|
Bingarosso posted:My question is what are the BEST techniques for character hooks? What have you done in your games to increase your understanding, as well as the player's understanding of the characters? I'm sure it is dependent on the players, but what types of motivations have you had most success with? What has not worked at all? The ways I've had the most success - and I think it's important to note here that every group is different and every GM is different and so please take the standard flotilla of disclaimers as read - was to do absolutely nothing; to let the players pick up the slack. My feeling was that the players know their characters and their motivations better than I will, and so I laid out the bare bones of the scenario and said "you're gonna stop this. Why?"
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2013 23:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 2, 2024 18:21 |
|
|
So, I'm dealing with a bit of GM burn-out. I was running two games, one a long-running Rogue Trader campaign, and the other a more experimental World of Darkness game. I first quit the latter one because it was a lot of work to prepare for the sessions and whatever inspiration I had for it was gone, so that was that. A few days ago I decided to give up on the 40K game as well, even though it is a scenario my group and I are used to playing in and ideas come organically. I am not sure why, I've just been tired of late and wanted less things on my mind. I still have an itch to run games, as it is an entertaining social and creative experience, but well, I don't know. Maybe just taking some time off and focusing on the rest of my life will refresh me for the hobby. Anyways, I'm just wondering what other GMs have done when going through a similar burn out.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2013 18:25
|
|
|
ZearothK posted:So, I'm dealing with a bit of GM burn-out. I was running two games, one a long-running Rogue Trader campaign, and the other a more experimental World of Darkness game. I first quit the latter one because it was a lot of work to prepare for the sessions and whatever inspiration I had for it was gone, so that was that. 1) play Fiasco (GM-less!) 2) play other games in general 3) play other games that specifically require less prep 4) take breaks, and dive back in when you feel ready Players are vampires.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2013 18:42
|
|
|
1) Ask one of the players to take a shot at GMing and chill as a player for a while. Simply tell them you'd appreciate a one-shot where you can just go kill some goblins or something. 2) Play Apocalypse/Dungeon World/Goon-made Rogue Trader hack and trick your players into doing the prep for you. 3) Meet for a game-less beer night.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2013 18:54
|
|
|
Bingarosso posted:My question is what are the BEST techniques for character hooks? What have you done in your games to increase your understanding, as well as the player's understanding of the characters? I'm sure it is dependent on the players, but what types of motivations have you had most success with? What has not worked at all? Some good tips have been given by the posters above already. All in all it comes down to your players, who they are and what they expect from the game. If they just want some dungeon crawling with a stereotypical character then just do simple hooks. Revenge, lost relatives and/or material gain is easy here. If they want a more complex and fleshed out characters poo poo gets interesting. My best advice is to sit down and talk with the player, ask them questions about background (Family, studies, experiences, where they grew up. Use that information to form a goal and motivation for the character. One-on-one sessions are really good for this as well, think of it as a tutorial stage where you can throw situations at them to see how they react. Now, balancing say five characters and keeping them all relevant to the story is really hard. Try to keep track of how their personal stories are progressing, write down what their goals are and what they've done to reach them. Keeping track of where they are in relation to their set out goals will make it easier for you too throw in relevant hooks when they are on unrelated quests (ex. They are ridding a village of a bandit threat, person in town knew the fighters father). The technique I find myself using the most is the group relationship. Encourage the group in building relations between the different characters. What this usually does for me is that it opens up the ability to focus more on one of the characters. The groups friendship means the others tag along to aid their friend. I guess this doesn't really work if your players need to be in the center of attention all the time. But I've found that a lot of character development is made when you're playing the "supporting cast" so to speak. What I'm trying to say is don't be afraid to focus on one person in the group to build the story around. ZearothK posted:Anyways, I'm just wondering what other GMs have done when going through a similar burn out. I've had a couple of those too. My usual way of dealing with it is to take a short break from roleplaying or letting someone else run a game for a while. It's real easy to get into the habit of scrapping and starting up new games all the time. If you really don't want to take a break from GMing I'd say explore different sources of inspiration. Check out new TV series, books, video-games, music or just get into the habit of taking a walk once every other day. In essence: Approach the game from another direction. That said, my biggest advice is to let someone else GM for a while. You're still roleplaying and coming up with ideas, but you don't have to be as far reaching in your plans. What usually burns me out is the need to be three or four steps ahead of the current session. So it's nice to take a break once in a while and just play. e: ^^^^^^^ he's got the right idea.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2013 19:12
