GM Duties

>I believe the GM's first duty is to herself. The game must be fun for her, 
>or why bother.

I'll have to agree with this one.  If the GM is enjoying him/herself, a game 
can survive a seemingly infinite amout of setbacks.  If the GM isn't having 
fun, even a small hurdle can be an impass.  Currently, my two Phoenyx games 
provide a perfect example.

"ATP" took forever to get going, because of player problems, mismanagement, 
my studies abroad, and a host of other things.  Still, of all the games I've 
run in the past, I find Continuum to be one of the most rewarding, and now 
"ATP" is back on its feet.

On the other hand, "DeusX", which ran pretty solidly for the past 18 months, 
is slowly dragging to a halt (one which will probably end soon in a mercy 
killing) because it simply stopped being fun.  I'm down to three solid 
players, and drafting complex, layered scenarios for them just doesn't seem 
worth it anymore.  Earlier on, I might have found it in myself to push past 
that, but the lack of excitment I feel about the game is a deathknell.

Serving the players is a great idea, but, unlike Niztche (sp?), GMs are not 
the sun, all-giving, requiring nothing in return.  Serve yourself every now 
and then or you'll liable to find yourself empty of things to give.

But enough waxing philosophic.

Later.
Jonathan

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GM Duties

At 08:12 AM 2/18/2002 -0600, Jonathan.Walton@oberlin.edu wrote:
> >I believe the GM's first duty is to herself. The game must be fun for her,
> >or why bother.

[snipped to summation]

>Serving the players is a great idea, but, unlike Niztche (sp?), GMs are not
>the sun, all-giving, requiring nothing in return.  Serve yourself every now
>and then or you'll liable to find yourself empty of things to give.

My version of both of these quotes is that a game is a cooperative 
effort.  BOTH groups are there to have fun, and in order for the game to 
*be* fun, both must be *having* fun.  To that effort, when I take on new 
players, one of the first things I tell them is "Amuse me, and you shall be 
amused."

Its escalating warfare.  I reward amusement with more amusement.  So if I 
have a creative player who thinks of interesting things and tries hard I'll 
find myself coming up with more plots for that character.  Whereas, if I 
have a player who makes me feel like I'm dragging them around and like I 
have to work at what I'm doing for them, or if the game starts to feel like 
that, then I know its over...

Gaming is fun, therefore GMing should be fun.  When its not, its time to 
take a break.

D.

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On Mon, 18 Feb 2002, Deb Atwood wrote:

> Its escalating warfare.  I reward amusement with more amusement.  So if I
> have a creative player who thinks of interesting things and tries hard I'll
> find myself coming up with more plots for that character.  Whereas, if I
> have a player who makes me feel like I'm dragging them around and like I

While I've never really thought this way formally, I see this pattern
arising unintentionally... the players who put the most work into the game
get the most attention from me.  A lot of that is because the more details
characters have, the more it gives me to work with and the more it
_inspires_ me.  I can get a lot of great plot ideas from detailed
character backgrounds, motivations and goals.  Characters that aren't
looking to go anywhere usually don't end up anywhere interesting.

--
Carl D Cravens (raven@phoenyx.net)                Gamers List Owner
    [  General RP Discussion -- http://www.phoenyx.net/gamers/  ]
4 out of 5 people think the 5th person is an idiot.

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At 07:26 PM 2/18/2002 -0600, Carl D Cravens wrote:

>While I've never really thought this way formally, I see this pattern
>arising unintentionally... the players who put the most work into the game
>get the most attention from me.  A lot of that is because the more details
>characters have, the more it gives me to work with and the more it
>_inspires_ me.  I can get a lot of great plot ideas from detailed
>character backgrounds, motivations and goals.  Characters that aren't
>looking to go anywhere usually don't end up anywhere interesting.

Exactly.  And one thing I've found is that even a passive player -- many of 
the players I know are excellent players, but tend towards a very passive, 
following stance -- can become wonderfully motivated when the character 
itself is fully developed.  Give the GM strings to pull, and by doing the 
work up front as a player, the GM will reward you by cheerfully pulling 
those strings and helping create the world and the plot all around you.  Of 
course, this only works if both the players and characters are into it.

On the other hand, I've had GMs who when they request "creative players" 
seem to expect me to do all the work.  I create a rich character 
background, and then they sit back and say "okay, where are you, what are 
you doing, and how are you getting involved with everything else."  And I 
go "huh?"  To me, its a major give and take.

