Sunday Salutations and Being the Game Master!
For all those RPG players out there in cyberworld, I have now officially joined the ranks for someone that has been a Game Master (GM) for at least one game.
Our Traveller group has been running one-shots this month since at least one player each weekend was going to be traveling or otherwise out of town. This also gives our regular GM a chance to play. Our group was a random internet pickup group from a Traveller forum, but four of us including the GM are from the original group about a year ago (Daz, Faust, Tod and me). Everyone in the group but me had been a GM before. So, of course, it was decided that I should give it a try.
I decided I wanted to run a fantasy one-shot setting and tried to use a premade module. Tod spent a lot of time looking at and for modules for me because he is awesome. But I don’t know if it is the creative or the crazy in me that, after he went through all that effort by my request, I ended up changing the module anyway.
Running a game was fun and different from writing stories. I got to experience planning and speaking on the fly. Speaking on the fly is something that I struggle with, but it is very helpful to practice for when I am writing or dictating a story.
My set up ended up being more of a nice dungeon crawl with strange little asides, but everyone had fun. Our regular GM (Faust) to my horror recorded the WHOLE 4-hour adventure session and told me after that I should listen to it to learn. I have not gotten the nerve to listen to it…
He also suggested I run a Christmas Special, since I said there was no way I would do something like that more often than once every 4 months, because (wow) it takes a lot of preparation even with Tod helping me out so much, which he did like the amazing husband he is. I do have a second map prepped, so maybe the prep would be less, but we will see.
(Anna should definitely run another session of this. The timing worked out perfectly to run the session a little longer – 5 hours – and stop after the battle with the big baddie. But we have not finished the adventure yet. We still have unresolved mission goals! -The Tod)
So, the point of this post was actually supposed to be about what I learned as a first time GM. Beside that I am incredibly grateful to not be the GM and just be a player.
Feedback from the Players after the Game
Tactical
1. If I need, when I have larger groups of NPCs, I can do initiative as groups, to make tracking less onerous. (Daz and The Tod both suggested this, not knowing the other suggested it. So, I guess that makes it my top comment! Woot!)
2. Once you know a player has used all of his available actions, end his turn and cut immediately to the next person. This adds up and saves a lot of time. As part of this, once one player is done, immediately call the next player. People generally don’t track when their turn is. (From Faust).
3. Using the individual initiative like I did, as per the rules, adds to the tactical landscape. That combined with players being allowed to delay their turn adds a lot to the tactical experience. (From Daz – I’m counting this as positive feedback!)
4. GM more. I was surprised at how long the combat was taking. Outside of Traveller, I have most often played our homebrew, which is designed for quick combat. But the point being, as I GM more, I’ll be able to judge how long an adventure will take to create satisfying sessions by intention, as well as by lucking out in the timing. (From Faust).
5. Continue to prepare full adventures. Even if I need to split them up, having them prepared lets me work on it more over time, and to be prepared, instead of scrambling the day before. (From Faust).
World Building and Role Playing the NPCs
1. You are the world. It has as much life as you give it, so details of people going about their lives, or the state of things helps a lot. In this case, I did have a goblin in the privies interrupted by the party… Not sure that was what was intended by the feedback. (From Faust).
2. Don’t try to do two things at once. The players will focus on one and ignore the other. This refers to the introduction section I did. I tried to do two or three things at once, to get to the dungeon crawl sooner. I had the player get the setup info (which worked fine), but then I had them talking to the stores master, who also had the survivor of the previous mission if the players wanted to talk to him. Gear turns out to be more important to players doing a one shot. (From The Tod)
3. Prepare early and often. Planned sessions get better with age. When making a session write it out, set it aside and then add to it little by little over time, before running it. (From Faust)
And maybe most importantly…
Relax! Nothing ever really goes exactly as you plan for it to. As long as people are having fun, you’re golden. Just be ready and willing to tell people no and keep things within the realm of your game. (From Faust).
