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Pollyanna posted:Inter-party conflict is cool and good, as long as there is no matching inter-player conflict. I find a general trigger rule is better than trying to list endless *isms before a game. Not because you shouldn't be learning about those things, you should and it's cool that you want to honor that in game time. It's just that even if you're the most well read woke GM on the planet you're gonna miss someone potentially at the table. My version that's been derived from local GMs and RPG groups: We are all here to have fun We all trust each other Nobody knows anyone else's experience here. So, if for any reason the game gets uncomfortable at any time for any reason the GM will look out for players doing the <TRIGGER SIGNAL HERE>. At this point we will immediately halt gameplay and address whatever needs editing or addressing. You are not a bad person if someone uses the trigger signal. However, if you are the type of person who would question why someone would use it on your content I invite you to find another game. If something happens and you're uncomfortable bringing it up at the table please see me after the game or Private Message on the game Discord. It's not a verbatim speech. More a set of bullet points I cover in the first few minutes of session 0. In 2 or 3 years of games with random students I've never had the Trigger Signal actually used but people like knowing that there is a safety net, at least for the first few sessions. For instance, my games use a lot of Elves as an arrogant ruling class, Half-Elves and Half-Orcs as the same species but with hosed up politics applied to their bodies, and Halflings as "people without culture" because the Human Empire went around burning it all. Which is some super heavy stuff to just put down but it makes it into my games because my players include a lot of nerds and writers who are working from the perspective of black and Indigenous people. So a general "no portrayal of racism or colonization" rule would be stifling but "We can talk about our poo poo and walk it back" lets us have things like Youth Sorcerers who boost their power through a fantasy graffiti practice of painting magic circles EVERYWHERE in their neighborhood without it becoming Trauma Porn.
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May 21, 2018 18:11
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Soup Inspector posted:I'd love to see your blog - I'm always hungry for ways to improve. Sure! https://www.laserbooks.net/single-post/2018/04/08/Game-Masters-Degree-Letting-Go https://www.laserbooks.net/single-post/2018/04/29/Game-Masters-Degree-An-Ace-Up-the-Sleeve https://www.laserbooks.net/single-post/2018/05/12/Game-Masters-Degree-Taking-the-Gloves-Off This week is looking pretty hectic at work so it might not go up until next week, but I'm thinking of working on a piece about PC death for the next article.
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May 21, 2018 21:59
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I want someone to write a version of the TBZ rules that are universal enough you can slot them into any HP system.
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May 21, 2018 22:47
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It's been a while since I last posted in this thread but it seems like the obvious place. My Dungeon World campaign ended sorta suddenly. Everyone seemed to be having a fun time while we were playing; people were getting into their characters and nobody had any complaints when I asked around in between sessions, but the gap between sessions got longer and longer with players becoming less responsive and more flaky on the rare occasions I did manage to get everyone to agree on a time that fit around people's irregular schedules. After a particularly bad occasion in which two players just forgot that the game was happening, I had a serious talk with everyone saying that I thought I was putting a lot more energy into the game than I was getting back, and that the difficulty I was having trying to keep the game going was making me question whether or not it was worthwhile, which led to everyone agreeing that they'd try to be better in keeping game sessions regular events, but this lasted all of one session before going back to how it was. Eventually one person just straight up went incommunicado for a month before sending me a private message apologising for vanishing but saying they probably wouldn't be back any time soon. This happened during sort of a natural break point in the campaign, so I was disappointed but it wasn't hard to roll with the change and come up with a reason their character was no longer in the game. I managed to get everyone remaining to agree on a time for the next session; one of the players said that they'd probably be able to make it but might have to drop out last minute, so I really emphasised that I'd be trying to make sure that everyone's character got a chance to shine and I'd be happy to rearrange again if it came down to it. Well, the time for the next session arrives, and after sending a message saying they might be late a few hours before hand that player just never turns up. Two hours after the session was meant to start, after being chased up by myself and other players, they send a message saying they won't be making it. This leads to an argument in which one of my players says I need to be more accommodating of their schedules, leading to me throwing in the towel. Looking back on it now, it's pretty obvious I should have given up on this months ago, but when every time I talked to my friends about how difficult I was finding it to keep slamming against this wall they said how much they enjoyed the games and wished they happened more often I guess I sort of felt like I needed to keep going for them, especially since the game was really the only way I had to keep in touch with some of them after leaving Uni, and indeed since putting an end to the game I haven't actually spoken to some of them since. Part of me, though, wonders if there was a problem in how I was running the game, and whether if I'd done better then they'd have been more willing to make time to play. I guess my question is how do you guys deal when things just really go completely to poo poo in your campaigns? It's really killed my desire to ever run another game for anyone else. NAME REDACTED fucked around with this message at 01:33 on May 22, 2018 |
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May 22, 2018 01:30
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The only thing you really can do is set an explicit, consistent time for each session and let people know, so they can plan out their schedule with it in mind. If they can’t manage that there’s not much that can be done, aside from haranguing people, which sometimes works but sucks to do.
