These are three GM chapters that changed my brain forever

GM sections if you've seen one you've seen them all right I will admit there's a lot of redundancy between different GM chapters in RPGs after you've read 30 or 40 or 100 of them the temptation to skim or even skip them all together becomes very strong but there's a reason I never do in this video I want to share with you three of the best GM sections of books that I've come across and the reason you should never blow off a book's game master chapter these three examples that I'm showcasing have wildly different approaches and reasons for being legendary and in the end I think those differences sort of highlight why this is such an intensely interesting hobby this video is brought to you by constellation an RPG Zine anthology by hit point press discover your new favorite role-playing game with constellation an anthology of 12 exciting game scenes from a variety of independent creators dive into new adventure settings explore Deep Emotions and fight dangerous foes in this eclectic mix of games there's something for everyone as the games span a wide range of genres including action horror comedy tragedy and Slice of Life choose one of the solo games to play on your own try a duet with a partner or tell a story with a full party some of the games I'm looking forward to are project daybreaker a gmless challenge to survive Dracula in space Visa Visage a two-player narrative combat game and hundred red scales and Adventure setting inspired by Southeast Asian Fabrics seek out Stellar new games with constellation check it out and pledge today using the link in the description below electric Bastion land is written and designed by Chris McDowell and illustrated by Alex Sorensen it's the sort of sequel to McDowell's weird osr classic into the odd which itself was recently picked up by freeleague and given the remastered treatment electric Bastion land takes him to a landscape of Maximum weirdness almost like a Jim Henson Terry Gilliam fever dream at the time of this recording I have not yet reviewed this game because I want to run it or play it at least a couple times in order to make sure I fully understand it but there is one part that I do understand and it leaves me in complete awe it's the books GM section which it calls the conductor's guide one of the most notable things about McDowell's presentation style is that he kind of wastes a lot of space per page but he certainly doesn't waste your time there's a lot of wisdom boiled down to very few words in these pages and it doesn't require much time to read it and keep in mind quote the few truths that are contained in this chapter are yours to deny now this game has specific rules in a particular setting so some of this advice might not apply to every game but if you're playing a more traditional kind of DnD or osr game where there are encounters with enemies and Quests for Treasure then pretty much all of the advice in this chapter will apply first thing here are the key principles of treasure not two columns of text three bullet points the treasure is worth more than it is useful it's hard to get and it's interesting in some way there's also some advice on how to do the valuation of that treasure and six brief examples the Expedition place the treasure somewhere dangerous but interesting the Rival someone else always has the same lead and they're either a better version of the PCS party or a Bizarro World mirror opposite and this rival party is centered around one Nemesis NPC boom all that in a single page there's nothing more said about treasure here but if you really think about it nothing more needs to be said this is enough advice to fuel a lifetime worth of d d style treasure Quest ideas it really gets you to wonder or why you would ever buy a 300 page Adventure supplement that tries to spell everything out for you here on the next page encounters create a table of six encounters calling for a roll of D6 when a random encounter is triggered make at least one of these results very dangerous there's a lot of wisdom kind of hidden in these few short sentences why 6 and not 12 or 20 encounters because it's the principle of quality over quantity why inject a dangerous encounter because danger is fun and here is the Beating Heart of McDowell's encounter philosophy down here each entry in the encounter table should have a drive and impact and a flavor again this seems simple but think about how many crappy encounters you've had playing RPGs and what they lacked how many times have you slogged through a fight with some giant rats or goblins or whatever and the monsters are just there to kill you and they just have their little bite attacks or daggers that either temporarily hurt you or Miss and they are described as looking exactly like the store-bought Miniatures you're seeing at the table or the boring little digital NPC tokens on the computer screen you know what I'm talking about those encounters suck and this right here is one incredible philosophy on how to fix them this sentence really struck me quote don't leave your best ideas for later use them right away it's such an aha moment when you read something like this why hoard your best ideas away for hours or entire sessions the sooner you get your ideas on the table the sooner players will be able to enjoy digest and play off of those ideas and lead to some great moments you could never even have thought of create threats the more dangerous a threat the more obvious it should be don't create soft threads they should be memorable and leave impact this is the word impact again the idea is that time at the table is precious you have to treat encounters as an opportunity to spark the imagination and create fear and desire and just any emotion it's not like some video game where you mow through