(I changed where Anna had “Our normal GM” to “Our regular GM”. I’m pretty sure, and it’s a compliment, none of us are normal. -The Tod)
Other things I learned
AKA the self-critique I did after the fact. Which Daz told me I was really good at self-critiquing. (So. Yay!)
1. Record the Plan – I need to write more than a two or three word note about what I changed in a premade module. This way leads to madness, as I don’t remember what the notes mean and therefore become incoherent. Or I just ignore the notes all together and go full steam ahead: GM discovery mode activated. GM discovery mode level 0. Screech! Crash!
2. Making Them Real – Prep talking NPCs with more than job descriptions and the information they will impart — AKA they should have a personality. (Reminder: we have a table from this that you helped me make for our homebrew. -The Tod)
3. Fresh Review – Review the notes the day before and right before the game. If using a premade module read the module again the day before you run it. If you are making changes to it, write those changes down, using more than shorthand notes…
4. Over Prepare – There will usually be one player that does stuff late. Premake an extra character sheet and help them fill it out.
5. Go with the flow – Roll with the characters doing random stuff. That is usually where the most fun is to be had anyway. I think I did this part very well because – ummm – they had some… interesting ideas. (Anna did this wonderfully. One character was self-important and spouted demands at the beginning of each encounter. I had my character take a swing at this. He added his own demands too. And then, we had that same self-important character give the same demands through a spy-eye to the big baddie. Who Anna had come and fight us, unexpectedly. In the middle of another battle. With perfect timing to end the session. -The Tod)
Virtual Tabletop suggestions.
1. Learn how to make items, not just NPCs, Monsters, and Characters. Then you won’t accidentally roll as a hidden item. (Yes, the loot has rolled 10 and is going to be the first into battle. Facepalm!) (That was actually pretty epic. -The Tod)
2. Learn how to set 00-99 on rolls using d100 on Foundry for BareBones Fantasy, because otherwise I forget that 100 is 00 in this system. (I’ll talk about the system Anna ran at the end of the post. -The Tod)
3. Learn shorthand or how to record initiative faster. Although, I think previous top comments might also fix this. Also not numbering all Goblins 1-17…
Overall, it went well, I will be running something like this again, but not often because I like writing. I also think I like running dungeon crawls for now. I learned once again that I have an awesome husband, who made a wonderful GM assistant as he helped me set up on Foundry!
One final note, Pearl (the other player) said he was happy and excited, but had no further comment. I believe this is because I enabled his half-giant in his “smash monsters” mode.
Well, that is all folks. I hope this helps someone else learn.
~Anna
Game System
The Tod is taking over here.
Anna ran a BareBones Fantasy session. BareBones Fantasy is a rules lite d00 game from DwD Studios. It’s a fun, flexible game with lots of hidden detail in the design.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/107498/BareBones-Fantasy-Role-Playing-Game
We chose this for Anna for a couple reasons.
First, BareBones Fantasy was actually the first RPG she ever played, 10+ years ago. So, she was a little familiar with the rules and setting. Second, DwD Studios does incredible modules/adventures (whatever you want to call them). They have plenty of detail for the GM to use for describing people, monsters, buildings, and rooms. And the modules are setup as situations, not as a pre-set solution. DwD Studios says here is the setting and the participants. As GMs know, when you don’t railroad players, they always come up with the most unique solutions.
The latter was important. Anna, despite redoing large portions of the module, wanted for her first session a module with lots of detail and prep-work done for her. This often turns off experienced GMs, so a lot of games we otherwise like, don’t have a lot of details in the modules. But DwD Studios does a perfect job.
Speaking of fun publishers, Stellagama’s Barbaric! 2ed is out. We play-tested this version and it was a lot of fun. It is a lite version of 2d6 games that is quick to setup and run. I talked to the fine folks at Stellagama, and they are working on well-fleshed modules. So don’t be surprised to see those described here in the future.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/450864/Barbaric-2nd-Edition
So, everyone have a wonderful week and maybe consider, what is your favorite RPG module?
~Tod