|
|
|
ZearothK posted:Anyways, I'm just wondering what other GMs have done when going through a similar burn out. Aside from schedule pressure, I think that there it is inherently less relaxing to be the GM during game time because not only do you have to be on-the-ball and ready to generate new content in response to anything, but you are also playing the part of the one responsible for keeping the game moving and corralling the players back on-topic when things get derailed. Even if you find GMing enjoyable, the concentration required can keep it from being the same stress-relieving diversion that it can be for the players. So if you need time to decompress during your week, don't count GM time! As for inspiration, sometimes you just need to find the fun again - especially if GMing has become just a chore that you do for your friends. If that is the case, take some time off and try other things. Like Homullus suggested, play some games that don't have a GM. You could also try taking an improv class (or if you already know improv, get yourself back into some drop-in sessions). It would be a weekly chance to get creative and goof off. You will also learn some fun improv games that train intuitions about sharing focus between multiple actors and quickly finding drama in unplanned scenes. Finally, when you get back to GMing, convert your campaigns to systems that put a lighter load on the GM so that the session is also relaxing for you.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2013 20:08
|
|
|
ZearothK posted:So, I'm dealing with a bit of GM burn-out. I was running two games, one a long-running Rogue Trader campaign, and the other a more experimental World of Darkness game. I first quit the latter one because it was a lot of work to prepare for the sessions and whatever inspiration I had for it was gone, so that was that. I've been GMing the Mongoose Traveller sandbox game, Pirates of Drinax. It's ace - you need to put a bit of effort up front into tracking information, but the players basically write the story themselves. And you can offload the tracking of crew, fuel and cargo on to them, too. My prep for a game is ten minutes sketching out a space pirate asteroid base or whatever. I know whereof you speak, though - I have gone from intensely plotted D&D 4e game, to more loosely plotted (but still with an arc) Eclipse Phase game, to completely loosey goosey Traveller. WAyyyyy more relaxing. And not any less fun for anyone.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2013 21:02
|
|
|
sebmojo posted:I know whereof you speak, though - I have gone from intensely plotted D&D 4e game, to more loosely plotted (but still with an arc) Eclipse Phase game, to completely loosey goosey Traveller. WAyyyyy more relaxing. And not any less fun for anyone. For me, and many others I'm sure, part of the fun of GMing is the planning. It can be relaxing in it's own sense. That said, I just finished writing a campaign that I've been working on for a year, and I am not in the least inclined to play it. I think a huge part of being a good GM is learning how to effectively plan and to balance that with improvising. Overdoing either of the two makes for some lovely sessions in my experience.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2013 21:23
|
|
|
I can think of like three things off the top of my head that really start to wear on me about GMing after a year+: 1.) Information overload. You can try to stay organized. You can try to keep notes. But after like 250+ hours of gaming you're going to forget stuff, repeat stuff, or end up with this convoluted plots that keep eating their own tail. Keeping track of it starts to feel more like managing the information that already exists than it does about making up new stuff. 2.) Complexity overload. I suspect this is tied to #1. I don't know about you guys, but the odd plot twist on game #17 can continue to haunt me for months as I struggle to explain it and try to figure out what the hell I was thinking when I included it. These nests upon nests of explanation can just make me feel drained as I struggle to keep a plot afloat that I never liked in the first place, which leads me to... 3.) Doubt. Typically I only have a few hours in my week to prepare for game, which means that if I decide at the 11th hour that my poo poo sucks, I can either cancel game or run with what I've got. That often times results in me running things I won't want to run. Those are the big things for me anyway.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2013 21:29
|
|
|
SafetyTrain posted:Some good tips have been given by the posters above already. All in all it comes down to your players, who they are and what they expect from the game. If they just want some dungeon crawling with a stereotypical character then just do simple hooks. Revenge, lost relatives and/or material gain is easy here. If they want a more complex and fleshed out characters poo poo gets interesting. My best advice is to sit down and talk with the player, ask them questions about background (Family, studies, experiences, where they grew up. Use that information to form a goal and motivation for the character. One-on-one sessions are really good for this as well, think of it as a tutorial stage where you can throw situations at them to see how they react. The other thing, which I think has already been mentioned, is to put them in situations where they have to decide on their values. Do they give up the innocent but possessed child to the morally ambiguous clerics, steal him away and deal with the possession themselves, or [something else your players come up with]? Do they choose wealth or honesty, honor and sacrifice or survive as traitors?
