Chairing a Game
Mar 23, 2012 5:17:47 GMT -8
Post by CreativeCowboy on Mar 23, 2012 5:17:47 GMT -8
I am probably not the only Game Master who wonders how to move a game along without dictating player actions. How does the Game Master be a game chairman?
In my career life, I have a meeting agenda and I am in command. Everyone gets time to speak and I watch the clock. I force those at the meeting to be more focused, asking probing questions to get at what someone is saying. I clarify. I ask people who sit looking out the window if they understand what was just said. I make sure everyone speaks. I interrupt speakers when they go off navel-gazing or into side topics. I sum up. I thank the participants and collect the minutes.
I also do not play the table like the others at the meeting. I command the agenda but do not bring an agenda. I am briefed on the topic but not holding a brief. This is all unlike any NPCs I play around a tabletop where they have their own agenda and play with the other players on equal terms.
Stu is a good chairman on all the podcasts I have heard and comes off very natural – and I imagine he is a very good GM based on this. But it’s not really where I am coming from with a bunch of strangers. It is more like where I want to go.
Anyone have any ideas, and stories about being a GM-chairman?
Here’s my story and I am sticking to it. Maybe based on this you can give me your thoughts and anecdotes how I can move along the players without policing them? As a rules authority I am really adverse to becoming a player guardian....
The players start with a mini-game in a small group: a Blue Booking to get them acquainted with what happens at the big table plus they get their first experience with a buddy at the table. Aside from all the other good reasons to do a Blue Booking game the buddy-buddy system brings a good atmosphere to the larger group of strangers. Two players: they see their character sheets for the first time; have a quick role-play; a quick combat and then a Q&A with me for as long as they like.
So at the big table they are ready to launch. But they haven’t fully launched. An RPGer, who left us with a cosmic bang after the last game, made the typical Monty Python references and Order Of The Stick jokes which were animated, funny and engaging but – at the end of the day – became a sideshow to rival our circus. The players wanted to move on. I was asked to ground him, like a father, and I rebuked the suggestion because of my concern for player agency and to avoid the appearance of railroading. (And I explained as much to the person.)
There really is no reason why players, in character or otherwise, could not communicate directly with the person or indirectly their character. Players want to play; adventurers want to adventure. I hesitate to involve himself in the game’s group dynamics.
My group of level 1 adventurers has spent a very long time hanging around outside the dungeon ruin – the only interesting place they can see. Led by the RPGer, they made a misguided frontal assault that should have led to a TPK. They survived the encounter (I halved the opponents) but one player was spooked as she should be. One had a role-play conversation with a mentor, back in town, who gave him the idea of an underground assault tunnel leading into the ruin. Things were smoother but slow even so. At least the caverns are cleared.
Next game will be the first game one player down. I expect the players may complete the ruin. But is there anything I could do to move the players along without becoming a meeting chairman? Is there a tried and true manipulation technique I can use to transfer this chairman power back to the players so they feel empowered to move themselves along at the pace they want?
In my career life, I have a meeting agenda and I am in command. Everyone gets time to speak and I watch the clock. I force those at the meeting to be more focused, asking probing questions to get at what someone is saying. I clarify. I ask people who sit looking out the window if they understand what was just said. I make sure everyone speaks. I interrupt speakers when they go off navel-gazing or into side topics. I sum up. I thank the participants and collect the minutes.
I also do not play the table like the others at the meeting. I command the agenda but do not bring an agenda. I am briefed on the topic but not holding a brief. This is all unlike any NPCs I play around a tabletop where they have their own agenda and play with the other players on equal terms.
Stu is a good chairman on all the podcasts I have heard and comes off very natural – and I imagine he is a very good GM based on this. But it’s not really where I am coming from with a bunch of strangers. It is more like where I want to go.
Anyone have any ideas, and stories about being a GM-chairman?
Here’s my story and I am sticking to it. Maybe based on this you can give me your thoughts and anecdotes how I can move along the players without policing them? As a rules authority I am really adverse to becoming a player guardian....
The players start with a mini-game in a small group: a Blue Booking to get them acquainted with what happens at the big table plus they get their first experience with a buddy at the table. Aside from all the other good reasons to do a Blue Booking game the buddy-buddy system brings a good atmosphere to the larger group of strangers. Two players: they see their character sheets for the first time; have a quick role-play; a quick combat and then a Q&A with me for as long as they like.
So at the big table they are ready to launch. But they haven’t fully launched. An RPGer, who left us with a cosmic bang after the last game, made the typical Monty Python references and Order Of The Stick jokes which were animated, funny and engaging but – at the end of the day – became a sideshow to rival our circus. The players wanted to move on. I was asked to ground him, like a father, and I rebuked the suggestion because of my concern for player agency and to avoid the appearance of railroading. (And I explained as much to the person.)
There really is no reason why players, in character or otherwise, could not communicate directly with the person or indirectly their character. Players want to play; adventurers want to adventure. I hesitate to involve himself in the game’s group dynamics.
My group of level 1 adventurers has spent a very long time hanging around outside the dungeon ruin – the only interesting place they can see. Led by the RPGer, they made a misguided frontal assault that should have led to a TPK. They survived the encounter (I halved the opponents) but one player was spooked as she should be. One had a role-play conversation with a mentor, back in town, who gave him the idea of an underground assault tunnel leading into the ruin. Things were smoother but slow even so. At least the caverns are cleared.
Next game will be the first game one player down. I expect the players may complete the ruin. But is there anything I could do to move the players along without becoming a meeting chairman? Is there a tried and true manipulation technique I can use to transfer this chairman power back to the players so they feel empowered to move themselves along at the pace they want?