Music-Title: Conflicted Artist: Kevin MacLeod
Website: http://incompetech.com
In this special edition of the Nerdy Times we bring you the two hour plus long GameMaster's Panel from Conglomeration 2012. Lots of advice about how to deal with players and run a successful game!
If you're going to run off the top of your head, make sure you're ready for anything. We've discovered, with our group at least, you don't need to have a lot prepared for the game, because we can derail anything you'd have planned for us. But, if your going to come to the table expecting to be crafty enough to just run scenarios and events off the top of your head, you had better be prapred for everything that comes your way. The worst thing you can do is fumble and backpedal in your words trying to not have the adventure spiral out of your control. And if you're not crafty enough, that is exactly what will happen.
So, while a good exercise to just try running things on the fly, beware things do not get out of your control.
Every played a system that you liked, but a couple of the rules just didn't work with your style of play? Try making a house rule. This is something most older players know about and probably do, but those newer to role-playing might not have thought about it. To put it simply, a house rule is something the GM and the players discuss about the mechnics of the game and then come up with an agreed upon new rule of their own creation to fix the problem they're experiencing.
An example of this is in 2nd edition Dungeons & Dragons I had a huge problem with the mage class. They start off with the restriction that they can't wear armor, they get 1 spell per day(that they have to choose at the beginning of the day), and they only get 1d4 hit points. At lower levels their spells aren't very damaging, but most of the things have poor saves so they can be effective. However as they go up in levels their spells become more powerful, but everyone's resistances become stronger too, so their high damaging spells often times get saved against for half damage. The only bonus they had was that most of their spells were an auto hit. Clerics had similar problems, but they (usually) had more spells, armor, and hit points to make up for it.
So what did we do to fix some of the problems with the mages? Well we bumped their hit point die up to 1d6 and allowed all first level charactes to max out starting hit points. We left the armor thing armor thing in place, but we gave them the priests wisdom bonus for extra spells per day. A priest in 2nd edition got bonus spells per level if they had a higher than average wisodm. So we took that scale and used it with the mage's intelligence score. I also allow the priests and mages to to use whatever spells were available to them according to the player's handbook; and, they didn't have to pick one spell at the beinning of the day, they could just cast as they needed it. We also started applying the mages level as a negative to their targets save to make their spells harder to resist.
These may rules may not work for everyone, but they seemd to work well fo our group, and that's what's important. So don't give up on something you mostly like just because there's a few bugs in the system. Role-Playing is about being flexible, and that includes the rules.
Todays tip is not a tip, it a question I'm asking to the everyone. Has anyone run an evil campaign, and what tips can you give me if I should decide to do so? I've been toying with the idea of running an evil campaign in a fantasy setting, but if you listen to our podcast at all, you know I can't take this group in to an evil campaign without some preparation. I don't want them to be just evil and on their own, that would be horrible; So I was considering having them work for someone powerful.
Has anyone else done this? What are some of the obstacles you encountered while running?
Today's Tip-Be Flexible. Hardly seems noteworthy of mentioning when you're running a role-playing game; it should be a given that situations shouldn't have a fixed outcome. But I've run in to the problem before. Had a GM that would set a problem/situation before the group and then stand back and listen to us wrack our brains and debate the possible solutions. When we finally decided on a course of action they'd tell us that it wasn't going to work for whatever reason, so then we'd go to our second choice. Nope. Third choice? No dice. Something rediculous? Nada. Whether it was their intention to shoot down all our initial idea just to force us to think longer, and waste more game time trying to figure out the one, and apparently, only solution they had in mind I'll never know. The game play suffered however, because it felt like we were rats and there was only one solution to whatever maze of logic the GM had decided on (or come up with on the fly).
The whole point of running a role-playing game is you get to choose your own destiny. Games on rails aren't fun; they're great for beginners, but as you become a more experienced player, they lose their luster quick. Rather than shoot down player ideas to a situation, let them live by their decisions. It makes for a lot of fun.
For this weeks tip I'm going to sujest using a die rolling area or box for your games. I think we have all been a part of games where a player or players haven't exactly been truthful with their rolls. Having a box, like our Arena of Fate, or a special matt or something can help eliminate those kinds of issues. It keep everyone at the table honest and, as we know, when people aren't fudging their rolls it makes play a lot more fun.
If you have never run a game, give it a try sometime. It will help you expand yourself and your ability to role-play. Running a game allows you the freedom to stretch yourself out in to different roles by playing the various NPC. It also gives you a chance to craft a story that you'd find interesting. The change of pace can be daunting and a hard act to keep up, but with propper preperation, you'll hopefully be ready for whatever your players decide to throw your way.
Todays Tip: Get in to character! When you're playing a character in a role-playing game, one of the easiest things to do is to forget that the character is not you. It's someone else entirely; they can have differrent drives and motivations, things that make them happy or angry. It gives you a chance to be someone else for a little while. Give that character their own personality, maybe even try speaking in an accent to really feel what that character is like. And, if you play in several different games, or rotate as we do, try and make sure that each of the characters you play are different from each other. It's impossible to remove who you are in reality, totally, from the characters you play, but its fun to try and stretch your imagination to the mindset of the character and the setting and react as they would. Changing the way you'd normally react to things can makes for some fun and exciting role-play moments; if you always play the same way and do the same things, you become predictable. You don't want to be predictable, because, it's just as important to keep the GM on their toes is it is for them to keep you on yours.
This weeks tip is simple: Remember to take a break for your long term campaign. Long term campaigns can be a lot of fun because, in a good one, there's pleanty of character developement and level advancement and you really get to get in to your character. All those are pluses, but the downside of the equation is that after a while, even with a great story, people can just start to get burned out on the game system. How do you fix that? Switch to a new GM and play a shorter game, taking only a few weeks, and recharge your batteries; or take a couple weeks off and play board or card games. We have taken time off and done some LAN games over the network at each other's houses which proved to be fun. There are lots of options so take advantage of them; a change of place could be just what the doctor ordered.
If you have a great role-playing tip to share e-mail us at GameKnightsPodcast@gmail.com
Be sure to inject some humor in your campaigns. If you've listened to our podcast, you know all too well, that we don't take ourselves too seriously. Our GM's usually are sure to put that one situation in there to try and throw us off and make us laugh or shake or head at what we have to deal with. Try running a humorous campaign sometime, an entire ongoing, absurd, series of adventures. It's a nice refreshing twist from having to save the seriousness of having to save the world all the time. Give it a go sometime.
If you have a good role-playing tip or idea, share it with us at GameKnightsPodcast@gmail.com and maybe I'll use it for the Tuesday Tip of the Week, and give you the credit to boot.
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