Good Game Mastering Part XIII

Luck.

I'll leave with one parting thought.  You can do everything I've mentioned and a hundred things I didn't that are right and good and still fail.  

Luck is a fickle bitch and she's got the dice you're rolling in her fat little hands.  She'll bless or curse them at her will and while you can work the odds, she's the house.

In time, she'll win.

Even so, how much you bring back to the table is up to you.  That's something luck cannot control or win.  

Cheers and good gaming.

Good Game Mastering Part XII

Don't over GM.

Don't over GM.

Don't over GM.

Did I say that enough?   Let the players run free in their illusion of control.  You'll be glad you did.

So, off I go to the next post...wait, what?  What do you mean you don't understand what I'm saying? 

You mean, it isn't self apparent what I mean?  Crap.  Okay.  Deep breath.  In and out, breath in and ... Okay, enough of that.  Here we go.

Here is 3 signs you are over GMing the players:

1.  You play their characters for them. 

If this happens at any time you are being stupid.  If you are determining their actions for them, in character or mechanically as the GM, you are fucking up.  Before anyone protests, here is an example.  Since we have got to have examples. 

*grumble* *grumble*

If you intervene and tell a character they should or shouldn't do something because it mechanically doesn't work or wouldn't be something they would do, then you are over GMing.  Let them figure out what their character will do.  If they are way out of align with their past history, handle it some other way.  Use the game to drive home the point.

If you are rolling the dice for them, its too much.

If you are looking up their powers, skills, abilities, spells, etc so they can use it, you're over the line.

2.   The players are merely passengers for your story and its all about me, me, me, instead of them, them and them.  If what they do doesn't have an effect or impact what's going, then why are they there?  Its like playing MOO3 - the damn computer does it all for you.  Things like that are called movies or plays.  Those kinds of things are pre-scripted and don't care about the observer's actions.

3.  You don't allow the players to try things.  If you are cutting them off or talking them out of things because you don't thing it will work or its not aligned with your vision of them, its  too much.  This one kills me.  I've been guilty of it once in my life and swore never to repeat it.  I see this as one of the worst offenders of the over GM list.

Don't over GM.

Good Game Mastering Part XI

Play the scenes.

I can't say it enough.  If you forget everything else then do this one.  Everyone has expectations.  Dragons are tough, demons are nasty, elves are stupid and smell funny - whatever.  play to it and player expectations. 

If they are looking for a fight, give them one. 

If they want to eat croissants and sip tea with their little fingers turned just so, make it so number one.

What Chorazmatt comes crawling out of the storm ripping the skies open over the Misty Seas - make her appearance memorable.

Do it justice.  Build a sense of wonder that lives on after the game ends.  You'll know if you did it right if your players are still talking about it four months later like it just happened.  I've references to games that I played more than 20 years ago that show up in nearly every game.  Things like that become the fabric of playing and seem to infect every new player exposed to them.

Not that I blame them.  Who can resist a silly, stupid or epic tale?

Good Game Mastering Part X

Make and play a fun game.

You can be prepare, be attentive and reactive to players and all the other things but if the game is boring who is going to play it?  Also be unique.  As original as you can.  I'll never forget the first time someone snorted at the plot I was rolling out.  It both startled and angered me.  Still, its point was one I never forgot.   I was running something they had played a hundred times and my version wasn't much different the original idea.  You have got to experiment and strive for originality. 

Avoid cliches like the plague. 

Stereotypes are the kiss of death. 

Don't start your players in a bar or tavern.  Ug.  Or, in a little town with a set of ruins or convenient hold of soft and squishy monsters... ARGH!  MMORPGs are full of this drivel and it drives me bat shit crazy.

Look, nothing should be as it seems.  Everything should be plotted at least three levels deep and that should be just scratching surface.  Spin plots and stories within one another so that they are like the little Russian dolls, one with another, ever smaller but seemingly endless. 

Twist motivations, surface impressions and the truth.  Everything should be gray and the reasons for the players to be, well, possible.  Not that I'm telling you to do their work for them - this ain't a plug for the GM to do their back story.  Its tough to be a hero, villain or just plain coward when someone else is playing the role.  Of course, that could be your plot.  Why the hell are the players where ever they happen to be in the first place?  Maybe the hero is a villain though really the hero just cast as the villain; who is really a coward, you see, and the real hero is the one who willingly chose to be the villain so the hero-coward-villain could, well, be the damn coward in the first place.  Maybe they did it for love, friendship or misguided loyalty - who knows? 

That's your job. 

I'm just looking forward to finding out.

Good Game Mastering Part IX

The world goes on no matter what the players do.  The world was kicking and stomping long before the players showed up and its going to keep on doing just that long after they are gone (unless they destroy it, that is).  In a nutshell, the world is in motion just as much as the players are and events are spawned out of the actions of the multitude of NPCs you've created as the GM.  Things should and must happen independent of and unrelated to the players.  Some will affect the players and others will pass them right by.  Of course, nothing happens without your say so.  You are the GM after all.  Still, build in the world a sense of time, activity and energy.  Players should hear about other heroes, villains and events that have had nothing to do with them.  These events should happen and be solved all without them. 

In fact, never give your players an endless quest bucket that never ages.  Gaming at the table is not like gaming online.  If you don't move timely enough the conflict you are trying to solve may resolve all on its own without you.  and should.  Have that happen a few times and you'll see players begin to pick and choose and make smarter decisions about what to do and what to let pass by.

Good Game Mastering Part VIII

Everything is worth exploring.  As a player to GM, if you are interested in the plumbing of the local tavern or in plumbing the lengths of Skull Tower, then by all means.  If I, as the GM, don't happen to have that built up, then its a my task to remedy that shortcoming.  Its my shame that I have to admit that I've talked players out of something because I wasn't ready to run it.  Rarely does it happen these days but from time to time, usually when I'm the most rushed, events like that walk in my game.  Usually I bash it in the head, bury it in the basement and make it into a murder mystery. 

Folks, simply if the players want to do something then let them.  They are driving.  If they want to go to the Sky Garden instead, get them there.  If they hear the politics in Falohyr near the Oakendark Forest are mighty brand this time of year, then off they should go into the thicket of plots growing there.  Reserve the words, "Oh, that will be boring" or "you can't or shouldn't do that" for some other event.  At the game table, the players are driving -- you are just navigating for them.  If they find fancy in fishing for prismatic fish near the Sky Dark Mountains then who are you to dissuade them?

At the same time you want to keep a measure of control on the game.  You just hide it behind the thought that its the players' idea.  Let the players go where ever they want to and build your plots into that location.  This goes right back to preparation.  If you want the players in Khurahaen (a city) next summer for this underwater-underground and above city adventure then drop hints to them while they are off in the Whisper Trees investigation the White Roc Inn and the illegal goods trading going on there.  When they dig into the Misty Mountain politics and the nasty underhanded acts of the Black Hydra nobles, slip hooks leading them to Khurahaen.

Good Game Mastering Part VII

Make games to remember.  Build suspense and life into each session.  Take it as your motto, your credo to live by.  I believe it and believe its necessary.  In fact, every session my job is to build the potential for one of those games that you'll remember 25 years after the fact, just like it happened yesterday.  I've a pocketful that I have had the honor to be a part of as a player and more as a GM where I set the stage to make them come into being.  They take work though, just like I've mentioned previously in this Good Game Mastering series.  They take investment in your players and I don't mean their characters but the people.  Not everyone in your group is going to come to your table able to be a player in this type of game.  Its a learned skill, one that takes time to develop and mature.

