MetaMythos - RPG Campaign and World Design

Meta Gaming/Gamemaster Advice

Template:Meta Gaming Articles Original Article By David Eubanks

The following is a sort of philosophy of gamemastering that I developed over a decade of running various kinds of games. It has nothing directly to do with WARCOM, so don't expect to find further information about the program in here.

Over the years, I found it helpful to write down ideas that were particularly useful. You may find some of them useful too, so I've included this. If you don't, feel free to flame me at deubanks@coker.edu.

People come in two flavors: Gamers and Non-Gamers. Since you are reading this, you are probably a Gamer. As such, you have acquired much knowledge that a Non-Gamer would think trivial--how many hit dice a Scum-sucking Pig from Hell has, how much armor a German Panther has, what level a Pandemonium has to be before he gets spells, etc. These bits of information are important to you because you spend eight hours every Saturday afternoon (read LATE afternoon) slaying beasts, attacking Leningrad, or seeking the "Artikal of Infinite Ambiguity."

Amongst the many subclasses of Gamers, the most visible are the role players. If you are a role player, then you spend a significant amount of time in the local bookstore looking for the new 13th edition of the "Beast Book," or the revised "Dungeonmonger's Guide." You probably have a box of very odd looking dice on your bookshelf. One of the dice is your "lucky die," and is only rolled when your character is in some dire situation, with the possible exception of a few "warm-up" rolls before the game starts (it's common knowledge that if you roll a die when you don't need to, you can use up all the good rolls you will need later).

The most eccentric of the role players are the Gamemasters (or "Dungeonmasters"). There are all types of Gamemasters, but they share some common characteristics. All of them have notebooks bulging with hand-drawn maps, character sheets, and graph paper. They have lots of dice (but no "lucky" ones), and own every book printed on the game system they use. Typically myopic, these gentle souls can be fierce when aroused.

Role playing gaming is a serious business, and quality gamemastering lies at its heart. The success of a GM is entirely subjective--if the players have a good time then the GM did a good job. This sounds a lot easier than it actually is. The neophyte GM might think in his heart of hearts that if the object is to please the players, then he should merely award them experience, accolades, and powerful magic items at a prodigious rate, and all will be happy. If this is the type of game that the players want, then the GM should by all means try this approach if he wants (If your world has a "Magic Store" then this is the sort of campaign you're playing).

The real determinant for enjoyment is not the amount of experience, money, and power that the character gets, but how much challenge there is in getting and keeping it. A different style of campaign is one where the most important currency available is not experience, magic, or money, but information. In order to stay alive long enough to accumulate experience, etc., the players must be very aware of what's happening in the world. For example, instead of going down to the store to pick up a +50 sword, a character will have to either:

• Find one by accident (unlikely),
• Do some research of local history and find out if any powerful weapons have been lost and try to track it down.
• Consort with some character in the know (demon, wizard, chief thief, etc.), who may double-cross you,
• Any other method that the characters can dream up.

This is an example of the types of options that are open to an imaginative GM. The rest of this article deals with specific aspects of running a campaign well.

World Generation

Whenever a GM gets a fire in his gut to start a new campaign, the first thing he does is get out the colored pencils and make a world map. Several hours later (depending on his stamina), the creative impulse is satisfied, and the world is made down to some level of detail.

No GM can completely generate all of the complex detail of a world, and while rewarding, this task can be almost completely eliminated if desired. The way to do this is to use real maps for the fantasy world. I don't mean road maps put out by Amoco. Almost every region of the planet has been mapped from the air, and any decent sized university has a large portion of these "topographic" maps on hand. These maps show the terrain by elevation lines, and show vegetation with shading. The GM merely has to adapt these to his own use by eliminating unwanted cities, roads, etc.

There are several advantages to using existing terrain for your world.

First, there is an incredible variety of places on the earth with well documented climate, flora, fauna, cultures, languages, population densities, etc. This data can be adapted or discarded at the GM's whim. In addition, one can find photographs of many places, which can be displayed to the PC's as they encounter that particular type of terrain, or location (for example, pictures of craters, deserts, mountains, waterfalls, and glaciers can be produced as the players enter the area).

