5 Good Things About Listening To Your Players

Ever since we began the Tikhon campaign, the emphasis has been upon encouraging players to create and add to the setting.

As a Fantasy-genre world, things started out pretty generic, with Elves and Goblins for example, but have (over time) begun to spring off into fresher territory.

Almost all of the cool ideas in the game have come from the minds of the players; as GM, my challenge has been to let go and trust that what they’ll produce will be something I can get excited about too.

Looking back over the last year or so, things have really begun to change. This post is about the Good Things I’ve learned from listening to my players.

1. They’ll make lots of stuff

Not all of the players contribute between sessions. One player, for instance, contributes exclusively through play… with the one exception of when, as GM, I pose him a direct question (usually at the start of a session). The others, to greater or lesser degree, have seemed open to sharing ideas in-between.

The most common form of submission to the campaign is in the form of a verbal suggestion at the table. All of the early sessions worked this way, with me as GM listening and noting down what seemed to fit. I was deeply into “Yes, and” mode – listening and wanting to say “yes, and”, building on their ideas. This created Mortenburg, the reality of raiders in the land, the idea of a Baron in a nearby large city, the Goblin tribes in the mountains, and (eventually) High Beacon mountain’s Lightbringer Temple. In fact, all of the deities and religious cults of the setting came from the mouth of one player or another within the first five sessions.

Some players email me too. They read stuff, think of ideas, and ruminate… and then I get an email outlining a suggestion. This works well because I can receive it, say thank you, and then file it for later consideration. One example would be the very cool ideas about magickal items with proper histories; another would be a steadily growing collection of ideas about the Druids of The Weaver, a nature-loving Druidic cult that is, slowly yet surely, evolving away from the standard D&D tropes.

Most players post onto our discussion board. This is a place where private chatter about sessions happens in-between games. It’s where we can organise meetings, but it’s also where we can talk about the game. I pose questions and the guys answer them. In addition, discussion around issues that concern the players also arises… and ideas fall out of that discussion. Here has been where the Uruk race has grown most, in addition to ideas about Witchhunters and other cultic suggestions.

One player has taken to designing whole chunks of the setting. As a confident GM in his own right, Ian has drawn maps and drafted copious notes on the city of Faulstieff, where the Baron lives. Following this, he has begun to more fully develop Mortenburg (the border town) and the vicinity too. His notes are usually hand-written and progress is slow (due to his job and home life being very demanding) but… well, it’s high-quality stuff. He doesn’t mind what I use or discard… and I have the only copies of the notes, because he doesn’t want to feel like he has notes he shouldn’t. As the player with the long-lived Elf, it seems appropriate that he is the guy who might remember more about the area, so I don’t really mind using more (rather than less) of his ideas. And they’re good ideas.

Maps and notes on Faulstieff… from a player.

2. Their stuff will be better than yours

This is heavily implied above, but it bears saying: the ideas that players come up with are (given encouragement) better than that which a lone GM will create.

I like to think of myself as a creative type. Some of my ideas interest players too, given that they let me GM all these years. Yet, the truth is that it’s far better stuff when it has come from the heads of players and been filtered through the subconscious of the GM. The proof is in the fact that, session by session, my players seem to be enjoying this setting more than any I have run before.

Things started off derivative. Partly, this was the fault of system choices and a “quick start” mentality which used OSR D&D tropes to get us playing. To be honest, there was nothing wrong with derivative because it got everyone on the same page and allowed players to relate to the Fantasy world we were set in.

Over time, especially given the shift from “someone else’s game” to our own, and then the shift to HERO, players have been able to stretch their wings more and more. Now, given that HERO can handle any idea thrown at it, I have no fear about including an idea… and so I get more and more creative ideas from the players. Their stuff is better than mine.

And sometimes I get an idea too. When I have an idea, I have time to develop it because I am not having the think up all the cool ideas.

3. They care about the ideas they create

Players are more invested in the setting because they created it. Tikhon is increasingly a player-created realm. In truth, the players are more motivated than I am as GM.

This means that they want to show up to sessions – I receive rueful and bitter complaints when players can’t make it. In-between sessions, I receive new ideas and suggestions from those same players. I think it’s easy to understand: we enjoy the stories we’ve been part of.

Caring about their ideas also has a secondary benefit: the players remember more details about the setting. In fact, now that things are becoming quite diverse, I’ve been asked to draft up a “Player’s Guide” to codify what has been discovered and talked about because some folks are starting to get beyond what they can easily remember. Wanting the sourcebook is a first at my table: usually that’s the purview of the GM as a reference guide, not the players.

4. What they create tells you what they want to experience

That someone created a map and details for Faulstieff tells me that at least one player would like to go there. A list of magickal items tells me that another player would like to discover and use at least one of those items. Notes on Goblin tribes, druidic cults, and Undead creatures informs me that these are elements the player would like to experience.

As a GM, I’m not left in the dark about what the players want to do in-game. My lot wants to travel to the big city, fight Goblins, defeat Undead, find cool items that have real histories, and much more. I know this because they created it and they shared it.

All that’s left is to decide which ideas I fancy developing and using. What’s interesting to me? As long as the players understand that all things submitted are open to change, adaptation, or even total revision, then nobody has to have false expectations. To be honest, I have increasingly found that it’s getting harder and harder to “keep up”. That would be a problem if I didn’t have a place to store notes for later consumption.

Why would I not want to go with their ideas? Unless it’s really a bit pants, or contradicts something cooler, then just going where the player’s point is a recipe for longevity of play.

5. Less prep is required

I was dreading taking the party to Faulstieff because I’d have to create the details of the place myself. As a consequence, I was delaying their journey over many sessions: they found a wrecked and looted caravan; then they were hit by raiders; then they spotted a tower off the road…

When Ian gave me the map to Faulstieff, and the accompanying ream of notes, my worries evaporated.

Prep is time-consuming: drawing maps is not my forte, for example. Certainly I am happy to nab maps from other sources, or crib notes from other adventures… but there is no substitute for the creation of something genuinely fresh from one of the players.

Less truly is more from my perspective. Yes, I’m lucky to have a player who’ll do that stuff well… but most groups would probably have that kind of person. I’ve always found that there is another GM-type at the table, even if they are nervous about starting. But even without that, I don’t have to prep magickal items, tribal details about Goblins, or any of the cults of the setting’s deities: players did it all for me.

What’s the rub?

The only downside is that you need to do two things well: 1. Listen; 2. Organise.

Rather than being a campaign creator, I am a campaign facilitator and organiser. You need to keep the notes straight, and you need to pay attention.

Certainly, I need some things on paper – usually combat stats – but most stuff can be stored electronically. Having taken part in the Kickstarter last year, I’ve been delighted to discover the power of “Realm Works” to help me keep things in order. Scanning maps, entering the notes, and tracking which bits are “known by the characters” and which aren’t are all features of this software. As it’s just about to have a first public release, with the Beta coming to an end, I think it’s worth a look.

Screenshot from my very much incomplete notes on Realm Works.

Even without tech, however, a well-organised “world folder” will keep things straight. There are many cool resources out there for the intrepid GM… and whether stuff is written by you or players, you still need to keep it all straight. This is not a problem unique to this approach. It’s just that you’ll get more stuff.

Game on!