Game Prep and GM Techniques

[Scripty]

I've been fishing around this forum for a while and have a question, or a request really, for all the Narrators, GMs, etc., contributing to the Forge. I've seen a lot of discussion about how to use various techniques (Relationship Maps, Bangs, etc.) but, to my knowledge, there isn't a thread where GMs go step-by-step over what they do prior to play. I'd really like to hear how you all get ready for your Narrative-focused games and use that as a springboard for sharing ideas and techniques.

Example -- Here is what I do before running a game...

1) EXAMINE THE CONFLICTS IN THE SETTING AND FOCUS ON ONE, OR ONE PARTICULAR SET, OF CONFLICTS: Generally, I don't have the luxury of knowing the characters in advance. That's a bad thing and I'd really like to change that. It's hard to run a PC-centered game when you have no idea who the PC is. The result is often either a completely generic (and thus unengaging) premise or a premise that leaves out some of the PCs. By contrast, in games where I've pre-made the PCs or the PCs are handed over a week or two beforehand for me to look over, I haven't had these kinds of problems.

2) FRAME THE MAIN CONFLICT (PLOT) BY THE MOST EFFECTIVE MEANS AVAILABLE IN THE SETTING: This just means that I drop the game into the setting in the place where it will be most interesting. If a bloodfeud in Dark Sun within the boundaries of a city-state (where the Templars and the Sorcerer-King would be manipulating it for their own ends (i.e. to get the Nobles' land) wouldn't be as interesting to the group as would a bloodfeud between the Dwarves and Giants along the Sea of Silt, then I would go with the latter. Here again, not knowing the PCs beforehand can result in tragedy.

3) THINK UP SOME SET PIECES: Locations that might be interesting. A place for a really kewl combat to occur. Just things to have on hand. I generally try to think up at least 2-3 per session, which means I always have more of these than I ever use. When I think up Set Pieces (something I picked up from Feng Shui) I usually make notes for 3 sensory descriptors (although sometimes five). I also try to think up a few things that could happen if there were a combat in that area (like a wagon full of chickens falling over or jugs of ale being split open by missed blows). This is all in note formation sorta like this:

River Gorge Water Park: sunny and green, sparse pine trees, bright white pool decks with lime green astroturf, children's laughter. Kung fu fight while surfing down one of the water slides. Bad guy dangling off a broken water slide can fall to the ground. Splats of ketchup at the snack bar makes some people look wounded even though they're not.

If I'm really feeling industrious I'll scribble down a map. If not, I'll just scribble down a place familiar to me that I can use as a reference if I need to, such as "map, RiverGorge = Shipwreck Island."

3) After a few set pieces, I often try to build the relationship map or analyze the existing relationship map for ideas of how the last session may have changed it. My biggest problem is relationship map explosion, like my relationship maps starting out with a healthy 8 or so people involved and then exploding to 20 or more people after the PCs and their motivations are brought in. My New Year's resolution is to keep the relationship maps down to less than 10 characters. Knowing the PCs upfront would help me with this goal. I list relationships by bonds of family, sex, and obligation (such as so-and-so works for so-and-so or so-and-so owes so-and-so a lot of money). This is a little different than how Ron does it, but it works fairly well thus far (barring the map explosion problem that I've had).

4) After I have the relationship map I often build the supporting cast of characters. The reason I do this after making up the map is that I often find myself using other sources of fiction to create my maps. So if I used Star Wars as my basis, I would already know a little bit about what kind of character would occupy the "Luke" position and what kind of character would occupy the "Darth Vader" position. For those characters for whom I am drawing a complete blank, I often roll up some interesting facets. I have a chart that I have, in my infinite silliness, called "Bowling Trophies" after an article I read a year or so ago. It allows me to roll up things about an NPC on the fly like "Parents were part of a sorcerous cult." I use these to flesh out the really grey characters.

5) Following that I familiarize myself with the web of characters and get an idea of what sort of timeline I would expect for them to go down. For instance, in the Star Wars Rmap, I would know that the "Darth" position would be searching for the "Luke" character. "Luke" effectively is the MacGuffin from this approach. This would be a great place for characters to enter the fray. Perhaps, "Darth" in this game has received a prophecy from a fortune-teller telling him his illegitimate son is going to kill him and take his place. We know that the "Ben" character will be killed, etc. etc. As a caveat, I never put too much stock in this portion of prep. Sometimes I skip it altogether. That's because these things never turn out the way I would plan. I pretty much accept that this is just a mental "stretching" exercise to check in with the major NPCs and see where I think they could go from here. Invariably, they never really do. The players often have too great an effect on the map to really follow any sort of pre-planned series of events, IME.