enemies seasoning your ideas this is really McDowell being very generous with how he comes up with all these weird settings and ideas quote start with a list of broad ideas go through each one and add a new detail that wouldn't be assumed repeat until your world is alive this doesn't have to be as weird as you think but ideally it will get you to break out of the common genre molds that you find in a lot of setting supplements interesting choices whatever you're preparing the goal is to create interesting choices for players the following pillars include information apply the players with information about the situation choice always give them at least two choices or create at least two possibilities for action and once again impact whatever choice they make there has to be consequences three short bullet points here but enough guidance to make virtually any boring RPG situation an interesting one for players almost guaranteed create dilemmas and if it's just not a dilemma then maybe just make it happen and move on to something more interesting when they fight quote avoid empty room pitched battles always make sure there is an interesting environment or something else happening at the start of each round describe something that has changed these morsels of wisdom speak for themselves but again notice how they don't take up two or three long paragraphs each the way you would normally see it in a GM chapter do these sentences really need to be unpacked on the page with 500 Words each in this case the author just trusts that you can read to the core point of wisdom and think and internalize it on your own The Genius of electric Bastion land is not limited to its GM section the whole book is an incredible exercise in Wild imagination and incredible restraint at the same time I hope to bring this game to my table soon so that I can share with you the rest of this game from a place of experience nice black agents is a game that I did review it's a Vampires versus spy Thriller RPG by Kenneth Hite based on the gum shoe system by Robin D laws what I really wanted to highlight in the GM section of this book is the fact that it is so well versed in what it is trying to do which is to help you understand how to pace and structure a thriller style story within this own games framework but like any truly legendary GM section it contains advice that can inform you as a GM on how to just be a better facilitator of collaborative stories generally it says here quote nights black agents campaigns differ from those in many role-playing games and that they have a natural end point the final confrontation with the Vampire Lords I actually disagree with this I think a lot of RPG campaigns have an endpoint culminating in a big long-awaited confrontation that's sort of the default at least in my experience but that just means that the advice in this chapter again is more Universal than it gives itself credit for there is a particular play cycle that the author really Embraces in this game though as it says here quote in the Thriller the reward for danger is information having information points you to Danger where when the hero rests add more danger he uses the Bourne Identity film as an example countless times so if you've ever watched that movie you'll know what he's talking about basically it's a back and forth between investigation and action with more of the mystery uncovered at every step until there's a big finale if this sounds a lot like a typical RPG campaign then you know why I love this GM section so much the advice here on the pacing of a session is huge let players weigh options for as long as the discussion seems Lively and fun if you see the group get frustrated and unable to make a collective Choice gently insert yourself into the discussion summarize the various suggestions made and direct the discussion towards the conclusion guide the players in eliminating choices without nudging them to a preferred Direction This is obviously more of an art than a science but it's incredibly powerful advice the structural approach of a knight's black agents campaign is really sort of Ideal where the GM has a sequence of scenes in mind that eventually lead to a finale but it's not all set in stone quote when running a mystery scenario it helps to think two or three scenes ahead of the players never fall in love with your fallback always be ready to abandon facts not yet introduced it goes on to reinforce this concept of accepting the coolest idea at the table not just GM ones quote if there the player's version is cooler than your plan say yes and praise their cleverness you're always going to get some players who are just not that creative or energetic and just want to be given the story and the environment around them but if you set expectations at the start of the game and you're blessed with creative proactive players you're just going to end up with better and more memorable scenes with this approach compared to just everything originating from the GM's imagination alone height introduces a concept he calls the spine which is just a loose road map of scenes that all contain core clues that move the overarching story forward in the context of this game at default there's a thriller mystery story where you uncover a global conspiracy room by vampires in the modern world but this spine can work for a lot of different settings in different games here's how it works running from the beginning to the end of a campaign are core clues that eventually lead to a big reveal of what's been going on the whole time surrounding the spines of the scenes some scenes are super short some are long investigation scenes and some are fights or chase scenes if you plan the spine or sequence of core Clues ahead of time then you can always steer any scene back onto the main track of