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2013 21:46
|
|
|
Bingarosso posted:This whole conversation brings up a really fundamental question for me. I've run my first full adventure with my characters, and used as a motivation "Here's some money, and a clear task in front of you...there's no time....go!" Questions. Always questions. Ask the characters things about themselves and the world at every turn. This invests the players in their world and characters directly because they get to say things about it. The best character hooks are always the ones the players come up with themselves. "Thief, what have you heard about the local lord's treasure? Who do you know in the underground that might have a secret way in?" "Paladin, what injustice just makes your blood boil when you witness it?" "Elves are seen as second class citizens here, treated lower than dogs. Ranger, what do you think about that?" "Wizard, the local apothecary mentioned a potion he's working on that can extend life, but why do you think the cost for taking it will be too high?" "Fighter, the local baron is hiring mercenaries to quell riots of the peasants in the area, but why are the peasants rioting?" "Who do you know from your past here that could help? What do you owe them?"
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2013 21:58
|
|
|
DarkHorse posted:An example of this is Dread. You got me intrigued and I looked the game up. http://www.tiltingatwindmills.net/dread/dread_quickstart_letter.pdf That's the free version of the rules which contain some condensed info about making a questionnaire and some example questions. Really useful stuff in any game. Thanks man!
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2013 22:20
|
|
|
Logistics question: I've got a group of players attacking a cult devoted to a Goddess of mechanika, math, and logic (Cyriss in the IKRPG), and I want to give them a logic puzzle to solve at the gate of the cultists' hideout. The problem is that I'm having a hard time coming up with a puzzle that both could be handled in an empty room by a group of PCs and that's interesting and challenging enough to take 'em a few minutes to figure out. The best I've come up with so far is a bastardized version of an LSAT logic question I found online, and it just doesn't feel right yet:quote:You soon find yourselves in a receiving room, about 10 meters by 15, with a large steel double door on one short end next to a block of eight levers and what appears to be a printing press. The room is lit by a series of inlaid gas lanterns, and the face of Cyriss is emblazoned across the double doors and is staring straight at you. The printing press is actually moving, and as you watch a single sheet of parchment emerges from it bearing crisp black lettering. Any suggestions on how to make this flow, or, even better, a superior puzzle to throw at my PCs? Thank you  !
