GM Tips, Tricks, & General Advice

[cailano]

The Campaign

A campaign is just a series of adventures, usually tied together by plot. They are huge undertakings. Even a short campaign might take 6 months to play out in PbP. There are a couple of things to keep in mind when creating a campaign:

1) Make it big. That final objective needs to have a good payoff. A dragon that has ransacked every village for 100 miles, leaving nothing but smoke and ruins. A vampire who has toppled the local baron and usurped his throne and turned his soldiers into slaves. A witch who lives in a swamp none have ever returned from, and who holds all the children of a local village hostage for some evil purpose.

2) Divide it into clear acts, each different from the other. 1) The PCs go to slay the dragon, but must first cross orc country, where they find a local village who begs their help to find the body of their high priestess, killed by the orcs. 2) Having done that, the PCs must venture high into the dragon's mountain lair, where an ogre lord leads an army of goblin wolf riders against them. Can the PCs convince a local barbarian tribe to help them defeat the ogre lord? 3) Inside the mountain, the PCs must descend into lava filled caverns, battling the fire elementals of a mad goblin wizard who dreams of becoming a dragon himself 5) the dragon's lair. That's just an example of course, and not very original, but very playable if the encounters are made interesting.

3) Let the PCs run the show. Do not put your own PC in there. NPCs are not "your" characters and you shouldn't become attached to them. If your PCs want to go about things in a way you didn't anticipate, improvise but do not act to stop them. Try to appreciate their cleverness.

4) Don't forget some great NPCs. Take the rather generic campaign example above. Now mix in a beautiful baroness, her lover, and her jealous husband. Also The King of Bandits, a two headed giant, a corrupt cleric, an obsessed ranger and an incompetent would be dragon-slayer. Once you've worked those NPCs into the mix, your campaign won't seem as generic, I promise. Great NPCs make great campaigns.

5) Keep raising the stakes. Things might start out bad, but they can always get worse. Give the PCs more to lose, make the bad guys badder, make the PCs put everything on the line.

That's about it for campaigns. Remember, it is all about the encounters. If they are good, you will have a good adventure, and if you have a good adventure the campaign idea will suggest itself.

[cailano]

Play By Post - Pacing

I started running my Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign around seven months ago here on TTW. I looked for a long time to find the right PbP site and settled here because of the built in dice roller, the ability to easily post attachments (I badly wanted to use battle maps) and the large base of players. I just jumped right in. I posted my recruitment ad about a week after I joined. I knew I wanted to use Pathfinder but had never played it. I thought my players were going to jump ship then and there when I asked them how to use the dice roller. Ah, memories...

As of this writing CotCT is one of the busiest games on the site, with over 7000 total posts. My players ( Ra-Thalun, Garrett Bishop, Emperor Z, Blue Tempest and Yudis) have helped create an epic story in there and I encourage anyone who wants to see a fun PbP game in action to follow the link on my sig and do a little reading. We have a great time.

Along the way I've tried playing in a few PbP games, and lurking in others (lurking is reading without playing and is a great way to pick up tricks.) There are good campaigns and bad ones. A lot start off thinking they are going to be the most epic adventure every recorded and they die before they reach 200 posts. There are a lot of elements that go into a successful game, but here I will deal with what I think is the most important one: pacing.

Pacing. The GM defines the pace of the campaign. You need to post on your game at least four to five times a day, and you don't want the PCs stuck on a single task for more than a couple of days unless its a boss fight or something. Keep the game moving or your players will lose interest. I try to shoot for ten posts a day myself, and often get fifteen or more. It doesn't really take that much time. I also work and go to school full time, serve in the National Guard, exercise about an hour a day, maintain a relationship with my girl and watch 49ers games every week during football season. It's not so hard.

Pacing is also achieved by players. If you find you have players you are constantly waiting on or who detract from the game, deal with them. Write them a PM and ask them if they really want to be there. If not, don't take it personally, just replace them. I've actually been replaced as a player before, and by a guy that was a player in my own game. I didn't take it personally, I was holding the group back. I just went and concentrated more on my own campaign.

Lastly, pacing is about knowing when to move on in the game. Players stuck? Move on. Players don't know what to do? Give them a hint in game. Players getting bored? Time to advance the plot, have a fight or introduce new NPCs. Try to advance the plot as your first option. Remember, as the GM you control time itself. You can always just type "After meeting that night, you all decide that your best course of action seems to be to go to point x. At point x you see this next really big plot point. If you have anything quick you needed to do before that, post it in OOC and we'll deal with it there."

Viola. Now your game is moving again.

Pacing is one of the key reasons - in fact THE key reason - that you need to know where your adventure is going. Unless you are an improvisational genius like Ra-Thalun you need to know where to advance to if your players get bogged down. Don't let them languish in an inn or by a camp fire for days at a time or they will find other things to do. Keep things interesting and keep them moving.

