Game Master Guidance: Have Some Kind of Plan

While my first article advised against game masters having too concrete of a plan, it's equally disastrous to go in without any sort of preparation. Certain roleplaying game systems, primarily storytelling ones, are entirely reliant on improvisation and written as such. But more traditional systems are written under the assumption that you have larger plan in mind. Even the best game masters are going to need something planned, as the players are likely to notice if they’re just making it up as they go along. Outside of systems and games where that’s the point, that level of improvisation will sink any hope of building an in-depth or serious narrative. The question is, what should your plan look like?

First off have it at least partially written down. It’s easy to forget your ideas in between managing the players and shuffling books around. However, these notes should look more like a power point than a movie script. Make quick summaries of important characters' appearances and personalities. Resist the urge to write down specific lines for them, as the players will likely notice the difference between scripted dialogue and off the cuff responses.

Game Master Guidance: Adding to Your Armory

There’s a temptation to start adding your own weapons to a roleplaying game system, regardless of which side of the table you’re sitting on. In a well-crafted system, this might throw off its carefully implemented balance. In a poorly-made system, such additions might be necessary just to enjoy it. Alternatively, someone might be trying to exploit the system through their creation, at the expense of everyone else. That sort of behavior needs to be stamped out early on, as soon enough only that player will be enjoying the game. On the game master end of the spectrum, adding weaponry might be more understandable. There’s only so much an RPG book can contain, so it could very easily be lacking the weapons of war you envisioned your adversaries wielding. Alternatively, you might decide to distinguish an encounter or a whole session with a new element, something that even seasoned players won’t expect. Regardless of how complex your preferred system’s gear might be, I’d advise keeping your additions limited.

Before going on, it’s important to establish the role equipment plays in most popular RPGs. As the majority of Roleplaying Games are combat driven, weapons, armor, and similar items are unsurprisingly a huge component of the medium. For many people, how good the gear the system provides will make or break it for them. Science fiction and fantasy games have a particular obligation to provide exciting toys for the GM and players to mess around with.

Game Master Guidance: The Characters Have Five Senses- Possibly More

How you present the world and its contents to the players is one of the most important parts of being a Game Master. Besides understanding the actual plot and circumstances, the players’ sense of immersion rests on the details you present them. There’s such a thing as too much information, so it’s best to be conservative with your descriptions. Less is more, as they say. But the question is, what sort of information you should prioritize? A quick, profound way to define a scene is to provide sensory information.

Of course you’re going to describe what the characters see, that’s almost a given. But it’s easy to get so caught up in the visuals that you forget the rest. While it is important, it shouldn’t necessarily take priority. If you watch a movie, notice how much sound is used in place of actual imagery. What is implied can be just as, if not more effective than what is shown. Even if you’re just establishing what an area looks like, consider if there's any ambient noise. Do the characters hear an industrial hum, howling wind, dripping water, or the skittering footsteps of vermin? Sound can be a vital component in selling a scene to your players.

Game Master Guidance: A Map to Adventure or a Road to Nowhere?

Maps are just one of the many points of contention in the RPG community. Depending on who you ask, they’re either vital, a hindrance, or anything in between. Like most things discussed in this column, it really comes down to your personal approach. That being said, I question how necessary maps actually are. Most aspects of roleplaying happen in the minds of the GM and players anyway, so why even bother with them at all? One of my major issues with maps is that they end up being too distracting. They slowly pull the game away from the player’s imagination and trap it within the more easily quantifiable, less exciting confines of the map. I’ve also found that they just complicate combat, as it makes the player analyze the situation a little more than they should. There’s a reason one of the major points of criticism directed at Dungeons & Dragons 4^th edition stems from its perceived overreliance on maps. I just don’t think maps are a good fit with RPGs. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have their place.

The games I run end up prioritizing the narrative and social elements over the mechanics of the system. But I acknowledge every GM runs their game differently and it depends a lot on the system used. Even if I find maps to be cumbersome, a more gameplay minded groups might find them to be a necessity. They might end up needing the rigid, easily identified boundaries offered by a map. Admittedly, I find my players frequently asking for maps.

Game Master Guidance: The Curse of the GMPC

The "Game Master Player Character," or GMPC for short, is a roleplaying game faux pas rivaled only by railroading in most circles. While the game master has control of their campaign's world, they still exist apart from the party and their interactions. While a good GM will offer a cast of developed characters, these figures will almost never have the prominence of the player characters. In comes the GMPC, an apparent solution to the issue. The term has come to mean a number of different things but generally it’s a character the GM inserts into the party. On paper this might sound fine but those with first hand experience know better. The GMPC will often end up dominating the plot, pulling the story out from underneath the players’ feet and putting it solely in the GMs control.

More than the story can fall victim to a GMPC. These characters will often be created with the same rules used by the players, for the sake of fairness. What this really means is that the GMPC has all the complexity of a regular PC. Aside from bogging down combat, they’ll get advantages regular players won’t, on account of being controlled by who dictates the dice.

Game Master Guidance: Where Have All the Traps Gone?

Previously a hallmark of adventure-centric media, traps have become something of an anachronism. Movies, TV Shows, and books no long feature the death dealing contraptions that once targeted their protagonists. Even the last James Bond film lacked anything close to the iconic traps that filled previous installments. Admittedly there are always exceptions to this. But typically they center entirely around the concept, like Saw or the soon to be released, fad chasing Escape Room. The last holdout is video games but even then they're presented as a challenge to the player rather than an actual threat in the narrative. Role-playing Games are among the mediums that have largely turned their backs on traps.

Previously, traps were a big deal in RPGs. Open up an older rulebook and there’s a good chance it’ll have a section, if not a whole chapter on different traps for game masters to throw at their players. They were a hallmark of dungeon-centric games in particular, forcing characters to survive not just the area’s occupants but the environment itself. But traps have been slowly de-emphasized over the years. Now, rules for them will be consigned to a supplement, if they show up at all.

Game Master Guidance: Going Off the Rails and Embracing it

Role-playing games offer a nearly unrivaled level of interactivity. Most forms of storytelling have their narratives unfold in rigid paths that are observed by its audience. Even the most immersive video games can only offer the player a small set of predetermined options. Meanwhile, the only real limits in an RPG are set by the dungeon master, game master, or whatever term the system in question uses. Even the boundaries established by the system are only as restrictive as they are permitted to be by the group. However, the GM isn’t some kind of messianic god even in their own game. At least, not in a fun game. Regardless of how meticulously made their plans are, that narrative has to be enacted by the players first. And the players will always have different ideas from the GM, regardless of their preferred style of storytelling.

The whim of the dice can be quietly altered by a GM, if they're subtle enough, but the whim of the players is much more resilient. If you need them to be trapped in a building, they’ll hurl themselves out a window to escape. Confront them with a jungle full of foes, they’ll try to burn it down. Their general orders them to head to a fortress world, they’ll insist on stopping by a nearby frontier world first. Many GMs first instinct is to outright tell the player “no,” for the sake of their story.