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2013 00:39
|
|
|
This one requires setup: In one of the old King's Quest games there was a sheer cliff face you had to climb, solving puzzles as you went to make more foot holds. The most insidious one required the manual: four blank rocks and no way to tell them apart. The manual had this to say about the puzzle in question:quote:Four men standing in a row It's piss easy when you think about it for 10 seconds but be prepared for player death if you actually do this over a pit and they gently caress up. A lot of those old adventure games had splendidly evil puzzles that you could use to inspire yourself. Resident Evil ain't got nothin' on Gabriel Knight 3.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2013 00:47
|
|
|
So, if anyone in the thread knows anything about Anima, I don't suppose I could get some general tips on encounter balancing and/or more specific encounters? I'm a narrative-focused GM, and so I know how to make a half-decent story and hook the players along well enough for my needs, but the issue I'm having is, well, eventually the group's gonna need to get into a fight. The players are currently level 2 and looking through Avalbane for some old ruins they've been tipped off to, so I'm thinking of setting a few dastardly traps(I know how to do that) and run-down guardians(no loving clue)that stand between them and their ultimate goal. So, forest critters and/or combat marionettes would probably be best, but even raw statblocks that I can attach to a creature of my choosing would be helpful if you don't want to go plumbing Those Who Walked.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2013 01:29
|
|
|
So I had my first real row with my group last night. It wasn't even particularly row-esque, more like a solid minute of bitter sarcasm in our campaign of over a year. I may have been drinking at the time. I forget the comment that triggered it, but I think it was something along the lines of trying to hurry me along to get started with the game. I kinda just gave a mouthful of heavy sarcasm about having to be the one to write everything, plan and organize everything, and that all the players do is turn up and play, and that sometimes they're not even prepared for that. It was boiling point for a few issues that had been weighing on my mind for a while now, and just feeling sorta unrespected or unappreciated. I realized that I'd been pretty rude and almost immediately apologized. Anyway, one of the better players of the group for organization who this wasn't so much directed at quietly packed up his stuff and just went to another room to play video games, and when asked said he didn't want to be part of what he felt was the same negativity he gets at work. No further discussion was had on it, he just went quiet. I then ran the session for the rest of the group and it was oddly one of the better sessions we've had as far as dedicated roleplaying and speed of combat went, and there was no mention of the earlier outburst, and pretty much everyone acted as if it hadn't happened. I found out later that the guy who'd left removed himself from the group organizational page, and the group, and this has left me feeling somewhat sour at myself. From the veteran DMs, I ask how do you deal with blues between yourself and the group? Is it better to just let an unhappy player go or try and convince them to come back? Any advice would be pretty great.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2013 02:04
|
|
|
WAR FOOT posted:So I had my first real row with my group last night. It wasn't even particularly row-esque, more like a solid minute of bitter sarcasm in our campaign of over a year. I may have been drinking at the time. Conflict resolution takes both sides being present and willing. That's probably where I'd start with him -- explain the situation briefly, ask him whether it's something he's willing to talk about with you. If yes, you can try to convince him to come back. If not, no, let him go. I'd be more concerned with everyone acting as if it had never happened -- it sounds as though they're not really processing the root of the problem, which is your dissatisfaction. Players will absolutely behave -- for a while -- rather than do a fraction of the work you do for a campaign.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2013 02:45
|
|
|
ZearothK posted:So, I'm dealing with a bit of GM burn-out. I'm kinda going through the same thing; homebrew-setting D&D 4e, with a 8-player group (usually/sort of/sometimes) split into 2 parties. Basically what I did was after the first half-dozenish sessions, I made this very clear to everyone:
This makes it so there is no confusion -- that this story has a definite beginning and end, rather than just being kitchen-sink fantasy adventure soap opera that continues on indefinitely. I also went on to explain that large parts of the setting (outside of the main story arc) have been left intentionally vague. Either because they're unimportant to the story I'm trying to tell, or to allow the Next Campaign a wide degree of freedom, instead of always having to worry about conforming to canon.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2013 00:26
|
|
|
Yeah, I think every GM experiences burnout at some point. The best way I found to alleviate is to have one special session a month. We bench the campaign and just get together for a board game night. We just get together, have some pizza and play a bunch of one off games like Zombie Dice, Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride, or we bust out an old box of Magic Cards and make quick decks to play against each other. Just get together and do Halo for a night instead every once in a great while and it gives you a good week to just not write/stat out anything and go and play games for a while.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2013 00:56
|
|
|
We've been doing rotating GMs in my group since I got burned out on running 4e and it's been working nicely. Our 4e campaign was a little more than a year old and I'd only gotten to be a player in maybe 2 one-shots during that time and I just really wanted to DM less and play more. I was getting tired of having to put together and run 4e encounters because I realized at some point that the tactical combat was my least favorite part of the game. For me the trick was to find games that my players wanted to run and be super supportive in getting their games going. Once someone else started running it was easier to get other people on board with doing it. It's harder to say you don't want to GM when everyone else in your group is doing it! Two out of three of the players in that 4e game had never done any roleplaying before and now everyone runs a different game. We have a Dungeon World campaign, a Monster of the Week game which myself and one of my friends alternate running (my fantasy-hating girlfriend actually plays in that game which is also totally awesome), we're doing a Sacred BBQ sans grid combat random table rolling madcap mythological adventure as well, and we played a single session of an AW Eclipse Phase hack that was supposed to be my campaign but I'm still looking for "the system" so who knows about that one right now. Obviously this isn't the solution for everyone but my group is into it. The fact that everyone has social skills also helps.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2013 01:33
|
|
|
wzzard posted:We've been doing rotating GMs in my group since I got burned out on running 4e and it's been working nicely. Our 4e campaign was a little more than a year old and I'd only gotten to be a player in maybe 2 one-shots during that time and I just really wanted to DM less and play more. I was getting tired of having to put together and run 4e encounters because I realized at some point that the tactical combat was my least favorite part of the game. For me the trick was to find games that my players wanted to run and be super supportive in getting their games going. Once someone else started running it was easier to get other people on board with doing it. It's harder to say you don't want to GM when everyone else in your group is doing it! Different games and different gm's is a great way to avoid burnout, especially with so many flexible, inexpensive, and easy to use games out there today. It's much less daunting for inexperienced gm's today than it was in the hobby years ago, because the games are better at telling you how to be a good GM, instead of it being this nebulous, undefined "either you got it or you don't" skill. I think that a lot of today's systems are also better about making GMing a fun thing to play as opposed to the bottom heavy thing it used to be. I remember when my old group use to play palladium fantasy, and that system was notorious for gm burnout in my group. everyone had a crack at gming and running their own story and we rotated to give each gm a chance to write more, it was almost a necessity since a lot of us at he time were fledgling players to the hobby. I used to 'cheat' when it came to planning the game and monsters for my campaign. I might write a few words about a faction, the motivations, their behaviours, and do the same for monsters instead of plotting out arcs or making level 12 goblin swordsman for the party to fight. I'd just ad-lib the story and takes some notes as we played and work on just keeping the ball rolling. A lot of games these days are designed to play that way and have great tools to assist you in doing so.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2013 03:59
|
|
|
Quid posted:Is there a right way to deal with "I want a different character?" Or is it ok to say no?