[cailano]

PbP - Description

So you want to write good descriptions but you're not an experienced writer? Never fear, here are some good tips to make your paragraphs pop.

( Disclaimer: I'm aware that these GM tips don't follow some of what I'm about to describe. I'm posting fast and I've already requested some editing help that will hopefully eliminate this problem. For now, do as I say, not as I do. )

1) Find the right word: The rogue doesn't run fast, he sprints. The dragon doesn't fly from here to there, he soars. The barbarian doesn't scream wildly, he roars.

Finding the proper word for things really makes descriptions more vivid. Stretch that vocabulary, but avoid ten cent words if you can. You don't need to be Richard Dawkins to write a good scene. In fact, you can't be. Not unless you're writing for people with master's degrees in English.

2) Avoid adjectives, and REALLY avoid adverbs

A common writing mistake is to pile on adjectives, and to use adverbs to try to make actions more dramatic, but look at what that does to a description.

Too much:

The massively muscled barbarian draws his thirty six inch blade, forged of pure Valarian steel and notched from a thousand battles. He grins wickedly, showing yellowed, broken teeth and his eyes hold an evil, insane glint. He takes a menacing step forward and yells in a rough, commanding voice "Kill them all!"


Now lets see what happens when we eliminate all of the adjectives and adverbs.

The barbarian draws his sword and grins. He takes a step forward and yells, "Kill them all!"

Does it really lose anything? Not too much, right? Your mind fills in the details anyway, doesn't it? Look how much easier that is to read.

At most, choose one adjective and eliminate all adverbs unless they are absolutely necessary to the reader's understanding of what you mean. While you're at it, take away exclamation marks too. Less is more.

3) Show don't tell

If possible, don't make statements about NPC feelings unless you just really want to save time. Use description and let the players decide what it means.

Bad: You give the letter to the watch captain, and she doesn't like what it says.

Good: You give the letter to the watch captain and she crumbles it up and kicks her desk.

Right? Show don't tell.

These rules apply to any sort of fiction writing. Break them at your own peril, but don't say I didn't warn you.

[cailano]

Any Questions???

Not much in the way of replies on this thread. Does anyone have any questions? Please someone post something I feel like I'm talking to myself.

[vitor210]

I've been following this thread and I realy like it, a lot of good tips for GM.

I have a question, though: if, for instance, a GM is using the Forgotten Realms lore and locations, is it ok for him to "make up" places that are not mentioned in said maps or any other book related to Forgotten Realm? And how about the lore itself, can the GM alter it for the purpose of the campaing he's playing? Like, for instance, in a certain campaign the GM is creating, the adventurers are told about a great war between 2 powerfull cities that happend centuries before their time, cities that, in the context of the campaign are real and the players visit it, but in the Forgotten Realms maps their's no mention of them nor in the lore about the great war.

I hope you understand my question

[gshannon]

I've been lurking here too. This thread has given me a new appreciation for the amount of work and time that goes into making a game. It will probably be a while before I try to run my own game.

[cailano]

I've been following this thread and I realy like it, a lot of good tips for GM.

I have a question, though: if, for instance, a GM is using the Forgotten Realms lore and locations, is it ok for him to "make up" places that are not mentioned in said maps or any other book related to Forgotten Realm? And how about the lore itself, can the GM alter it for the purpose of the campaing he's playing? Like, for instance, in a certain campaign the GM is creating, the adventurers are told about a great war between 2 powerfull cities that happend centuries before their time, cities that, in the context of the campaign are real and the players visit it, but in the Forgotten Realms maps their's no mention of them nor in the lore about the great war.

I hope you understand my question

Absolutely. Any published material be it setting, adventure path or what have you is just a jumping off point. You can and will likely have to make some of it up yourself. Especially with adventuring material. The longer you play in it the more your PCs are going to jump off the rails, and its best to let them take the lead in any kind of game. I keep a simple word document with named items, stores, etc that I've mentioned to the PCs. That way I don't forget them.

My own campaign is set primarily within a single city of the massive Pathfinder setting of Golarion. I'd say that around half of the places my players visit in that city, and around a third of the major NPCs are my own contribution to the game. I created them either because there was a need for them, or because I thought it would improve the game. I doubt my players can tell which things are published and which I created, I try to integrate them as smoothly as possible.

[cailano]

I've been lurking here too. This thread has given me a new appreciation for the amount of work and time that goes into making a game. It will probably be a while before I try to run my own game.

It is a fair amount of work, but very rewarding when you see everyone enjoying what you've built.

[Blue Tempest]

I have a question myself Cail: How do you as a GM deal with stuff that has nothing to do with the actual Campaign? Like how you do with the side stories for our characters, how do you decide to give us bonus abilities/items that might accidentally break the main campaign?

