GM Best Practices

Alas, due to unfortunate timing, I was unable to heed the call of Chris Kutalik (of Hill Cantons) for the "Building a Better GM Challenge". But though the deadline has come and gone, I am going to post my thoughts on the subject anyway.

Finding ways to improve our game is a big reason why many of us read RPG blogs. As for us navel-gazing bloggers... well, we can spend an inordinate amount of time ruminating on such subjects. I know that since I started blogging, I have been paying closer attention to the actual craft of running a game and the advice that I have collected from others has been very helpful, especially with regard to reducing my prep time. And given that I think that I am regarded as a pretty good GM by my players, I thought I'd return the favor and share three of my best practices.

1. Prepare to Improvise
Improvisation is one of the core skills of a successful GM. It's hard to believe that I spent more than half of my gaming life without realizing this. I think it comes from the fact that I usually played with the same group of players, all of whom I knew very well. Instead of being forced to think on my feet, all I had to do was prepare using predictions of player behavior. This covered almost 90% of gaming situations and for the other 10%, I got by well enough that I didn't feel the need for improvement.

The thing is, I eventually started expanding my player pool beyond those whose behavior I knew well enough to anticipate. As life's complexities started to accumulate, I found myself with less and less time for detailed preparation anyway. And since getting involved in the Old School and "story now" gaming communities, I have been less willing to actively plot adventurers anyway, preferring instead to give much more freedom to players after I have delivered an initial setup.

Thus, it has come to pass that I improvise the majority of my gaming sessions beyond the roughest of outlines. The success of these gaming sessions depends entirely on my preparations for improvisation.

Preparing for improvisation? Is that an oxymoron?

Not at all. When presented with a need to improvise, the worst thing that can happen is to freeze up while thinking of what to do. A prepared GM can instead ready a variety of tools to quickly come up with ideas that move the game forward.

The most important tools:

• Naming Resources: I've blogged about this before, but without a good name generator or a list of names that I can fall back on, I suck at coming up with names. And names are critical. Giving names to NPCs breathes life into the setting and increases the likelihood that players will actually notice the character and involve them in the greater story. And named NPCs are more likely to show up again in the future, improving the sense continuity and verisimilitude. 

Examples: Chris Pound, Kleimo, my Fantasy Language Cypher, Seventh Sanctum and Serendipity. Following the example of Apocalypse World, a predetermined list of NPC names that suit the setting also works very well.

• Inkblots: I picked up on the inkblot technique while playing with the Mythic Game Master Emulator. In a nutshell, you use some kind of random content generator to spur the imagination. Unlike a detailed RPG table, this result cannot typically be used "as is". Instead, it triggers the brain's natural ability to make connections and associations to come up with something that is both related to the nature of the inkblot and what is contextually appropriate to the given game situation.

I love this technique for two reasons. The first is that reduces the number of random tables that I need to manage. One or two good inkblots beat a book full of specific tables. Secondly, I love the open-ended nature of the technique. A fixed table, even a large one, can only produce a so many unique results. The can feel more constraining that it actually is but the results of an inkblot are infinite and almost always surprising.

Examples: DungeonWords, Tarot Cards, random images, the Mythic GME event meaning tables, random wikipedia posts, random TV Tropes articles, and random entries in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

• Tables: I love inkblots, but never underestimate the usefulness of a good specific (if weird table). Zak's tables in Vornheim and Playing D&D wth Pornstars immediately come to mind, but a large number of cool tables are available throughout the blog community and in old and new game books alike. I particularly recommend the Dungeon Alphabet for fantasy games. The trick is not overdo it. You can't slow down play to look for just the right table. I try to identify a small number of interesting tables before a game, particularly ones I haven't used before. I use inkblots for everything else.

