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.
This will break their immersion and stutter the pacing of the game. However, you should write out important descriptions, as these read differently from dialogue anyway. Even then, resist the urge to describe every little thing, as that will end up boring or overwhelming the player.

Characters and locales are one thing but the actual plot is a different matter. A good rule of thumb is that if you offer a plot thread to the players, have some idea of where it goes. Once again, these should be loose notes so that you’re not stuck with pages of useless information if things don’t go as planned (because they won’t). If the players concoct their own plot thread or you simply find yourself at a dead end, don’t drop it outright. Offer some sort of resolution so it doesn’t feel like a waste of time and figure out a way to transition it into a story you actually want to tell.

You should still employ this approach even if you have a more rigid story in mind, or the players just need a certain level of structure. Write out a general list of events that must happen for the plot to happen along with the major entities and their motivations. The major antagonist should be the most developed, as they are responsible for the story’s events or at the very least, the players’ involvement in them. Make sure to give the players a compelling reason to follow along with the story. World ending, existential threats are the easiest to employ but even that should have some reason to get emotionally invested. You don’t need to immediately figure this out but observe what catches the players’ interests and use that to get them to care about the narrative and the consequences of their actions. Unlike nearly every other medium, in RPGs you can adapt the narrative to meet the audience’s needs and wants as it’s being told.

 

But no matter what, keep it loose. As I’ve previously said, allow for digressions but figure out ways to relate them back to the main plot. The fireworks festival in Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring might not seem vital to the heroes' efforts in stopping Sauron. But it establishes the hobbits, Gandalf, where they live, and what they hold dear. It also ends with the wizard discovering the presence of the ring from Bilbo using the relic to aid his abrupt goodbye. This ending connects it to the overarching plot of the trilogy. Similarly, you need to give the players room to develop their characters and get intimate with the world(s) they inhabit. This will create a more meaningful and engaging narrative than just mindlessly carting the players around from battle to battle.

You should never show up to a session unprepared. But barring extreme circumstances, you shouldn’t be bringing more a few pages of bullet points, short blurbs, and key words. You can have a twenty page document detailing the background, cast, and items in play but that should exist to give you context. If you’re bringing that to the table, something’s gone wrong. You have to strike the balance between giving the players agency but ensuring your story still gets to unfold. A meticulously made, rigid “script” just won’t have the room for that sort of collaboration. Plan out the story in broad strokes, with the knowledge that your players might find some way to completely upend it, usually unknowingly. When you show up to GM a session, be ready with a plan but also be ready for the players to contribute to it.