Choo! Choo! |
The only type of Game Master or
Storyteller that I really think is bad is the one who has no interest in
improving his GM skills. From the very
first time that I ever ran a game until now, I have always looked for ways to
improve, and I think that is true of every good game master. I suppose that’s why I never look down on a
new game master who does a bad job. He
or she is trying their best and things didn’t work out, and I don’t think
that’s a bad thing. My first attempts to run a game were awful. Learning from your
mistakes and failures is the key in the growth of any skill, especially a skill
such as cooperative storytelling. As
long as that GM has learned something and applies it to the next he or she runs
a game, then I think it was a good session.
However, learning to improve your GM skills is a skill all its own.
I am never satisfied with any game
that I have run because I know that it wasn’t perfect, but no game that I run will ever be perfect, and
that’s not a bad thing. What it means is
that I can always get better by honing my craft and studying my mistakes. I can also look to a lot of sources for
improving my skills. The internet is
glutted with sources of information for game masters: blogs, podcasts, chat rooms, forums, v-casts,
free books and PDFs, etc. With a quick
Google search, you can find just about anything you need.
The next thing to do after a session
is to think about what you think you did well and what you did poorly. Reflect on your mistakes. What rule did you not know and had to spend
time figuring out? Maybe you could write
it down on a note card to have it nearby.
Did you have a hard time coming up with names for random NPCs that the
players stumbled across? Maybe you
should write down a list of names for NPCs for future use. Reflect on your successes. The players really enjoyed that chase scene,
but can I make it better? The players
really liked that NPC’s personality, could I make him/her more important to the
story.
After that I would start to look
elsewhere for advice. One thing about
GMing an RPG is that the skills you need to run a Vampire the Masquerade game
and the skills you need to D&D or GURPS are pretty much the same. Whatever the system, you need to be able to
create an adventure, populate it with NPCs and encounters, and run it
effectively. So, you can read other RPG
books and look at how they suggest that you GM.
The advice for running a dungeon in D&D is a great framework for
running an adventure set in the Nosferatu warrens beneath your city. The advice for running the court of Emperor
Hantei XXXIV in Otosan Uchi in Legend of the Five Rings is going to be equally
as useful for running the prince’s court in your Vampire City. All of these ideas transfer relatively
easily. More importantly, running new
systems will help you get new ideas for your game and may help you break out of
a rut. If you switch from something
combat oriented like Dungeons & Dragons to something more political or
social oriented like Vampire, you might find that new ways of approaching
adventure construction and ways to challenge players who have seen all your
tricks already. Playing a whole new system can offer you a new perspective and approach for your own game.
Probably one of the best books on
improving your GMing skills is Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering. While this book was published by Steve
Jackson Games, it is not specifically for GURPS. Instead it has suggestions that are
appropriate for any game system. Laws
divides players into several groups based on what they want out of a type of
game from the Power Gamer to the Method Actor to the Casual Player, and he
explains how best to involve each of those archetypes in your game. If you can find a copy of the book, I highly
recommend that you get it. It can be
found on Amazon.com.
Obviously, I would remiss if I didn’t
also suggest a few podcasts and vid-casts.
Probably the most entertaining v-cast is Spoony’s Counter Monkey
series on The Spoony Experiment. Spoony is infinitely
entertaining as he tells stories about his many adventures as both a player and
a GM in various games. He also offers
some great advice on running games; his best piece of advice is “All Jedi or NoJedi” as a rule for running the Star Wars RPG.
My favorite podcasts are Underdiscussion and Happy Jacks RPGPodcast. I love Underdiscussion because
it reminds me of my friends sitting around a table after a game talking about
games and having a good time.
Underdiscussion is laid back and fun but still offers plenty of good
advice; although they do have a tendency to go way off topic. Happy Jacks is a great podcast that offers a
lot of laughs and plenty of advice. They
answer questions from listeners and typically tackle one new topic each
week. For people interested in a World
of Darkness focused Podcast, you should try Darker Days. All of these podcasts are available on iTunes
as well. Darker Days covers both classic
and new World of Darkness games as well as some of the other White Wolf properties
such as Trinity. Darker Days is a one stop podcast for everything White Wolf related.
If you've found my blog, I'm sure you'll find others. However I do read a couple of blogs such as Aggregate Cognizance. I loved his article on Wandering Murder Hobos, and I am going to post a reply to that article very soon. I frequent the RPG.Net Forum frequently, and usually I'm the one asking for advice rather than giving it. It's a great place to ask for some help when you're stuck on a problem or you need to locate some obscure piece of trivia that will help you with an encounter or adventure. There are lots of other websites out there if you need advice or help with GMing, and these are just the ones that I use. I'm sure there are better ones that I haven't found yet.
The one thing that I hope that all
of my readers take away from this article is that GMing is a skill that
requires constant maintenance. Every
session is learning experience and a chance to improve. Whether you are an experience GM who has been
playing since D&D first edition or a brand new GM who just opened up his
first RPG book, you can always find a way to get just a little bit better. And I'll end this article with a question: What pod casts or blogs do you go to for advice and help when you're GMing? Leave a comment below!
there are a lot of good rpg channels on youtube. my favorite is prolly the main man ander wood http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCClLyw9A_TYGtAT-6Rs2pGQ
ReplyDeletefollowed closely by the gentleman gamer
http://www.youtube.com/user/clackclickbang
both have good oWoD content.
The Gentleman Gamer is one of my favorite youtube channels. His explanations of each clan are really well thought out and in-depth. They provide information on the clan but retain the mystery of the clans. He has some Planescape videos that I want to watch as well.
ReplyDeleteI just subscribed to the other channel you recommended. I can't wait to watch some of these videos. Thanks!