GM Advice

Hey guys!

So I'm staring down the barrel of (roughly) a week's straight travelling until I'm back home and back on the boards, sadly. But in the meantime, I was reading the MHRP thread (<3) and the following thoughts struck me:

• Man, that campaign looks great fun.
• Come to think of it, all the external game logs people post here look awesome.
• ...there have been some pretty incredible plots and campaigns run on here, too.
• Man, there are a lot of great GMs on this site.
• I've got a few plots I'd like to run, and I'd like to run them well.
• Maybe I could ask ask other CDNers for advice?

Hence this thread - the GM Advice Thread!

Got any hints for prospective GMs like myself? Please post it here!

Whether it's about pacing, mission/challenge design or literally anything else, share the wisdom. Because after all, the better a GM everyone is, the more fun RPing here will be, for both readers and players.

THE PLAYER IS THE ENEMY

One of my favorite bits of advice is to embellish everything. As I’m sure people have noticed from my Reapers games, players get a lot more engaged to the game in question when you’re willing to go the extra mile and show them the world you’ve created for them in vivid detail. It also helps a lot when you’re DMing a game where everyone’s rolling badly, or you’re using mechanics people are still trying to get the hang of – hearing about how the enemy’s sword is so overcompensatingly enormous that it blocks a hail of arrows is far more entertaining than just hearing the word “misssssss” or “well, it was a nice try” a lot. Go the extra mile in describing the game to your players, and they’ll bring their own memorable lines to the table.

Second rule? Rules are there to service the game, not the other way around. If you or your players become big-ass grognards and forcibly use the rules at expense of the story, you are doing something wring. Don't be afraid to houserule, and if the game stops for half an hour for you to argue interpretations of a rule with a player, it's time to reassess.

No.

I'm definitely with Spiza on the issue of descriptions. Nothing makes a game less entertaining than just leaving it up to your players to imagine what a number means. Same goes for crazy good successes. If you tell your player, "Oh you just got a nat 20, critical hit," they'll be excited. For a little while. It loses it's charm though. On the other hand tell your player that they just dived down from on high and hit the three story monster so hard that it exploded into an incandescent cloud of gore and sent a shockwave up that ripped down a building or two? They're gonna love you for that.

The other piece of advice is much less pleasant, but in my experience just as necessary. When you GM a game your number 1 goal is that you and as many of your players as possible have fun. There will of course be sessions where someone gets annoyed. It's almost inevitable. But if you have one player who consistently makes the experience less enjoyable for fellow players, do not be afraid to warn, punish, and in the last extreme, kick them. The goal is to make the game as fun as possible for everyone. You're not just the storyteller and you're not just the arbiter of the game's rules, you're responsible for creating a fun experience and a fun environment. If one player is making that environment miserable for everyone else, they gotta go. Kicking players isn't comfortable but sometimes you need to do it anyway. If your players are complaining about someone, consider what they're telling you and what people's behavior has been like in the past.

Here're my words of advice;

Don't let the rules get in the way of fun.

Seriously, if the rules are bogged down in minutia about who's standing where and how tall this is to hit and bonuses and urg urg urg urg, FUCK 'EM. I'm not going to spend an hour looking up body facing rules for an attack, and your players shouldn't expect you to, either.

Describe shit.

Like Spiza said, it's more awesome when you describe how that head flies into the air when you cleave it off. Granted, it's easy to forget that in the middle of combat - and against 100 goblins or so, I'd say skip it - but for big, important battles or one-on-one/evenly matched fights? Go nuts with it.

This is your chance to be Michael Moorcock. Go nuts.

Also, the best part about any game is being able to go description porn on what a place looks like. We need help visualizing it, and that's where the fun is. For example;

"You awaken to yet another cold, snow-frosted morning in Skorvicholm, the capital city of Skorvia. As you look out the window, you see the grey, cobblestoned-streets being sweeped clean by the servitor undead the city uses, their bones ivory against the sugar of the snow. Numerous nobles hustle around from their buildings to the main palace, rolls of paper and leather pouches in their heavily bundled arms, desperate to talk to the king about their piddling requests. Meanwhile, the guard - armored black with closed-visor helmets, so you know not if the man behind the helm is alive or dead - patrol the streets, keepin a stauch eye out for chaos and lawbreakers in this harsh northern city. As you step out of bed, you wish again that Skorvia's national character allowed for internal heating; as such, you will have to make do with a warm cup of cider and whatever's on the inn's skillet for breakfast."

Is better than;

"You wake up in Skorvicholm. It's cold outside, and there are nobles running around with papers and stuff. And there's a skeleton or two, like, magical skeletons sweeping the ground. It's cold, did I mention that? And there are guards. But, not like normal guards, like DEAD guards."