It also means remembering, making events and actions in game poignant and purposeful.  Not every event should be a weighty thing but they should have impact.  Especially the characters.  Every character in fact.  All of them, no matter how silly or trivial their life or death in the game should have an impact on the fabric of your creation.  What they do, how they do it should send ripples across your world: reward their derring-do and punish their misdeeds.  Don't let them be non-entities; what they do should create consequences that echo long past the shade of the action done.

Do this, make this happen and your players will adore you.  Not because your fed their ego but because you did what every living being wants:  gave them a little piece of immortality.  They left a legacy, something of them that carries on after the dust has settled and the music has called out its last note.

Good Game Mastering Part VI

Pacing.  Perhaps the most underused and underestimated implement in your toolbox. 

Watch movies much?

If you do, you'll notice that some movies seem to drag and others keep you on the edge of your seat.  Part of its the story but not just story content.  You can bore someone to death droning on about a scene if you are not careful.  Directors and their editing teams spend a lot of time providing just the right amount and usually hammer their pacing home with sound and visuals to tie you to it.

So its like this.  You can spend a couple of minutes hiding behind your nifty GM shield talking about the slime dripping from the wet dungeon walls until it falls on teh players or you can throw a towel at a random player and yell, "slime drips down on your from above!  what do you do?" and scare the wits out of them and shock them into action.  Tense or action scenes should run just like a movie:  fast and sharp.  Be loud, abrupt, and quick.  Don't give the players a lot of time - keep the pace moving.  if a player stalls - too bad.  You snooze, you lose.  Keep your scenes moving to the pace of your action scene.  Give description the same way, drawing it back to minimal lines when things move quick and build in deep detail otherwise.


Key point.  Don't bog down.  Control the game stops and slows.  Use your voice, body, props and god damned everything to enforce it.  Don't do a one-man stand up routine though.  Bring the players along with you.  Suck them in and make sure everyone is into what's going on and no one is standing alone.  If they are doing nothing, point at them and ask what they are doing and make it affect the situation.  Everyone is at the table to play so make sure you build the potential for them to do so.  Definitely build in, where possible, a scene or cool point where they shine in the game.

Good Game Mastering Part V

Reward your players.  I feel ridiculous even covering this point but I've seen it too many times where its forgotten.  Remember its not an "you versus them" mentality.  Those people sitting around your table come to blow off steam, hang out with friends or just do something beyond mindlessly watching TV or grinding with their character on their favorite MMORPG.  It really doesn't matter what their motivation is.  If they spend the time, make it worth their while.  Not that you should give it away for free:  no one respects a whore, whether its in gaming or in life.

When I say reward them, I mean more than tossing them treasure or goodies.  Rewarding players means giving back to them something for their efforts.  If they come to your games and spend time, reward them by investing your time into the game as well.  Don't short change them by blowing off being a GM and not preparing or being ready.  Avoid instilling the feeling that everything is mercurial and transient.  Getting players attached to your games, feeling and thinking about the game world is one of those wonderful GM habits that spawn awesome games.

Good Game Mastering Part IV

Be Consistent and even in your game mastering.  Here is where preparation and keeping track of what the players do and what you do in the game world builds the illusion in the player's minds and keeps it there.  If they break down a wall keep it that was until you send someone in the game to build it back.  If Throon are bad asses in your game don't make them pansies in your next one unless some in game occurrence happens to make it so.

Equally don't bounce the superlatives.  Players shouldn't encounter a coterie of demons one night and then be traipsing with goblins the next.  Use balance in your preparation and evenness in your implementation.  Be consistent or stand ready to give the storyline as to what not.

Good Game Mastering Part III

Also, as an addition, use props.  Some of the best role playing I have seen happened over a taped up box of cigarettes and a draped cloth sewn with random shapes.  The box was the center point of a plot to steal it and changed hands between players and a half a dozen NPCS back and forth.  Hearing everyone ham it up and get into the mood of getting their hands on the box was the high point of the night.  Props build atmosphere and allow for good suspension of belief.  That point teeters on the edge of talking about tools, so I'm not going to beleaguer it more.  Still, use them.  Maps, rolled up paper, notes, crystals, pins, etc.  Use them and involve your players.

Oh, and while I'm thinking about this if you are going to bring maps into the game, then make one.  It goes back to the idea that people loves props and props help them suspend disbelief.  If you are going to give them a map, then by god make sure that you actually give  them a map!  Don't just say "you've got a map!"  As a player, that kind of thing is sure to piss you off if repeated enough.  Once in a while is understandable but continually doing so is disappointing if not maddening.

Also, since I'm on the topic, if you make a map especially a detailed one, even if just for you, do it in advance!  It goes back to preparation.  If you need a map, and you'll want them for some situations, especially if the layout is important or center point to the story plot.  If you are living a cliche and have your players in a dungeon, then you'd damn well better have at least mapped it out.  And cities.  Oh cities are lovely if you actually map them.  You can keep your players there forever if you want to, getting them involved in all the little thins you decided to show them on your map.  Tourists.  Bah!  Or, worse, *shiver* they get involved in shopping trips!  As a word to the wise, never bog a game down with shopping unless the entire party is involved and agreed upon it!

A Hero's Death

Never, ever, let someone die a straw death.  Even if you want to punish them for poor game play or for just being a jerk at the gaming table.

We all play to be heroes or heroines.  Not to die fruitlessly without merit or touch upon the world.  Even a first game session character should be treated appropriately.  If you think about the greatest game worlds out there, they are littered with old characters and their actions, each an everlasting tribute to their legacy.

Allow me an example.

On a certain game session night, one of my players had the greatest misfortune to have his rough, tough and stalwart character do little beyond eat sausage at a sausage shop and run around trying for the life of him to get a job to get out of the little one horse town he was stranded in.  Its unfortunate that halfway into the session he met his demise, leaving little behind as a legacy beyond the sausage he'd bought for lunch that day and the lingering cry of "Job!".

It was, to say the least, not one of the player's better nights.  However, its a funny thing how fate works.  His death rallied the rest of the players and the lot of the town.  They cleaned house on some uglies and bad politics that were making the place more of a hellhole.  My poor player's character was pretty much forgotten.  Except I couldn't let him die that way.  So, during the latter part of the session the smell of sausage and sometimes sausages themselves played tiny parts in the clearing up of the players' troubles.  Such an impact was made in tiny ways that, in short time, he became a patron of sausage and sausage makers (much to the ever lasting jest of my players) and a source of merriment for his job seeking antics.  Something that people in the town use as a label for job seekers today.

Not the most noble death by any means.  Yet it was not his dying or even manner of it (he died on the first swing of the night by his own hand) that made the difference but the tiny bits of game play he did have beforehand that I was able to build on.  In fact, once I planted the seeds, the other player actively helped (which made it all the more awesome) and it took on a life of its own.

Now, glorious deaths are easy.  Having someone remembered for act is the easiest, commemorated in stone, tale, song or some other medium.  Regardless of what you choose make it something you weave into your game as a lasting tribute to the player and the uniqueness of the character.

Good Game Mastering Part II

Let's talk about being ready.  Or prepared if you like.  Running a game is and feeling prepared is completely different than writing out your night's events, drawing maps and putting stats to everything.  In fact, its completely different.  They can be related, of course, and doing so sure could help but its not the same.  I'm noting it because, frankly, a lot of people I've met confuse the two.  They think those plot variations and the interests, thoughts and delightful dialog they planned out makes them ready.  Nope.  Its wonderful and helps but it doesn't equate.