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May 22, 2018 01:58
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Herding players is the worst part of gming.
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May 22, 2018 07:02
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Indeed it is - it's nice to have one friend who is willing to play whip and help push players on committing to times so I don't have to play schoolmarm alone.
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May 22, 2018 07:09
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lofi posted:Herding players is the worst part of gming. 
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May 22, 2018 07:25
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Yeah, more and more I wish that it was standard practice for someone other than the GM to be responsible for getting everyone in the same room. There's no reason why it should be but for some reason both jobs always seem to fall on the same head.
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May 22, 2018 07:43
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I'm getting really pissed off with a Sunday group. It's supposed to meet every other week, but almost every session someone calls off. Unfortunately it's always due to illness rather than actively flaking, so if I say "Guys, sorry, I'm done with keeping a Sunday empty just for gently caress all to happen" I'll be the arsehole, but well, I'm really getting tired of putting Sundays on hold for a game that rarely happens.
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May 22, 2018 07:56
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Recent session didn't go great, but I have a decent idea where the problems were. We've got a guy in our group who's new to us, our system (13th Age in this case) and RPGs in general and he's super into the idea but he gets overwhelmed. The rest of us have been doing this stuff for nearly 10 years together and I guess we're moving quickly. Although it didn't help that this time, we got into a situation where the group made a plan, and everyone started working on their part of it, but it turned out everyone had gotten a different idea of what the plan was and we had to roll way back while also having a quick basic discussion on game expectations. It was all very draining and after that scene I first spontaneously cut half the remaining material for that adventure and then skipped to the end altogether when it started feeling like we were all just going through the motions. Anyway, new dude needs some playing assistance. He tends to have a lot of ideas, but they're usually wildly out of character and kind of gimmicky (so far he's suggested "summoning Cthulu" roughly twice per session but is just playing a Druid). When he's put on the spot for creative decisions it's kind of a crapshoot whether he can come up with something. I'm starting to think 13th Age may be a bit too freeform or he may have picked the wrong class (druids being both highly suggestive of a certain theme and mechanically complex) but maybe these are all just growing pains too. This was also an organized play adventure with plenty of "let the players narrate" spots, maybe the next one will simply work out better, or else I can now try to identify those spots in advance and insert a bit of prompting towards predefined courses of action.
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May 22, 2018 07:56
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My approach with absenteeism is to only cancel a session if more than half the players can't make it. It sucks to not have a full party every time, but if I waited for everyone to show up I'd never have any gaming at all.
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May 22, 2018 08:14
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Whybird posted:My approach with absenteeism is to only cancel a session if more than half the players can't make it. It sucks to not have a full party every time, but if I waited for everyone to show up I'd never have any gaming at all. Unfortunately with my game, the hosts are 50% of the illnesses, and even if we change venue, that would leave the ill one looking after their child.
