Image compositing a number of elements created to illustrate Azuria – see text below.

A Status Update

It can be readily observed that this is not part 3 of the ongoing series on Economics in RPGs that I’ve been publishing for the last couple of weeks.

Right up until the last moment, I was uncertain as to whether or not to continue with that series this week, but two – no, four – factors compelled a break.

First, I have been coming up with a number of good ideas for articles outside of the series, and wanted to keep the queue of these short – I still have a couple left over from my last burst of creativity (‘The Collision Of Aphorisms’ and ‘Measurements In Hand-waving’) that have not yet been published, and while the first of these is well-documented but conceptually incomplete, the second is vague and uncertain. I’m sure I knew exactly what it was about when I came up with the idea… ‘striking while the iron is hot’ is more than just a casual consideration (this also plays into why I have so many series here with one or two parts remaining before completion – the intent and desire are there, but the difficulty has risen).

Second, Economics is hardly the most stimulating of topics to most readers. I like to think that I’ve been able to keep the series entertaining and interesting to readers so far, though I may be deluding myself; but there is a risk of burnout from a tinder-dry subject on the part of both the audience (that’s everyone reading this) and the writer (that’s me). And that also plays into those unfinished series that I mentioned. A change of pace, for anyone who hasn’t been bothering with the Economics series, or who doesn’t run a Fantasy campaign and so has found the content thus far to be of limited relevance to them, is not a bad idea.

Third, there’s been a serious time-crunch lately. I’ll go into the reasons for that in a moment; for now, suffice it to say that I’ve got a lot of time-sensitive major projects underway simultaneously.

Even with all three of these taken into consideration, the decision was still 50-50 in my mind, but this fourth item was the kicker: the content of the third article is still taking shape in my mind. Without all those distractions, I might have been able to better focus on that content and be writing a very different article right now! With more time up my sleeve, I would have dived into the writing even without a full picture of content in mind, confident that I would be able to use narrative momentum and experience to get me through to the end. Either way, I would now be writing about economics in the Renaissance and Pre-industrial eras. Without those luxuries to fall back on, a quicker alternative was called for. So, here we are.

What are these major projects that are getting in the way? I can’t go into too much detail, but thought a quick roundup would be in order:

1. Campaign Mastery: Economics In RPGs

Obviously, this is still on my mind. I expect to be able to deliver Part 3 next week.

2. Dr Who: Azuria, Azurials, Azurians, and Azurites

The next adventure takes place on the homeworld of the Doctor’s current companion, Quasima. Q’s species started out conceptually as ‘a sentient shade of the color blue’ but the campaign is more hard-science with a soft-science gooey shell around it; imparting at least a veneer of pseudo-scientific credibility demanded amplification of the concept of the Azurites, a concept that continues to grower deeper, richer, and more complex as I work on it. Currently, they are a viewed as an almost two-dimensional sheet of sentient energy, a complex internal arrangement of electrified plasma given form by virtue of its self-awareness.

2a. Homeworld Of Sentient Blue

If the adventure is to take place on Azuria, the homeworld of Quasima, I need to know what that environment is going to be. Hint: it’s going to be manifestly strange! Actually, the fundamental concepts concerning Azuria came to me fairly quickly, perhaps because I’ve had months of this being in the back of my mind.

The major project is to illustrate what’s been forming in the back of my head. To that end, I have 28 major components to the illustration ready to stitch together (and four more to do), 23 bolts of lightning with which to adorn those components (and cover any imperfections) and 22 high-resolution images of inhabitants (which won’t be enough, but the balance are all going to be small, and low-res images that will be quick to produce). So this project is coming to a close, on Thursday if not sooner.

In fact, it’s so close that I’ve thrown together some of the components to form the image used to illustrate this article. The final composite will be very different from this one, in which the natives dominate.

2b. Life-cycles Of Sentient Blue

Other aspects of the species have also been playing on my mind, especially their life cycles; one reason I have put together so many high-resolution examples is so that they can be compiled into an infographic. (I also have vague ideas about using lightning elements to link these in a visual way, but that might not work.

2c. Societies & Lifestyles Of Sentient Blue

You can’t think about these subjects without also starting to think about the society in which they live. One thought along this line triggers another thought about the life cycle or the environment which then gives a new idea bout the society; the whole grows not as isolated ideas but as consequences of broad concepts that daisy-chain their way through multiple aspects of their existence. This is one technique for creating a consistency within the concept that will withstand being presented to the player in smaller chunks, observations, and events.

In fact, you can lump it all under the heading of “background”.

2. Dr Who: Adventure 8: The Coming Of Ageless

One thing that I concentrate on is making sure that the adventure draws upon and highlights elements within the background. How does where something is happening impact what a character would perceive as happening? The victims, their habits, their protective social mechanisms, all will be different. A heist in Elven lands should not be the same, and should not feel the same, as one in South America, or one in Los Angeles, or one in 1812 Germany. Everything from what is being stolen to who is doing the stealing should be different, and the expectations of what a PC is supposed to do about it will also be different.

It should be noted that I am using the ‘heist’ as an example deliberately, because the adventure is not a heist!

I have a clear enough idea of what’s going to happen in my head that I can run it even if completing the earlier projects takes up all the available time, but improv is so much better when it’s supported by prep – and the whole purpose of thinking about the environment and society is to inform the adventure. The prior listings aren’t isolated entities, they are all contributions to the actual adventure.

All this Dr Who work needs to be completed in the next 2 weeks, because that’s when the adventure is to start – whether it’s ready or not. That’s the shortest deadline, so it gets the highest priority right now.