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2013 11:11
|
|
|
How do you guys prepare for your sessions? I run 4e, so I make sure to have some interesting battle maps and a couple squads of monsters in my pocket. As far as npc's go, I give "plot" guys a few personality bullet points and a picture from my TG art thread folder. I often find that I'm pretty bad about giving all of the incidental npc's the loveable curmudgeon stereotype, but my party hasn't complained. I really hate flipping through pages of notes during social encounters, so I have a vague outline of where I expect the session to go and improv the rest.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2013 20:21
|
|
|
Bring Alcohol. Whenever your group does something that derails the campaign; take a drink. Have the hospital on speed dial. -- In seriousness, though, I generally ask what kind of game they want to play. Generally my current group just prefers it as a mini's tactics game except with a bit of story thrown in, but my previous group really enjoyed an ongoing Kingmaker game. For the former, I generally come up with new and interesting abilities and templates I can apply to any monster that comes up in their adventurer (Mana-charged Direbear), for the latter I had a random table of weather events, wandering groups, as well as keeping track of seasons and time as well as events around those dates. Honestly it isn't really a good idea to prepare anything too indepth unless your group 'follows' that kind of railing. If they don't, a good map, sense of time (And what happens around those times), and a good table of random encounters with descriptions no deeper than 'A band of wandering bards' or 'Sudden Weather Change' or 'Merchant of mysterious goods' or 'Solo/Brute level appropriate encounter' can really help you out. 'Sudden Weather Change' is a personal favorite since the players will often come up with their own ideas one whats going on -- Just run with it. If they're getting excited over raiding a mad wizard's tower, then make sure they spot it off in the distance. If they feel that it's a divine omen, have them stumble across a grisley scene involving a ritual sacrifice and an overturned caravan.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2013 22:22
|
|
|
CainsDescendant posted:How do you guys prepare for your sessions? I run 4e, so I make sure to have some interesting battle maps and a couple squads of monsters in my pocket. As far as npc's go, I give "plot" guys a few personality bullet points and a picture from my TG art thread folder. I often find that I'm pretty bad about giving all of the incidental npc's the loveable curmudgeon stereotype, but my party hasn't complained. I really hate flipping through pages of notes during social encounters, so I have a vague outline of where I expect the session to go and improv the rest. A month or two ago I planned out all the possible adventures we would have, and made/stole maps for them. Inside of rooms, ambushes, space stations, poo poo like that. When they go off book, I may use one of the maps I made, or I might just go freeform. We spend a lot of time looking at generic pictures to set the scene, but eventually we'll have all the mapped adventures so it's not like wasted effort. Anyway now all I do to prepare for games is maybe write a paragraph or two so that I can easily set the scene when they get to the boss room or first enter the drifting space hulk or w/e. And maybe I'll look over my notes to remind myself of NPC names because I forget those so loving fast. In fact I'm starting to run low on maps so I think I will be making some new ones on saturday. Anyway other than that, I wing it. A couple months ago I put in like four hours of effort and that's all I've needed. None of my adventures have turned out anywhere near how I planned them back then but who cares?
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2013 23:46
|
|
|
Dear I find myself giving my players a lot of homework assignments (usually optional). Am I a bad DM? - P.d0t (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 06:03
|
|
|
Dear P.d0t. Nope. Just a bad poster. - Fenmore B. Buttercrunch. PS. Don't sign your posts.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 06:34
|
|
|
CainsDescendant posted:How do you guys prepare for your sessions? I run 4e, so I make sure to have some interesting battle maps and a couple squads of monsters in my pocket. As far as npc's go, I give "plot" guys a few personality bullet points and a picture from my TG art thread folder. I often find that I'm pretty bad about giving all of the incidental npc's the loveable curmudgeon stereotype, but my party hasn't complained. I really hate flipping through pages of notes during social encounters, so I have a vague outline of where I expect the session to go and improv the rest. Black Box everything. I sit down, figure roughly where my party is going to go and who they're going to meet. If I'm not sure, I'll sometimes ask the party at the end of a session or email the party during the week what they're planning to do next session so I can tailor my prep to things they might actually come across. P.d0t posted:Dear Nope. I give my posters homework, but I try to add a twist to it, and give rewards for results. At least trying to complete the homework gives a Session Token; more effort grants more tokens. (Each token is good for +1 to any d20 roll, but expire when that session is over. I believe I stole that idea from someone else in this thread.)
