Mental Masturbation
By Cape Rust
Before you start discussing your ideas with the players, you can save large amounts of time and frustration by asking yourself a few questions. This is the point where you pull out a mirror and take a long hard look at yourself and how you operate.
This self-analysis activity will enhance the entire adventure development process as well as save you time. Looking in the mirror can be hard but the pain will be minor compared to the payoff. Here are some self-actualization questions I recommend you ask yourself at this point:
- Do I have the time to develop and run this adventure?
- What kind of games do I normally run?
- What is my GMing style?
- What games have I run that failed?
- Why did my games fail?
- What games have I run that succeeded?
- Why did those games succeed?
- What kind of game do I not want to run?
- How much time am I willing to put into this game?
- Have I already decided what kind of game I’m going to run?
- Am I willing to compromise my “vision” to keep the game fun?
Those are just a few questions to think about. The key to this part of the process is looking at one’s self and doing it honestly. Sun Tzu said words to the effect that if you know yourself and you know your players, you will run awesome games. If you know only yourself or your players, you will only run a few good games, and if you know neither yourself nor your players, your game will be an epic fail. Okay, that was a loose interpretation of wise words but they are as true with the Cape Rust version of Sun Tzu as it was when just Sun Tzu was the only person involved. Let’s look at those questions to figure out why they are important, starting with the first question.
I mentioned it before and will keep hitting on the fact that you have to forecast your time. If you are seeing a majority of gaming sessions being canceled due to your commitments or external activities, bow out. The farther you get into the adventure planning process, the harder it is to bow out. It is like standing in line at the store while the lines around you move faster than yours. You stay in line because you are afraid that if you switch lines, the line you are in will move faster and besides, you have already invested this much time in this line so why quit on it? It is exactly the same with adventure planning development. If you don’t have time in the real world to run a good game, break it off before anyone gets hurt.
The next few questions seem to be benign but they are actually probing and telling. What kind of games do you run? Do all of your games involve saving the world? Do you always run military type games? Do you only run hack and slash games? Do you run short or long games? The long and short question will help you answer question one as well.
Next we will look at your style. Your style as a GM can often trace its roots to your style as a player. Are you a rules lawyer GM or do you play things fast and loose? Are you combat focused or are you all about role-playing? Are you an autocratic or democratic? Knowing your style can help lead you to the types of games and adventures that might be more suited to your style. Knowing your style will help you plan encounters as well. I lean towards role-playing as opposed to roll playing. I ask myself these questions before I plan each adventure knowing I’m into role not roll playing. I have had to adjust how I handle combat during my games. I keep the normal rolls during combat, but I tend to have to front load descriptions of the area the combat is taking place in and when rolls are resolved, I like to give a cinematic description of the damage done or allow the player to describe the fatal blow. My players have told me they are fine with the way I run combat but when they get tired of that style, I will have to adjust for the good of the order. If I didn’t know this about my style, I would never make these adjustments. If you never ask the question, the answer is always no. This hard won knowledge will help me later during the planning process.
This is where the knife cuts deep! Having to mentally relive past game failures hurts. It hurts badly and there will be blood. I love to game and when games go bad, it hurts. For me it doesn’t matter if I’m running the failed game or playing in it, failure hurts. I do feel that in the case of a bad game the GM suffers more than the players. Even if you follow my advice and prepare for a game as a player, the GM is normally putting in two or three times more energy and effort than you are to make a game work. Remember that line at the store I was talking about? The Army has a process called the AAR or After Action Review. During an AAR, everyone involved looks at what went right and what went wrong. Look at this as your own mini AAR. Why did those games go wrong? Was it you? Was it the players? Was it one player? Was it the setting? Were you truly prepared for the game? Did external factors kill your game? Did you railroad your players? Don’t be afraid to ask your players what went wrong. They might surprise you. There are thousands of reasons games go bad, but people often don’t take the time to figure out exactly what went wrong to keep history from repeating itself. As you go through this process, you will start to see patterns. Instead of repeating past mistakes, learn from them and don’t repeat them.
We will stop here and look at the last six questions next week. Remember that while all of this planning might seem like a fun vacuum, it isn’t. By developing and following a process, you will run better games and learn a thing or two about yourself and your players. Before you get too involved in the development of your game, think about a planning process and take the time to ask yourself tough questions. This will save time and make life at the table much better.