Key Our Cars

I’ve seen a couple of tweets on the subject and thought I’d ramble a bit more on the subject.  I’ve done it in various veins before here and here with some mechanical ways to speed things up here but those are primarily with 4th edition mechanics.

This time let’s focus on a non-system, non-genre post intended to help anyone who’s going into the storyteller seat whether it’s Heroes or GURPS or Vampire or Top Secret or Warhammer FRP or FUDGE or… you get the point I’m sure.

If you’re wanting to know how to be a good or at least competent game leader (whatever the title might be) here’s some things that I’ve come to believe over the course of my gaming history that might help you.

• Know your material
• Do your prep work
• Keep things moving
• Be descriptive
• Give each player focus
• Don’t bog down
• Keep things moving (yes it’s important enough to list twice).
• Play to your players
• Get rid of distractions
• I am your father

Know your material – Know the adventure you have planned.  YOu don’t have to know it forwards and backwards but be familiar with it.  Have some idea where a creature might run for reinforcements if things go bad for him. Â  Have an idea of the capabilities of the obstacles that the players will face.  Is there an obvious synergy between some of the forces you have arrayed against the players?  If not an obvious one then try to figure out one. The start of the game should NOT be the first time you crack open the module if you’re using something you didn’t design.  Know the basics of your gaming system, again you don’t have to know every in and out but have a basic understanding of the game.

Do your prep work – Have cheat sheets (you can find them all over the place including this site) for the information you’re going to need all the time during the session.  Reduce the “Steve what’s your _____?” and “Does a 16 hit?” type questions to a minimum.  Make handouts of any ‘notes’ or clues the players might find so you don’t have to hold up game play to slowly read things out while a player writes it down.  Make loot lists on postit notes so again you can simply hand the note to the party leader and not have to wait for the party scribe to note everything down.  Yes this is more work for you but it’s work you can do in your down time aka non-game time.  Which brings us to…

Keep things moving – Don’t have long pauses of silence from you unless you’re listening to your players.  I HIGHLY recommend you listen to the various podcasts out there, RPGMP3, WOTC’s Penny Arcade, Gamer’s Haven etc.  Listen to them in the car or while you’re spacing out at your desk or before you go to sleep.  Take notes of when things slow down.  Inevitably it’s when the DM is reading his material, or looking something up or is just distracted.

Be descriptive – You shouldn’t go, “the goblin rolled a 13 and his damage is 2d6 and you take… 8 damage.”  Use something like “Iowna the goblin stabs you in the thigh with its none-too-clean javelin all the while yelling taunts at you in goblin most of which seem to be describing how unappealing looking you are.  Take 8 damage.”  Be descriptive, even if it’s the 8th office the agents have searched, add a little something, “Apparently Ms. Jenkins the CFO likes her pron because the screen saver on her workstation has a all nude chippendale’s slide show going on it.  A quick search though and you’re pretty sure the datavault is not in here. “  Give descriptors on the smells, the sounds, the visuals of the areas, the objects in them.  Paint a picture through the character’s senses for the players to be drawn into what they’re going through.

Give each player focus – Each turn focus on one player and draw them out about what they’re doing, get them to describe their attack or action in something more than “Does a 19 work for you?”.  Instead try to train your players over time to instead think more along the lines of “I parry the bastard’s blade and then try and gut him for what he did to the healer.” Don’t do it in strict order but more or less randomly but get the players involved.  And to do that you need to know your material so you’re not pre-occupied with trying to figure out what your guys are doing. The third installment of the Penny Arcade podcasts are a good example of Scott Kurtz seemingly to finally ‘get it’ or at least able to pretend to get it.  The interaction between Binwin and the boss Dwarf about Binwin’s ancestry/clans is awesome.  You want that from your players.

Don’t bog down – This is a sneaky way to reiterate keep things moving. Don’t let yourself or a player bog the game down for minutes long stretches.  If you don’t know a DC just use level + 5/10/15 for easy, medium, hard.  Hand wave the crap out of the game rather than let momentum die because someone spent 15 minutes trying to find some rule. Â  Either give it to them or don’t give it to them and just make a note to look up the real rule later.  This really a subset of Know your material but important enough to bring up individually I think.   Momentum keeps players involved and interested.  And interested players are what the whole point of being there playing these games is about.

Play to your players – It doesn’t matter if you spent hours and hours planning out an awesome murder mystery campaign.  If your players want a hack and slash campaign you’re screwed.  Go with it and give them their hack and slash.  You can’t fit square pegs in round holes. Â  If they’re playing some scenario they don’t want to they’re not going to be interested and uninterested players = epic session fail.  You can’t force a horse to drink and you can’t force players to enjoy something they’re not intersested in.  You need to be upfront though as to your limits.  I refuse to run evil campaigns for example and I refuse to allow evil alignment as I’ve yet to seem them used as anything other than chaotic psychopath justifications.  If you have limitations like this you just have to let them be known up front so everyone doesn’t waste their time.

Get rid of distractions – Turn off the electronics.  Cell phones, smart phones, pda’s, laptops, televisions, radios, turn all that crap off.  Put the pets outside or another room with door closed.  Get rid paperbacks and puzzle books.  Flat out tell people, either you’re here to play this game or you here to text, read, do sudoko or surf the web.  If it’s the latter there’s not point in us trying this. If you want music then use CD’s or MP3′s, commercials are distractions, distractions bog down game play and that leads to disinterest.

I am your father – Like it or not as the DM the role of parent typically falls to you in most groups.  It’s usually your task to keep people focused on the task at hand but you also have to allow them their dick tuna times as well.  Chris Perkins I think does a pretty good job of this, letting the players derail everything and then smoothly gets it all back on track again for the most part.  You’ll typically be the arbiter of “I don’t like how Bill is such a loot whore.” and “Steve keeps running off by himself.”  Just use your best effort in these situations.  Worst case you have to get rid of a player.  Worst worst case is you can’t get rid of a player for various social reasons and you have to quit playing.  Been there done that and it sucks.

These are a few observations I’ve made over the last 28 years of being a DM/GM in more systems than I can remember.  They might be nothing but ass or they might help you out, you’ll be the final arbiter there. If they do help then awesome.

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