@Cobalt said in Tips for GMs:
@bear_necessities said in Tips for GMs:
@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.
I know this is a few days ago, but this irks me so bad. It is why in the last few years that I was GMing for people, I instituted a rule that if you had not posed after 5-10 minutes when it was your run and not responded OOC your turn would be skipped.
But scenes moving so slowly that I’d lose all focus on them, is a big reason why I stopped GMing and RPing altogether.
To help with that, I try to make sure the beginning of a major event is “on rails,” like a guided tour. That is, everyone has 10 - 15 minutes to post before the next thing happens (NPC does a thing, everyone move to the next room, etc.). Everyone sticks together until the beginning is finished, and then you’re set free to go wherever you’d like, RP about the situation, take actions, etc.
Having a beginning prepared in advance helps to strike a balance between player agency and moving things along.
Unrelated: if someone wants to do something that’s beyond what you’re capable of handling, such as using everyday household objects to make war crime weapons in your My Little Pony game, you’re allowed to say, “I’m sorry, we don’t have support for handling that type of RP in this game. It’s outside the scope of the game’s theme.”
Somewhat related: Be prepared for mediating players’ interpersonal issues in a calm and helpful manner. That includes banning, if necessary. Unless you have a positive reputation from past games, you need to understand that players are usually entering your game with zero trust of staff. The odds that a player has been burned by staff in the past is very high. So be keenly aware that you are the one who needs to earn their trust. Not the other way around.
Also unrelated: Give your players things to do in their downtime. PRPs, RP about current events, take actions leading up to the next event, and optional scenes that produce tangible results are great for player engagement. Things like, “Make some clothes for the donation bin; we’re low on shoes,” or “The cows can be milked once a month to improve our town’s reputation,” or “The camp needs 20 pounds of wood to repair structures and 20 pounds of boar meat to survive the month in a healthy state,” can motivate players to do optional scenes in between major events.
And it helps to fill in the four levels of player engagement:
Metaplot: The reason why everything is happening. You’ll barely touch this, but it’s important to write down. You can drop little lore nuggets at the end of every chapter as a reward, but your players won’t directly interact with the metaplot.
Chapter / season plot: These are the major plots that take months to resolve. They’re the backdrop to what’s happening in the story right now. These are the ones that are resolved over the course of multiple major scenes, as well as player actions over time. When a chapter plot resolves, it should usually cause a major dynamic shift in how the players RP, and what they RP about. For example, the PCs successfully opened the door to Twinkle Town, and now scenes are possible there, but it’s a very dangerous place to explore. The next season may be about making Twinkle Town a safe place to live as their homes on the Tiny Islands collapse.
Episodic plot: Your “monster of the week” plot. These are the small steps forward in the Chapter Plot. They could also be unrelated to the chapter plot, too. Not everything that happens needs to end with a TV displaying Moriarty’s laughing face.
Day-to-day plots: These are the things your players will be doing during their downtime, which I explained above. This is the most common type of RP that happens, so it’s really important to facilitate it however the players wish. They should be instantly accessible, either through guidelines or through automation (pre-written rules about rolling dice, adding code if that’s an option, etc.).
Write down the metaplot, at least 3 chapter plots, at least 3 episodic plots per chapter, and at least 5 day-to-day plots. Now you’ve got a plan for keeping your players engaged for at least a year.
Building a game is the easy part. Keeping it going for years is the real challenge.
And on that note, it’s okay to have an ending in mind! You don’t have to run your game forever. A satisfying conclusion will be far more memorable than a game that just fizzles out due to lack of engagement. And, as a counter-point, it’s also okay to say that the game isn’t going in a direction you can handle, and wrap it up for the players. Sometimes experiments don’t work out, and that’s okay.