6) I then try to write down some elements for foreshadowing. For me, that's a big thing. Even if I only know that the major theme for a character is redemption, I'm still able to foreshadow his upcoming challenges with brief scenes involving, say, a priest who used to be a prisoner. Or make a beautiful healer a former evil sorceress. It's not major planning, but it helps to make this whole thing *look* well thought out, even though it really isn't. Using foreshadowing, I've run a series of adventures that the players could've sworn was this long, intertwined, interrelated thing when actually it was me flying by the seat of my pants and remembering to foreshadow things twice, even in metaphor, before bringing them fully into the story.

7) I also try to come up with Bangs. In the past, my Bangs weren't very good. I think I've learned a bit from Mike Holmes' Shadow World game, however. He uses Bangs the way I think they were supposed to be used. The questions that I'm asking myself now when considering whether I have effective Bangs are: "Can the PCs put this one off?" "Are there any actions on the PCs part that will have to precede this Bang in order for it to "make sense"?" If I answer "yes" to either of those questions, then I scrap the Bang because, IMO, it's not a Bang. More and more, I'm just pulling ideas for Bangs out of my newspaper and then retroactively fit them into the action. A Bang like, "Someone's breaking into your car" could be intricately related to the R-Map or not related at all. It *will* become important to the story, however, based on the PC's response. IMO, Bangs are a great way to remind players that characters are part of a "living" world.

8) I fiddle around with stats of NPCs and think about some of the challenges/adversaries the PCs might face. If I'm running d20, I lie about stats alot. The hardest thing for me, though, are feats. It's easy to guess that an NPC would have a +5 BAB with his sword, but if you give the NPC the "Sunder" feat without giving him "Power Attack" then you're in for a mess if your players are paying attention. This is why I like running d20 less and less. HeroQuest is more my speed. It's more anything goes which compliments my prep methods better IMO. Again, I often have more of these than I can use because fully 40-50% of them never get encountered or used. PCs either bypass them or the story heads in a new direction.

9) Frequently throughout this entire process, I consult my notes of what happened during the last game and I consult those again prior to actually running. This lets me know both where the PCs are in their individual story arcs and what direction the whole thing is headed.

I generally run off of this for a normal campaign of endless campaigning. You know, the ones with no fixed or a very remote end in mind.

More and more, though, I am leaning towards an appreciation of the episodic. For episodic style games, I know what's going on in the "metaplot" and try to keep tabs on where the players are in relation to that. For me, scene framing is even more important in episodic campaigns because, to me, the group is on a timeline. The prep for these types of games are a little bit different, but not much. I generally just think of what element of the "metaplot" should pass through this particular session and then look towards the PCs for what the overall episode should be about. Just like in Buffy or even Babylon 5, I don't think it's necessary for the "metaplot" to be the central focus of every episode. In fact, I've found it's better if the PCs interact and manipulate the metaplot in a subtle fashion over the course of many games. For instance, the Defiler that the group left for dead in the first episode is slowly gathering an army of slave tribes to crush the groups' village oasis. One episode may feature the PCs dealing with refugees from the desert who are being run off by the invading power. In another episode, maybe a character falls under some dire vengeance curse. But those episodes are interspersed with episodes involving a renewal of a Harvest Dance tradition and the exploration of various subplots that the players themselves create.

Prior to play I generally write down 7-8 scene ideas like "The Mul Gladiator, with whom no one will dance at the Harvest Dance, receives flowers from the little girl whose life he saved a couple of episodes ago. Show Mul gaining acceptance among the human villagers."

I guess these are sort of like Bangs, except they are more loaded on the front-end. There's a definite setting in mind and a situation that will force the player to address the issues of the scene which, of course, are related to the themes that the player is exploring with that character.

My biggest dilemma is that my style of prep is very player dependent. If a player doesn't show, sometimes I'm in a pickle. In an episodic game, it's not so bad, as I usually devote one session to each PC. It's easy enough just to move that episode up to accomodate the absence of an important PC. I also tend to logjam when there isn't any player interaction. My style not only plans for but requires that players contribute, which is good and bad, IMO. If players bring nothing to the table, then I'm pretty much stuck, which is what happened in my last Cthulhupunk game.

So, that's me. Anyone else have any procedures or tips that help them prepare. I didn't want to go into a major breakdown of style issues or terminology here. But I did want to take this opportunity to learn new approaches or to learn new techniques from other Narrators/GMs.