an overall story arc without thinking too much about it or getting all twisted up at the table here are the actual nodes of the spine which can be mixed matched repeated or omitted depending on your story and how the players decide their characters want to progress the hook where the PCS are roped into the problem the wake up where there's that first jolt of horror and a hint of the evil that lurks just beyond their daily experiences the setup where PCS quote carry out a necessary action before the confrontation can occur the the confrontation where PCS confront the evil they think is behind everything a confrontation can actually happen many times and can often act as a red herring to distract or mislead PCS and I guess players for that matter from the real source of evil the blowback where the forces of evil really hit back and all the stakes might be raised for all characters involved the twist where you flip the script on the players while also offering the true path to a finale the relief where PCS catch a break and get forward momentum in their investigation on their fight against evil and the final reveal where you don't hold back any more information and it's all out in the open this usually culminates in a single confrontation or a series of confrontations after which the story is completed one thing that I really love is this blurb up here that addresses what a GM is supposed to do if their players get to the end and defeat the big bad guy way too early quote that's a good thing your NPCs are free your effects budget is unlimited and you'll never run out of bad guys give them their Laurels and plan something worse in other words don't treat your big bad guy concept as very precious the author presents what he calls a dramatic response algorithm in this van pyramid I guess you could call this an algorithm but really it's just a flow chart a clever one though the way it works in the game is that PCS are facing off against an organized conspiracy of vampires and supernatural creatures adjacent to vampires when that conspiracy is disrupted or harmed it will react in one way or another but starting with this bottom row of responses collectively called reflex which of the responses from this row is chosen is up to the GM but it can only be used once after that response is exhausted in the fiction it leads to an elevated response at the next tier up options from the previous rows that haven't been used yet can always be used at any time in the fiction exactly once eventually as the responses why walk through the tried and true tropes of an action mystery thriller it always culminates in a fight to the death with a vampire lord what makes this flowchart great is that the GM always has a road map for what the bad guys are up to it's not a fast-moving sequence so it's really not that overwhelming each of these blocks represents one or more scenes and maybe even entire sessions of gameplay but the behavior Matrix of the conspiracy is right here for the GM to always refer to from the beginning of a campaign to the bloody end the game that started it all for this channel that you're watching now is index card RPG the author goes by many different names but I'll call him brandish gilhelm of Rune Hammer Games I think even years later after reading and reviewing hundreds of RPGs icrpg is probably the one game that I think should be People's First RPG instead of Dungeons and Dragons reason being it delivers the most fun elements of d d and strips away most of the complexity what you're left with is a six stat tactical combat hack and slash type of game that is light-hearted flexible and just easy to approach aside from the actual mechanics of the game or the various generous price of the game or the amount of content and optional settings you get with it it's sort of legendary for its GM section Mr gilhelm gives you what he thinks is the ideal mindset for a GM to have and having the privilege of being a player in many of the sessions I can report that this is a very effective and successful mindset it's not the only way to approach GM but it certainly fits the type of game that revolves around physical confrontations and material rewards for PCs let's take a look take the oath I do like and appreciate all 10 of these tenants but the three that resonate with me in particular are the first quote I will build a world from their actions this is a modern approach to running RPGs that we also just saw in Knights black agents a second ago where the ideas from players should be taken into account when formulating a world the second one I love is I will be energetic look everyone's got their own personality types and play Styles but having a high energy GM is usually just a great thing being energetic about your own world as well as the actions and choices of the players is a gift to the table and while we're on this topic if you're thinking about recording yourself and your friends playing an RPG as an actual Play on YouTube or on a podcast please for the love of God dial up those energy levels third I will lift them up and vanish this is a a spotlight management thing GMS shouldn't hog the spotlight it may seem obvious but some people need to be reminded of this thinking in sessions only plan one session at a time this is just solid core advice for most GMS in most situations if you're following the tenet of letting your players be a part of the World building then by extension you're allowing them also to guide the story itself and if that's the case you really don't want to find yourself planning out a whole campaign before it's been played are we safe yet quote just when they relax pull the rug again this is reminiscent of knights black agents where agents go from investigation scene to action scene to investigation scene you always want to keep the pressure