• Maps: It can be hard to get a good sense of place through improvisation. As a result, it's useful to have a number of mapping resources on hand in case the party wanders into an unexplored building or dungeon. I consider Dave's Mapper to be the essential dungeon crawling resource for this purpose, as it produces maps that are orders of magnitude more interesting than random generators that simply place square rooms. Also, various microdeungeons that have appeared in the blogging community are great to have on hand (with special props to those created by Tony Dowler, Dyson Logos, and Matt Jackson). Yes, I doodle my own maps when I have time, but it is these folks that I go to for inspiration when my own well runs dry.

2. Pacing is Key
I'm a pace snob. By that I mean that as a player and as a GM, my main criteria for judging the success of a game is on the ebb and flow of energy and player enthusiasm during the course of the game. This almost always turns into a matter of pace. An ideal game is one that starts with a bang and keeps the action and/or drama coming hard until a climax is reached at the end of the session (with the occasional lull to catch your breath).

This takes practice. To get it right, a GM needs to weigh how long combat takes in a given system and how long it takes for players to decide on their curse of action. And when things start to slow down, the GM needs to push with encounters or dramatic revelations.

Pacing also varies by the type of adventure being run. Managing pace in a dungeon crawl is a very different thing than directing an episodic one-shot of modern day monster hunters.

In dungeon crawls, I usually lead with an encounter, even if we are picking up from a previous session. Trying to gauge how much progress the party is making though the map, I may lengthen or shorten encounters in the middle of a session. But as we enter the last hour, I try to figure out a suitable concluding encounter and start moving non-player elements to make it happen. It's more art than science, but it usually works well enough (especially if you have the luxury of running the session a little longer than normal).

Outside of the dungeon, I try to follow an episodic structure. I lead off with a "teaser" or opening action sequence (or dramatic revelation). After the teaser, I allow the characters a chance to catch their breath while they try to figure out what the heck just happened. I listen for what they are thinking and continue to press them with new encounters and strange occurrences until roughly the half-way point in the session. At that point, the characters should be starting to figure out what is going on and making active plans to deal with situation. They will continue to encounter obstacles as they execute their plans while I prepare the final scene. With regard to that final scene, I may have brainstormed about that before the session but until the player characters start to actively act against the threat, I won't have a firm idea of where things will end up.


3. Share the Setting
Everyone approaches roleplaying games from a different perspective. Some people enjoy overcoming challenges. Other people enjoys the thrill of exploration. Some enjoy solving puzzles. I like all these things. But for me, more than anything else, it is about collaborating in the creation of an emergent narrative involving interesting characters.

Collaboration is key. If I wanted to write stories, I'd write stories. But I play role-paying games because I want to be surprised by the interaction of my ideas with the ideas of others.

Call me a new school indie-game hippie, but I think games benefit when players participate in this creativity. I am certainly not advocating for an end to Game Masters. As much as I enjoy Fiasco and Microscope, I do appreciate traditional games with strongly defined Game Masters. But even when running a traditional game like Dungeons & Dragons, there are ways to offload a little narrative control to the players.

For example:

• Character Background: This would seem obvious and perhaps it is. But like to give players wide latitude when coming up with their backgrounds. Within established continuity, they are free to invent persons, places, or things of note. And if at all doing my job, I use details over the course of the adventure. I may flesh them out myself. Or I might ask the player to fill in some of the details during play. More often than not, it will be some combination of the two.

• Cool moves: Most combat systems are pretty abstract. This is actually a great thing as it allows the players to describe their characters actions in way than shows off what they think is cool about their characters (even when their characters fail). This usually doesn't have much of an impact on the setting, but sometimes a player might want to produce undeclared minor equipment, or fill in the gaps as far as dungeon dressing goes.

• Declaring facts: Some games, particular those with FATE points, Awesome points, Style Dice, or what-have-you, have actual mechanics for declaring minor facts about the world. NPCs can be created on the spot, recurring locations can come into being, and conspiracies can spring out of nowhere. I adore this technique and try to incorporate this into other games that I play, even those that do not have built-in-rules to support it.