See, being ready means you know what the hell you are going to do.  Not just that night either but 10 games in advance.  Well, maybe not literally 10 games but far enough in the future that you can plant the seeds to develop plots later and foreshadow future events.  You need to know your major plots and have them worked out ahead of time.  Or you can forget about foreshadowing.  Not to mention plot development.  Its tough to plant that initial seed that grows into a dramatic plot outcome when you have no idea what the major plot is going to be.

Now since I hear some heckling from the peanut gallery over my statements, let me address their mockery.  Fact is, you can run a damn good game just impromptu, using whatever you pull out of your ass to do so.  Problem is, you weren't ready, as I defined it above, when you did so.  Did it work? Absolutely (or, at least I'm surmising so if you're sneering about your majestic extemporaneous game mastering ability) but its hard, dreadfully hard, to build a strong, consistent campaign that way.  It breaks down.  Consistency can't thrive in that environment and the minute you start contradicting and dropping major plot points you're out the window.  Not just for your players but for you too.  So you've got to lay it out, even if you do it in five minutes.  Its not the amount of time you spend here, its that you do it, even if you scribble it in the margins of a phone book or on a napkin at your favorite restaurant.  the key point is to be ready you have to know what the major parts of the plot are.  In fact, shove enough detail in it to know the major points without even trying to detail everything (or go right ahead...).  Or, consign yourself to a one-shot or just frustration.

So look, I'm not going to outline HOW to do that.  What tool you use is up to you and frankly, covered very finely on numerous web sites and in books.  Do a simple search.  Now, with that out of the way, I'll restate the point:  be ready to game master.  Be prepared.  Avoid winging it when you can and figure out, even if its in rough form, what your plots are going to be ahead of time.  It doesn't matter if you do it in 5 minutes while you are in the bathroom as long as you have the story lines roughed out.

Deus Ex Machina

Okay.  Dues Ex Machina.  Its the bane of your existence.  Don't employ it unless nothing else exists as a means of  fixing.  Hmmm.  Guess I shouldn't assume you know what it is so let me share.


Look, its where a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.  


Also synonymous with GM magic.  Never use the hand.  Don't wave the wand.  Or whatever term you use for it.  When you contrive something to make it work you break up the magic.  You take away the players' suspension of belief.


Just.  Don't.

Sigh. Big Dumb Objects

Okay.  A Big Dumb Object is any mysterious object (usually of extraterrestrial or unknown origin and immense power) in a story which generates an intense sense of wonder just by being there.

Love that?  Flat definition.  Wonderful.

Actually useless.

How does it apply to gaming?  Where do you employ it?  Why's it a good point to have them in games?

Sigh.

Easy, actually.  Look.  A BDO is something you put there for players.  Think of it like fishing.  Its something you throw out to them as a  hook baited by something cool.  Know that your players are thrilled to find out more about some nifty doodad you've crafted?  Toss it out there.  Put it in the backdrop of the world as a place for their to strive to achieve.  It can be like Shangrila or Tanelorn that is forever sought but hardly ever found or just there, taunting them, close by but hard to find or get.

BDOs are fun from the GM perspective.  They don't have to be places or even stuff.  I frequently talk about a specific quest that I run in my games.  Its called the World Ring Quest.  As I'm sure you can guess its pretty self-explanatory on what they are striving to do.  One held every 30 years or so in game time.  I've had players across dozens of games work to get into the grand quest.  Very few of them have ever played to the point to actually achieve it.  In fact, I've only had 15 or so of the quest ever attempted.  Each time, however, the games that flowed from it were exceptional ones that were told and retold for years afterward.

Its a BDO too.  Events, places, times, things, whatever.  Invoke and build on the the sense of wonder and you make them into BDOs.  Just don't make a mistake and put too many out there.  BDOs are hard to achieve but are inspiring for the journey.  That's not appropriate for every quest.  Sometimes you just want to get that request to go get milk from the store or slap downs some bandits marauding the area.

Use them accordingly.

Chekhov's gun

Chekhov's gun is an apparently irrelevant element is introduced early in the story whose significance becomes clear later in the narrative.


I love these and use them often.  The key point is to track them as you introduce them so you can use them properly later.  If you don't, it becomes moot.  Players miss them.  You miss them and your easter eggs and wondrous delights you have set for them are missed.


Its a point I make to scatter these like candy in every session so I can call them up later.  Players get wise to me after a while but they make beautiful events when you can grown them, especially when you catch them by surprise.

Imbroglio

Plotting a good story or session requires some skill.  Preferably a measure of sophistication.  Maybe even with a bit of an overboard, out of control madness even.  Hence the idea of imbroglio: intricate, complicated plots or simple plots with numerous inferences and links.

Imbroglio is like stacking plots.  Its the idea of putting plot after plot after plot in motion in relation to your players.  Its telling players about a cool place they want to go and then adding the fact that a noble family there is politically under siege.  Oh, and that merchants refuse to go there any more since there is a basilisk petrifying everyone.  Oh, and a dandy is looking for one of the players over some imagined slight. And your cat just died.  You just stepped in dog poop.  Then drug it into the hostel you are staying at.  Which pissed off the owner and now she's insisting you clean it up or leave.  Oh, and that girl you slept with last night?   Well, her brothers are at the table across the room.  They've had a few too many beers and they are looking to put a foot up your ass.

Get the point?  Its piling on and making an intricate mess of plotting.  Its a way of building stress and compounding the situation.

I love it.

You should let your players experience it.  Writers use it all the time but its more challenging when you have real people reacting instead of straw ones inside your story.

Good Game Mastering Part I

A lot goes into being a good game master.  We've chatted a bit about quality encounters and plotting but let's take a second to hit on what good game mastering is all about.  To do that I'm going to start with what it isn't.  Like how owning all the books for a particular game or even masses of games does not make a person a good GM.  Having as one's occupation, social orator, actor, or even professional game designer or publishers; none of those mean you are automatically a good game master.  In fact, every one of those occupations likely steers you farther from being a good game master.  The list actually continues ad nauseam but I'm more interested in talking about what it is over what it isn't.

So let's be about it.

Your probably noticed the "Part I" in the title so expect I'm going to break this up into a couple of posts so it makes sense.  Its a large topic and I'd rather not inundate you with every point in one elongated post that stretches a mile.  Its something that has to be learned in some amounts, which is a part of my first point in good game mastering.

Becoming a good game master takes time.  No one is awesome out of the box, not in a repeatable fashion that happens night after night, session to session.  In fact, you are likely to suck mightily in the beginning.  Hopefully, you are with a table of neophytes or forgiving grey beards who will take it in stride.  Beginners learn with you while grey beards teach you to be better by showing you the way through good playing.

Now, let's clear the water of a couple of obstacles that you'll need to overcome before you comprehend this point.

Fact 1:  Having and employing a lot of tools does not compensate for the time it takes to mature into a good game master. Oh, and by tools I'm talking about nifty apps for your smart phone, programs for your computer, GM notebooks, guides, and a mountain of books.  It's all a tool. Game mastering, though, is like exercise or any skill you can name that improves with use, you have to perform what you want to improve over and over to achieve advancement.  You may have a native advantage or good equipment (tools in this case) to make great strides with but nothing replaces the element of time.

Don't forget this point.

