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DMing for newbs
WhiteZinfandel
Your insidesLet me show you themRegistered User regular
Your insidesLet me show you themRegistered User regular
Okay, so I recently decided I wanted to try some pen and paper rpgs with my friends. I picked up the World of Darkness and Vampire: The Requiem sourcebooks. Problem is, none of us have any experience with PnP games, so we're all completely fresh. I'll be DMing since I'm the one with the books. Does anyone have any general hints about mechanics, mood, method, or inspiration for scenarios and missions to use? Any other rulebooks I should pick up? Any and all advice is welcome.
WhiteZinfandel on
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I recommend you read the book first, and if you then have any more specific questions, come on back and we'll be glad to give you suggestions/feedabck.
In summary he suggests that when writing an encounter you should use the following formula.
Challenge (combat, social, puzzle or other) + unique element (memorable NPC, fighting on a rope bridge, etc.) + a way to advance even if the party fails (although perhaps with penalties) = a successful encounter.
This sort of thing is often ignored by new GMs and is why you end up with so many encounters that are "you bump into three ogres on the road".
As well as TreasureTables there are a tonne of great websites out there for GMing advice. I can particularly reccomend Ars Ludi, the linked article there is one that I particularly like.
SoogaGames Blog
World of Darkness is a hard game to start with.
You see, there are two types of RPG's: what I like to call "freeform" and "hard rules".
Dungeons and Dragons, for example, has hard rules for combat, so if you as a Game Master are feeling lazy, or tired, or are suffering from a mental block, you can always just throw monsters at the players.
You can't do that in Vampire the Requiem (or VtM, for that matter). The entire atmosphere of the game relies almost solely on the Storyteller. If he can't describe a scene well enough for the players to interact successfully, the suspension of disbelief goes right out the window.
One of the key aspects of any PnP RPG is maintaining the suspension of disbelief. A good game will not feel like a game, but rather a story that the players helped create with the guidance of the Storyteller. If the players start bickering about the rules, then you lose that story. This can sometimes mean the difference between players who talk about their characters' actions for years to come ("Man, you remember that time where I..." "Yeah, that was awesome!") and groups that fall apart after the first couple of sessions.
BTW, one of the early possible indicators of the success of a campaign is if the players start referring to their characters in the first person, ie "I throw the truck at the werewolf!" vs. "Bob the Gangrel throws the truck at the werewolf." This isn't clear-cut, obviously, as some people prefer to play in the third person, but it can be an early clue that you are doing things right.
The other key aspect of any PnP RPG is the empowerment of your players. Keep in mind that in most RPG's, characters are supposed to be badasses compared to your average, run-of-the-mill peon, so let them be badasses. If someone wants to try something, rather than reflexively shooting it down, try to empower the player by allowing his character to at least make the attempt. This works especially well in Storyteller.
For example, if one of your characters wants to jump from a speeding motorcycle and grab a helicopter flying in the opposite direction, then rip the pilot out of his seat, take a quick bite, and fly the helicopter away, you could just say, "No, you can't do that! What, are you nuts?!"
A better response, however, would be, "Wow, that's crazy! You can try it, but it's going to be REALLY HARD, and if you fail, the consequences will be VERY BAD." You then let the player roll an "unskilled" roll (roll two dice, take the lower roll, failure = critical fumble, i.e he eats pavement), and if he succeeds, you let him do it! By at least giving the player a chance of success, and letting him know the risk vs. reward, you allow him to make an informed decision about his character's actions. If he still chooses to make the desperate attempt, risking his beloved character to do something REALLY COOL, reward him for the success! If he blows the roll, while the situation would suck, at least the player would have known that it was a likely possibility from the gate.
Remember, it's a game, and games are meant to be fun. As the Storyteller, you are supposed to have fun by weaving a story and challenging your players, but you are supposed to ensure your players are having fun too. If they aren't having fun, then you have failed as a Game Master.
Finally, just to clarify, I am not telling you to pick another game, or that you are doomed to fail in running the game for your friends. I just want to provide some of the insight I have gained in the many years of running games for others and playing in games both with great GM's and mediocre (or worse) ones. Game Mastering, if done right, is much more rewarding than playing a character, because not only is it fun, you also get to take pride in the fact that you have created an opportunity for others to have fun as well.
"Go up, thou bald head." -2 Kings 2:23
On top of this I like the template of "X is Y but Z" when thinking of the main personality traits behind a character. For example, on top of the description above I may be playing the Dwarf as if he is "Intelligent but lazy."
Of course, these methods can be applied to things other than NPCs. Give that axe that the players find some character and make their horse more than a way of getting from A to B.
SoogaGames Blog
Make lists. These lists should be 5-20 items long, and you should have lists of, for instance:
Names of NPCs
Names of Places
Names of Establishments, buildings, bars, businesses, etc
Attributes to apply to the NPCs
Attributes to apply to the Establishments
Personality quirks (ie stutter, lisp, paranoid, etc etc)
...anything else you can possibly think of that will let you make up something on the fly. So, say your players, instead of going into "The Gravedigger," the bar you set up, they decide to go next door to case the place a bit.
...what's next door? Uh... looks like it's a... *roll* Department Store, called *roll* Randy's... Anyone interesting? No. But *thinks of something interesting...* ahh, as you enter Randy's someone walks out of the Gravedigger... a *roll* person dressed in a trenchcoat, *roll* who is walking disturbingly quickly.
That's a potential "dur" moment turned into what could be an additional story arc or plot hook! have these ready if you can't work them out in your head. Also, make sure you're in the character of the setting before you sit down. if you are not, your brain will not properly respond to orders like "give me a good description of this place on the fly!"
Yes.
You don't want to end up with three cities in a row named Riverside.
Even if they're all on the side of a river.
/oof
Anyway, my advice if you're running vampire is to throw the words "encounters" and "quests" out the window. That's D&D fare, not WoD fare. You want NPCs, plots, and stories. Plots being defined as NPC or PC schemes in that sentence.
Combat, at least in old Vampire, was what happened when you'd either done something very right or very wrong. Otherwise, combat tended to be deadly, and thus was to be avoided. Vampires are notorious for not liking the idea of losing immortality.
Perhaps that's changed in new WoD, but I doubt it. Vampires are subtle lords of the night, not savage deathbeasts. Okay, SOME vampires are savage deathbeasts, but that's really better left to those who're naturally built for it.
So think of your game less in terms of "What will they fight and kill" and more in terms of "How can I make social attacks and subtle cold wars fun?"
I'd have more for you, but I don't really know what exactly it is you're looking for. And a lot of how I feel about Vampire is hard to explain realy. Just remember the most important focus of Vampire is on personal issues... the "you" rather than the "us". Each player's character is the most important thing to keep in mind.