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May 22, 2018 08:20
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Whybird posted:My approach with absenteeism is to only cancel a session if more than half the players can't make it. It sucks to not have a full party every time, but if I waited for everyone to show up I'd never have any gaming at all. Ideally my approach with absenteeism is to say "well, so we don't have the players we need to make the game work, so gently caress it, let's bust out a board game or something." Because, y'know, we're (ideally) all people who enjoy one anothers' company even outside of roleplaying. Or else I say "oh thank god I don't have to deal with people today" and don't bother putting on pants. One of those.
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May 22, 2018 09:07
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putting pants on just because you "have people over", pfft lack of character strength is what that is
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May 22, 2018 09:10
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Whybird posted:Yeah, more and more I wish that it was standard practice for someone other than the GM to be responsible for getting everyone in the same room. There's no reason why it should be but for some reason both jobs always seem to fall on the same head. I did this for my games and it's great. It's heaps of effort to put on a good game, someone else can do the bullshit of getting peeps in the same room.
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May 22, 2018 09:25
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Razorwired posted:If your players don't play TCGs pick your favorite Magic: The Gathering Artist and mine their archive of card illustrations. But Phil Foglio barely matches ANY aesthetic!
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May 22, 2018 13:46
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We assume a weekly schedule for my game and make sure we don't leave the table until we set the next date. In practice we play every 2 to 3 weeks because work/school/kids comes up for people. The important thing is that we know the date of the next session when we walk away from the table.
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May 22, 2018 13:57
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25% of your GM Duty is to just schedule the next game it seems like. I'm lucky for my gaming group that we have a session every week, and have been doing so for 4 years now, mostly because we just dedicate Wednesday night for 2-3 hours of short quick gaming. Meanwhile the 5th Ed game I play in on the weekends is maybe once ever 4-6 weeks and half of that is eaten up by one player wanting to roleplay talking to all the animals and make flower crowns (not a bad thing but I feel for our GM), and another hour of basic catching up and remembering what was going on. But yea, don't be afraid to schedule weekdays for gaming, just know it's gonna be short and sweet, and that will help force you to move quick.
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May 22, 2018 14:14
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Dareon posted:But Phil Foglio barely matches ANY aesthetic! Phil Foglio is his own aesthetic, just mine all of his poo poo and have a game illustrated by Phil Foglio.
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May 22, 2018 14:27
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NinjaDebugger posted:Phil Foglio is his own aesthetic, just mine all of his poo poo and have a game illustrated by Phil Foglio. Please stop, I can only be so erect.
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May 22, 2018 14:39
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I think the best way to handle the difficulty of scheduling is to set the expectation that it's game night. Then you make sure to have something else to do with the subgroup of people. Board and card games are a great option, as are having small one-shot RPGs (Firebrands, Fiasco, etc.) and even multiplayer video games. If everyone's available, great! We play the campaign. If too many people or someone critical to a certain moment misses, then it's still game night and you can do something fun. Having that expectation up front tends to make it easier - and weirdly reduce absenteeism, in my experience. Your group still wants to show up, but feels less like assholes if they do miss a session.
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May 22, 2018 14:47
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Comrade Gorbash posted:I think the best way to handle the difficulty of scheduling is to set the expectation that it's game night. This is what we do. If we don't have a quorum, we'll bust out a board game or a few games of EDH. I also tried an experiment with absenteeism in the last D&D game I ran. I ran a 5e dungeon crawl, and if someone was absent I didn't "AFK" them or take control of them. They just... vanished until their player returned. It could have been int he middle of a combat. Didn't matter. After the game, I'd send the absent player a message that described what happened to them, and it was usually pretty awful (given that the party was trapped in a lich's dungeon). But I would also use those little meanwhiles to drop hints about the larger plot.