After playing for a bit with Mike's group, I learned that I really didn't understand Bangs all that well (even after having read almost every thread on the Forge concerning Bangs). Learning is fun. I look forward to hearing some of your own approaches and techniques.

Scott

[Steve Samson]

Wow, great idea for a thread and lots of great stuff. I am up against a deadline (I shouldn't even be here!) but I'll definitely post some of my own prep techniques after the weekend. Until then, I just wanted to say "well done!"

[Nathan P.]

Heya

Good stuff. Analogous to some of Scott's prep, here's something I try to do before each session - I ripped off the idea from the old Digital Web supplement for WWs Mage, cuz I thought it was such a good idea. WW called it "Troikas", and it works thusly:

Jot down 3 of each of the following things that could get thrown into the session that night, no matter what else is going on: NPCs, locations, objects, scenes, and obstacles. Just a word or two for each is good enough. Keep the list handy, and when an appropriate moment comes up, toss one in. Depending on how much you preplan and how the players act, you could use none or all of them, but it's kind of a back-up if something gets snafued, as well as a color referance.

F'rex, if the current story has the spy characters chasing a mob boss through Noir City, a set of Troikas could look like:

NPCs - Talkative cab driver, girl who lost her cat, hassling cop
Locations - Falling apart tenements, mist-filled park, run-away taxi
Objects - expensive glove, broken manhole cover, feathered mask
Scenes - Identity confusion, poisoned drink, foot chase
Obstacles - Nosy reporter, girlfriend wants to go out, lost in the sewers

Say the PCs hit a dead end with their informant, who they meet in a seedy restaurant. You don't want them to go wander about, so you drop in the "poisoned drink" scene (someone else down the bar falls over dead, a PC realizes his drink is poisoned by the smell, whatever), giving them a reason to search the kitchen. Or, when they walk out, they see the broken man-hole cover and decide to investigate. Or whatever.

In the case of one player not being able to show, you can drop in the girlfriend wants to go  out (to explain his absence) or the girl who lost her cat (to give the others a side thing to do for a session), etc.

They may sound forced, but if you make your Troikas continuous with the rest of the game you're playing, they can really help smooth out those rough spots, IME. Plus, it literally takes about 2 minutes, so you can do it whenever, even right at the beginning of the session.

Thank you for your time,
Nathan P.

[Kaare Berg]

Wow, I always love to hear how my fellow screen-monkeys do their thing so I'll share my way.

From bitter experience, and now with added Forgite wisdom I have learned the following:

1. Know your players and their characters.

I sit down and look at what the characters motivations are, and then (yes only since last posting of my BW game) I look at the players motivation.
With this in mind I go to

2. Where I am in my plot, and what do the players need to learn?

I belive in my narrative responisibility as a GM so I look to my plot and figure out where they are along my current story arc. Then I figure out what they need to learn during this session to move naturally (and voluntary) along to my next session. This I define as the Purpose of the session.

Then I look for my theme and mood. Theme being a neboulus something that I wish flavour the story, while mood is the tinge of the story.

Which boils down to:

3. Then I take the sparks and flares and sort them.

Combining point one and two gives me the conflicts and potential scenes that I want.

I refine my purpose.

I keep the potential scenes few, because I never know where my players whish to go, and by the time we have gotten halfway through my notes they are useless anyway.

Then I create a list of the first few and I am good to go.

So how does this work in real life, well lets create tonights session:

1. Know your players and their characters.

Player: Christer, character Liam

Christer want to see Liam grow into a position of trust and responsiblity, earning the right to lead. (Contrary to being given it by taking a noble lifepath.)
Liam wants to find his missing wife and resettle the peacefull life he had before she vanished. He also wants to build a group of rangers because he thinks this will allow him to keep their home safe.

Player: Jon, character Gorin

Jon sees Gorin guiding and teaching the good people the way to battle the Shadow. (More the Gandalf than the Aragorn.)
Gorin wants to wake his people from their despondent isolation and to rediscover the virtues that once inspired such great tales of heroes.

Player Espen, character Calem

Espen wants Calem to ressurect the True Druids. (To better oppose the Shadow).
Calem is researching a lost magic art and for the moment this takes all his time.

2. Where am I in my plot, and what do they need to learn?
Our characters are defined, they are getting comfortabel with the setting, so it is time to move the plot forward. Thus the end of my first story-arc, the introduction, is getting near. The war against the shadow is about to begin.

