What I learn playing a GM.

[LordGhee]

Same rules

 

The Ultimate Villain is Usually not the Ultimate Fight.

[McCoy]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

No matter how you restrict a situation where the players hve only four possible options, they will find at least four more.

[OddHat]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

If you want a tightly paced adventure, write it out in three to five acts and railroad the PCs through it. This works well for Convention games, but not so well for most campaigns.

 

If you want to give your convention players a little more freedom, plan out seven or so acts, only three of which are plot essential, and give yourself a method to go from any act into the last.

 

If you're running a home campaign, try to think mainly of what the villains want and how they can get it. Afterwards, look for ways the PCs might interfere. Even then, you might need to do some railroading.

 

Keep communications open and honest at all times. You need to let your players know what you want, and you need to know what they're looking for.

 

Don't game with anyone you wouldn't hang out with under other circumstances.

 

Remember that the game is for everyone; It's not the "You" show.

 

If all of your NPCs are cooler and more powerful than the PCs, there is a problem.

 

If your NPCs must win every argument, there is a problem.

 

You control the battlefield, the environment and the perceptions of the PCs. Don't be too proud of your ability to "defeat" them.

 

If what happens in your game world runs contrary to the rules, the rules are wrong.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

You can give some people what they want some of the time, but you can't give all of the people what they want all of the time.

 

Everyone is a critic. Even your best games someone's going to find something to say about it. The best thing you can ever do is listen to your players, solicit they're feedback and see where you can improve your style so it synchs with the game they want to play.

 

Railroading is only bad before they get into the module. Once they're in the module, it's best to know where it begins, gets to the middle, and finally ends.

[Manic Typist]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

 

The Ultimate Villain is Usually not the Ultimate Fight.

 

I don't get it. Explain?

[Thia Halmades]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

He means that in many games, the Ultimate Villain is a pupetteer, not the big-bad-nasty supermonster. The big bad nasty Supermonster is a minion; you only get the Ultimate Villain as Ultimate Fight in CRPGs, or if the game was specifically designed to do that. By the time you're through the minions and what have you, the villain is some ancient old man who's no longer a threat to you.

[LordGhee]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

Most of the time in 25 years of Heroing (is this a verb?), the fight that is the most diffacult is not the last fight planned by the GM. Example a lot of the time the final fight is the 2nd or 3rd with the villians and the players have learned and adapted to the enemies powers ect so they handle them much better.

 

Lord Ghee

sorry of to work will post more later.

[Dust Raven]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

No plot survives contact with the players.

 

(specifically Hero System) Size really doesn't matter.

[Tom]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

Always leave yourself a backdoor...

 

Between the players and the dice, stuff can go in directions you never intended. Sometimes this leads to interesting stories, but sometimes it breaks the game...

 

Leave yourself options. Sometimes you have to fudge the dice a little or save the PCs -- in a 'large' campaign this can be OK if done sparingly. If you're having to do it constantly, something is wrong.

[prestidigitator]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

Never get attached to your NPCs. Sometimes they need to die, be captured, or fade away for the time being in the interest of keeping things new and interesting. Don't let the NPCs outshine the PCs unless it is meant as a purposeful and temporary frustration in the plot.

[TheRavenIs]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

No plot survives contact with the players.

 

(specifically Hero System) Size really doesn't matter.

 

Always remember that the players taken together are always smarter then you are by yourself.

[Fenixcrest]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

Learn to roll Presence attacks.

This is especially important in Heroic-level games, I find. I dunno about you guys, but my players tend to play their characters like fearless crazy people. If you don't roll the PRE attack for that dragon roaring and shattering a marble column with its claw, then your players will be just as content to respond, "I snort impudently and charge at it, whirling my quarterstaff above my head!"

[The Monster]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

"Everyone has an invisible sign saying 'Make me feel important.'"

 

Don't leave anyone out - make sure that there's something significant their character can contribute to the game. If your climactic fight is a bunch of robots, see what you can do to prepare something the mentalist can do even if she doesn't have "affects mechanical minds." The player may not take the chance, but there has to be the opportunity to not feel useless.

[Manic Typist]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

Never get attached to your NPCs.

 

Any advice on how to keep this in mind and execute it properly?

 

Because, I think that is one of the most dangerous and seductive things out there... for a GM to fall victim to.

[GoldenAge]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

Play the game... Not the rules

 

Never break the flow of a great game to look up rules. Go with the flow. Make a quick judgment based on your own experience and quick input by the players and move on. You can correct or confirm your decision later.

 

And never EVER let a player dictate his rules standards to you during a game. It's your table. Run it like a man... and for the enjoyment of everyone there, not just the rules lawyer at the end of the table.