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May 22, 2018 16:19
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Comrade Gorbash posted:I think the best way to handle the difficulty of scheduling is to set the expectation that it's game night. I've basically got a flow chart for what game we play based on who shows up between legacy games, DND, and one offs.
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May 22, 2018 16:38
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NinjaDebugger posted:Phil Foglio is his own aesthetic, just mine all of his poo poo and have a game illustrated by Phil Foglio. Hell yes. Throw in some Bakshi Wizards and Hawkwind for the soundtrack (Warrior on the Edge of Time, natch) and that is extremely my poo poo.
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May 22, 2018 16:43
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NinjaDebugger posted:Phil Foglio is his own aesthetic, just mine all of his poo poo and have a game illustrated by Phil Foglio. Have a game whose setting is Phil Foglio illustrations 
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May 22, 2018 17:17
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What are good systems to use for Zombie games? I've got the Fantasy Flight End of the World: Zombie Apocalypse game which looks neat for a one shot, and I've heard of Red Markets and Outbreak Undead. If I wanted to run a game taking place during or shortly after any outbreak, what system should I use? I don't mind crunch too much, I spend a lot of time playing D20 games, and I don't really like PbtA games.
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May 22, 2018 17:25
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Red Markets is good but probably not what you're looking for. It's keyed for a post-apocalyptic setting, rather than the immediate event. 28 Days Later probably represents the earliest phase a Red Markets game could work for, and it's probably still too much in the midst of the crisis.
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May 22, 2018 17:34
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Whybird posted:Have a game whose setting is Phil Foglio illustrations Before I could do that I'd have to get the rights to do Blue Rose 3e, which will kickstart for $50,000 with a single stretch goal at however much is necessary: The entire book, cover to cover, illustrated by Rebecca Guay.
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May 22, 2018 18:21
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Hey I'm going to be running a solo game (Godbound) and while I did ask for advice in the chat thread, I figured asking here for solo game advice would be a big help since I have GM anxiety. Please help, I love RPGs.
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May 22, 2018 23:42
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NachtSieger posted:Hey I'm going to be running a solo game (Godbound) and while I did ask for advice in the chat thread, I figured asking here for solo game advice would be a big help since I have GM anxiety. Please help, I love RPGs. Beta blockers. I’m planning on taking them for my first game.
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May 23, 2018 03:20
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Railing Kill posted:Sure! Thanks for the links, I'm looking forward to seeing that article! NachtSieger posted:Hey I'm going to be running a solo game (Godbound) and while I did ask for advice in the chat thread, I figured asking here for solo game advice would be a big help since I have GM anxiety. Please help, I love RPGs. Take what I'm about to say with a tremendous heap of salt since I'm literally only a few sessions into my first campaign ever and I have zilch experience with Godbound. Keep in mind that there probably isn't really anything majorly different about playing with one player vs. multiples. You can handle it! You're still doing all the stuff you'd do as a group GM, just at a smaller scale. On which note you should probably make sure that your encounters etc. are actually tuned for a single person to handle. I also imagine that although player engagement is going to be higher (since you're not having to hop around the room), you might want to keep a closer eye on them to see how they're feeling about things. I know a lot of this is babby's first GMing and you've probably got a lot more experience than I do, but I hope it helps in at least some small way.  