Running a Game, the MoonHunter way

#1

The best game sessions require work before they ever occur. Do the pregame work on the game setting, character generation, and main story arcs.

Be involved in character development. If you aren't involved, you get what you deserve.

Before I start a campaign, I make sure the players have a full campaign write up/ packet. This write up includes background material for the world, guidelines for character creation, and rules modifications we are using.

All book keeping is handled between sessions by phone, email, or even snail mail. I also a downtime sheet, that players can detail their down time actions in order of priority (I go buy this.. I research that.. I go look up X and talk to them about Y)..

I also do all my plot/ story prepwork before game (usually in the hour or two before the game). The story/ plot lines are either part of a grand campaign arc (in the B5 tradition created when the campaign was developed), a mini arc (like a series some of them are scripted when the game starts, some are created as a response to the game, and some are just filler sections), or which personal subplots I will pull up (based on the character's history/ disads/ and actions or fillers in case of emergency).

As my players settle in, I pass out the results of any downtime to them as appropriate. I relay any info and provide any updates to the campaign packet. This encyclopedia moment usually captures their attention, as I tend to review anything that will be important to the campaign (thought I occasionally throw some info in that will not be, just to keep them guessing).

Each campaign has a its own starting bell. We might go through the theme song (played on CD), or a roll call/ story introduction in a TV opening sort of way, a bell ringing, or our current favorite, "When last we left our intrepid adventures...."

A quick recap of last week or important events.

Some original narration occurs to set the current scene, including locations, events, and in media res that I wish to inflict.

I like to start with an action sequence, but you can't always have everything.

I try to very to alterate back between development scenes and action scenes of varying intensity.

We have a planned break midway through game, but that does not always happen on schedule or at all. By having a scheduled break, people will "hold it"and not disturb game getting up to do things (when ever possible).

Try to end on a cliff hanger, but that seldom works out.

Hand out downtime sheets if appropriate.

Have post game. We vote for the MVP of tne night (getting an extra karma point or ep), the best scene (ditto), and go around listing 1-2 things we would like to see in the future of the game (NPCs/ types of NPCs, scenario types, places to go, plots we want, things we DON'T want, and anything to make the game more interesting for the given player or GM).

Most of my gaming advice can be looked up at www.openroleplaying.org in the tips section. Search for GM for GM tips, Player, for player tips. Most tips will have a title, where if you search for it, you will get more tips of the same type.

Running a Game, the MoonHunter way

#2

Wowee.
You've really made a science out of it!

Running a Game, the MoonHunter way

#3

Btw, it looks like you posted the info twice on the same post.

That is a bunch of great advice. It's aslso a great deal of work. You have to keep a careful balance of effort to make the story worth the players investment of time and fun for yourself.

When I start planning, I tend to over plan and get bogged down in irrelevant details that will never come into play. Like the inventories of the three different bread shops in a town. The players are going to come into town, maybe ask for bread and just buy what they want. They don't care about the small things. So I finally had to bring myself to stop, and so I went to the other end of the extreme: No preparation.

If you're not having fun, or delaying the start of the campaign in planning that doesn't seem to stop, just stop planning. Crabby stressed out DM's are no fun to play with. Instead of planning, just take the first session on the fly. We've all played enough toe have a general idea of how campaigns start, throw a plot hook at the characters and see how they react. They're actions determine their adventures. After a few hours, everyone wraps it up, you ask them what they'd like to see and they leave. That's when you make your notes. What they did, who they meet or pissed off, and ideas for the next session.

It all works out into basically popping the clutch, but it gets the campaign started. I've done that far to often when the guy who was supposed to be the DM couldn't show and everyone was sitting around bored on a saturday night. Just quick adventures to pass the time, but they always turned into month long campaigns.

Actually I am fairly lazy.

#4

It is easier to do a little prework and expand upon it, than have to scramble and make things up/ fix things that are not consistant.

I normally only do prework in Broad Strokes, making up details as I need them in game. If there are going to be important details I know they will be needing for a given session, I will usually create those details in my game prep time (usually about 30 minutes of time, sometime before the game.

Lets face it, Dip Happens. You will always have some Dip (development in play) no matter how much Das (Development at start) you do. The point of DAS is to make any DIP easy.

When developing any element of the game there are two good checks.

The Detail check: Every time you start creating details for your game, ask yourself one question...
"Will a player really need to know this to have fun?"
If the answer is no, ignore it unless a player... in game... needs to know it. If the answer is yes, continue to create it.

Another Gold standard would be the Movie Check.
Gamers learn a great deal about story telling and gaming, from movies and television. They are storytelling mediums that all of us are familiar with. When you are creating details, ask yourself "Would this detail be found in a movie?" If the answer is no, then blow it off.

Agar: You hit upon some classic GM issues. You needed this rule a while back.

The Mona Lisa Rule: This great masterpiece was never actually finished. What you see today is a piece of work that is really only 1/3 done and took several years to do. What should we learn from this? Only to put as much work into something as what you are going to get out of it. A masterpiece is not a masterpiece if no one ever sees it. Two years for 6 hours of play is not a good trade off. So invest a few hours in a game environment, for a few hundred hours of gaming pleasure.

Do you all want me to do a series of these?

#5

Or more accurately, do you need a series of these?

It would be...

Player Selection
Campaign Set up
Running a game
Plotlines and story arcs
Climaxing (No, not that. Big endings either for a story arc or the campaign)

I do these for my own mental organization. By putting it down in black and white, it forces me to think about the process.. the good and the bad. Once you start setting the process down, you reach a deeper understanding of the process.

Running a Game, the MoonHunter way

#6

Sure. I think it would be a Really Good Idea. I know that your articles always give me ideas, speaking as an as-of-yet inexperienced gm.

Running a Game, the MoonHunter way

#7

I love reading your GMing articles. Keep them coming.