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 07:21
|
|
P.S. STILL COMPLETELY DEVOID OF MERIT
|
Guesticles posted:Nope. I give my posters homework, but I try to add a twist to it, and give rewards for results. At least trying to complete the homework gives a Session Token; more effort grants more tokens. (Each token is good for +1 to any d20 roll, but expire when that session is over. I believe I stole that idea from someone else in this thread.) I guess my next question is like... if I consistently have the same 1 or 2 players (e: Out of 8 total) do the homework and no one else, should I maybe cut it out? Most of the homework is email assignments, but the actual campaign is homegame tabletop get-together. thing. P.d0t fucked around with this message at 07:44 on Mar 18, 2013 |
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 07:37
|
|
|
P.d0t posted:I guess my next question is like... if I consistently have the same 1 or 2 players doing the homework and no one else, should I maybe cut it out? Depends on two things: Why the other players aren't doing it, and how much it bothers you/how much them not doing it hurts the session. With my current group, I have to give two of the players a nudge sometimes because they have jobs (or schoolwork) and I'll give them a pass on not getting stuff done in time. In a previous group, people not doing homework just meant 1/2 the group wasn't enjoying playing anymore, and was going through the motions for the sake of the other half. I'd take the people not doing prepwork aside individually and find out why they aren't doing it. How often are you asking your players for prepwork/what sort of prepwork are you asking your players to do?
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 08:03
|
|
|
Guesticles posted:How often are you asking your players for prepwork/what sort of prepwork are you asking your players to do? By and large I try to keep it to setting building or character development stuff. Example Homework:
 ). What do you think the meaning of the dream is? And why are you having these odd dreams?* Here are some story hooks for possible adventures we could run next time; please pick your favourite * Here are some ideas for the successor campaign; please pick your favourite so the incoming DM can plan accordingly * You just got through a long grindfest followed by some very heavy emotional plotlines; now that you're out of the wilderness and in a big city, what would your character do for fun, to relax and unwind? * You are a band of mercenaries working for a member of the Royal Family; outline/describe a different member of the Royal Family and/or their mercenaries. Can be fluff descriptions or statted up characters. * Since the large cities are (so far) undefined, you may submit layouts/descriptions/factions etc. for them, and I will work them into the story We've run 10 or 11 sessions now, basically once a week, and that sums up all the homework I have given; the "pick the next adventure" has been used like twice. e2: I have 8 players, so I try and split them up into groups of 4; most of them have been in 6 session each. I have one player who is a secret badguy, so he gets his own special homework and is pretty good about doing it in a timely fashion. And I gave the Paladin a quest (more or less) from his deity as part of the wrap-up to a session he had to cancel attending, at the last minute. I guess it bothers me, moreso than it hurts the sessions (except for the one about building/describing the big cities, although I'll take the fault for that) But like, I want the players to care about their characters, the story, and the other characters in it. And that way, I'd have things/people that are tailored to their interests and their characters' motives, rather than "Nameless/Disposable NPC #267 sends you on a fetch quest." e: ^^^ This last bit, I have expressly told them all, in a face-to-face setting. P.d0t fucked around with this message at 08:42 on Mar 18, 2013 |
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 08:36
|
|
|
Guesticles posted:
The answer is usually either "I was too busy" or "I forgot", both of which usually mean "I am not invested enough in your campaign to do it, I just want to show up and play".
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 14:56
|
|
|
Thanks to everyone for the advice on dealing with burn-out, I couldn't convince any of my players to run a game, but I found someone willing to take me in as a player in one of the other local groups, so I'll see if switching places will help me scratch my gaming itch without leaving me tired and worn!
