In this post I'll continue my tips on improving your gamemastering skills.
3. Calling an Audible
No matter how much prep work you do, no matter what you plan, sometimes your players are going to do something to screw it up. When that happens, you've got to start changing the plan. Here are a couple of examples.
In a game I played in, the player characters came upon a murder scene. The victim was a non-player character we had never met or even heard of before. We were then sent a message saying to meet someone for information on the murder. From our point of view, we had no reason to want to investigate. We had no connection to the victim, so investigating the murder wasn't our top priority, so when we voiced that to our GM, he decided that if we weren't going to follow the plot, he'd drop in some "encouragement" in the form of a lot of really tough enemies.
In a game I just recently GMed, I needed the player characters to follow an investigation and eventually find the villain. The PCs were having a bit of trouble figuring out how to find the clues they needed. One of the players suggested that having a supernatural background, he might know someone who also dabbled in the supernatural. So, to put the PCs back on track, I decided to make the villain his contact, and soon the PCs started sniffing around the only guy in town who knew about the supernatural when they discovered the crime they were investigating was done with magic.
In the first example, the players feel like they're being punished for not following the plot. However, you can use the technique of using "encouragement" to get the players on track, but you have to do it carefully. First, the players have to have at least some clue about where you want them to go. Second, you have to make it feel like your "encouragement" isn't a punishment, but is a logical follow-up. If, for example, your "encouragement" is also investigating the same thing the PCs are, or if they were the cause and are tying up loose ends, then it feels more like it's part of the plot and not just a random encounter to force the PCs back on track. In the second example, the players were going nowhere, but one came up with a logical idea and was rewarded for it. Both examples got the PCs on track. The first, however, was a negative experience for the players, the second was positive.
When your players aren't going where you want, and you need them to find something important, often, the easiest thing to do is to move whatever you need them to find to wherever they're going.
4. Making things up/Making things Interesting
When you play with a group who has been playing the game long enough, eventually they memorize the monsters. When you play with veteran players, sometimes making up some new threats can freshen up a stale game. In one of my recent games, I took a red dragon, mixed in some black dragon stats, and gave it two extra heads. Suddenly, the PCs were too afraid to even try to fight this monster. They no longer knew what to expect, and it led to a great chase scene and a spectacular death.
If you're feeling ambitious, you could try creating your own campaign world. Creating your own world takes time and effort. I would know. I've created dozens of them. The great thing, though, is that you don't have to do all the work right away. You can start small, creating the area your game will begin in and then spread out as the campaign progresses. In a later post, I'll cover things such as writing your own adventures, campaigns, and even creating your own world.
5. Acting
Every good GM wants their players to get involved with their characters and the story. In my post on being a better player, I talked about the Actor. The Actor plays a role, which is what rpgs are about. The Actor doesn't just throw together a set of numbers and call it a character. The Actor creates a character, then comes up with a set of numbers that fits the character. If you want your players to play their characters, then you have to play yours as well, and when you consider that GMs have control of every NPC, that's a lot of roles to play. Fortunately, most NPCs are only going to interact with the players for a few minutes, then will probably never come up again. You really only need to worry about NPCs that are important to the plot. For these NPCs, give them a little personality, even if it's just as simple as a peculiar way of speaking, or an unusual mannerism. Players are more likely to remember the nervous, stuttering contact they met in the bar moreso than just another NPC they met in the bar, even if the NPC gave them important information.
This concludes my basic tips on improving yourself as a gamemaster. In future posts, I will expand upon some of these. My next post will will return to the "Playing You Best" lessons.
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