[GoldenAge]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

Read the core rulebook

 

I know that this sounds silly, but I'm serious. It's a big book full of ideas rules and advice. Refresh your memory as often as possible. Read those powers/skills/and sections you don't usually use. The broader your base knowledge of Hero System 5th Edition, the better experiences you and your players will have.

 

As you fly through complex, multi-character combats and solve the most unusual collateral damage conundrums with ease you'll be happy that you keep your book on the back of the toilet... for easy and often reviews.

[radioKAOS]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

Always try to switch focus to a different character on a cliffhanger of some sort.

 

GM: Ok Player 1, you walk into the front door of the darkened abandoned farm house, it is deathly quiet, not even a cricket... You can smell dust all around, but there are muddy footprints on the floor... what do you do?

Player 1: I'll attempt to track the footprints.

GM: Ok, without problem you follow the muddy prints to a door that is slightly ajar, it's black inside, from your vantage you don't see much, but it seems that it may be a stairwell into the basement...

Player1: I use stealth to walk up and attempt a perception roll...

GM: Excellent, make the rolls for me.

Player 1: Made stealth by 1, made Per by 3.

GM: Good. You creep closer to the door... looking inside you swear you see some movement in the darkness. As you get to the threshold the floor creaks. The movement stops....

GM: Player 2, you're moving up to the back stairs, there's little to no light, what are you doing?

[Dust Raven]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

The players will bring you food and drink because they think it makes you happy, the kind of happy that means nice things will happen to their characters. Though the truth is this does make you happy, but only the kind of happy that means you're not hungry or thirsty anymore, and you can move along will killing everyone without such discomfort.

[GoldenAge]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

Don't be embarrassed

 

When you're playing NPCs give them some personality. Let your inner thespian out. Give him or her a voice and some recognizable mannerisms. If the players at your table think you're a loon, it's only because they have emotional problems of their own. More than not they'll call you the best GM that they've ever had.

[prestidigitator]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

Any advice on how to keep this in mind and execute it properly?

 

Because, I think that is one of the most dangerous and seductive things out there... for a GM to fall victim to.

Yeah. Tattoo it to the inside of your eyelids.

 

Seriously, it is difficult. Just try to make it a priority whenever a PC and NPC come into conflict, I guess. Also, making a lot of NPCs can help, because that can help drive home the fact that you can always make more. I wouldn't say make them two-dimensional (what is a character--PC or NPC--without a little background and originality?), but don't invest so much in them that you fear losing them when the appropriate time comes.

 

One minor thing that can also help is to leave some mystery intact. One small way you can keep an NPC around in a sense is to have the PCs later, "discover," some history about the NPC from before (s)he was out of the picture.

[Frenchman]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

Don't get too attached to your plot

 

Just like NPCs, players will try to kill the plot at every turn, and so you have to remember that the game you're playing isn't all about 'your' story, its about the story you and your players create as a group.

 

you keep your book on the back of the toilet... for easy and often reviews.

And I thought I was the only one that did this?

[Erkenfresh]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

Prepare more than nothing, but less than everything.

 

If you prepare too much, your players will feel they have no say in the plot. If you prepare nothing, the story may not be very good.

 

Drink the beer. Eat the snacks.

 

This one's a no brainer.

 

Fun is the most important thing.

 

No matter what happens, if your players are having a good time, you're doing a good job.

[garou]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

Any advice on how to keep this in mind and execute it properly?

 

Because, I think that is one of the most dangerous and seductive things out there... for a GM to fall victim to.

I'm trying to keep in mind, always, that my NPCs are essentially extras in the storyline - that, ultimately, the whole thing is always about the PCs. And, extras are basically props that eat.

 

(With that in mind, my NPCs are still dynamic; that is, they have their own hopes and dreams and attempt to change the game world in their own way. Sometimes, in theory, they will react to the PCs, and sometimes the PCs will have to react to them. This works as long as the PCs are relatively proactive in their character's lives.)

[The Monster]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

The NPCS should never upstage the PCs.

 

While some NPCs should be dramatic and take center stage (e.g., major villains), they should never take over the scene. I've been in more than one session where a GM has a favored NPC who, when s/he shows up, the players are supposed to just sit back in awe as s/he wipes out the bad guy(s) with 733t p0wRz. It really sucks, even if the rest of the session is fine.

[Sunday_Gamer]

Re: What I learn playing a GM.

 

The dice are nothing more than a suggestion.

 

Never forget who the story is about, your players.

 

NPCs aren't perfect, they should fail spectacularly at times.

 

Worry about what is happening, not how your PCs will react. Trying to anticipate your PC actions is a total waste of time. Set the stage, stand back and direct, go with the scene.

 

The catch all filter for any action by PC or NPC: "Yes but how would it look in the movie?"