It is impossible to create all the details of a world before playing, and many areas will have to be fleshed out as the players travel there. It is helpful in this if the GM asks them at the end of each gaming session where they plan on going next (and to do what).

Random Encounters

Since the whole world cannot be created down to the level of each creature, the GM will occasionally resort to random encounters. These can be very good, and add to the enjoyment of the game, or be a dangerous nuisance that the players will have to look out for. Ideally, the players should not be able to tell if an encounter is "random" or not.

There are many commercially available tables for random encounters, which can be used if the GM applies some common sense to the results. One very good way to handle random encounters is to generate them before hand. It sounds like a contradiction, but this is the way it works:

Sit down before the gaming session and pick out some terrain types that the players will most likely be spending most of their time in (forest, city, ruins, etc.). For each of these terrain types, generate a few random encounters. The GM should discard ridiculous results, but try to fit in unlikely encounters with some imagination. Make these encounters as detailed as possible by considering:

1. How can the creature interact with the party in a significant way (if it doesn't then it's not worth messing with). This can be hard if it's a creature that won't always attack.
2. Roll the percentile dice. A high result means the encounter can benefit the party in some way. A low result means the party will be attacked, stolen from, etc. A middle result can be a neutral encounter.
3. Consider the terrain, local inhabitants, the nature and mission of the party, and any information that the players know that could make the encounter significant to their quest.

Once a sketch of the encounter is made, including any treasure or information that might be needed, write this in a notebook or 3x5 card for later use. When an encounter is needed in the course of play, the GM can simply pick one out at random, or by choice. Any encounters that are not used can be saved for later gaming sessions. After a while, the GM will have access to a library of detailed encounters which can be inflicted on new players in future campaigns.

Remember that the only thing that a dice roll simulates is randomness, and few things in the world are truly random.

Example: A GM decides his players will probably spend some time on the grasslands, and rolls on the appropriate table. The result is a hawk. Since a hawk is unlikely to attack a party of armed men, some imagination is required to find a reason for a significant encounter. He decides to roll for the party's benefit from the encounter (as per (2) above), and rolls a 93--good for the party. The party contains a wizard, so the GM decides (after some brainstorming) that the hawk is the familiar of another magic-user who wants to trade some spells. The hawk will be a go-between.

Another type of encounter that the GM may wish to consider is the "Mystery Encounter." This is something that happens to the party, or someone they meet that has no impact on their quest, and seems to be of curiosity value only. Examples of possible such encounter:

The party is traveling at night, and sees a huge fireworks display on a far away mountain.

An old man runs up and warns them of the "Gookeldy-Gom" and then dies.

Strange footprints are seen beside the road.

They meet a gravedigger who is alphabetizing the cemetery.

The GM is under no obligation to decide, even to himself, exactly what happens in a Mystery Encounter (the players shouldn't know this, of course). If possible, however, at some time later in the campaign, he should try to tie some of these events in with things that are happening to the party. Some mysteries should never be explained, just to give the players the impression of a great unexplored world out there. To work well, a Mystery Encounter should remain a mystery for some time, and be secondary to the main quest of the party. Once the knack of tying such encounters together with the quest of the party or to create a new quest, it will seem to the players that the GM had the whole world planned out in advance. Often, the players will make conjectures aloud to explain the phenomenon encountered. You can use one of these if you want (a poker face is important here). This is an impressive tool if it's not overused.

A corollary to the Mystery Encounter is the Mystery Item, which is some strange magical device that has no apparent use--like a sword with no blade. Again, the GM can provide a few such items without having a clear idea of what he wants them to do. If a suitable explanation presents itself later, the use of the item might be "discovered" by the players. It may of course, be completely useless to them.

Playing the Game

Before attempting to run a campaign, the GM should have a good working knowledge of the rules he is going to use, and communicate these to his players. He is under no obligation to use all the rules in the books, and may wish to create his own rules for certain situations. If in the course of play, he decides that a certain rule is being misused, he should alter it, and tell the players so (some explanation is in order).

Realism

A certain amount of realism is needed even in a fantasy game. The reason is that it is very hard to relate to a world where the basic physical laws that we take for granted are not true. This is one reason that future-oriented role playing games are hard to GM--the basic technology is unknown. Players don't know how the most basic things in the world work. How do you turn on a light in the 23rd century? Or open a door? This can place a large burden on the GM.

