GM = God Mode #003 - Asymmetry in Motion

Welcome back to my entropic cosm of terror where we pierce the veil of this illusion of benevolence and accommodation that's the current trend in RPGs and put the MASTER back into Game Master. Being a GM is akin to being a Greek God, the players being the mortals subject to your whims and cruelty. If you are a player reading this blog, check your sanity at the door as you discover that you are but mere puppets dancing to the mad tune of your GM.

This week I'd like to shine the light on the topic of asymmetric challenges. What happens when you get one or two min-maxers at your table is a topic of some concern for many GMs. This is because the twinkers often super-optimise their characters to be combat fiends dwarfing the non-optimisers like a boot to an ant. Oblivious or just unconcerned with the disruption they cause to the balance of encounters for their group, these players are a cancer to long-running campaigns. If you were a bleeding heart GM, you'd try and rehabilitate these players. But that's not why you're here. Time to drop some divine retribution on their munchkin souls and deliver them screaming into the consuming maw that is your black heart.

To edify, many run-of-the-mill RPG encounters are written as straightforward “beat X monster” or “solve Y puzzle/mystery” and the more rare “deal with Z social situation.” Players are given these challenges for their characters and they just straight-up attack them head on. This is okay albeit incredibly boring for the savvy GM, but min-maxers eat this kind of stuff for breakfast and crap the half-digested excrement of the challenge onto the rest of the party. In order to both alleviate tedium of staid encounter archetypes and to wreck a munchkin's day, God Mode GMs use encounters that are horribly unbalanced on the surface (hence asymmetric). The more unfair the challenge is to a straightforward approach the better. Seriously, you're not GMing to just hand players easy victory and mad lewt. If you are, you're reading the wrong blog.

Now if you just made stuff straight up unfair, then you're really wrecking all of your players instead of just the obstinate few whom you desire to crush. No, the key to accomplishing the objective is to make the headlong tackling of the encounter punish the optimisers by rendering their twinked out abilities futile in the face of opposition. However, you also create some unconventional paths to success that play to the things the other more reasonable players have done with their characters. Who knew that the uncompromising delegations from the two warring nations at the peace summit both share a love of nihilistic haiku. Good thing your RP-focused player's warrior-poet happens to have skill at clever wordplay and mad rhymes. While they normally would not be able to reach an accord, their shared appreciation of the RP PC's Nietzschean verses have brought them to common ground. Stick it to the power-gamer while rewarding balanced and characterful PCs. Story win.

With that, I must bring this installment to a close. Would you like to see this expanded upon in future weeks? What other areas of Games Mastering would you like tips on? Questions? Compliments? Non-sequitur megalomania? Leave it in the comments below!

GM = God Mode #002 - Of Consequences Most Dire

Welcome back to my entropic cosm of terror where we pierce the veil of this illusion of benevolence and accommodation that's the current trend in RPGs and put the MASTER back into Game Master. Being a GM is akin to being a Greek God, the players being the mortals subject to your whims and cruelty. If you are a player reading this blog, check your sanity at the door as you discover that you are but mere puppets dancing to the mad tune of your GM.

This week I'd like to shine the light on the topic of game world consequences for player actions. It is an interesting phenomenon that many players in tabletop RPGs will end up opting for actions of a less than heroic nature. It has become so prevalent that there is a common slang term for it now: murderhobo. The problem with murderhobos is that they tend to distrust, murder and/or rob all NPCs that they can. Needless to say, this can make it rather hard to build narrative as any form of supporting cast is thrown right out. However, you're not just any GM. You are as Samuel L. Jackson would put it "a GAME F**KING MASTER." You don't let murderous miscreants run rampant in your game... ever.