Their current anatagonist: a shadowsworn mage called the Hooded One (HO) has been twarted many times, and for him it is getting personal. He is seeking a way to open a dwarven vault, which holds the lead in to the next story-arc. He also seeks power naturally, like a moth to a flame.
HO sends a large portion of his trolls into the Vale (the PCs home) to burn and pillage, but this is a distraction. He will go after Calem's book and try to abduct one of the two dwarves in the valley.

Aelfric, HO's best assasin has fled his captors and now returns to the Vale to do his masters bidding and extract some payback.

Shea, the half-elf ranger has come to guide, but has arrived too late. He has however seen the strands of fate surrounding our heroes, and thus has chosen to call for Allarnon, the last druid, to come.

The pieces are set.

The purpose of todays game is to set the stage for the closing of the introduction story-arc and to sow the seeds of the arc to come.

The theme duty, and the mood is that of anger.

3. Then I take the sparks and flares and sort them.

The invasion will directly threaten Liam's motivation, and will tie in Christers motivation by threatening it. If he can save Liam's job he might actually earn some more responibility and trust.

Gorin will learn of the virtues and the responsibilities of the garb he won in combat. He will also have to stop Earl Stennarch from setting out into the mountains to seek out HO and his own death.

Calem will learn the first rule of the druids, duty. If he can prove worthy this might give him a chance to become Allarnons apprentice. The troll raids should give him plenty of oppertunity.

The purpose must be to give every player a personal stake in going to the Forsaken Keep and to kill HO.

Opening scene will be Liam on the reciving end of Aelfrics arrows, forcing him to choose between the duty to a wounded friend and that of the valley.

This will lead to the siege of knightsbridge Abby, where Liam and Gorin must rally the villagers and the despondent abbot.

Having bolstered the defenses they must make their way to Laranne (the seat of the local earl) where they must convince the lord to help Knightsbridge at the expense of his own defenses.

At this stage it gets impossible to plan, so I'll leave it here for you to read about in a later post.

[Scripty]

Awesome! Thanks Nathan P. and Negligent. This was exactly what I was hoping this thread would do. Hopefully other Forgites and those new to GMing or just interested in learning more about the process will find these techniques and summaries as helpful as I do.

Thanks for sharing your techniques and approaches. I'm finding this all very informative.

Scott

[Bankuei]

Hi Scott,

Here's a technique for play prep that I use a lot, that folks might find helpful.  It's a variant of Ron's R-maps, which, instead of relying on blood and sex, are based off emotional connections.  For lack of a better term, I call'em E-maps.

E-Maps

1. Begin with a blank sheet of paper.
2. Write down the names of any two characters who have an emotional tie(I usually begin with folks in conflict).
3.  Draw a line connecting the names
4.  Put a Slash halfway through the line
5.  Now, you draw a symbol on each side of the slash, indicating how one side feels about the other.  

The symbols are as follows:
•Circle- Like, love, friendly, etc.
•Triangle- Dislike, jealously, hatred, etc.
•Square- Obligation- The character deals with the other, more out of social/political/power obligations than anything else(such as a father who doesn't want his child, etc.)

6.  Add another character who has a connection to one or more parties involved, and continue until your major characters are listed.

What does the E-map do?

It points out areas of conflict, and suggests scenes to frame.  

Conflicts usually occur at an connection where:
-Both sides have the same sort of feeling, but are unable to act on it(love each other, kill each other, etc)
-One or both sides have Dislike/hate going on
-Any side is unhappy with how the other side feels, and is taking action

Scenes are framed around the following:
-Revealing an existing connection(A feels this way about B)
-Developing a new connection(Enter C, who has this about A)
-Explaining the WHY behind a connection(B did this in the past)
-Changing the feelings of one or more parties in a connection(Betrayal, turnaround, change of heart, etc.)
-Taking action based on the feelings in that connection

During play, I simply consider a conflict in play, look for a character or several characters involved, and pick a connection that seems interesting to spark an character's action, or look at how those connections are strengthened, changed, or stressed by actions in play.  While R-maps stick with the immutable facts, and leave the emotional parts "in the head" of the GM, E-maps stick with the changable, nasty malleable bits of emotional politics and conflicts, and leaves the other stuff off the page.

This is the sort of thing that I used in developing Well of Souls, and any scenario which I build.  You can use it for political conflicts, although its not until the figureheads involved become emotionally, as opposed to simply intellectually conflicted that things grab the players.

Edit:  Oh yeah, any character you want involved in the principal conflict should have at least 2 connections to other characters.

Chris

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

These sorts of discussions are very common in the Adept Press forum. I suggest checking out the links at the Actual Play page at the Sorcerer website, especially the series at the bottom of the page which came to be called "Art-Deco Melodrama."

Best,
Ron