To an extent, the more realistic the GM can make the flow of events, the more immersed the players will become in the world. One way to do this is to use magic sparingly, and only in those circumstances where it is required. For example, there are an unlimited supply of mechanical traps and devices that a GM can put in his world in lieu of magical ones. This gives the players the chance to figure out the trap before triggering it.

My favorite simple mechanical trap is the following: the players are walking down a corridor that is 7' wide and 7' tall. They encounter a 5 foot wide stone partition that blocks off the right side of the hallway, leaving them 2' to squeeze by on the other side. Once they go by it, they discover another such partition five feet farther down the passageway, but this time on the left, forcing them to zigzag through the corridor. This continues for 100 feet or so down the hall. The partitions are about six inches wide, and if they examine them closely, they will see that the partitions are not anchored, but merely sitting on the floor, with about five inches of gap at the top. In effect, these stone walls across their path are like large dominos. The one on the end can be tipped over by an alert guard, or by a trigger wire, causing the partitions to fall down on one another in a domino effect. Once this starts, the only way for the players to avoid being crushed is to immediately push the partition in front of them forward, causing a forward domino effect. If they figure it out ahead of time, they can do that initially, but it will cause a great deal of noise and make the passage very hard to get through. Design of mechanical traps is limited only by the imagination of the GM.

Contrary to common sense, magic is not inherently unrealistic. Consider the personal computer. For most of us, it may as well work on magic, as we only have a general idea of what is happening inside. This doesn't stop us from using it however, because it is designed to obey certain commands reliably. Ideally, a GM should make his magic system work the same way--the actual "reason" that spells work need only be described in general terms, but the mechanics that the players must specify to cast them should be spelled out. Does the wizard need to wave his hands about, chanting symbols, or does he need to merely concentrate? Does it vary from spell to spell, or is it universal? How long does it take to cast a spell, and is it possible to delay the effect while searching for a target. The GM should spell out (pun intended) the mechanics before play.

If you want to add detail to your magic system, and you like abstraction, you can create a "theory" of magic, possibly with various branches of interest, much like modern mathematics or physics. For example, in my world a long dead Arch Mage discovered a basic law of magic which is now called "Kevin's Second Law of Summoning," which says "The essence (magic) is weakest at its source." Such "laws" don't have much effect on play, but add to the sense of realism.

Similar systems can be created for the pantheon of your world. One imaginative way to handle the various religions and their interaction with magic, politics, etc. was dreamed up by a friend of mine. This is my interpretation of it. In this world, all of the deities and their religions are derived from one central bureaucracy. At the top level there is one deity who makes grand policy decisions but cannot be bothered with trivial details (such as a PC who is about to be devoured). Below him are various bureaucratic entities (literally!) on every subject imaginable, from the Bureau of Aarn Worshipers to the Office of the Secretary of War, Pestilence, and Famine. These offices, and the beings that staff them are located somewhere on the Polyester Plane. Player characters who are religiously oriented must fight their way upward through these convoluted chains of command in order to make any special requests on the behalf of their cause. Everything must be done in triplicate, of course.

One can go too far on the road to realism, of course. One sin to avoid here is adding detail to an extent that the players are bored by it. This includes using time consuming rules when a more speedy method might be better.

For example, the characters are traveling down a road and come onto a battle in progress and decide to join in. Most individual combat systems in role playing games are quite time consuming if the battle has more that a few combatants.

It is unreasonable to try to keep track of everyone's hit points and combat bonuses. That much detail doesn't add to the enjoyment by the players, and they will quickly become bored with watching their GM roll attacks for the whole army. Since such "large scale combat" is a common occurrence in many RPG's, it is wise to be prepared with some system for dealing with it. There are several systems on the market, including one I co-authored with Ron Goral from I.C.E. called War Law. The computer version is called WARCOM. The reason I wanted to design such a system was because I needed it for my campaign.