If I'm the GM and you hand me a character with amnesia, I'll ask you a few 
questions about what you do and don't want done, and then I expect to be 
able to run with it.  When starting any player in a game, I expect to build 
the "where" with them, and then start to play through things to see how 
they'll fit in.  If, as a GM, I don't tickle their interest with 
*something* no matter how motivated the character is, they are quite likely 
to just sit there.

For example, I play characters who get into and create trouble.  Its um... 
a weakness.  Very typical of me, anyway.  But... I can't create that 
trouble without some idea of where to go.  I'm not the GM, so I need the 
GMs help building the story.  Once I've got some hooks into the GMs world I 
can start letting neurons fire and cause all kinds of fun.  *grins*  BUT... 
I need the GMs help.

Okay, so I'm babbling.  I guess I'm just going off on the whole cooperative 
thing.  I don't want to put the whole onus on either the player or the GM.

Now, to switch the conversation slightly... what do you do when you have 
excellent players who are all of the "follow" style as opposed to the 
"lead"?  I've lost all my leaders.  *sighs*  What I really need is to find 
a way to turn a more passive style of player into the troublemaker style of 
player (using "troublemaker" as a good description here).  Sometimes it 
works well, as long as I can keep dropping odd pieces of plot on people's 
heads, but I've found that it is actually harder to run a tightly plotted 
game in a passive mode, because they don't get into subplots as much.  Or 
rather, they tend to get too focused on what's happening and don't pick up 
the subplot hints.  They react more to the big things, and a lot less to 
the little things.  And I just don't have the energy any more to do all the 
work myself.  Thoughts?

D.

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--- Deb Atwood  wrote:
> Now, to switch the conversation slightly... what do
> you do when you have 
> excellent players who are all of the "follow" style
> as opposed to the 
> "lead"?  I've lost all my leaders.  *sighs*  What I
> really need is to find 
> a way to turn a more passive style of player into
> the troublemaker style of 
> player (using "troublemaker" as a good description
> here).  Sometimes it 
> works well, as long as I can keep dropping odd
> pieces of plot on people's 
> heads, but I've found that it is actually harder to
> run a tightly plotted 
> game in a passive mode, because they don't get into
> subplots as much.  Or 
> rather, they tend to get too focused on what's
> happening and don't pick up 
> the subplot hints.  They react more to the big
> things, and a lot less to 
> the little things.  And I just don't have the energy
> any more to do all the 
> work myself.  Thoughts?
> 
> D.
I spend alot of time developing an interesting world,
instead of focusing on a "plot" or "adventure" for the
characters. In a "real" world stuff happens weather or
not the characters are actively involved or sit by
passively. Say you have decided that two major
political powers have "an incident" which could lead
them to war. You decide that war is very likely, but
you throw an opportunity for political intrigue at
your players, if they take an active role, you may
allow them some affect on the situation, possibly
prolonging the coming of conflict. If they bite, great
you have a story line that drives itself because the
players are likely to be pawns of greater powers. If
they don't bite, great again. The war begins
inevitably, changing the day to day lives of everyone
in the campaign world and if the players remain
passive, they become victims, and the world runs them
over. They are forced into action, hoepfully to become
heros as PC's should be. But the point is don't cater
the world to the PCs. The PCs either interact
willingly in an active role, or the world interacts
with them in unpleasant ways. Hahahahaha (evil GM
laugh).

Besides war, there are "witch hunts" (PCs falsely
accused of something), this normally causes much PC
action as they fight to prove their innocence (or free
themselves hehe).
You have the "wrong place at the wrong time syndrome".
Where an action event begins occuring all around the
PCs and they have to figure whats going on and decide
if they become a part of it.

Anyway the world doesn't stand still waiting for a PC
to do something "interesting". There are other heroes
int he world (let the PCs hear of another hero groups
grand adventures!). There are criminals blackmailing
stealing killing cheating smuggling, all over the
world, That the characters don't knbow about, and
maybe never will, but eventually they will get the
idea.
Good luck, hope I didn't ramble too much.

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>From: Deb Atwood 
>what do you do when you have excellent players who are all of the "follow" 
>style as opposed to the "lead"?

Ask questions.

Ask questions that
lead or
threaten.

Examples:
They've completely missed the blood elf plot.  They're still searching for 
treasure down the river......but the clue was missed that the elves already 
have the treasure they seek.

Blatant:
"Do you want to continue the search down the river or seek the elves?"

Directed towards player secret:
"You remember these woods. The blood elves will not remember you."

Threatening:
"You hear the threatening calls of the tribes of elves.  Do you remember 
what was said about blood elves in this area?"

I the players are drowning, they need a lifesaver.... if they're treading 
water, they need sharks.

My rule.





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