Fact 2:  Like exercise, you are going to have plateaus and valleys.  Some times you are going to be so alive and unforgettable, and other times you won't.  Persevere.  Akin to exercise, to beat that analogy to death, you need to moderate your pace to get better.

Fact 3:  The more you beat your chest about your good game mastering, the more likely you are not.  Feedback and consensus on this point is only gifted by your players.  If they don't think so, then you can bet you are not there yet.  Now, if they are still going on about a game you ran six months ago and can't seem to get it, the session or what they did during that time out of their minds, then you can start patting yourself on the back.  If they are not, and are not panting to tell everyone else about it, then figure you've a bit more to go for achievement to that lofty goal.

Fact 4:  Maintaining good game mastering means forever striving to get better.  A GM who rests on his laurels will lose the coveted spot they've worked to achieve.  Don't let success blind you to continuing the work you put in to get there.  Like life, its a journey that changes and grows different with every session, every year that turns.

Keep these in mind.  They'll not steer you wrong.

Absentee Players

The bane of our existence as game masters is the eponymous "I can make it tonight" player.  I'm going to leave out the notes about how to deal with players who are lecherous in their absenteeism and just stick to how to mitigate the impact of the disappearance of those who occasionally vanish.

Now, if they are the center of your arc, the player has injected some difficulty into your game session.  I'd suggest you consider introducing, without disruption or seeming mechanical (i.e., organically) an immediate side quest to shunt them off to the side away from the primary plot arc.  Preferably something tangent to what is going on without disrupting the plot line.  If you can't, then cast it as a dream sequence, forced action, such as a kidnapping or blackmail, or other heavy handed tactics.  You can equally proceed but inflict the player with sickness or death (nothing like having a nagging ghost added to the list of mcguffins you have to complete!) and make the other players lug him around or otherwise deal with his body.  I like petrification about as well and even once turned a player to salt and another into glass and one into a painting.

Whatever you choose helps keep the continuity of the story.  If the player is not central to the current story arc, then it gets even easier.  You can handle them in all kinds of ways, from employing any of the previously mentioned or send them off on some plausible action that the other players don't find too disrupting to the ongoing game.  I like to preserve my storyline whenever possible so I tend to build in side quests at all junctures that I can apply to different characters should situations like this arise.  In fact, I'm notorious for sending players off on side story arcs if they vanish on me, ones they may or may not like (sold into slavery, anyone?  pimped out to demon?  donated as parts to the local guild?  volunteered in an experiment?).  My players have quickly learned to have side jaunts of their own at the ready should the need arise.  Which I prefer and they do as well, since I enforce a mortality chance on these little unscripted walk abouts.  Sometimes I make the disappearance the main focus of the night.  It really does vary depending on my need and what's occurring in the story.

So, if you boil it down to its succinct parts, its really two ways:

1. Make them part of the story
2. Take them out of the story

Just remember, however you handle it, make sure you build in the way to bring them back into the story as well.

Also, before ending, its important to handle the issue when you stop a session in the middle of climatic act, like in the middle of a journey, in a dungeon, a battle or similar circumstance where you need to pick up immediately where you left off.   These are the worst and why I suggest you always end at a nexus (see previous post, Ending On a Nexus).  Here you have little choice but to be heavy handed, though I tend to allow something in the story reach out and take the missing player out of the story.  Be it by kidnapping, death, a chase scene, or a similar mechanic, you'll pull them out.  Oh, and by a chase scene, I mean they run off in some fashion, usually ahead of the others, after the penultimate bad guy or target of the story.  It could easily be anything you desire.

Chicken and Egg Decision

Its the same old question: what came first, the chicken or the egg?

Maybe you think asking this question is lame but let me pose it to you in a different way.

Who makes the game, the game master or the players?

Its the same question with the same answer.

• Does the game master make the game, keep it going and make it all it is?  
• Or, do the players have that distinction?  
• Could one exist without the other?  

The age old quest of which came first applies to the GM and players in the same way.  A game does not exist without the players and players cannot play in a game without a game master.

I pose this question with a specific point in mind.  Frequently I read GM tips about how to figure out when a campaign should end, how to construct a campaign and other, related questions.  Look, boil it down to its simplest.  How could a GM unilaterally make that decision for the players? 

Consider this question: are the players defining the game or the game master?

Have you set the stage and stepped back to allow the players to perform on it?  Or are you directing a concert, with the players at the instruments?  This question, this chicken and egg question, defines how we game master.  A group that needs constant guidance, a firm GM hand if you will, to even be active in a session is one where you are acting as the conductor.  Another group that builds its own plots, ideas and gets into situations all by themselves is acting upon a stage.  Each approach requires its own specific touch, including all those shades of gray in-between.  Most groups, I would venture, fall somewhere along the scale between from two session to session.

So, let's answer some common questions with this idea in mind.

1. When should I end a campaign or how long to run a campaign?  Well, simply put, if you have set a stage for your players to act upon, the campaign ends when they end it.  Their characters die, settle down, have children, retire, etc. and that either ends the campaign or continues it.  If you are employing a strong hand and conducting them, leading them, then it ends when you choose it to end, hopefully with a strong climatic finish.
2. How do I keep my campaign going?  Similar question to the above with the same answer.
3. I want to give my campaign to have a rich, detailed storyline and plot.  How do I do it?  Would you believe I will give the same advice as the first question?  Additionally, I'd tell you that doing all the work yourself makes the task more arduous.  If you empower the players and let me help with and take over the weaving of the story, with hints and nudges from you, you'll find the rich story you are looking for.
4. How do I make a campaign anyway?  Or, how is it different from a bunch of sessions/episodes?  Good questions here.  A campaign needs a central enduring theme that binds everything together.  Usually a location is used though an idea, person or other element can play the part as well.  The simplest element to use is the players, though you want to disguise the fact that they are the focus, i.e., use the give it to them but take it away trick.

More questions abound and I'll answer those in the light of this question is anyone is curious enough to ask.

Ending On a Nexus

Hmmm, a brief note.  Always end a session at a nexus, or a point in the story where you can allow the next session to move in a different direction if needed.  This means to not end in the middle of any climatic juncture or preferably in the middle of a short arc.  If they are traversing the endless woods, then its probably fine.  If they are robbing a mansion, you probably don't want to end in the middle of the heist on the vault.  It will make continuity in the next session potentially tougher.

Its always better to end at a point of freedom, for you and the players.  That way, you can build in means to handle missing players and time for players to handle the mundane (shopping, re-equipping, training, etc.) if you don't want that to be a focus in the story.

I call them nexus because a nexus is an opening that yawns to many locations and points in time. Literally it allows for anything to happen, which is how you want it to be session to session.

Devil in the Details

Like all things the devil is in the details.

I'm about to bedevil you with some details, too.  Look, its really quite simple but before I delve into it all let me caveat a couple of things.  First, the "how" of tracking your plots and campaign is something separate from the "need" to track details.  A distinct I think you should explore before you start building the ultimate GM binder  that you read  about on "X" site of awesome GM Tips of Goodness.  Not that I'm bagging on them, just that you need to evaluate what you need before you start tracking a mass of data that you may or may not need.

For example, if your group of 5 players is all about the grit, the swing of blades and axe, the hammer of steel on armor and cries of monsters, they'll care less if you've jotted down the names of all the NPCs you've tossed their direction of the last couple of sessions.  If fact, they might show their displeasure by cutting down "Sir Jaunty the Debutate" and his kindred if you spend more attention there than in the areas they pine for.

