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!