Sunday, August 21, 2011

Building a Better GM

Over at Hill Cantons, over here at the Manor he is know as Cake, he put out this challenge that has been sweeping around the blogs.  I guess it's my turn to give it a go.  I've seen some people arguing over creativity and/or techniques and it makes me chuckle.  I've been in the writing business since the mid 80s and there is always someone who knows better and gives you the absolutes of how things are supposed to be.  They're full of shit.  Ignore them.  Don't even argue with them because you won't change their mind and all you do is waste precious energy on them.  Even though I have no absolute laws of how things are supposed to be, I have suggestions because they work for me. I think most of us already know and use what my three things are.  It's not complicated.

The three questions blend together so I will sort of answer them all at once. 

1. I like to take the stereotypical, allowing the players to go on assumptions and then twisting it, sometimes subtly and sometimes more extreme.  This is a great technique I use in my fiction and it works fantastic for gaming.  Maybe the orc that is tromping through the forest is not a 1HD easy target.  Maybe it's a 5HD orc/troll with regenerative powers wearing the Charm of Gruumsh that grants any weapon it uses to paralyze.  This is a deadly example, but a good one that plays on players' assumption.  Everyone has the monster manual, but GMs have to remember those stats are just a suggestion.

What to watch out for: Making everything unusual so in doing so you've made the unusual the usual.  It's okay to have a horde of goblins for the players to slaughter.  That's fun too.  A GM needs to set up the situation so that the twist will work.

2. I am very good a winging it.  I think this is probably one of the most important skills a good GM can have.  I think the best adventures are ad-lib and some nice surprises for the GM as well as the players.  Of course to be effective the GM needs a solid knowledge of the system.  Ad-libbing is cool, but also I think needs to be done in moderation.  A foundation and consistency needs to be established.  Some people who have the entire world, cultures, history and geography memorized then it's no big thing.

What to watch out for: Like I mentioned the biggest problem with too much improvisation is inconsistency.  Too much and it's difficult to keep track of motivations and people and things and places because you made them up on the spot.  Keep good notes or at least have a good outline/structure that you use to keep things from going too wonky.

3. I think what makes me a good GM is I engage the players in interesting story-lines.  There is often several running through a single game at any one time and some are the main story arc for the characters and some are those side quests or path splitters.  I like to weave a lot of layers and build a complex relationship to the world they're interacting with. 

 What to watch out for: Over complicating things.  Players love to develop their story-lines and will often complicate it enough themselves, GMs need to allow them that privilege.  If things slow down a bit the GM can always interject some new interesting twist, but if your players are anything like mine they create enough drama to last several sessions in one sitting. 


  1. Well said, Tim. Some of the best advice I've read in these posts as it's widely applicable to different games and different styles of games.

  2. I like the "what to watch for" rider you put on this. Maybe the next "three-stepper" could be something about pitfalls in running a game?


  3. Sounds like a great idea Cake. Wish I would have come up with it. :P Good topic for blogs, glad you got it rolling.

  4. Yes, I like the "what to watch out for" dimension as well. Because even effective techniques can be overused or over-done. Great advice here!

  5. Great post! I most heartily agree with #3! That goes hand in hand with making sure you take into consideration the classes the players are using, and being sure to throw in challenges geared toward those classes at least a couple of times each session.