So, it behooves you to evaluate your group and your desires before you spent two weeks building a crafty excel spread sheet that sorts it alphabetically and by other fine points of data you collect.  Or, the NPC generator you slaved over for a couple of months.  Now, if they do, then by all means.  I enjoy a group that has a high level of interest in the world, its politics and those within it.

Now, how exactly, do we "evaluate" our group?  Well, let's answer that question.  I think its a fine one that gets skipped over in the columns of advice on good game mastering.  In fact, its fair to say that this step is "assumed' something I know is a mistake because its not.  Most do not consider this question at all but jump right to finding a tool that may or may not be what they need.  So, let's be about it.

Step one:  Generalize what your players like to do during a regular game session.  Use this as a guide.  For example, if they are into politics and weaving plots, then consider the information you need to track to allow them to perform this task.  You'll need names of people, cultures, politics, social movements, economics, educational information, and more.  Best find something that will allow you to track numerous streams of data and organize it.  A more blood and guts oriented group or one dedicated to delving the various undersides of shadowy recesses (dungeoning, anyone?) will need a lot less tracking.  In fact, they'll likely care less what the names of people and various things are and be more focused on treasure, monsters, and challenges.  Consider a medium to low means of tracking.

Step two:  I've alluded to it above but you'll need to figure out if you want heavy, medium, low or ad hoc means of tracking your information.  A nifty GM folder could be any or all of these.  I've seen some blueprints on some pretty ferocious ones, in fact.  Excel sheets (or open office, google, etc.), databases, and more can be useful if you need to track tons of data.  Lower amounts of data could be done via cards, notes or some other tracking means.  Find out what works for you and get it in use.

Step three:  Okay, so you've evaluated what data you need to track and what means you're going to employ.  Now you need to figure out what your habit.  After all, that nifty tracking system is useless if you don't actually use it.  Whatever you choose has to be something you'll employ either while your game mastering or shortly afterward.  Otherwise your tracking is doomed to fail.

So, before you land both feet on some nifty app that allows you to track all your GM info, make sure its something you'll actually use, that suits how you want to track data and can handle the amount, big or small that you want to track.

Combating GM Burnout

Being a GM can be tiring.  Not that its not brilliant and a lot of fun but all of us have times when you look at the prospect of being the game master for the next game with a sense of trepidation.  It could have been a bad day that soured everything or just a sense of lethargy and sloth that overcomes you.  Hell, it could even be the shitty onion and coffee breath of the gamer on your left.  It really doesn't matter.  What does matter is how you overcome it to have a good game anyway.  Sometimes you can't but you'll have a better chance if you keep a couple of tricks at your disposal.

• Before you start, take the time to dump everything that has happened for the day.  Just cast it aside.  For the next couple of hours, nothing that occurred early will matter.  When you walk in to game, act that way, even if you have to fake it.  You might find, in doing so that it actually happens if you let the flow of the game carry you.
• Meet your level of preparation.  Its critical you be ready to the extent you like to be so.  Some GMs are wonderful at extemporaneous gaming.  Others need four books, an atlas and a hundred pages of notes to do the same.  Even others fail to GM outside of the framework of a pre-built, minted module.  Nothing is necessarily wrong with any of these types (though I do have preferences and opinions to each) but they each have a different level of preparation attached.  Make sure you meet that or it will make your game harder.
• If your burnout stems from your plotting or the very game itself, such as the direction its taken or the characters within it, the best advice I can give is to come clean with your players.  You might find they too are just as fractured.  I'd suggest hinting at it and a little subtlety at first in case they are not.  Invariably one person is going to love it no matter how the others may hate it so be prepared. 
• Burnouts that stem from a drying up of ideas are easier to fight.  Take some time off.  Give it a break for a little while.  Play a different game, read some books, take a walk or watch some movies.  Find the zone that inspires you and get in it.  Decorate your room in things that get the creative juices flowing or go somewhere they shakes up the idea percolator.
• Player-induced burnout or tiredness can be tough emotionally.  If you have a single (or more) player that is getting you to hating the game, then they need to go.  Especially if they can't take the hint (if you are nice enough to give them a chance to change).  I usually give someone 1-2 strikes and then they are out.  Gaming is a stress relief for me and stress inducers get the book quick.
• You're the GM.  If the current game is a drag for you, take a break, go to the bathroom and look in the mirror. Repeat the first sentence.  Take a few breaths and then repeat it again.  Ignore what is going on, discard your plots, and throw player desire to the winds.  What do you want to do?  Repeat it to the mirror.  Then take the idea that percolates to the top and write it down.  Repeat this process until you start feeling stupid or draw a blank.  Look at your little list and then walk back to your game and make those happen.  Don't worry about reactions, just implement it and enjoy the moment.  If it wrecks your game, cast it as a dream, drug induced fancy or any number of other tricks.
• Challenge another player to GM.  It doesn't matter who or how: subtle is best though not required.

Monomyth

I wanted to spend a little time and talk about the term Monomyth or the Hero's Journey for those more familiar with the term.  I'm going to attach a link here, and yes, I know its the Wikipedia but they really do have a nice article on the topic.  Joseph Cambell's Hero's Journey.

The use of this pattern or monomyth is easy to employ in gaming.  Its structure makes putting together your game sessions and the linkage between them easy.  One aspect you must take into account and control is that your "hero" is not one but many.  This alters the slant a little but not overly much if you remember to apply it to the party as a whole and not any one single individual.  Let the events catapult the party along, using the pattern presented.  Focusing the idea behind this concept on the party eliminates multiple issues and ensure equal player coverage at the game table.

Read the article.  Think about it.  Figure where you can employ its concepts in your game and plot developments.

External Motivation and Reputation

Think with me for a moment.

How often do you see someone in the presence of others well-known or famous, and assume, perhaps wrongly that they too much be so because of their proximity?  I'd say decently often since we see it all the time.  Usually by the rich, who surround themselves with movie stars, singers and the like to try to trade off of their fame.  To gain some of their reputation by association.

Now take this thinking and put it in your game.  What persons, organizations and entities would seek such a method to better themselves?  Would a noble sponsor a group to perform some activity on his behalf, according their success with his name?  Surround him or herself with a coterie of famous or infamous figures to seem as such too?

This type of action is, honor by association or in its truest form a fallacy.  An effective one though and very useful as a plot element.  Villains would surely benefit from this type of association just as surely as the wealthy but cowardly; wounded or otherwise impaired.

This type of activity allows you to attack the typical types of sideways to appeal to your players in a different way.  For instance, the Mc Guffin styled quests.  Instead of a collector of rare things or data approaching the players to retrieve some object, you use instead the idea of a wealthy sponsor with a taste for the rare and exotic.  However, not one you can approach and say uncouthly, "Hey, need me to go get that for you?  I'll work cheap!".  Instead, only by showing you are an equal presence to his social stature or someone that has gained his attention (such as by acquiring said Mc Guffin).

A solid GM quality that ranks those from the merely good to the phenomenally grand is where the motivation is birthed.  When I, as the GM, am forced to provide the motivation for you to play in a session, I have failed at some level.  Now I say this and caveat it by excluding one-shot style games.  In those types of games you do not have the luxury to always begin that way but you should always turn your actions to an indirect and subtle type.

In effect, build in and support the ability for your players to drive the game and determine the adventure.  When they stumble, support them.  Feed them.  Give them everything they can stand without giving them too much.  Now let me get back to the point.  I'll both on good GM qualities at a later date.

