Let's community brainstorm.
What are the desiderata of DMing, boiled down into a series of pity aphorisms, ten commandments-style? I will suggest some below; feel free to add your own in the comments, but please keep them to advice about running the game itself, not table manners or social mores. When the exercise is finished, I will publish the list of the best 10.
1. Thou shalt not kill a PC while the player is absent. Whatever happens to PCs when their players are not present for whatever reason, they should not be killed. [It is not right for somebody to be told their PC died while they weren't present to witness it, and therefore through no real fault of their own.]
2. Thou shalt roll all dice in the open where the result is immediately relevant (e.g. combat rolls, surprise rolls, reaction rolls, etc.). [Some dice rolls are necessarily secret, but if they are going to have an immediate consequence the PCs should be privy to the result so they know the DM is not fudging.]
3. Thou shalt not make use of GMPCs. [The appearance of bias is as bad as bias itself, and in any case it is bad form for the DM to dominate the limelight by being both DM and PC at any given moment. If for some reason an NPC ends up accompanying the party without them having hired him or formed an association organically, he should be 'given' to one or all of the players to take charge of.]
4. Thou shalt maintain strict time records. [Gygax was right about this; it is impossible to have a long-running coherent campaign without carefully tracking the passage of days and hours.]
5. Thou shalt subject PCs, NPCs and monsters to the same rules. [It is bad practice to, for example, not apply the same rules for critical hits and fumbles to PCs and monsters equally, and it is the work of satan to have differentiations between monsters, so that some are 1-hp 'mooks' and others are not. This breeds laziness and also makes it impossible for the PCs to plan, and anticipate events, effectively.]
I await your comments, thoughts and suggestions!
Good start. How about something along the lines that the story belongs to the players? I hate being railroaded in a game. I've seen too many GMs get upset because their big bad monster didn't perform as they expected that rule changes suddenly occur. GMs have to accept that sometimes their well thought out plans will either fall apart because of random die rolls or that clever players thought of something they didn't. It's true the GM establishes the world and controls things happening but ultimately once the players hit the map things are going to get messy and they should encourage clever thinking, danger avoidance and common sense even in the face of their long term session plans having to change radically.
ReplyDeleteYes, agreed.
DeleteI'm not sure 3 should be a commandment. Yes a GMPC *can* be misused but they might also be the exact person that needs to killed to warn the characters they are facing something really dangerous and rack up the tension.
ReplyDeleteSee, this is one of the reasons why I would argue GMPCs shouldn't be used - because they start to lead you into the territory of manipulating events in the game, which I am loathe to do.
DeleteAgreed, no GMPCs. NPCs exist for a reason. They help shape the narrative and offer clues, advice as well as misinformation to players. GMs need to stay in their position as a neutral arbitrator and not as a player in the game. If you have a campaign with alternating GMs then either the GMs PC sits the game out or is controlled completely by another player. Personally I would not want to play in a game even where the GMs PC is played by someone else.
DeleteRe: No.5. In some games, the PCs are supposed to be “heroes”, e.g., in Dragonbane Death Rolls are explicitly for PCs only.
ReplyDeleteThat's not exactly what DB says re NPC death, but it does say that only PCs can 'push' rolls, so you're still right, just a different mechanic.
Delete"Pity aphorisms" seems somewhat apt, given the DM's job is sometimes thankless...on a serious note, WRT "the story": Thou shalt not tell your story, but let the story emerge from the interplay of rules, roles (i.e., PCs) and setting.
ReplyDeleteBlogger, annoyingly, does not have a spellchecker!
DeleteWell, keeping in mind how the ten commandments start off, maybe the first commandment should be "This is the only way to play roleplaying games. Don't do it differently. I don't care if thou art having fun with 1-hp mooks or not keeping time records, it's the wrong kind of fun, and thou shalt stop right now."
ReplyDeleteHaha, good idea!
DeleteHere, here.
DeleteGood rules. Re 5, presumably this still allows for an Orc with 8hp and an Orc with 1hp, per rolling HD.
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteWell, I would keep my list to things about DMing a given system, rather than things about a system that a DM might adopt. So #5 is not even on the list for me.
ReplyDeleteI share scepticism about #3 as an absolute; GMPCs have their place (guides, allies, bodies to guard, treachery!) but it is important to recognize when they are eating up player agency. A general rule is, the less powerful they are in the PC's wheelhouse of combat and problem solving, the less problematic as GM-run characters.
A. Do not deny yourself surprise. Leave things up to chance or player agency when you can.
B. Maintain "deniability" -- that is, autonomy of outcomes from your in-session wishes -- by judiciously using third-party material or preparing notes about specific consequences in advance.
C. Do not write plots with twists, beats, arcs or any such outcome-focused management. Do write situations with multiple interacting agents and conditions, and brood over what might happen next in between sessions. This is how you make the action meaningful, while maintaining surprise for yourself and the players (A).
D. Unless you are OK with sealing off an area forever, leave 2-3 ways to access it, allowing costs and tradeoffs of course (Jason Alexander rule).
E. Riddles and puzzles you think are hard will be solved trivially, riddles and puzzles you think are easy will stump the players. Well, this may not be literally true, but plan as if it is.