up in order to avoid dull moments set up signposts to guide the adventure into moral dilemmas acts of Valor and dire choices this Echoes what we saw in electric Bastion land earlier where it's all about creating meaningful choices for players at all times and giving them opportunities to look awesome I'm not going to cover the specific advice in this chapter for how to run icrpg roles but these module devices here can be used in any RPG session end role when it's time to wrap up the session roll a D4 and in that many more rounds the session is over this is extremely useful for GMS who have a hard time finding a way to pull close those curtains or who have players who just keep pushing forward with more role play at the end of a session this device can also be used right in the middle of a pitched battle and will leave players wanting more which is exactly where you want them of course and the tribunal which is just set aside some time after each session to discuss the session and chit chat more modular devices you can use in your own RPG include actual mechanics from icrpg and these can greatly simplify and speed up your own game instead of using stats and then deriving the modifier for each stat just use the modifiers directly track non-combat efforts with points that have to be whittled away just like HP in an enemy assign a single Target number for an entire room and everything in it so instead of each monster having its own number to meet or beat in an attack role they're all the same by area round up or down monster hit points to divisors of 10. reduce distance tiers into just three ranges far near and close the idea with all of these conceits is just to cut away the prep time and the time spent at the table adjudicating rules here is brandish gilham's basic session structure you start with the setup a brief travel scene reach the first fight then give them a bit of a choice where they need to use skill checks to get by then one more fight and maybe one more skill check situation and then a final confrontation and then at the very end the return which is mostly about rewards and connecting the setup to the next session if there is one this just seems so obvious once you see it laid out like this but you have to ask yourself why is this this sort of thing not found in most GM sections of most RPGs I don't know but here it is and it's one of the reasons this is such a great book brandish breaks things down into threes the first group of Threes regards room design danger energy and wonder the idea with danger is that you want to make sure that there are consequences for failure at any given test or challenge without consequences there just isn't any meaning to a challenge energy is the notion that the GM needs to be engaged and excited about the world they're presenting about the things that players are talking about and the things that the PCS are doing wonder is the challenging principle of using evocative and interesting descriptions when presenting a world we saw some of this in electric Bastion land where Chris lays out some steps on how to make a world thought provoking and unique it's the same idea here quote don't limit their foes to evil humanoids scores of anonymous Orcs or disposable Zombies surprise and Amaze them the three T's address three things should have in every encounter timers are a way to keep the pressure on PCS at all times if you're familiar with clocks as pioneered by John Harper and blades in the dark you'll know that timers on a scene or on a session can be shaped to represent all kinds of threats and other things in the fiction and they almost always succeed in having the intended effect which is make the players experience a sense of emergency or trepidation for their PC threats are threats you need to have things that create danger for PCs or at least the sense that there might be danger and finally treats the carrot that you dangle at the end of an encounter to entice players to engage in the situation in the first place just like the session structure flowchart the illustration and explanation of encounter architectures is incredibly elegant if you have ever tried to design a dungeon room from scratch then you know the pain of trying to fill that empty space with something that would be interesting for players in the case of these room archetypes they don't actually have to be dungeon rooms at all they're Universal I won't go through all 10 10 of them in this video but just behold the elegant Simplicity of the explanations here if you're a student of good gmming then you should almost never put your players in an empty room to fight enemies and not after reading this chapter and of course this was also mentioned in electric Bastion land don't use blank spaces for encounters you can read brilliant GM chapters like the ones in this video many times over and still not have all the great advice sink in it's a lot to remember first of all and some of it really only applies to certain types of games and playstyles but imagine for a moment if a person theoretically understood and practiced all the principles that the authors of these three games put forth in these books imagine how incredibly fascinating and exciting and engrossing that person's games would be that's ultimately what GMS want right thanks as always for watching if you'd like to support this Channel and keep it alive please consider joining my patreon I've left links down below for that as well as where you can find the three books discussed in this video also I'd love to hear your experiences with any of these three games if you've run or played them alright see ya [Music]

Channel: Dave Thaumavore RPG Reviews

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Length: 22min 32sec (1352 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 06 2023