Games Mastery: Shaping the Game

As Games Master, I’ve been busy over the past two weeks – well, more busy than usual – with preparations for the regular Classic Fantasy game.

The extra effort has been in an attempt to shift The Rise of the Dragon Kings from a “murder hobos” game towards being a more character-rich experience that I know will be more enjoyable for everyone.

In the past, the Friday Night Roleplayers have told me that all they want is a “turn-your-brain-off” dungeon-bashing game. In reality, they want a game that is rich with possibilities, makes sense, and feels heroic.

When we played through the last adventure, the group treated it like a dungeon bash and the result was fewer players at the table and only one player genuinely enjoying themselves. I felt that the joy of what I had prepared was leeched of colour and left a pale shadow of what I intended.

As we begin a new adventure, I have been consciously seeking to provide the three things they really want. This post is a rough outline of how I’ve been going about re-shaping the game.

What Players Want

My players are not, I suspect, all that different from most players. They want three things:

1. A cool character with some interesting possibilities.
2. Challenging obstacles for each possibility they pursue.
3. Believable consequences – both rewards and complications – whenever they overcome those obstacles.

Players are, however, basically lazy. They don’t want to do unnecessary homework – if they wanted that, they’d become Games Master themselves. Players simply want to turn up and play a fun game.

The problem is that, quite often, they forget that the quality of the game on the night is directly proportionate to the amount of input they give to the game. That applies both at the table and between games. Most players opt for table contribution. The best players provide ideas in the spaces between sessions.

You have to get to know your players and aim to give them what they want. For some, it’s just the three things in the list above; for others, it’s extended play between sessions.

The Shift

The shift I’ve been making has been a simple one focused on just three things:

1. Make sure the player characters have interesting goals.
2. Place obstacles in the path of those goals.
3. Work out what happens either way, if they succeed or fail, after each obstacle is overcome.

The key to this process is the Non-Player Character.

The players give you some goals – whether simplistic or complex – and you decide who will oppose them. In an ideal world, your players gave you some interesting non-player character (NPC) ideas when they used their 4 Lists Sheet to suggest some Friends and Foes… but, remember, they are lazy. If they give you non-player characters, you look at ways to bring those NPCs in. If not, you create some interesting NPCs to oppose them.

Once you know who is opposing the player’s goals, you can begin to think about how. These ideas form the basis for obstacles in the path of the adventurers. As Brian Jamison says, the three stages of obstacles (information, challenge, celebration) “…provide a sort of atomic structure for roleplaying games.” (Gamesmastering, page 93).

Succeed or fail, the final element is to decide what the consequences for success or failure might be. How do the NPCs react? Are there any natural consequences? What options will this provide for the player characters? As long as they arise naturally from the characters themselves, the players will believe them.

Grasping New Tools

Given the above, I’ve been adjusting my Games Master efforts from analog towards digital tools. My Mystamyr campaign folder is over-full, constantly requires printing off new updates, and has proven hard to navigate at the table. Turning up with a laptop last session made life much easier.

The tools of choice right now both came from the same source: taking a second look at Johnn Four’s Roleplaying Tips pointed me towards using MyInfo and the Campaign Logger.

MyInfo allows me to organise my notes and search them live at the table. Combining this tool with Johnn’s tips on using it has allowed me to dramatically transform my preparation. Of course, due to the large volume of already created information, porting everything from various files and folders to a digital tool is a long process… and a work in progress.

Campaign Logger has made it easy and quick for me to take notes at the table. This has made it easier for me to track the action of sessions, and write reports like I did following last session, and also to curate the action of the gaming table back into my notes between sessions. This tool allows me to see the connections between every character, item, place, situation, obstacle and much more. All in all, the Logger makes live note-taking feasible.

Focusing on Character

With the tools in place, the focus is back on the characters in the game – both player and non-player characters. Knowing who they are, what they want, and how they are involved is key. It’s transforming my Games Master focus from situations and places towards the people within the game setting.

I’m good at creating places and situations – whether villages or dungeons, and what goes on within them – but I am weak when it comes to portraying NPCs. Tips from Jamison and Johnn Four have combined to change this. At the last session, I found it much more interesting to be thinking about how the people the player characters interact with will react. The situations arise from what they do and how they interact.

This is probably obvious to other Games Masters. For me, over the years, it’s been hard to keep my focus on characters simply because I forget who they are and what they are up to. The tools mentioned above transform my ability to both keep track of the details and see the connections between them. With that knowledge comes increased power to open up interesting opportunities for the players… and go through the loop of providing what they want.

Interesting opportunities. Challenging obstacles. Believable consequences.

Game on!