| From: | Geoff Skellams <geoff.skellams@*********.COM.AU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Tournament GMing |
| Date: | Tue, 5 May 1998 16:48:09 +1000 |
> But I've never GMed at a convention or anything. I can GM acceptably
well
> (while I occassionaly forget rules here and there, my players love my
> playacting of the NPCs, especially Johnny Rotten the fixer), but
that's
> almost always been a group of friends or mostly friends.
>
I've done more GMing at cons than I care to remember (I GMed my
first con game in 1990, and apart from a break between December 91 and
January 93, I have GMed at least one con game every year ever since.
Most years I have done two or three and sometimes more. I've even GMed
at a con in another country halfway round the world (2 sessions of
"Deperately Seeking Elvis" at Gencon 94). I guess I kind of qualify to
reply to this one :)
I've even gone so far as to write a module which had no plot. It
was a cross between Space 1889 and Castle Falkenstein and the whole
point of the game was to sit around and crap on in character. It worked
brilliantly (at least as far as I am concerned).
Playacting of NPCs is great in a con game. It makes the NPCs
really come to life and adds a lot of colour to the module. The group I
used to write with tended to have the "cast of thousands" appraoch to
GMing - if you weren't doing anything in a session, you went along and
helped play the NPCs. It frees up the main GM to run the game, it makes
the NPCs more interactive and it also means that you have a backup GM in
case the party decides to do something really stupid like split up.
> So does anyone have any advice? Any web pages that give pointers to
this
> sort of thing (like maybe GenCon's page)? Anybody actually out there
GMed
> for a tournament or convention?
>
The biggest thing I can suggest is that you need to be EXTREMELY
flexible. Be prepared to throw the module over your shoulder and make
the rest of the session up as you go along. I've lost track of the
number of times I've had teams run off on tangents and do something the
designer (which has been me on occasions) hadn't even dreamt of. If you
can make up a decent story on the fly, you should be able to cope OK
with con games. One of the best games I have ever played was a session
where the GM looked at the module he had been given, decided it was
crap, threw it over his shoulder and winged the entire thing. We didn't
know.
Certainly in Australia, convention games are a LOT more intense
than normal play-at-home campaign games. People have a tendency to get
up and act things out a bit more.
> I imagine I probably should have enough pre-generated PCs for
everyone, in
> a mix that's appropriate. And a pile of dice. All the sourcebooks
I'll
> need. Caffiene. Several writing utensils and note paper. My GM
screen
> since I have one (I think it's actually a SR1 screen too, but I
haven't
> used it in a while; I keep forgetting it and it's not terribly
important
> anyway; I don't use much written material anyway). Can anyone think
of
> anything else?
>
Pre-generated characters are a much better idea. Otherwise,
people are going to spend the entire session coming up with the
characters. You won't even get a chance to think about playing.
When you are making characters, give them lots of good hooks for
the players to work with. If you can summarise their personality in a
few words that's even better, as it gives a player a quick line into the
character's mind. A few of my friends (who I have written quite a few
games with) used to include a couple of quotes the character would say.
What I tend to do with characters is detail their background, where they
got their training, how they came to be where they are, any major
incidents in their life, how they made their friends and enemies, &c. I
then have a separate section where I detail what the character looks
like and what their personality is.
The thing is though, you have to be able to do all of this in
only a couple of pages. If you have too much, the players either spend
too much time reading them, or they give up and play with only half the
knowledge they need.
Having all of this information allows you to make sure the
characters backgrounds are intertwined with the plot. It makes it more
interesting than having the run appear as though it could happen to a
bunch of random people plucked off the streets. If you can work the
characters contacts and enemies into the plot it becomes a whole lot
more coherent.
As far as I am concerned, at a convention, the story you are
telling is far more important than the rules (I also tend to have this
philosophy in my home games as well). If you are comfortable with it,
dispense with as many game mechanics as you possibly can. It saves a lot
of time, and is very important for maintaining atmosphere. At a
convention game, this is really important.
Oh yeah, if the players do decide to split up, don't just
concentrate on the group that headed off in the direction you wanted to
whole party to go. Make sure the poor splitter gets a chance to do
something. Having been the poor sucker at the recieving end of this, it
wrecks a session when you are forced to sit around and do nothing for
30+ minutes because the GM had no idea what to do with you.
In summary,
Have all the characters done up in advance. Have several copies
of each, with each set in a separate envelope. You'd be surprised just
how much time this can save.
Know the plot of the story well. There is nothing more boring
than a GM who "reads out the contents of the box", at least in my mind.
If you know the scenario you are going to be running, then go to town
with the descriptive stuff. Make it up as you go along and try to build
as much atmosphere as possible.
Keep things flowing. Try to avoid the "go to point A, beat up
the monster, collect the widget; go to point B,..." type of module. It
becomes tedious and predictable.
Try to keep the rules in the background as much as possible. If
you can think of a way to streamline task resolution, then use it. This
can be especially important in combat. Try to keep things moving as fast
as possible. You can't always do this, but the more you can, the better
the game is going to be.
Above all, be flexible. Go with where the players are going.
Don't force them to go where you want them to. If you can make them go
where you want them to while making them think that that is where they
want to go, then it makes things a lot easier for you.
anyhow, enough of my rambling. Hope this gives you a few tips and
pointers
Geoff (who, when he thinks about it, has GMed more than 50 sessions of
more than a dozen games in the past 8 years).
--
Geoff Skellams R&D - Tower Software
Email Address: geoff.skellams@*********.com.au
Homepage: http://www.towersoft.com.au/staff/geoff/
ICQ Number: 2815165
"That rates about a 9.5 on my weird-shit-o-meter"
- Will Smith in "Men in Black"