The idea of the world reacting appropriately is nothing new, but many GMs seem to forget. Remember, you are the conductor of the orchestra that is your game. When players have their characters wantonly murder everything in their path, it creates certain reputations. The populace hear horrifying tales of their merciless ways over time and next thing you know, they are shunned as villains by those in power. Branded as outlaws and reduced to living on the outskirts of society, life is a daily struggle and they will mainly encounter NPCs who are just like them... cantankerous cutthroats who would just as soon eliminate the PCs as talk to them. Sometimes relatives or good friends of past victims will show up to exact vengeance. Sometimes the vendetta is delivered in person, sometimes via faceless assassins. Then there are the occasional groups of heroic NPCs come to rid the land of the PCs scourge. The life of villains is hard and that is exactly what murderhobos are to a civilised society.

While the burned hand does teach best and you should make liberal use of the proverbial stick, there is something to be said for the occasional carrot in shaping behaviour. You are supposed to be a master manipulator so it makes sense to work both angles of punishment and reward. The game world also reacts to heroic action and an adherence to selfless values. The common people do tend to like their heroes whether or not it is all an act. The term “hero's welcome” exists for a reason. Gifts, favors, discounts and adulation await the would be heroes. However, while the grass is greener it certainly isn't paradise. People expect you to do acts of heroism for little or no direct pay sometimes. Village being threatened by bandits and guess what the PCs are petitioned to do. Granted, they will likely get a celebration feast if they succeed and further tales of their heroism will spread. Good PR is its own reward sometimes.

With that, I must bring this installment to a close. Would you like to see this expanded upon in future weeks? What other areas of Games Mastering would you like tips on? Questions? Compliments? Non-sequitur megalomania? Leave it in the comments below!

GM = God Mode #001 - Welcome to God Mode

If you're reading this and you're a GM/DM, welcome to my entropic cosm of terror. Over the weeks to come, we're going to pierce the veil of this illusion of benevolence and accommodation that's the current trend in RPGs and put the MASTER back into Game Master. Being a GM is akin to being a Greek God, the players being the mortals subject to your whims and cruelty. If you are a player reading this blog, your sanity is forfeit as you will learn that you are but mere puppets dancing to the mad tune of your GM.

This week I'd like to shine the light on the topic of player responsibility in making their characters interesting for the game. When you GM enough games, you'll run into players who want to skate by with the nondescript loner orphan character with no ties to the world and no personal relationships to any NPCs. That character is BORING and will need to be re-done or subject to the not-so-tender mercies of GM editing. The other end of the spectrum are the Mary Sues (characters that are somehow tied into major events and NPCs even though they're just starting level 1 scrubs). That player ego masturbation background so ubiquitous it makes all gamers reflexively cringe at anything that remotely sounds like, “Oh, gosh! Let me tell you about my character!”

As Masters, it is our job to crush both ends of the spectrum into the conformity that will liberate their confused player hearts and minds. While the actual mix and quantities vary slightly based on game style and player count, I find a five element mix to work best. That is to say that PC backgrounds need five usable elements to be considered acceptable. Typically five is what the average player brain can handle on a consistent basis so I recommend staying in that ballpark. They will after all need some reserve in order to not go stark raving mad in face of the Machiavellian psychological and emotional torment engine that you plan to put them through.

So what is the typical mix of these elements that byzantine mastermind GMs should use? Years of testing on victims suggests that it works best with two intrapersonal, two interpersonal and one aspirational. That's a lot of terminology I know, but we must keep our methods of player manipulation obfuscated in jargon after all. Intrapersonal elements are those that are within the characters' minds such as beliefs, values and personal codes of behaviour. Interpersonal elements are their relationships or ties to other characters or groups in the setting. Aspirational elements are characters driving motivations and goals and are not necessarily always aligned with the goals of an adventure. In fact, some of the finest moments of GMing can be had when your players are soul crushingly wrenched by their characters' plights as these elements both help and hinder their adventures.

With that, I must bring this installment to a close. Would you like to see this expanded upon in future weeks? What other areas of Games Mastering would you like tips on? Questions? Compliments? Non-sequitur megalomania? Leave it in the comments below!

First Blog Test

This is our first test of integrating blogger feed. A new home for our GMA community!