Running the Game

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So, you are the Gamemaster. Whether this is your first time in the chair or you have been running games for years, this chapter is for you. This chapter is designed to give you the tools to organize your table, master the rules, and build compelling adventures. There is a great deal of Gamemaster advice available online, and while some of it is useful, not all advice applies to every system. What follows is a combination of broad guidance that can apply to any game, along with specific advice for running games using Adventure’s Edge.

There are some things that all Gamemasters need to understand. First, the Gamemaster is not the author of a story. You are not writing the next great fantasy novel. You are running a game. While you can create allies and villains, places and plots, you are only ever creating situations for the characters to interact with. The moment you script a complete story with a predetermined ending, you have lost the plot. You should never know how the story will end. You can have ideas, but it is the players who create the outcomes. Your job is to facilitate those outcomes using the rules, the dice, and fair play.

There are three core principles to keep in mind while running a game.

First, players have agency over their characters. Full stop. You have the difficult task of running the rest of the world, speaking for the lowliest commoner to the mightiest god. You present formidable beasts, raging storms, and silence after the battle. You are the CLICK of the sprung trap, the CRACK of a splintering mast, and the ROAR of the swooping dragon. But you never take control of a player character to force the story in a direction you prefer.

The second core principle of successful Gamemastering is enforcing consequences. Players will only respect your game world if they are able to see it as real. It is your responsibility to clearly communicate what their characters know about the world, what they see, hear, feel, and understand. Just as importantly, they must understand the consequences of their actions. It should not come as a surprise that stealing from a shopkeeper directly in front of them will result in that shopkeeper calling for the guards. They need to know mathematically how difficult it is to jump that ravine; just as in the real world we evaluate risks, it is not enough to say that it “looks difficult.” Do not hide mechanical difficulty behind vague description and ensure that characters face the consequences of their actions. Once players see that the world responds consistently and realistically, they will begin to engage with it meaningfully.

The third core principle of good Gamemastering is consistency. The rules of the game exist to help you create a believable world for the player characters to interact with. Sometimes the rules will not cover every situation, and you will need to make a ruling. Once you make a ruling, it must remain consistent. Players build their decisions on the framework you establish. If you tell them the difficulty of a specific action is 10 the first time, and later raise it to 15 without clear justification, you have introduced inconsistency. If you later discover that an earlier ruling was covered by an existing rule and you amend it going forward, that is different. It is acceptable to communicate that adjustment. The world should remain consistent unless there is a clear, in-world reason for change.

With these principles in mind, we can now turn to the practical realities of running a table.

Part 1: Running the Table

Section 1: The Social Contract

On top of planning adventures, drawing maps, building game worlds, and studying the rules – the first and foremost responsibility of being a Gamemaster is getting people to your table and getting them to come back. Sometimes you have an eager collection of friends who want to play. Often, you must start from scratch. This advice is not about finding players so much as about managing people. If you do need help finding players, begin with people you already know. Ask friends, classmates, or coworkers. This hobby is far more widespread than it once was. Visit local game stores. Look for established game nights. Post flyers. Search online forums and meetup groups. There are many avenues available. Once you have players, the real work begins: setting expectations.

What to run

Not everyone wants to play the same kind of game. As the Gamemaster, you likely have a setting and tone in mind. If it aligns with your players’ expectations and familiar themes, there may be little friction. If you are proposing something niche or introducing a new system that differs from what they know, you will need their buy-in.

You are investing time and energy into organizing the game, but that does not make you an authoritarian. If you want to run a post-apocalyptic western plagued by vampires, you need players who find that exciting. Dragging people into a game they do not want to play is a recipe for failure.

If you cannot find players interested in your concept, you have two choices: adjust what you are willing to run or wait until you find the right group. Do not force it. A game built on reluctant participation will collapse under its own weight.

Learn the rules

The first advice for new players is to learn the rules. The next piece of advice for gamemasters with a new system is to learn the rules and then understand that most players skip that first piece of advice. Learning a new system is challenging, but it is your job to know the rules as best as possible. Practice making characters, get a handle on running combat, and make notes for yourself about rules that seem challenging. It is unlikely that you will know all the rules on your first session. Breathe. That is ok. But put in the effort and learn as much as you can. When playing, don’t slow the game down looking up rules, just make a call and keep going, then look it up after the game. Before long, you will master the system.

If you have players who enjoy mastering the rules, leverage that strength. If they cite something correctly, accept it. This is a group activity, not a one-person performance. Use the knowledge and strengths at your table.

Do not be adversarial

You are not the players’ enemy.

You are playing adversaries to the characters, and it is your job to play them effectively and fairly. Remember this though – no matter how much work you put into an encounter or writing a backstory for a devious villain – you should always be quietly rooting for the players. It is never your job to defeat them.