A second, and more serious problem with too much realism happens when the GM takes the combat results too literally, thinking that he is merely an unbiased dispenser of fate. I prefer a combat system such as the excellent Arms Law from I.C.E. which provides for deadly critical hits--these add the illusion of realism to combat. If these results are applied impartially to the players, however, they will have a very high mortality rate, which is very discouraging. Realistically they would die off pretty quickly, but that's not much fun. After all, we all know that a man with a sword shouldn't have a chance against a ten ton Dragon.

The game is not about realism--it is about having fun. So forget the idea of being completely objective, and give the players a break once in a while. This doesn't mean that no one should ever die--that would make the game boring. It is up to you as the GM to regulate how often characters will die. Generally speaking, unless you want to make a point about something, characters should only die if they do something stupid or they are very unlucky.

If you use a "realistic" combat system with detailed critical hits, you should make healing fairly easy to obtain. Again, this is to put the characters back into play after a battle. It's not much consolation to have a character who survived the battle, but will never be able to fight again. Healing should not be cheap, however, and may require services if the healer is a cleric.

Though death should be relatively uncommon among player characters, some injury from wounds should be permanent, unless powerful healing magic is used. If a character has his leg nearly bitten off by a dragon, he may have a limp for the rest of his life (some subtraction to his quickness, etc.). Such "scars" add personality to the character and add to the sense of realism without removing him from play.

Non-Player Characters

Non-player characters (NPC's) which are interesting and intelligent can bring a campaign to life. It is a good idea to have several very detailed personalities running around for the players to interact with. There are two stages to "running" NPC's. First the characters must be generated. You should try to avoid inventing important characters "on the spot" as the PC's run into them. It is not always necessary to generate complete stats for each character, and in some systems may be a time-consuming job. In most cases it will be enough to generate or merely designate a few of the character's capabilities, depending on his role. A magic-using NPC would need to be furnished with a spell list and magic items, for example. More important is the NPC's personality.

Inventing a new personality each time you need an NPC can be tiring, so use any means at your disposal--think of characters from books, movies, or actual people. Change and adapt this character until you are comfortable with him (or her). Stop thinking of him as a NPC, and imagine a real person. Describe him physically with a few sentences drawn from the picture in your head of this person. Scars, odd clothing, speech differences, and anything else about him that stands out should be mentioned. His most important characteristic is the role he plays in the world--is he a thief, king, beggar, soldier, etc. You must then decide how his character will be played and make a few notes to remind yourself later.

Avoid stereotyping him as "good" or "bad," but try to describe the way his emotions are running at the moment, and especially what his goals are. For example, he may be frustrated with his position and ambitious, hoping for a chance at some accolade. If you want to keep "personality stats," two will suffice: Honesty and Bravery. The first is the unwillingness to do something perceived as wrong, and the second is the willingness to take chances for something he wants. These stats will change with his personality. People are not simple, and NPC's shouldn't be either.

Once a NPC is generated, he should be "maintained" whether or not he is interacting with the PCs at the moment. One way to do this is to keep each NPC on a separate piece of paper (or in a database), and update his history between each gaming session. Each time you do this, spend a couple of minutes putting yourself in his situation (whatever it is), and based on your character description of him, decide what he will do. You will probably want to make a few die rolls to help you decide what he attempted, and how lucky he was. I consistently use the convention High Roll=Good, Low Roll=Bad.

If he does something spectacular, be sure to drop some rumor of it to the players, if appropriate. Do this even if they've never heard of him before--it adds to the apparent depth of the world. Write down the events that happened to him during this "update" on his sheet. After a while you will have a decent history of him.

It is not unusual for a GM to get "attached" to a NPC. This is a good sign that your NPC's are coming to life, but care should be taken not to give the players the impression that the GM is biased in favor of the NPC. If this happens, the NPC will have to disappear or die.

Non-humans make good NPCs since they are unusual by their nature. Make their personalities reflect their race. A 50th level fire breathing dragon should not have the persona of a shoe salesman. If you have a good idea of the history and culture of the NPC's race, this will be helpful. Many GMs overload their campaigns with so many different races that there is no way to clearly differentiate them all with their own personality quirks. Having a few well-defined races is much preferable to this.

