GM Tips: From Solo To Social

Pyry’s adventure was highly illuminating to me, not just as a player but also as a Game Master.

This post aims to do two things:

1. Reflect on the solo experience and what went right
2. Think about how a GM can apply lessons to social RPG sessions

Overall, the past few days have been not only rewarding but also a great learning experience.

It would be a shame not to capture some of those points of development and share them.

Psyching Myself Up

I began as a skeptic regarding solo roleplaying. Despite having read (and really liking the idea of) Mythic, I still felt a deep sense that it was a kind of failure to play an RPG alone – they are, after all, designed as social games.

Sitting down to play, I was more nervous than I have been as a Game Master or a Player in ages. This game would really matter: if it flopped, I was contemplating the end of my hobby. I was feeling really crappy as a Game Master for the regular group, and I was fairly convinced that if I couldn’t please myself (so to speak) then I was really going to suck.

With so many great solo gaming tools available, I was a bit spoiled for choice. Taking the advice of those who’d commented on the G+ Lone Wolf Roleplaying community, I decided to keep it simple: I decided on a location-based adventure (using The Location Crafter) and used the “Aladdin” technique posted by John Fiore to spice up the one-sentence adventure idea:

Pyry is sent by the Temple to infiltrate the fresh lair of a pack of Orcs and kill their ferociously lavish Queen, bringing back her weapon as a trophy. But what is the bizarre purpose of the Queen’s actions?

With ten minutes spent making the three lists needed for the Location Crafter, I grabbed up my d100 and dove into the game.

Solo Reflections

The top five things I learned from my first foray into solo play were:

1. Type up the story as you go because it’s more visceral, even if it slows the game
2. Don’t worry if you have to look something up – there’s no audience but you
3. Don’t agonise over “getting it right” – focus on the play
4. Keep it simple and go with the flow
5. Enjoy learning to better handle player versus character knowledge

I’m not going to bore you with detailed thoughts on all of those. Instead, I’ll just elucidate on a couple of the points.

There’s a careful balance to be had in maintaining momentum in the playing of the game and in allowing yourself space to learn. For me, I learn by doing and can easily be decoyed into not-play by the temptation to read everything (and know everything, which is impossible) before I play.

Yes, I did some page-flipping in play. Mostly during the first fight scene. But that’s how I learn: running the scene but also allowing space to check details. It was doing so that added so much richness to the fight descriptions because I took the time to let RuneQuest‘s “special effects” into the play. Every detail of both fights flowed naturally from the decisions about which Special Effect to use in each moment.

That being said, there were points at which I became painfully aware of my ignorance of the game: one example was when I noticed that you could run Gamemaster Characters with not just their book stats but also as either Rabble or Underlings. Rather than bog down in recalculation, I simply ran the first combat encounter as a full-blown Orc warrior. The game was much better for making that choice, and I just slipped the idea of underlings away in case of an Orc Patrol (with more than one foe) turning up.

I’d like to expand on the “go with the flow” comment: the point at which the Orc Queen walked into the sleeping cave just as Pyry returned from the dead-end was randomly determined. In other words, I decided to roll to see if anything had changed in the already explored room – the Fate Chart indicated yes – and then I rolled for an Encounter as usual. When I saw the Orc Queen result, it simply felt right.

That point in the story, when the Orc Queen walked in, was about 20 minutes before the end of my session time. Up until that moment, I was expecting to have to adjourn the scenario and return at a later date. Somehow, with it being the first story with this character, it seemed much more fitting for Pyry to face her before the session closed… and yet, I didn’t realise this until it happened. The feeling of excitement and shock was genuine and special.

You might feel that the scenario feels too short and tidy. I felt that it just seemed to work out nicely. Yes, I have a load of questions to resolve (and it is a bit of a shame to kill the Orc Queen before we got to explore her more deeply) BUT… this first adventure was a lot of fun and left me wanting more.

Isn’t “leave them wanting more” every Game Master’s goal?

Improving Social Roleplaying

After running that solo scenario, I feel that the most important points of learning for social roleplaying are:

1. Don’t GM a game that you don’t want to play!
2. Insist upon interviewing the Player Characters before you plan any adventures
3. Set up the first scene of your story, but avoid “plotting” – choose logic and some randomizing tools instead
4. Try to give the players what they want – note their character skill/power choices, use their goals, and provide opportunities to use their chosen abilities
5. Allow yourself (as GM) to be surprised during play

As Game Master, and this is vitally important, you need to be the first person to feel happy with the game. You are, after all, the one who’ll show to every session having put in at least 30 minutes of prep before hand (and often much more); if you don’t want to play, how can you inspire the others to join in?

To add depth to play, interview the characters. In the past, I’ve allowed our group’s penchant for Action Gaming to get in the way of good characters: you know what I mean – you’re worried about limited time, so you rush into each game as fast as you can manage. That works fine for a one-off game but it sucks for winning interest longer term. Make yourself ask those questions which will challenge the player to think up a really worthwhile hero. And then make sure you use their answers.

The last three points are bound together: allow yourself to experience the unfolding of the game as a surprising tale; don’t forget to steal good ideas from the players; try a few random elements to spice things up for you too. The advice in Jamison’s “Gamemastering” is very useful in this regard… but it took some playing with to realise just how much of a difference it can make.

Taking More Steps?

I’m not sure how things are going to pan out after this week’s interlude in group play and the discovery of solo play. My aim would be to bring the strengths of solo learned here to the regular table.

Of course, knowing that solo play can work, I feel more hopeful that I will always be able to roleplay more solo games. And yet, in truth, the social roleplaying will always have the greater potential because (no matter how many cool solo tools there are) you can’t beat putting a group of creative humans in a room to see what they’ll cook up.

Hope this has been a useful journey for you as well as for me.

Game on!