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.