Improving a Referee's skills

[IanBruntlett]

I took a punt and bought "Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master" to improve my Traveller Refereeing skills. It seems quite relevant but, being a D&D book, it loves combat (Chapter 9: Choose Relevant Monsters) and magic (Chapter 10: Select Magic Item Rewards). I've started typing up some notes about the ROTLDM.

So... to replace chapter 9, I'm fishing for ideas on how to introduce conflict to Traveller games.

To replace chapter 10, I'm fishing for ideas on single use / limited use tech. I have two copies of the 2016 Central Supply Catalogue.

 

[IanBruntlett]

OK, here is my work-in-progress PDF. I'm due to add a reference to the article "Refereeing Traveller" from the Traveller Companion. Although I am about to search through JTAS (Journal of the Traveller Society 1-12, I'd appreciate recommendations...

I have covered these Mongoose titles:
Campaign Guide
Core Rulebook 2e
1,001 Characters
760 Patrons
Adventure Seeds

Followed by these titles by other publishers:
Gamemastering (Brian Jamison)
Gamemastering (Dominic Wasch)
Robin Law's of Good Game Mastering
How to write adventure modules that don't suck (Goodman Games)
Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master (Michael E. Shea)

EDIT: I called the PDF "campaign-guide-contents" as it was originally an extended contents for Mongoose's Campaign Guide but then I started adding to it.

 

[mavikfelna]

You should check out Tracy Hickman's XDM: X-treme Dungeon Mastery for good DM info for any setting.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Listen to you players.

Never railroad them.

Use NPCs to show rather than tell...

 

[IanBruntlett]

You should check out Tracy Hickman's XDM: X-treme Dungeon Mastery for good DM info for any setting.

Ooh. Interesting! I've been looking at https://freelancetraveller.com . I particularly liked:

• Confessions of a newbie referee.
• The Fifth Imperium.
• Active Measures (adventures)

 

[IanBruntlett]

This set of articles by Cyborg Prime is definitely of interest.

 

[rinku]

The late Aaron Allston's Strikeforce is generally considered a great treatment of campaign design and gamemastering. Don't worry about it being based on a Champions campaign, it's applicable to most groups.