It is always your job to give them a fair challenge. Just remember, they outnumber you at the table. They will always surprise you. They will come up with ways to thwart your most sinister plans, bypass your lovingly crafted death traps, and sometimes completely circumvent hordes of minions that stand in the way of their goal. Celebrate this. Each time they do, they are playing smart, they are putting in the work, and they are being heroes. Your best response every time is to give them a wry smile as if you planned for exactly that scenario and move the story forward.

Play fair

As the Gamemaster you hold all the cards. You can create any type of challenge, great or small. You can summon quantum ogres on a whim. You can make those goblins impervious to arrows. You can drop rocks on the characters and crush them all. And you must know, as soon as you break the rules of the game you break the game. The game rules are the glue that holds the game together; the players use the rules to make their characters and interact with the world. You use the rules to interact with the characters, and with everyone following the rules you are all playing the same game.

If you intend to modify a rule, do so clearly, in advance, and with agreement. Do not alter mechanics midstream to regain control of a situation. You should not change rules to deal with your own frustrations with a specific character. Once you go down that path, you will begin eroding your player’s faith in your game and in your ability to be a Gamemaster.

Fairness also extends to the dice.

The players control their characters, you control the world, but it is the dice that make this game. Countless Gamemasters will die on the hill over Fudging dice rolls. It is this designer’s view that the dice, when rolled, are sacrosanct. If you as the Gamemaster are in a position where a specific outcome of a die roll would spoil everyone’s fun – then no die should be cast. Dice are only needed to determine uncertainties. Don’t hide the world behind die rolls. Characters don’t need to roll to see what is in front of them. They need to roll to reveal what is hidden from them. One big way to establish trust with your players is to roll your dice in the open. Unless there is something secret that they should not know the outcome of, there is no reason to hide your dice behind a screen.

Section 2: Scheduling and Commitment

One of the toughest parts of running a game is scheduling. Most people have busy lives and frequent conflicts. There isn’t a silver bullet to solve this problem, but there are some best practices. First, establish a set schedule when first getting the players together. It needs to be a time that everyone agrees to, and it needs to be a regular routine. It may be weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly – whichever it is, establish it, and gain everyone’s agreement.

It needs to be a priority. Your players must want to play. It is your responsibility to plainly establish that this is a group activity, and it relies upon everyone agreeing to take part in it. The game should not be a second thought; it should be something that everyone plans out ahead of time. Conflicts are going to happen on everyone’s part. You need to have a reliable way to communicate with each other, and have regular check-ins. You need to make it clear that you expect to be notified if someone cannot make it at the soonest possible time. This isn’t about being heavy-handed, it is about respecting everyone else’s times, especially if a cancellation results in no gaming session that other people are travelling too.

Having a Quorum

With that said, you need to establish minimum quorum rules. Will the game proceed as normal if one person is unavailable? How about two? If you have a group of five players, missing one might be fine. Missing two, depending on what is going on in the story, could be a bigger problem. Sometimes you can run a side quest if it makes sense, other times it is better to call off the session to maintain story cohesiveness. You also need to establish what happens to the character of the person who is out. There are numerous situational strategies for this, from putting that character on camp watching duties, or having them deal with a side-quest off-screen. You can have them tag-a-long, with the Gamemaster running them as a non-player character for the session if that player is ok with it, but there is one rule you should never violate. Do not kill a player character while that player is not at the table. This is why it is best to keep them out of the session as much as possible, and for sure to avoid having them in any combat. You will have to be creative, even if it doesn’t make the best narrative sense for the story.

Handling regular cancellations

Joining a roleplaying game with a group of people is joining a social club. When a club agrees to a schedule, they are setting time out from their own lives to take part in a fun activity, one that relies on everyone showing up on a regular basis. If one of the players begins having a frequent conflict, or starts showing up chronically late, they are detracting from the enjoyment of everyone else in the club. This is where you as the Gamemaster must deal with real interpersonal conflict. You will need to set up a time to speak with them privately to discuss their absences or tardiness and find out what is going on in their life that is deprioritizing the game. It obviously could be any number of reasons, from changing job requirements, or home life, or even travel reliability. If the current schedule is no longer good for them, you can bring the situation to the group to see if an alternative schedule will work for everyone. Otherwise, you will need to determine if their conflicts are going to be resolved soon, or if there is anything else that can be done about it. If they are unable to resolve the conflict, you may have to ask them to leave the game for a while. This is always a hard decision, and it should be made with care and respect, and should not be rushed in to. Sometimes simply having the conversation is enough for the player to find a way to correct the situation. And sometimes it is better for that player to drop out for a time, before their availability hurts their relationship with the other players. Perhaps they’ll be able to rejoin in the future if all goes well.

Section 3: Table Culture

Not all games are played the same way; this depends on the style and tone of the game played, and on how the players behave. Agreeing on the tone of the game might be the biggest contributor to individual player satisfaction. Some players prefer light-hearted, beer and pretzels games, while others prefer immersive, story-heavy games. As the GM, you might want to run a serious fantasy game with risks and consequences, such as how Adventure’s Edge is presented, but if most of your players want cartoon fantasy superheroes this game may not be for them. The tone of the game needs to be discussed before play, and you need to set clear expectations with how you want them to play. This is another case where if you don’t have buy-in, you need to work out those differences and either adjust the planned tone or even what game that you will be playing.