Act from the shadows with an unseen hand.  Use your NPCs to inform the players and provide this indirect motivation but don't do it in a matter that directly addresses the players.  Using our scenario, we would tell our players of this wealthy collectors sponsorship or interest.  Instead, we'd let them gain that information in as secure a situation as possible, one where they cannot easily push to gain too much info.  Especially since you want to piecemeal it some so as to make it seem that you are not leading the players.  Let them believe it is their hand that drives the plow not yours and drives furrows in the land that lead to your plot destination.

Let them overhear it in a conversation; one in passing and where they lose track of the ones speaking.  Drop it in between a gush of other things so as to hide it in plain sight.  Speak of the activities of others but in an offhand way, such as a side comment during a transaction or blurb of a note between passing acquaintances.
Remember, we are building a need and a mystery.  Make them want this without telling them they want it.

Consider:

• overheard indirect comment between people
• noting activities that lend them towards discovering it
• Lack of exotic items normally available
• influx of the types of people that glorify in gaining honor/guilt by association
• influx/outgo of people normally present
• Change in prices
• etc. the list goes on to point indirectly at the topic
• seeing material that talks about it indirectly
• change in fad/style that reflects the interest

The above list is not everything but a short jotting of thoughts.  Get the players after it.  Make them the motivators to do this activity you've planned.  In this cause a Mc Guffin quest to find something.  Don't proffer it to them, make them seek it out and then take it away from them.

Set the stage so they have to force the issue to make it happen.  Not that, "no problem, I'll sponsor you" but instead a query, "you look to have talent but why would I sponsor you when I have others already employed as such freely?".  Every hand someone something and then take it away, even if they never really had it in the first place?  Oh, they get pissed.  No one is comfortable with loss, no matter how briefly the stead of ownership.

Again, the key is the use of external motivation and reputation to enhance your games.  Should our players succeed, they would languish in the grace of this wealthy sponsor.  Not to build their own reputation but to gratify his own through his sponsorship or presence.

Quality Encounters: Part V

I want to cap off my initial thoughts on quality encounters.  We've covered a good amount of ground in the first  I - IV (a quick search on the site will find them) and I want to end that first wave of thoughts with the idea of planting the germ of an idea that another encounter lies past the first and one beyond that still, to perpetuity (or your ending).  Its separate from building suspense though obviously related.  Think of it as a string theory of linking one conflict to another, using any pattern you desire.

The game mastering trick is to plant the seed of another encounter or encounters, within the one you introduce. I tend to introduce both subtle and blatant links, doing my best to give my players a spectrum of choice that is truly no choice.  They get to pick among the many but all roads will lead to my destination.

The best subtle clues are those that don't occur to the player until later in the game or even future games.  These you can nurture and grow slowly to create suspense and desire.  Less subtle clues will not be understood until some future point or are know as parts of a whole and so forth.  Blatant is, well, blatant.  That's the written note that gives information or the garb of the enemy that tells you they are from x place or any of the who, what, where, when, and why combo.

Cast your seeds widely and nurture them.  Planting them in this manner gives you a smorgas board to pull from when you need it.

Tradition as a Tool

This post was born in an interesting discussion I had earlier this week.

It stemmed from a talk about tradition and history.  I'll talk about history some other day.  Needless to say its use is grandiose in the scheme of world building and instilling strong, sustaining major plot arcs.

Tradition, though, tradition (he says wagging a finger) is as powerful as fashion/fads and as prevailing as history in its use in gaming.  Tradition has roots in the past but is made for the now.  Its the idea, the notion of preserving something from the past in the present.  The motivations and goal of doing so can be as poignant and convoluted as you desire.

A country in my world, for instance, has this tradition of looking to the sky when dawn approaches.  Its a long standing tradition, born of a celestial event that happened in the past.  The even was so powerfully imprinted on the society that, no matter the age, all of them do it..  Its akin to clockwork.  Its a quirk; one from society and not a person.  Not that persons couldn't spawn traditions: they easily can.  No this is something you wield like a careful tool, used to build the tapestry that is your world and its people.

In another part of the world, spitting on the shadow of a person as they past was said to lend them strength. In still another, seeing blue sails on a ship meant it was a slaver or pirate; those who sighted them would tear their fingernails down their forearm, calling upon Lokado, the god of slaves to look away from them.

Others were less quirky and more substantive.  A rite of adulthood to show maturity, a trail or challenge to show worth or value.  Choosing one object over another or speaking a or refusing to speak another language.

Tradition is powerful and one of the engines of plotting.  Let's say to set the stage for a major story arc I'm interested in beginning, I need them to go to the market district of my city.  Instead of forcing them, I reveal (subtly, of course) that the commonly used gates, which, sadly are opposite the market, close for the winter and people come through the opposite gates instead.  Its less pragmatism than tradition, as a few hundred years ago they held the gates for 34 days against invaders.  To celebrate the event, they close the gates and recreate the event, going through a historical reenactment.  This does the following:

• Indirectly moves the players to enter the city near an area I want them to be (if not right in it)
• Opens up a bushel of plot hooks to interest them.  They could be a part of the reenactment, oppose it, guard it, assist it, supply it, save it from bad guys, get involved in a political even surround it or just be part of the clean up crew.
• Reroutes a lot of traffic, displacing particular elements of the area.  This could lead to a million and one possible encounters that otherwise would seem unwieldly or contrived to the players.

Using this one simple mechanism I've plausibly rebuilt my area into something that temporarily upsets my normal layout without permanent damage.  It allows me to steer an encounter without seeming contrived and get my players where I want them to be while giving them the illusion of free will.

Fads for plots and story (update)

I hit this one a little bit back but realized upon reading it that I'd missed an important point.  While encouraging you to employ fads as a means of game plot or story, I missed a very important and salient use.  You can use them to explain and empower quirky and oddball reasons.  Such as why everyone doesn't use the most efficient, deadly, effective, or fastest means to do something.  Examples, as always, follow.

Let's say my city A has a rivalry with your city B.  Folks in city B are keen to wear their clothing cut in a particular way, one that is efficient against the cold and wet that comes with dwelling near a river.  Our city A is farther in on the plain but equally suffers from the cold and drafts.

But we're rivals right?

Most of the people in city A are not going to wear their clothes cut in that manner, no matter how "better", since it stems from those bastards in City B, right?  Even more, think about how down they would be on anyone parading around in that dress type.  Would they be Cool? Neutral? scathing? Hostile?  Could be any or all of them.  To set it in the best perspective, think about football fans and how they are with each other, especially those in keen rivalry.

Let's do another one.

A very well known and envied actress has her home in your area.  She loves the classics, performing many plays from them and pours scorn upon new material.  She also hates the music from city A, thinks the color grey is a sign of stupidity and that wearing lace is an invitation for spirits to take over your body.

How many of these trends do think will start up, as folks who she influences or who are influenced by her name/legend hear about them?  I'd say a lot, in varying degrees, just like it happens in real life.

Do the same for "xxx" hero the awesome and his likes and dislikes.  You employ the same tools: adding quirks, likes and dislikes to get a better personal picture of your hero.  Doing that you can enter in comments and actions from NPCs that emulate or are based on the hero's actions.

Still, who cares?

