Tips for GMs
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All of our games are, at their core, improvisational dramas. A given GM/ST may have a general idea of how they would like plot events to go and the players have a vision for how their characters would mold those events. In that regard, my tip is to resist the urge to force events in the direction you want, especially when your players are throwing amazing ideas into the narrative. Don’t be afraid to take a tip from stage improv and say “Yes, and” when a player attempts to inject their own ideas into the narrative. Use what they give you to evolve the event into something more, and give their character agency in the game world. Do this even if it means admitting that the players came up with a faster solution to a problem you’ve presented.
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One of the biggest things that frustrate me from a player perspective is not being informed of the space I am in. I love to interact with things, but if I don’t know what’s around me to interact with? It’s a problem. I need to be able to visualize where I am at in order to RP and have fun.
Which leads me to, give me things to interact with. Don’t tell me the story, let me play with it. But also this goes for players… please actually interact with the setting? If there’s a cake there, eat the cake. Don’t just look at the cake or act like the cake doesn’t exist. Do something with the cake!!
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Events and scenes don’t always have to be huge affairs. It’s okay to limit the number of people or break a huge event into different areas or parts so it’s more manageable for not only the GM/ST but also the players. As someone who finds it harder to focus when scenes become 6+, half of my energy is spent on worrying that I may have accidentally missed someone in my pose. Also, I’m afraid of dragging down the pace having to respond to 7 other poses as well.
Which leads to my second item, pacing. Try to keep the scene moving, even if you have to be a bit direct. Some may disagree but if each round is taking one hour to run, then there is less opportunities for players to act or react because people get tired after a few hours.
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@KDraygo said in Tips for GMs:
Try to keep the scene moving,
Please. Please keep things moving. I’ve been in GM’d scenes where we haven’t even finished “posing in” and have already hit the 1 hour mark.
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Please try to keep a consistent emotional tone throughout the plot. Otherwise, we get these bizarre scenarios where the forces of hell are massing at the gates, but our heroes are all taking the afternoon to attend a “cuddle a baby lamb tea party” or whatever. It is jarring and detracts from the emotional richness of the wider story to inject pointless bathos for comic relief.
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@Pacha said in Tips for GMs:
Please try to keep a consistent emotional tone throughout the plot.
I would go one step further and say “Please try and be responsible with emotional shifts in the plot.” The emotional tone of the plot changing is fine, but when it rollercoasters seventeen times in a single scene, that’s just too jarring.
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Be flexible. Don’t look for reasons to say no to player ideas. Look for ways to make their ideas work within the mechanics of your game world.
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Play with your players, not at them. If there’s a big speech where there won’t be any opportunity to interact with it? Make it a post, not a scene. Don’t make players pose “sits still and listens quietly” for three rounds, and don’t make them talk “through” a big important speech just to have some interactivity with each other.
It’s perfectly legit to have a big post/scene-set of a speech or first dance or whatever can’t be interrupted, and then have the actual scene be everyone reacting to it.
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Chekhov’s Gun: Don’t put things in the scene that aren’t there for players to react to.
I know it’s a writing hobby, and sometimes we’re trying to establish a mood so we’re including evocative details, but if you mention that this obsidian cave is carved with ancient runes, has a brazier spewing purple flames, smells faintly of candied apples, and I can hear an old woman singing from the mouth of an adjacent tunnel, all of those elements should be open for some sort of follow-up.
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@KarmaBum said in Tips for GMs:
I know it’s a writing hobby, and sometimes we’re trying to establish a mood so we’re including evocative details, but if you mention that this obsidian cave is carved with ancient runes, has a brazier spewing purple flames, smells faintly of candied apples, and I can hear an old woman singing from the mouth of an adjacent tunnel, all of those elements should be open for some sort of follow-up.
You can even cheat in this scenario and have all of them be open to the same follow up of “You realize as you investigate further that this entire cave, this entire space, is entirely illusion.”
