This is for you gamemasters out there,
Especially those among you that are new to hosting a game. During our first
roundtable, we discussed a few things about being a good gamemaster.
Here on this page you will find
a summary of some of things we discussed at our worldbuilding workshop.
1) It is
important as Dm/Gm that you keep the game moving !
Sometimes one or more of your players
will start to drag out the game, slow things down for the other players,
act against the interests of the group, or against you as DM/GM.
You need to keep the pace, and keep things moving. For particularly difficult
players, you can introduce a monster or NPC (non-playing character)
that is hostile, or plotting against the party, to get the action going.
You can split the party, meaning, if some players aren't into getting a
whole lot done, allow the players that want to adventure, the opportunity
to go off on their own.
2) Make
sure the players feel like they achieved something.
One of the many reasons role-playing
games are fun is that players get the opportunity to act out their
fantasy, whether it is a " traditional " fantasy, the fantasyworld of some
great author, or a science fiction setting from the far future. You want
to make sure to create a situation where the people that are role-playing
feels as if they are winning, or at least accomplishing something.
All too often, in the real world, we have to lose, we have to compromise,
and we have to adjust ourselves just to fit into the real world. Well,
in our fantasys, we shouldn't have to adjust to have a good time, and you
would do your players a great injustice if you asked them to "adjust "
their fantasy just to suite your worldview as Game master or Dungeon master.
At the end of every gaming session a recap of all acomplishments by
specific players will help both yourself, and your players understand what
they have achieved, and what they still need to do, to meet their goals.
3) Let players
develop their character background.
Of the of gaming masters at our
roundtable there was a strong group that advocated allowing, and even encouraging,
players to develop the background and history of the character they were
playing.
They felt that if the players themselves
developed background details and the history of the character they were
playing, they would be more inclined to work as a team, and less inclined
to
fight amongst themselves. As a Dm/Gm
I don't always agree with this, however, I will personally explore this
issue further, and see if better group play and dynamics result by encouraging
players to develop the history of their characters.
4) The players
should learn something new during every session.
A new word, a new idea, maybe just
some new information on monsters and non-playing characters in the game.
I agree with this, and feel that if there is just one more thing the players
should be able to get out of a good role-playing game, it's that they should
learn something new about the real world they are in, or the fantasy world
they are playing in.
5) It is
important as a Gm/Dm not to be afraid to kill off your non-playing characters.
For those of you new to gaming a
non-player character ( NPC ) is a character or monster that the game master
or dungeon monster creates and plays to help fill out the fantasy world.
So, as a Dm you spent a year building your super-villain into the greatest
character-killer ever. The whole point of the game is not whether you can
design better deathmatch NPC's that can kill off any player
in existence, the point is that
your players have fun.
So what if your best non-player character gets nailed by a party of heros intent on freeing the fantasy world of the arch-villain you spent a painstaking amount of time developing and nurturing. Once your villain is dead, what other beings will step in to the vacuum of power that was abandoned with the death of your favorite non-player character. In addition, some other things to consider include, by killing your npc, will the players feel like they accomplished something? What other things can your players (heros) do to fulfill their goals of success in your gaming world? It's good to think of a few ways they can do this, so you have something for them when they do manage to nail your best npc.
Just suppose they killed the King?
Then what? Now they (in effect) become the new king with all the
attendant details, including other Kings seeking to capture or control
the players new found kingdom.
Or maybe they become hunted by everyone
in the Kingdom for their vile act. There is many ways to play out such
a scenario, and one of my favorite all time scenarios is when the players
in my world knocked off an evil necromancer. After that, all the
good wizards came to my players with offers of good money and treasure
to knock off monsters and evil npcs. Heck, a whole bunch of campaigns were
generated out of that one act, and in addition, the evil necromancer got
a great death scene out of the encounter with the players.
6) As a
Dm /Gm, focus on the moment.
Try to avoid having your players
focus too much on past events, or get away from role-playing at the table.
As a Dm/Gm, you can tell if you have a good story going by how the players
are acting while you are playing. If they are smoking and joking too much,
or if they are spending quite a bit of time re-living the past glories
of their characters they are not busy creating new stories too tell. If
they are all sitting around the table fighting for a turn to speak, or
climbing on the gaming table to describe what their character is doing
next, they are into the moment, eager to play, and to have a good time.
How do you do this? As a Gm, it's
up to you to get characters personally involved in the storyline.
You have to create memorable monsters
and npc's, events that attract the attention of the players. Maybe it's
a treasure the npc or monster has. Maybe it's an ability or skill the npc
or monster has, that the players would like to learn. Maybe it's a mystery
that the players get involved in. A detective story, or a murder
mystery, a secret power, or a web of intrigue and mystery.
Raise your hand if you remember a game you played, where the suspense of what happened next, had you chewing on your nails (Or doing whatever it is you do, when you get highly excited. Believe you me, I don't want to know to much in this department) What was it, that had you in this state of mind? Start with that, and create in your own game, for your players.
Here in the realms of Tamerthya, we are always open to new ideas on how to improve your gaming and gamemastering skills, any ideas (even if they disagreed with my own) would be welcomed and posted on this web page, or others here in the realms. On that note, I'll bid you good night.
To Good Gaming !