Meanwhile, my group (game's Age of Rebellion for reference's sake) are going to be investigating (and either grabbing or destroying) a drifting Imperial ship stuffed to the gills with weaponry and explosives. It's being raided by some random pirates from a nearby planet and the campaign antagonists, who are intending to steal it themselves (in the form of some random lackeys and a thematically similar group to the party). What the party don't know is that the reason the ship's drifting is because said "mirror" group have a Force user half-trained by a (herself half-trained) Jedi Knight, complete with lightsaber. He's responsible for the ship getting its poo poo ruined in the first place, at least on the inside. I'm hoping that when the group end up stumbling upon the bad guys it's going to make a good  moment. Ideally, the mirror party will become semi-major recurring antagonists. It's important to note this will be my party's first encounter with the Force - every PC is using a blaster, though I'm planning on letting them pick up some slugthrowers from the ship's cargo if they want.So what I'd like advice on is the following: 1. I've got no qualms with the bad guy party getting their poo poo kicked in to the point of death, but the intent is that hopefully the group will go "Yeah, gently caress that" and run back to their ship (since I'm going to take a page from Paramemetic's book and tell the players that although they could probably take the enemy party minus the half-trained jedi, his presence makes it very unlikely that they're going to win a stand-up fight). Obviously the villains will give chase. The problem with that is that I don't want the players thinking I'm inserting this guy and his buddies as a lovely power fantasy. For what it's worth, although he's very combat capable he's A) not the most cunning guy around and B) he doesn't have a lot of technique. Unfortunately "trying to run away" doesn't feel like it'd be conducive to outwitting him. So what should I do? 2. How can I keep the fact there's a Force user (and a lightsaber wielding Force user at that!) running around on the ship a secret until the dramatically appropriate time? Since the vast majority of the bad guys use blasters (and the pirate raiders use both blasters and bladed weapons) I was going to describe lots of corpses with either carbon scoring or gouges apparently made by some sort of thermal weapon. But that might tip my hand. How to throw them off the scent? 3. The ship is heavily damaged and powered down, so when they first arrive on the ship their first objective will be to reach the reactor core and power it up from its low power emergency mode. I was originally thinking they might have to do it for each deck (4 in total) but that could get boring fast (go up floor > head towards the back > mechanics/computers check > repeat). I'm also concerned the chase sequence above could also become repetitive if I'm not careful. I've decided some environmental hazards might be present (such as partial depressurisation, gravity being fucky, etc.) and obviously there's going to be mynocks draining power as well as pirates and the antagonists' henchmen to duke it out with. The pirates and henchmen might even be fighting with one another at points. And if during the chase they spend too much time standing around yakking on a lower deck than the bad guys, the jedi will start cutting through the ceiling to get at them. But are there any other interesting challenges and opportunities I could insert? If anything else comes to mind, please don't hesitate to mention it! I'd like to make this as exciting an event as possible. Soup Inspector fucked around with this message at 17:23 on May 23, 2018 |
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May 23, 2018 16:25
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Some doors look breeched with a plasma torch (re: lightsaber) and it looks like some of the bodies were cut up with similar markings. Depending on how you flavor the wounds implying intense close quarter ambushes, some one lucky, someone insane, or someone insanely lucky.
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May 23, 2018 17:52
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Soup Inspector posted:
Give them traps they can set as (if) they retreat, like generators they can overload, or security systems they can jury rig on the fly, and then have him blunder into them against the concerns of his henchmen. That should help make it feel like they've scraped together a success even though they had to run. Hackable security would also be a good way to demonstrate that the psuedo Jedi isn't a tactical genius if they chose a stand up fight, too. Keeshhound fucked around with this message at 18:16 on May 23, 2018 |
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May 23, 2018 18:09
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I presume the ship is going to explode at some point? If not: why not?