F. Trust in the players' willingness to follow the breadcrumbs to the next adventure. But sometimes you should leave 2-3 trails to choose from.
G. Solve interpersonal problems at table by managing the players, not the characters or the game.
Good ones. I am prepared to accept the list will differ a bit for different systems.
DeleteI think we can reconcile stances because a GMC should not be doing what a GMPC does. They should not be solving problems intellectually and should not be reducing the PCs' combat role. They can, for example, spout background information that helps in problem solving, or act autonomously in a way that presents the PCs with a challenge or asset, more so than an easy solution to combat. Dealing with problematic combat allies (LEEEROY JENKINS!) can liven up scenarios enormously.
Delete"Maintain "deniability" -- that is, autonomy of outcomes from your in-session wishes -- by judiciously using third-party material or preparing notes about specific consequences in advance" I find a much better way to maintain autonomy of outcomes is to declare the odds then roll a die to determine the outcome. Eg in my Heavy Gear game on Friday the players wanted to use scout drones, which ought to exist in setting but are barely mentioned. So I set odds that the weather allowed their use, and rolled a d6.
DeleteYes to #1, maybe for #5, but no with the rest.
ReplyDeleteMy contribution would be a Chesterton's fence: "Thou shalt not change a rule without first understanding its purpose"
ReplyDeleteI would suggest a commandment regarding die rolls. Never ask PCs to make a roll for something that's pointless or the GM hasn't considered the outcome of. As an example I was playing a game where we defeated a giant snake. One of the PCs wanted to collect some teeth from the snake. The GM asked for a die roll and the PC failed, which is just plain stupid. Then he allowed the PC to continue to roll over and over to get some teeth and the PC failed every roll. This went on and on and honestly I didn't understand why this was happening. If a PC wants a trophy just let them have it. If a door is stuck in a dungeon and there's nothing happening then let them batter the door down without a roll. If they're being chased by a monster and need to get through that door then a roll is appropriate. If they want to spend ten minutes kicking a door down then odds are they'll attract a random monster or alert someone - that's how you deal with a situation where die rolls are pointless. A GM should never ask for die rolls without considering the situation and applying some common sense.
ReplyDelete1000% yes! I hate meaningless time-killing unfailable dice rolls! Unfortunately there’s clearly a large number of folks who think this is the way to play, that the story sorta progresses in a railroad interspersed with die rolls just for fun.
Delete“Die rolls as hand exercise”
DeleteIn that case I would let the die roll for example determine how many teeth could be extracted successfully without ruining them. Not an either/or. Losing "take ten" from 3rd edition, though, definitely promotes the pointless die rolling.
DeleteYeah, I hate that kind of thing. Amazing that people still do it.
DeleteThou shalt not use "stealth" as a verb.
ReplyDeleteAmen.
DeleteFor it doth conflate sneaking and hiding. And lo, the masses of the Most Popular Game know this not; but to the Finders of the Path it is a light and a law.
DeleteX. Thou shalt never attempt to solve an out-of-game problem with in-game adjudications.
ReplyDeleteY. Thou shalt allow (and even encourage) thy players to surprise you and change the world.
Thou shalt not stubbornly cling to thy preconceived solutions to in-game challenges.
ReplyDeleteThou shalt not make PC survival dependent upon a single, unavoidable roll of the dice (e.g. the only way to advance is across this narrow rock bridge over a lava-filled chasm. Everybody roll Dex checks!)
Thou shalt not make players roll dice when a situation may be better adjudicated through player-DM interaction.
Thou shalt prioritize player skill over character skill.
1. Thou shalt run a game for the challenge, excitement and amusement of thine players
ReplyDelete2. Thou shalt maintain momentum and keep the game from getting mired in triviality
3. Give unto the players their agency and for thyself take all else
4. Thou shalt not fudge
5. Thou shalt run the game as faithfully as possible and only after understanding, adjust accordingly.
6. Thou shalt deliver death with a steady hand, and be neither squeemish nor bloodthirsty.
Those are all good, though in regards #1 I will sometimes allow an absent player, *if they insist*, to have a present player play their PC in absentia, in which case the PC bears the normal risk of death. I would rather the PC be off stage, though, but somtimes the players feel it's necessary eg to maximise chances of success.
ReplyDeleteWe played enthusiastically for over a decade in starting around '78 in which the DM rolled all the die. There was never a suspicion of die-roll tampering. There just was trust there and the unpredictability of the results confirmed this. Perhaps the rule should be: "Don't play with a bad DM."
ReplyDeleteThis did make the game more immersive in the sense that the simplistic mechanics of the game weren't constantly being shoved in our face. We were free to over-imagine that the system was more complex than it probability was. Also...magic items seemed *magical* not just statistically advantages (Zzzz...).
That said, decades later, I always let my players roll their saving throws and attacks (if they wish, often they don't). I, as DM, just determine if the roll was a success or failure based on all the possibly unknown modifiers.
I find it interesting when I hear about those groups that didn't roll their dice. I didn't know it was a thing until I started watching the web series Harmonquest. I don't think it was an old school take but simply something some groups naturally came to do. For me rolling the dice keeps me involved in the game. I enjoy the feeling of rolling well and even rolling badly. I can always laugh when the dice turn up the opposite of what I need.
Delete