The second element of table culture involves player engagement with the game world as a “real place”. If you want your players to treat your game world as real, you need to present it that way. NPCs are not pawns at the character’s disposal; use the influence rules as they are presented and remember that influence is never mind control. You set parameters on what NPCs are willing to accept or agree to. If players abuse NPC’s, they should react accordingly. If characters brazenly commit crimes, guards will be called, bounties will be put on their heads, and their reputations will be ruined. Present the world as a living, breathing place that exists outside of the characters, and they should begin to treat it that way.

The third element of table culture is controlling the spotlight. Not all your players will have the same degree of confidence, nor will they all have the same amount of self-awareness. This sometimes manifests with some players vying for their character to be the center of attention. This is a tricky topic and one that you must watch out for carefully. It is up to you to direct the flow of action. The best way to manage this during narrative sequences is to have all the players declare their actions and then resolve them in logical order. When a problem player tries to step into the scene of another player, remind them of what they had declared, essentially holding up your palm and telling them that you will get to them shortly, as their character is preoccupied. This is less of an issue when characters are in action rounds, but what you still need to watch for are players who want to continually advise other players how to run their characters. When this happens, you need to remind them that everyone has autonomy over their own characters, and while in character discussions are welcome, out of character efforts to direct other characters are not acceptable.

Section 4: Conflict Resolution

Conflicts happen between people. The longer you run games, the likelier it is that you will have to deal with them at your table. Countless books are available on this subject but below are some basic guidelines for managing conflict at your table.

1.     Disallow Player-versus-player (PVP) attacks or checks. Establish this as a table rule at the beginning of your game. Roleplaying games are cooperative games, and every character is on the same team. This will go a long way to prevent player conflict.

2.     Address issues privately. If a player does something at the table that is inappropriate, or something that makes another player uncomfortable or upset, or something that violates the culture of your game, you need to address it immediately. Depending on the issue, this could be at the end of the session, when you ask the player to speak with you privately. In cases where the breach is more egregious, it is necessary to pause the session. Tell everyone that you all need to take a break, then ask the player to join you privately to discuss their behavior. As the GM, this is your responsibility, as you are the organizer of the club.

3.     You may have to mediate disputes. If one player brings an issue to you about another player, let them explain their grievance without judgement. It is important to be empathetic and listen to what they are saying. Tell them that you will speak to the other player, during which time get that player’s perspective on the issue. If you can find a resolution that works for both parties, get them to agree to it, otherwise you may have to bring them both together to talk things out. Remember that this is a game that you are all doing for fun. If the issue is between their characters remind them of that fact and work on finding a solution. If the issue is between the players, you will need to do your best to listen to both sides, stay calm, and deescalate the situation.

4.     If a situation comes up that threatens the safety of another player, and you do not feel qualified to remediate the situation you may need to eject a player from the group. Hopefully nothing like this ever happens at your table, but once again, first and foremost, this is about a game that people come together to play for fun. If a player spoils that fun for one or more people, especially if that involves making them feel threatened or unsafe, they need to leave.

5.     It is your job as the organizer of the club to protect the group over any one individual, no matter what your relationship with that individual is. This might lead to complications that bleed into your life outside the game. If for some reason this puts you in an untenable or impossible situation, it may be your job to also leave the group. Again, hopefully this is never an issue that arises, but it needs to be something that you are aware of when stepping in to the role of Gamemaster.

Section 5: Saying No

Players come up with all kinds of ideas, from character concepts to class “builds”, to anachronistic inventions that don’t fit into the game world, or simply impossible action ideas. You will see a lot of GM advice about using “Yes, and” or “No, but” as tools for improvisation and keeping the flow of the game moving. Those are excellent tools and worth exploring. This topic is about saying No, period.

If a player shows up with a backstory about how their character is a secret heir to throne of Gilead, or they want to be a time-travelling wizard from the far future stranded in the past, or any number of far-fetched ideas that simply do not fit into the story you are playing, it is ok to say no. If the entire group discussed playing a party of dwarves and everyone agreed to it, but then one player breaks rank and shows up with a goblin, you can say no. Saying no isn’t about spoiling one person’s fun, it is about maintaining a fun environment for the whole table. It is extremely important that you are impartial to your players, giving everyone equal opportunities, equal rewards, and equal time in the spotlight. You need to be able to say no to anything that violates the spirit of the game, exploits a rule that abuses the system, or no to any character build or backstory to doesn’t fit into the presented or agreed upon setting or story. This isn’t about failing forward or improvisation, it is about maintaining the cohesion of your game.

Part 2: Running the Game

Mastering a new set of game rules takes time. This section is about how to use specific rules but also includes broad gamemastering advice that may help you in any game that you run.