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May 23, 2018 20:30
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Dameius posted:Some doors look breeched with a plasma torch (re: lightsaber) and it looks like some of the bodies were cut up with similar markings. Depending on how you flavor the wounds implying intense close quarter ambushes, some one lucky, someone insane, or someone insanely lucky. I like this idea a lot! Keeshhound posted:Give them traps they can set as (if) they retreat, like generators they can overload, or security systems they can jury rig on the fly, and then have him blunder into them against the concerns of his henchmen. That should help make it feel like they've scraped together a success even though they had to run. Excellent. If they're quick and can avoid getting whacked (the guy's lightsaber has a dual-phase emitter, which means it can do stun damage as well as HP damage) they might even be able to launch him and his gang off the ship via escape pods, eliminating the chase entirely. sebmojo posted:I presume the ship is going to explode at some point? If not: why not? Knowing my group, whom are both cautious and ruthless (after sneaking their way through a good chunk of a base via disguises they literally breach and cleared their way to victory over a boss like the SW equivalent of the SAS), chances are good that the ship will in fact explode at some point. Not least since their superior's words were to the effect of "Prevent them from stealing the ship or its supplies by any means necessary"... Of course, destroying it will result in a lower reward than if they manage to grab it themselves. Soup Inspector fucked around with this message at 20:52 on May 23, 2018 |
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May 23, 2018 20:45
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Soup Inspector posted:Excellent. If they're quick and can avoid getting whacked (the guy's lightsaber has a dual-phase emitter, which means it can do stun damage as well as HP damage) they might even be able to launch him and his gang off the ship via escape pods, eliminating the chase entirely. Speaking of, you mentioned that he was going to be half trained. Which half? As in what can/can't he do, in addition to being good with a lightsaber? And as an addendum, what will the party think he can do that maybe he can't, or vice-versa? Just as a kind of meta example, even if the characters they're playing as shouldn't know better, everyone "knows" that there's no point shooting a Jedi with blasters because they'll just reflect them, so if you show him get winged by a stray shot, that could be another way to signal that this guy isn't exactly the second coming of Mace Windu.
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May 23, 2018 21:12
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Keeshhound posted:Speaking of, you mentioned that he was going to be half trained. Which half? As in what can/can't he do, in addition to being good with a lightsaber? And as an addendum, what will the party think he can do that maybe he can't, or vice-versa? Also the guy sounds like a classic half built hammer that thinks this means the whole world is his nail. So depending on how much screen time you give him, having him go back to the same basic move over and over could help signal there is a way to outflank him without tipping your hand too much.
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May 23, 2018 21:25
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Keeshhound posted:Speaking of, you mentioned that he was going to be half trained. Which half? As in what can/can't he do, in addition to being good with a lightsaber? And as an addendum, what will the party think he can do that maybe he can't, or vice-versa? Well, he's definitely weaker on the Force side of things, more due to lack of training than any ability. He can do the basic poo poo pretty much every Jedi can (in this case pushing/pulling objects, sensing lifeforms, and jumping) but that's about it. The only "exotic" stuff he's capable of is using Force Bind (AKA Force Stasis from the old EU, or if you want a more recent example think the stasis shenanigans Kylo Ren pulls in the new films) and Force Heal at an extremely basic level. He's probably going to get hit quite quickly so I can easily use the example you gave. Dameius posted:Also the guy sounds like a classic half built hammer that thinks this means the whole world is his nail. So depending on how much screen time you give him, having him go back to the same basic move over and over could help signal there is a way to outflank him without tipping your hand too much. You pretty much nailed it on the head (har) - I was hoping to make it clear that although the dude's strong he's only got the basics down pat and even those tend to be somewhat clumsy (probably both narratively and mechanically, using descriptions of him using telegraphed swings and getting penalties to actually hit the PCs). The guy likes to think of himself as something of a heroic knight, and it's not like some random punks with blasters have given him and his merry men problems before, right?
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May 23, 2018 22:03
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Soup Inspector posted:You pretty much nailed it on the head (har) - I was hoping to make it clear that although the dude's strong he's only got the basics down pat and even those tend to be somewhat clumsy (probably both narratively and mechanically, using descriptions of him using telegraphed swings and getting penalties to actually hit the PCs). The guy likes to think of himself as something of a heroic knight, and it's not like some random punks with blasters have given him and his merry men problems before, right? It probably goes without saying, but make sure he learns from this encounter, too. If he loses because they flank him, next time have him be better at fighting with his team. If they escape because they knew the ship better, have him obviously survey the next place they meet, etc.
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May 23, 2018 22:17
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