Well, consider the role playing possibilities, for one.  Now, if that doesn't appeal, consider the story and plot ideas that are spawned with this approach.  Say our beautify but stupid young actress decides to walk alone along the beach (bad neighborhood) and gets attacked by some rowdy unsavory types who she promptly lets her bodyguards stomp.  You know she'd turn that story to her benefit, saying she walked through the baddest neighborhood in town and stomped the hell out of anyone who attacked her.  Or, she'd say how she did it for sport to spoil some "rough types" day.  I can easily see a rash of foolish people, primarily younger do the same thing just to "be like xxx".  Weave that into your game.  It spawns a social dimension and takes away that idea of a primal enemy that everyone who writes modules seems to think is necessary.

The way something is cut, its color, shape, they way its worn; make, manufacture, time frame  and dozens upon dozens of other variables are easy to use as fads to provide reasonable and plausible background to your world, your plots and storyline.

Do your players a favor and use them.

Quality Encounters: Part IV

Seeing how I've covered so much so far, it seems appropriate to put a plug in for a few more critical elements. 

In this case, on how to build suspense.  Of course, doing so is all about building anticipation for your players.  Offer hints but avoid giving complete answers.  Give them something to worry about, to encourage them to seek out more or do more to find out where events are culminating.  You can also puzzle them, stirring their minds with something that keeps nagging at them until they can't stand it.

Of course, nothing I've said is any good without examples so let me drop a couple at you.  A classic example of hinting is to do so from the very beginning, giving them little tidbits, perhaps nonsense at first (to them) but hints nevertheless of something to come.  Then, as the night (or several sessions) develops, drop more and more hints.  When players ask, as they will when they realize you are doing something, tell them nothing at key times while feeding them misinformation or more hints.  Make them mad with trying to figure out what is going on.  For instance I started a game session with a particular word segueing it into nearly every conversation.  It wasn't anything strange, the word "red", but I used it on a 20 minute cycle, making sure I included it in whatever I was saying.  Subtly at first then more and more jarringly as the night progressed.  The players figured out something was up about an hour in (they caught me eying the clock to be truthful) but didn't figure out until 3 hours later when it was drying them crazy trying to puzzle out what I was doing.  In the end they realized they were stuck in a dream sequence and the word was part of the background chant voiced by several people in the real world trying to free them!  Madness, but fun madness nevertheless.

Another fun method is to use the classic puzzle or riddle to hook your players.  No need for an example there, I suppose, though I'd add that using bits of the players' histories usually is a nice tough that gets them interested.

A close favorite to the first one is the idea of an intriguing question.  Its a common theme in fiction, used to hook the reader with a question that digs at them.  Usually I give this in the form of "something isn't what it seems to be".  Additionally, I pose it through hard to control story elements to force the players via their characters to really stretch to find the answers.

Deception is another fun means.  Unusual situations, a sense of desperation or impending doom, and varying pacing also contribute to good suspense.  Ending on a cliffhanger, when you can swing it, is, of all things perhaps among the best of ways to build eagerness for the next game.

Of course, everything, and I mean everything, depends on your delivery.  Poor delivery can ruin everything if you are not careful.

Quality Encounters: Part III

Encounters should do the opposite of what you want to do with meetings: lead to another encounter.  At least in the sense of hooking players with some element, some component of the encounter that will lead them to another encounter, which hopefully do the same until you get to that culminating encounter that caps it all.

After all, the point of an encounter is conflict and its resolution.  In that sequence of stimulus and response you want to pave the roads that will lead your players to the next and further encounters.  Of course, what illustrates this better than examples?

Let's give our players a typical encounter with bandits in the woods.  Now, I'll leave all the fun gooey portions for you to explain, so that this encounter is something that fits into our previously covered quality encounter discussions.  Here, the point is that we need to hook our players (plot hook, get it?).

Now our good bandits are perhaps nothing special.  Heh.  On them however, is a note.  A note outlining your next encounter (read: conflict) that you want to tempt the players with.  But, that's not all!  No, not even.  After all, try to never let your player's think they only have one path to take that they haven't chosen (more on this in a further post).  Another fine bandit is wearing very rich and noble clothing that obvious didn't belong to him and did to someone else.  And not too long ago, either based on their good condition.  Add in a name stitched inside, a coat of arms or someone other recognizing symbol and you've number two plot hook inserted.

Let's see.  I like threes at a minimum (and often insert more but hey, its an example) so we are going add a further element.  One of the bandit (same, different, etc.) manages to yell out (or cough out in a gout of blood, mutter as he dies, etc. you add the flavor) a name, one that seems tantalizingly familiar.

There we go.  Now we have three neat little hooks to further encounters.  The note could be something written by one of them or stolen from someone else, such as a messenger or a person that the player can find or research.  Provide a hint in the notes itself.  Oh, and give them a damn note in real life too.  The clothes can belong to a nobleman or esteemed person (the same as the note?  Say it isn't so...) who can be found perhaps in the woods or back in town relating his tale of woe.  The name uttered could be many things but should be something that leads the players towards your conflict.  A place, a person, a thing, myth, legend,the possibilities are endless.

The point is never let an opportunity pass you by.  Don't have encounters that are self ending.  They should lead somewhere or they should happen.  Conflict always happens for a reason.  People know this and see it in life.  Don't invalidate their belief by throwing out a conflict that breaks their ability to believe in it.  Even if they don't know the reason, you should so you can hint at it later.

Quality Encounters: Part II

Encounters should make sense.  They should be relevant to the situation, the locale, and paced to mesh cleanly with the situation at the table.  Think plausibility.

Characters wandering though your town should come across something inexplicable to the setting without plot and story explanation on your part.  Coming across a menagerie of medusa and gorgons gyrating in the town square at midnight should be explainable, even if only to you as the GM.  It should never be from a lack of preparation and where the creature book opened up when you dropped it.

Not that I'm saying you should land something unexpected or even incomprehensible on the players.  Absolutely not.  Inspiration should be followed if it strikes you.  In fact, use it topple your best laid plans if desired.  Do not, however, let it destroy the continuity of your plot and story.  Lack of consistency, which happens often with intuitive GMs, can lay waste to your game as players do not suffer it well.

Think organically and build your encounters the same way.  Leave gaps, huge ones if you are an intuitive type, so you can be spontaneous without disruption.

Encounters should also be plausible in the context of the environment.  Gorgons roaming your town at night should be a likely or statistical probability or you are severing your players suspension of belief.  Give them context to believe.  Build a framework for them to imagine the chance of it occurring.  For example, given our same menagerie lets imply, directly or otherwise, that paintings of medusa and gorgons seem to be all over the town, and that they move every night.

You can hint that via observation, information gathering, or hand it to them on a silver platter.  Doesn't really matter except in terms of style and skill, how you do it.  Its that you give them that ability to suspend belief by given them a frame of reference to believe in what you desire.

Enough of that for now.  Keep the other parts of this series in mind when you are thinking about the above.   Cheers.

Social Mania as a Plot and Story Element

Social mania.  Ah.  A fun thought.

Like Fads they are blessings in disguise.  Not only can you use them to lead credence to your plotting but they allow you to introduce ideas into a game in a plausible, fun and understandable way.

Think about it.  Social Mania is a contagious, social epidemic that sweep through societies and even world wide if you desire.  They happen periodically too, so you can continually introduce them for plotting.  Remember, social manias massive inundations of enthusiasm, wide spread involvement and society wide adherence to goals.