Just don't overdo it, and leave huge setpieces like that for either the beginning of a game or important settings (The king's throneroom, the Black Crypt of Irr, the secret basement of the insane halfling serial killer, the Pleasure Harems of Lady Succuboso, etc.)

I'll echo everyone above and add a bit of my own.

Don't be afraid to say yes.

Sometimes players come up with the silliest of plans or come up with things you've never thought of and it will take you off the set plan you had for the session. Your first gut instinct will be to shoot it down or to try to force it onto something else. Try to adapt, and enjoy innovation.

Don't be afraid to say no.

At the same time as above, remember you are the GM. Typically this will be in relation to certain mechanical choices or other OOC rule choices. Remember that in the end, you are the final arbitrator of what is and isn't allowed in your game. If you find that someone is abusing the rules to create a character that you can't plan for, say no.

Hold things back

While the player isn't your enemy, remember that you are attempting to control the mood of the game or session. You have your plot, but you don't need to reveal it all at once. Rather than outright saying that the butcher is the murderer, let them discover the hanging meat in his shop that isn't from any livestock out there. Let them discover his bloodstained clothing. His insane rambling love notes for his target. Etc.


... Went a little far with that example.

But ultimately, remember that you are GMing to have fun, and your players are playing to have fun. If you can get a good group to play with, games you're in can be really fun and will be for times to come no matter the system you use.

Seriously- The player isn't the enemy.

Be prepared for savvy players, is all I really have to offer.

From memory a few pitfalls I saw new GMs fall in :

Let the players fuck up your game (if they deserve it)
If your players are any good (or lucky) sooner or later they'll do something completely unexpected that eats up most of the scenario you had planned. Your first urge will be to negate that and put it back on track. Fight it. You need to let the players know they scored some point and find another way to keep the story going. Maybe they'll get some new hidden challenge that will net them a bigger win. Or the enemy will adapt, but the players should know that they made his life more complicated.
For instance that one time I introduced a character to my Mage players. The character was a sweet old man with very useful talismans that would give a hand whenever the players needed them. He was actually super evil and was planning to slowly steer them and get their trust.
As soon as they met him they immediately disliked him and saw right through him. I never knew why, they just told me "meh, he doesn't feel right".
So the next day his plans were scrapped, his shop vacated, and he started working on new ways to influence my PCs for whom he now had a newfound respect.

Validate your players' actions
It's kind of the continuation of my previous point. I've seen GM kind of ignore their PC's antics, have every NPC treat the PC's crazyness with just a shrug. That's not good because the PCs don't feel like they have an impact on the game's world. It doesn't mean either that whatever they do you should have everyone react as they want like an overcomplimenting mother. If they're being stupid, the universe should act accordingly.

Avoid that super impressive NPC that's so cool and not a self insert you guys
It's pretty common for young GMs to try to impress the PCs with a badass NPC. Well done you get fanboys PCs, but most of the time they'll react negatively because hey, it's their show. So if they try to take your NPC down a peg don't overprotect it. You can make it hard however, and thus satisfying one they become again the coolest kids on the block.

...Most of my advice that hasn't already been said is about knowing when to quit.

If you're so sick/fatigued/doped up with painkillers/etc that you can't think straight, don't try to run a game. And if you're regularly cancelling games because of the above, it's time to find a co-GM. Same with if your game starts stressing you out worse than (or even as bad as) your RL.

And on the other side: GMing is a responsibility; if you find yourself getting bored or wearing out, and you can't find anyone to share GM duties with, try to bring your players to some sort of resolution.

Basically: You're plot, they're characters, and the two together will take a story in directions nobody can foresee.

Really gonna stress on Sica's point. There's a point when quitting is the best thing for everyone, and don't guilt yourself into dragging things out if continuing, for whatever reason, the game stops becoming fun.

Because that's the biggest point I have to make: It's a game. It's supposed to be fun. If you aren't having fun, it stops becoming a game. That doesn't just go for players, but for you as well.

Don't be afraid to improvise. Your original plot will change. Your players will surprise you, and your plots will be derailed. Go with it, work with what they give you. You know the setting better than they do (or should), so if they decide not to go to the Tavern of Plots, go ahead and turn the brothel they did go to into a plot hook instead.

...And feel free to set the mood for the players. Background music, lighting, voice acting, etc - you don't need to be a LARPer to go beyond the table.

Ho yes absolutely! You'd be amazed at how a well prepared soundtrack will turn a game into undiluted epic! Between all the cool games/movies/serials/animes soundtracks we have now, it's hard not to find what you need.