[cailano]

I have a question myself Cail: How do you as a GM deal with stuff that has nothing to do with the actual Campaign? Like how you do with the side stories for our characters, how do you decide to give us bonus abilities/items that might accidentally break the main campaign?

Hey Blue, thanks for visiting.

There are two separate questions here: How do I create the side quests and how do I decide on rewards.

Side Quests: Actually I take my cues from you guys. For instance with Lazlo (a sorcerer with the dragon bloodline) you role played your character as being very curious about his own mysterious background. How did he get his powers? Why is he a sorcerer at all? Since this was something you were interested in I created a backstory for him that will probably require the bulk of the adventure path for you to fully unravel. I dole it out in hints and rumors and let it be a persistent element of the game. Koral is interested in stealing stuff, so her side quests will likely involve that. Paizo's adventure path's ( my campaign is one of their published ones ) also suggest some side quests based on major NPCs.

Side quests are a critical part of campaigns. A Game Master should never forget that the campaign, whether published or homebrewed is about the PCs. I'll repeat: It's not about the plot. It's about the PCs.

Next, rewards:

Most of the rewards you guys get in game are written in the AP. There are also some excellent guidelines for total character wealth in the PRD, right HERE

I'd definitely recommend following those guidelines, and also to run encounters for a group until they are at least level 2 before adding in any magical equipment. Also, try to restrict the items your PCs can buy because that opens up all kinds of crazy builds that can easily be game breakers. There are some good tips for how to do that HERE

The last thing is don't worry too much about it. If it seems to break the game, just don't allow it. If it gets in there despite your best efforts you're still the game master. Maybe the item's original owner shows up to claim it, or it gets broken in combat. Or you can always just make tougher encounters.

[Blue Tempest]

Ok that explains material awards. But what about actual Status rewards? like when you gave me that extra point of Strenght.

[cailano]

Ok that explains material awards. But what about actual Status rewards? like when you gave me that extra point of Strenght.

Bonus abilities are just another type of reward. Getting a sword +1 and getting a +1 to strength aren't that different. Well... the strength point is a little better I suppose. Maybe around a +2 item.

Giving a +1 strength to a non-melee character probably isn't going to break the game, and it contributes to the uniqueness and back story of your character in the particular event you are describing.

I think its interesting how players are always trying to build that "unique" character. Unique characters aren't built, they are grown in game. That's the reason I always try to get my players to tell me where they envision their characters going.

[Blue Tempest]

Ok, here's the big question. The biggest problem that can come across a GM is the eventual "off-the-rails" situation. The characters go in the complete opposite direction, or is using the wrong information to follow or by some freak accident they attack and/or kill someone important in the campaign.

What do you do? What do you do?

[cailano]

Ok, here's the big question. The biggest problem that can come across a GM is the eventual "off-the-rails" situation. The characters go in the complete opposite direction, or is using the wrong information to follow or by some freak accident they attack and/or kill someone important in the campaign.

What do you do? What do you do?

You follow the players, and have faith in your ability to get the story back online.

Usually when you post a recruitment ad you talk a little about what the game is about. The players that sign up are interested in that type of game. So in general, they WANT to go along with what you have planned. If you recruit for a game about hunting dragons, it is unlikely your players will expect a deep role playing experience about managing a local fiefdom. That being said, there is no reason you can't deliver that along with hunting dragons, its all up to you.

Players go "off the rails" all the time though, and its usually because they aren't sure what to do next. I find the best thing to do is to drop hints, and if that doesn't work, have an NPC come in and basically suggest what to do next. Make the "rails" more interesting than off the rails.

If they kill someone important to the campaign, you just have to make a new NPC.

The thing to be careful with is that you allow your players the ability to fundamentally alter the campaign setting. If they kill off an important NPC, make that a part of the game. If they want to pursue a side quest running an emerald mining operation, don't tell them they can't do it. In fact, tie it into the main plot if you can. Hunting dragons and the players want to mine emeralds? Funny... but that mine connects to an old dwarven kingdom (now run by isolated and evil dwarves of course) who have in their lore a story about the lair of the most powerful dragon of all...

Remember, you aren't working against the players. Sometimes it seems like they are working against you and if that actually becomes the case you have to take whoever is being a problem aside and tell him or her to find something else to do. Usually though, they just want a) more attention or b) to pursue a side quest. Be careful with the former because it can leave other players feeling left out, but go ahead and let them when it comes to the latter.

Ultimately, the story is about the PCs. You can't and don't want to force them to do anything. Let them take the lead and good things will happen. Remember, just because they are leading doesn't mean you can't guide them in the direction you want. RPGs are cooperative.

[Garrett Bishop]

Brilliant Answer! Thanks.