, this time about what you need to do before the game. Readers unfamiliar with Paranoia should take this opportunity to educate themselves before their ignorance is discovered and punished, and any readers uninterested in Paranoia should join the line for the nearest Termination Booth forming here . Please fill out the Citizen Satisfaction Survey before stepping into the booth. Have a pleasant daycycle! When we last spoke, I had covered the setting and talked a little about my first (successful) Paranoia session, but closed without sharing the lessons I had learned from my years of running the game. Players: Welcome to Alpha Complex, Six Death Minimum I must admit to having a certain advantage in my pool of available players that other Gamemasters might not: I live in ...

Welcome to the blog everyone and a Happy Pi Day to all! We here at Never Say Pie Dice enjoy Pi in many forms: savory pies, sweet pies, the raspberry pi computer, tarts, the irrational number, moon pies, whoopie pies...the list is filling up but goes on and on. To celebrate the launch of the blog and the special day, we’ve cobblered together a list of adventure hooks you can use to (s)tart a story or your next gaming session. You may not knead them, but we hope you enjoy the upper crust of our ideas that (s)pan several genres. Post-aPIEcolyptic Out on a hunting trip, the players find a fellow traveler wounded along the side of the road. His mission was to get his grandmother's old pie recipe book to the next town where his sister is living with a band of survivors. The path is fraught with dangers, but if they complete the mission the players will gain the respect and assistance of the small group. VamPIEre: The Crust-erade The local vampire lord has seemingly gone fer...