The worst sin that a GM can commit against a NPC is to deny him intelligence. Try to play the NPC with as much guile as you give him credit for on his character sheet. Remember, if he is powerful, he didn't get that way by making stupid mistakes. At the same time, you must be fair to the players, and it is a good idea to decide what the NPC is going to do before the players tell you what they are going to do, when they interact. This way, you can't favor the NPC with knowledge of the "future."

NPCs can be allies of the PCs, enemies of them, or merely neutral. It is a good idea to let the PCs befriend a few NPCs so they will have additional sources for adventuring. This also provides the GM a way to influence the actions of the PCs without direct intervention ("the cleric doesn't think sticking your head in the dragon's mouth is such a good idea").

These "allies" can provide color in other ways, too. One way is for the NPC to backstab the PCs with some fell deed. This should happen very seldom, and should be based on the NPC's character description. For example, in one of my campaigns there is a NPC who is an alchemist named Obsidian. He was basically a honest fellow, and even had joined together with an astrologer and a cleric to fight an evil menace they saw threatening the realm. One of the PCs had befriended him, and had the custom of bringing any magic item that he couldn't figure out to Obsidian. In one case he brought a very powerful item that he was sure was made by an evil deity. He warned the alchemist, and then went about his business, promising to come back in a few weeks to see what Obsidian had discovered about it.

When he came back, the alchemist was gone, and the countryside devastated for miles around. The temptation to use the item had been too great for Obsidian (I made a random roll for this, giving him a chance of failure).

Another useful type of NPC is to provide the PCs with a personal nemesis. This may be a powerful character whose path the PCs have crossed, or just a jealous husband. This NPC should surface periodically, preferably at the most inconvenient times for the PCs (within reason, of course). He (or she) should be a mere nuisance most of the time, but with the potential for doing real harm. As a twist, the GM may wish to have this NPC actually do an about face and befriend the PCs (due to reasoning, religious experience, common enemies, etc.). The key to running successful NPCs is to make them as "real" as possible, and therefore never entirely predictable.

A common problem with NPCs is that some PCs like to kill them off and steal their money and magic items. This is fine if the risk is commensurate with the reward. A high level mage is not going to be a pushover. A handy way to prevent PCs from bumping off your magic-using NPCs is to allow a last "dying curse" from the expiring NPC. This should be the most powerful spell that the user can cast, and directed at his killer. There are more subtle ways that an imaginative GM can find to deal with this situation.

Playing Aids

There is always a certain amount of bookkeeping that must be undertaken by the GM and the players. Here are some ideas for making your life a little easier. Make an "experience sheet" to record the activities of the PCs during play. Each time you meet, designate one player as the "recorder." His job is to record everything of import that happens to the party as they go about their adventuring. Any action that will result in experience points should be recorded with pertinent details, as well as any incidental information that the party may pick up concerning their current quest, and any unusual events that happen (like "mystery" encounters.)

At the end of each session of play, the GM should examine what is written (possibly making corrections or clarifications) and assign experience points according to the system he is using. The date and each PC's experience point total should be written on the sheet. This will provide a permanent record of the group's adventures.

Another idea that makes a GM's life easier is to get a small (3x5 or so) pad of paper, or index cards, and use them to "create" magic items and other important articles that the PCs accumulate. Each time a PC finds a new item, the GM should sketch a picture of it on the card, along with any relevant text describing the object, and give the item a number. This number is the item's "index." In a notebook or in a database, the GM can record everything about the item that he has specified at this time ("mystery" items would be left blank except for a short description of how the players obtained it.)

For example, Tiney the Wonderer finds a brazier with strange markings on it. The GM draws a crude picture of it on a 3x5 card and writes: "12 inch diameter brazier with odd writing on the sides. Made of brass, and has seen much use." He writes the number 43 in the corner of the card for a reference number, and in his notebook under 43 writes: "Artifact discovered by players in lair of giant spider in Markon. Summons demons when lit and name is called." It may be some time before the players discover what the item does, and they can write down its properties on the card as they discover them.

You should not tell the players whether an item rates a "card" or not. If they request one, make one out, even though it may be an ordinary object (you'll have to put a stop to it if some wise guy wants a card for everything, of course).

Well, there's lots more ground to cover, and many different opinions than mine. I'd love to hear yours.