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As stated last week, being a GM is time consuming. This is because all the “heavy lifting” is done by you. As daunting as it sounds, being a GM is much easier than you would think, but I'll get to that in a moment. So, let’s get to prepping.
First things first, regardless of what length or style of game you are running, they all consist of three main parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Due to the collaborative nature of TRPGs, writing the plot like a novel is not really possible as the other players will often derail things purely by accident. Speaking from experience, I find it best to work backwards. Come up with two or three endgame scenarios - boss enemies, locations, interesting mechanics - but don't set them in stone. Midpoint, come up with a specific event and a few clues that will point the players to an endgame, but don't set a trigger for these events just yet. Now the beginning, here is where you need to focus your attention. Once you determine where and how your players will meet, you will need to come up with some adventure hooks. I would recommend adding a few character specific hooks as well. This is how the full plot will develop. You will offer hooks for the players and, depending on what they choose, you can flesh out the endgame scenarios and develop the midpoint event to better suit the situation.
Next you will need to build the world up. If you are using an established setting, there will be location info available either from a sourcebook or online for free. In addition, there will be things like notable persons and adventure hooks you can elaborate on. You can still use these for homebrew, but it's a good idea to edit the more distinct features. Wikipedia is also a good start for things like location info, for example: population stats, size of towns, aesthetic, etc. Generic maps can be found online in droves. You will also want to create a handful of people that the players will interact with heavily for each location. Keep it simple - appearance, stats, equipment on hand, personality, job, and how they will react to certain triggers (like combat). The players will almost certainly interact with others but you can improvise those and write down notes later should the players become attached. Keep your notes handy as these will be fleshed out as players interact with the people and the world.
With the long term planning out of the way, let’s get into the game-to-game prep. You will want to create a number of adventures for the players to run as it can be difficult to judge how fast a group will go through them. Eventually, you will want to build these adventures with players’ backstories in mind as well as the main plot. Start with the “Adventure Hook”; these are events, people, or places which will engage the players with the world. Due to the nature of the dice, and the players themselves, having multiple hooks for one adventure may be a good idea. Adventures are built around encounters. These are Role play encounters, Environmental encounters, and Combat encounters. Role play encounters allow the players to engage NPCs (non-player characters) in character to accomplish a goal. These are usually tied to politics, negotiations, and the like. Environmental encounters are larger scale versions of the hazards found whilst exploring. Puzzles and trap rooms fall under these encounters. Combat encounters form the bulk of most adventures. They also take the most time and can be tricky to balance as there are a lot of factors that can affect players’ combat ability. Info on encounter balance should be in the GM Guides, but be prepared to adjust on the fly. Unlike the more important NPCs discussed above, combat NPC notes should be kept to a minimum. You should write down relevant stats from the Bestiary, as well as abilities and how they react to triggers. Maps are the next to prepare, and there are some good tools out there to help, such as Inkarnate or Dungeon Fog. To save some time with this, a good strategy is to take inspiration from movies or books. Lastly, there is loot. Most GM Guides will have rules for this as well as magic items. Most loot that will be handed out is wealth, which the players will use to progress their characters with upgrades and consumables. Consumables and lesser “magic” items should be interspersed, as they can bring needed utility to help cover a weakness. “Magic” equipment should be timed around milestones, as they can be very game changing.
Even with shortcuts, this is the most time consuming part of the job. Practice and experience are your friends here, as the speed the players go through content can dictate how much prep work you need to do.
Now let’s touch briefly on finding players. Most of this is the same as looking for a group, but is actually considerably easier as there are usually more players than GMs. All of the resources discussed in week three are what you want to use, but you will be posting in the “looking for players” sections. The post you are going to make should include these items:
First things first, regardless of what length or style of game you are running, they all consist of three main parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Due to the collaborative nature of TRPGs, writing the plot like a novel is not really possible as the other players will often derail things purely by accident. Speaking from experience, I find it best to work backwards. Come up with two or three endgame scenarios - boss enemies, locations, interesting mechanics - but don't set them in stone. Midpoint, come up with a specific event and a few clues that will point the players to an endgame, but don't set a trigger for these events just yet. Now the beginning, here is where you need to focus your attention. Once you determine where and how your players will meet, you will need to come up with some adventure hooks. I would recommend adding a few character specific hooks as well. This is how the full plot will develop. You will offer hooks for the players and, depending on what they choose, you can flesh out the endgame scenarios and develop the midpoint event to better suit the situation.
Next you will need to build the world up. If you are using an established setting, there will be location info available either from a sourcebook or online for free. In addition, there will be things like notable persons and adventure hooks you can elaborate on. You can still use these for homebrew, but it's a good idea to edit the more distinct features. Wikipedia is also a good start for things like location info, for example: population stats, size of towns, aesthetic, etc. Generic maps can be found online in droves. You will also want to create a handful of people that the players will interact with heavily for each location. Keep it simple - appearance, stats, equipment on hand, personality, job, and how they will react to certain triggers (like combat). The players will almost certainly interact with others but you can improvise those and write down notes later should the players become attached. Keep your notes handy as these will be fleshed out as players interact with the people and the world.
With the long term planning out of the way, let’s get into the game-to-game prep. You will want to create a number of adventures for the players to run as it can be difficult to judge how fast a group will go through them. Eventually, you will want to build these adventures with players’ backstories in mind as well as the main plot. Start with the “Adventure Hook”; these are events, people, or places which will engage the players with the world. Due to the nature of the dice, and the players themselves, having multiple hooks for one adventure may be a good idea. Adventures are built around encounters. These are Role play encounters, Environmental encounters, and Combat encounters. Role play encounters allow the players to engage NPCs (non-player characters) in character to accomplish a goal. These are usually tied to politics, negotiations, and the like. Environmental encounters are larger scale versions of the hazards found whilst exploring. Puzzles and trap rooms fall under these encounters. Combat encounters form the bulk of most adventures. They also take the most time and can be tricky to balance as there are a lot of factors that can affect players’ combat ability. Info on encounter balance should be in the GM Guides, but be prepared to adjust on the fly. Unlike the more important NPCs discussed above, combat NPC notes should be kept to a minimum. You should write down relevant stats from the Bestiary, as well as abilities and how they react to triggers. Maps are the next to prepare, and there are some good tools out there to help, such as Inkarnate or Dungeon Fog. To save some time with this, a good strategy is to take inspiration from movies or books. Lastly, there is loot. Most GM Guides will have rules for this as well as magic items. Most loot that will be handed out is wealth, which the players will use to progress their characters with upgrades and consumables. Consumables and lesser “magic” items should be interspersed, as they can bring needed utility to help cover a weakness. “Magic” equipment should be timed around milestones, as they can be very game changing.
Even with shortcuts, this is the most time consuming part of the job. Practice and experience are your friends here, as the speed the players go through content can dictate how much prep work you need to do.
Now let’s touch briefly on finding players. Most of this is the same as looking for a group, but is actually considerably easier as there are usually more players than GMs. All of the resources discussed in week three are what you want to use, but you will be posting in the “looking for players” sections. The post you are going to make should include these items:
- What game you are playing.
- Number of players you are looking for.
- What style of game it is.
- If it is Homebrew or Rules as written.
- Meeting time, and if it is changeable.
- Venue.
As you start to get replies, I would recommend talking to the people virtually face to face. Again, as was discussed in week three, establish expectations for the game. One of the things you should now bring up are any homebrew rules, as well as any code of conduct rules for the table. Keep in mind that you are the one who has to deal with problem players so now is the time to establish rules for acceptable behavior. Lastly, if you are meeting in person, make sure everyone is aware of any allergies or other such needs of players or yourself.