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 15:19
|
|
|
ZearothK posted:Thanks to everyone for the advice on dealing with burn-out, I couldn't convince any of my players to run a game, but I found someone willing to take me in as a player in one of the other local groups, so I'll see if switching places will help me scratch my gaming itch without leaving me tired and worn! Just don't do what I do and make homework for yourself. It's one thing to be invested, but in an Anima game I'm playing my character is raising an army and I took it upon myself to name the troops individually, track class and level, country of origin, and assign promotions and squads... Don't do that. Rule of thumb, and this applies to the homework guy too: If it takes longer than an hour a week regularly, you probably shouldn't be doing it as a player.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 17:42
|
|
|
I ran a weekly game of 4E for a couple of years before I couldn't juggle it and work/school any more. Thankfully one of my players stepped up and now we alternate GMing. It's nice to have a week off every other week, and lets me do stuff I want to do, whether it's for my game or not. VVV EDIT: I had a 1/5 success rate for the last time my party leveled up. I asked them to email their choices so I could incorporate them into MapTool ahead of time. The only guy that did emailed me before the session was over, and did it wrong. I still gave him a magic item for being the only success. v  v
DarkHorse fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Mar 18, 2013 |
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 18:16
|
|
|
Only homework I assign is "have your characters levelled up and ready until next month." Pretty steady 50% success quote with that one.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 18:19
|
|
|
Lazy Bear posted:
I think this is not a good rule of thumb in any way. Some people like world-building, others don't, that's cool, what's most important is that expectations are clear from the start and everyone's having fun. Your rule of thumb really sounds like the player laziness being described here now. I'd love to see more games built around players doing more prep work. If GM prep work is so awesome that GMs should be climbing over each other for the chance to do it for the players' entertainment weekly, it's really not fair that they hoard it all for themselves.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 20:11
|
|
|
P.d0t posted:By and large I try to keep it to setting building or character development stuff. One of the things I do when it comes to "Decide what to do" is I tell the players to work it out amongst themselves. If only two people vote, they get to pick what happens next. The character development stuff is a little more difficult. Some of your players might not want to really think about their character's pasts and just want to slaughter goblins and disarm traps. And if that's the case, you'll need to figure out how you'll handle that. homullus posted:The answer is usually either "I was too busy" or "I forgot", both of which usually mean "I am not invested enough in your campaign to do it, I just want to show up and play". When someone in my current group says they were too busy to do some prep work, I believe them; but its also not a regular occurrence with this group. They know that not doing the homework means I've got less stuff pregenerated for the night, so the session is slower. I've had weeks where we have to something other than the main campaign because I was too busy that week to do my GM prepping.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 23:50
|
|
|
The amount of homework I've distributed to players is slim. It usually consists of "What character do you want to play?". This is followed by a phone call where they ask what they should play. As with most things player homework comes down to player preference. I have one player who is a fellow GM, he recently set up a citys entire Mage Guild and Magic College complete with statted up characters. I wouldn't have asked any of the other players to do this. I just make sure that players who put in the time to make fleshed out characters usually get rewarded for this, through better starting gear or something like that. Some people are just in it for the 6 or so hours of entertainment each week and that's fine. Others want to spend some extra time prepping for a session and this should be rewarded. All in all, a lot of my GMing is based around the idea that not all players bring the same thing to the table. I reward someone doing extra prep, but I don't want to punish or force someone who hasn't done it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2013 08:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 2, 2024 18:21 |
|
|
I give homework pretty regularly - "what symbol represents this faction?" or "what's this character's name?" usually. Nothing I can't come up with on the fly or they can't come up with on the fly. Just little things that provoke the shared experience of world building. I'll also do that in-game as well "you (to player) have been here before, why don't you describe the city to your companions that are seeing it for the first time?" It works well and my group enjoys adding little bits of flavor. I tried something fun in my session last night. I had the party choose one representative to enter a magic null-zone where they were separated from the rest of the party and I took that player in to another room and gave him the happenings: the null-zone was actually a demon's prison and the demon offered a reward for his rescue - but only to the player that entered. A pact was made that, if the player were to share this information with the rest of his party he would lose something important but each time the two of them had a secret rendezvous he would gain something of value. The player accepted. The rest of the group instantly pounced on him; it was the Spanish loving Inquisition. I'm eager to see how long this player is able to hold out if at all. I liked seeing the dissension immediately sown from it and I think it'll add a great little bit of mystery amongst the players themselves.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2013 14:49
|
|