Aside from easy religious ideas, consider things that have happened in life.  Exercise, for instance was a fad that became a social mania that swept across the country and world.  Likewise, you could say it falls into some easy patterns you could define:

• Activities (anything you can imagine from eating to running)
• Social Object (fortunetelling, journeys, crusades, ascetic pursuits, etc.)
• Social/Racial demographic (dwarves, orcs or slaves, nobles, etc.)
• Delivery (cars, wagons, horseback, etc.)
• Relationships (doing things alone, in pairs, networking, as a group or other combinations)

Consider a relatively low-tech, high magic world that is swept with craze to use dress a certain way.  It happened (sans the magic) in the british isles and other places, driven by the wealthy and the royal court.  To be treated seriously you had to conform.

Think of all the awkward and uncomfortable situations that would arise from such a craze.  Then inflict them on your players.

Fads as a Plot and Story Element

Fads make great story plots or even building block elements to stories.  I mean, seriously, I tire of hearing about and suffering through poor story plotting.  Sickly, prosaic, frequently repeated, and trite quests.  How many times can you run that plot that revolves the ruins next to the little village?  Rats in the cellar?  Undead in the graveyard?  The collector that wants you to acquire something for him?

All those and more like them make for boring conflicts.  Now if you are new and haven't played through them then its wonderful.  You've not been through them for the nth time.  Otherwise, hell, after the 3rd, 5th, or hell, even the 2nd, you are feeling a little under challenged.

So, grab something from real life that extends a bit beyond the norm.  One of the easiest of those for plotting elements is a fad. Fashion is vogue, as they say and great for plotting.  Motivation is the key to all plots, they say.  Why did your collector want you to travel off to barren, dangerous places to rob barrows?  Because he was looking for magic?  Gold?  Some bit of information that leads to another plot?  Nah.  Its because its in fashion!

In this case, something has sparked interest and excitement among the wealthy about the culture of the barrow builders.  This fad, this wave of thinking has them wanting to do some or all of the following:

• Collecting Souvenirs
• Exhibitions/Parties showing off the souvenirs, paintings, maps, tales, etc.
• Displaying items to demonstrate wealth, influence or prestige
• Tales and Legends
• Arrange parties about the unveiling of specific souvenirs, such as revealing a corpse from its wrappings for the time or opening a closed casket or container
• Tours of the specific area
• Desire to be interred or handled in the same fashion (funerals)
• Buried in the same way or with designs based on them
• Dissections or handling in the same manner
• Medicine made from their parts or elements used of the interment
• Fake souvenirs or items
• something modern can be used to resemble something old, like modern mummified ibis being portrayed as ancient ones.  Or, just mummies in general.
• Mercantile interests in buying/selling

All of these can be employed as story elements to build encounters and plots.  I haven't tried to list them all but think about the possibilities.  What if the fad was clothing instead?  How much has our fascination with clothing driven our economy and social influences?  Cars?  Phones and other electronic devices?

Quality Encounters: Part I

Let's start with some of the basics.  A staple of gaming is, of course, the encounter.  After all, its what is a game without them?

Okay, right off, I'm going to tell you to dump almost all the nonsense you can read online about crafting encounters to some mechanical specification.  Fitting some numerical value to your players and the encounter they will meet is a mistake.  Its an interesting but doomed idea.  Why?  It invites piss poor game mastering and/or complicated calculations.

Let me explain.

Let's say I've got a numerical value for every critter in my game.  Then, to figure out how much of that critter, or  any mix of critters, I just calculate a value and compare that to a value I've equally determined for my players.  Simple, huh?  Sure, if your encounters consist of just throwing monsters at players.  How about a challenge?  No, I mean a challenge.  Literally.  Say in the vein of a riddle mastery contest.  Or an eating contest.  Or a duel, but of wits, not weapons.  Oh!  Even better, how about a staple conflict of life?  You know, when you talk a good friend out of doing something stupid.  Except we're not talking about keeping him from driving home when he's polished off a six pack and a ton of vodka.  No, its keeping the hotheaded dwarf from trying to mount that noble knight's stallion in the stable.  And I wish I was talking about just riding it.  Ug.

Anyway, how do you build a numerical value for that?  Intangible or soft challenges suffer horribly under such a system.  Role playing is more than talking about the pretty arcs you make with your sword, uttering bold words, and describing the outrageous streams of blood that commence as you boldly and bravely hack your way through a coterie of # of # critters of value ##.  Its about being challenged, feeling in danger, seeing the hairs on your arms rise up and goose bumps rise on your skin from the imagined conflict unfolding around you.  Its leaning forward in your chair, a sense of tension floating in the air and the above all, a feeling of risk: that what you do will have unavoidable consequences.

Lot's of ways to do that, which I'll regale you with in my next posting.  Right now, I just want to introduce you to the idea that calculating numbers to match numbers of your party is a bad idea.  Where's the challenge?  Do the players really feel like they could lose if they don't employ some thinking on their part?  Use tactics?  Terrain to their advantage?  Role play to bring in elements of the game that otherwise might not play a factor?

A common reward for "role play" is mechanical.  The staple bonus experience.  Woohoo!  I'm down on it here, not because its a bad idea when used discretely, but because its used like a blanket.  Role play should be the focus of the game not its compliment.  It should drive the game not the other way around.

An easy way to do this is to switch from thinking of encounters to conflicts.  Plot your game in story conflicts instead of game encounters.  Its not 10 goblins in the woods but grug and his nine brothers.  10 goblins might be a raiding party on the local town but grug and his brothers are out for vengeance for their sister who was trampled by a passing cavalry unit belonging to the nearby town.  Our story conflict now has dimensions that can be role played and is not doomed to a mechanical rolling of dice to determine who has the larger numbers.  Skip beyond tossing your sausage on the table and saying its the biggest.  Players are typically winners in this type of contest because the game is biased in their favor (most games; generalizing, even though I know its wrong).

Our players, meeting grug and his kin, have a chance to role play.  Spying them from afar, their choices to meet the conflict change from just setting up an ambush, avoiding them, or plain old attacking.  It becomes a chance to entreat with them, to be generous and offer them a chance to explain; meet them honorable and talk, man-to-goblin or any number of other chances.

Think in conflicts.  Disregard numbers and throw out something that seems impossible to overcome.  Make your players choose to avoid it since it seems so daunting.  Or better, they engage and get overwhelmed and have a chance to retreat and lick their wounds.  Will they be daunted or motivated to overcome?  Feel threatened since they almost lost their character?  Get stronger to beat them or slink away to fight something, muttering that the GM is a meanie?

Try to evenly match your conflict with your players and they'll never have that chance to find out.  They'll stay the same and suffer the peril of all video games: boredom.  Endless leveling and numberless piles of treasure later they still be searching for what they can't find but realize on some level that is lacking: a challenge.

Throw them a mountain they overcome.  Make them run from a greater opponent.  Scare them with a permanent death.  Threaten them.  Lie.  Challenge them with conflicts to their weak points and make them grow.

Introduction

For some time now I've been meaning to put together my documentation on table top gaming.

Well, its time.

Waiting any more seems silly, all things considering.  I was wracking my brain trying to figure out the best way to do it when I just should have been doing it.  After all, what's easier than a blog?

So, here we go.  Post number one stating my intentions.  An objective, if you will.

Oh, and I'm thinking unique here.  Unusual.  Not a blog out "how to make an awesome character" or "what the latest release is from 'X' company".  Or, even "how to build a better mousetrap".

No, I'm thinking more along the lines of "how to do something super awesome cool with gaming".  How its a part of life and humor and without it you are missing a piece of your soul that you don't even know is missing.

Don't believe me?

Hang around and find out.