3. Pulp: Adventure #33: Lucifer Rising

Speaking of composites, I have a composite image to complete for the next Pulp Adventure. Below is a screen shot of the elements of that composite, which has been on the back-burner for a while but slowly approaching completion. To the right is a screen capture of the elements either underway or completed. I really need to get my finger out on this one, it will be needed in 3-4 months. Note that I am using a very thumb-nailed screen grab because it won’t give any hints to the players.

The adventure itself is complete, but I also need to finish indexing the selected images (getting them into the sequence we expect to use them in play) and referencing the resulting image sequence number in the adventure text. That won’t take long – maybe a day, maybe less – but it still needs to happen within the next 2-3 months.

4. Pulp: The Map Of New York

I started generating a large-scale map of New York City (plus all of Long Island, most of New Jersey, and up to Sleepy Hollow to the north) so that I could put markers down for where various events and locations were situated, relative to each other. The scale is just enough to show individual streets, enough of them with names that specific locations can be identified. As it happened, it turned out not to be needed – a burst of inspiration solved the plot problem the map was to help us address – but it’s so close to completion that I’ve been pressing on, regardless. This is a composite of more than 200 screen grabs from an internet map. Unfortunately, the original map was too large to keep as one piece – instead, it’s going to end up being 6 or 8 image files by the time it’s all done.

Another 2-3 days work and this should be done – but I’m going to have to start lowering it’s priority rating, since the need is no longer urgent. I’ve been desperately trying to finish it before that happens.

5. Pulp: Adventure #34: The Kindness Of Strangers

The adventure for the Pulp campaign that my co-GM and I are currently working on, and for which the map was initially required. We’re probably about half-way through it. I can’t say too much, the players all read this blog from time to time!

6. Zenith-3 / Team Shadow: Act 10 (ongoing)

I had a huge project to synchronize the events that comprise this act of the current adventure to accommodate a number of possible player decisions. Most of those decisions have now been made and I know that they will be following a prepared pathway through the rest of the act, so I am focusing on the final scenes. This content will need to be completed about 2 months from now.

7. Zenith-3 / Team Shadow: Protocols & PCs

A large part of that content will be describing the suggested Protocols that the team will need to think about in terms of modus operandi. Currently it looks like: (a) Discover an emergency; (b) gather everyone; (c) pile into their cars and drive at top (legal) speed to a remote location about 10 minutes away, briefing as they go; (d) transform into hero guise; (e) travel to the emergency at the speed of a fast car – but in a more-or-less straight line; (f) resolve the emergency; (g) reverse steps e, d, and c; (h) debrief.

Limited travel speed and overheads are something that the team haven’t really had to deal with before; they are used to teleporting in the wink of an eye to the adventure. Now, we’re talking 15 minutes to an hour, maybe more – it’s up to them whether or not they put a limit on it. This situation will impose additional judgments on the team – “what’s the likelihood that an emergency of type ‘x’ will be resolved before we can get there?” will need to be considered for the first time. Before they can make decisions, I need to figure out the questions that will confront them.

8. Zenith-3 / Team Shadow: Data: Places To Go and Things To Do

Now that they have chosen a base of operations (a ‘mansion’ located in Royal, Arkansas) and are on their way to buy it, I need to view the place as a hub. Certain plot threads will come with the location – I need to nut those out. There are going to be shopping expeditions in and around the location.

I have generated a huge list of places of interest and businesses for the PCs to shop in, and am in the process of documenting travel times (and flying times in cases of emergency). There’s maybe another 16-20 hours of work in data gathering – so that’s 4-5 working days. I could get it done this week, but next week is a more likely target. Especially since I keep finding more stuff to list!

Along the way, I’m also compiling mini-adventure ideas based on suggestive locations. The PCs want to spend several game weeks building up a local reputation and fitting out their chosen base before the real action starts, and they haven’t even started to figure out how they are going to do it (another protocol question). So I’m building up resources to facilitate the PCs doing what they have said they intend to do.

9. Zenith-3 / Team Shadow: Documentation: Places To Go and Things To Do

The info gathered in project 8 will get presorted by type put into a number of tables and sub-tables that I have designed, which can then be individually sorted in various ways – so that if they want the nearest hairdresser, for example, I can simply scroll through the table to get an answer.

Completing the data acquisition will take another 3-4 sessions of about 4 hours each; populating the database will take weeks, there will be hundreds of entries. The more time I can fill up with Acts 10 & 11 (initiating those plot threads), the longer I have to get this done – so I have a 2-3 month timeline before this project needs to be complete.

10. Zenith-3 / Team Shadow: Mansions & Mapping

I recently purchased, as a bundle, Campaign Cartographer 3 and a bunch of add-ons, with the express intention of using it to design the floor-plan of the Mansion in Royal. I have a list of rooms (now approaching completion), I have the design philosophy that was used in the 18th century to build the place, and I have a concept of layout and how the PCs might change it.

I know what functions they have identified as things they want to be able to carry out there, and identified a number of the existing rooms that can have those purposes mapped onto them.

Right now, they can’t even really explore the place because it isn’t fully designed yet. So doing that is a major task that hasn’t yet really started.

10a. HD Space / Laptop Cleanup

One reason (aside from time) that it hasn’t started yet is that I started to run out of space on my Hard Disk. I can see gigabytes being used for the process, with me editing the labels (or adding new labels) to a copy of the map in real time, as the players discuss their options. So one task that has more or less wrapped (for now – it’s an ongoing thing) was to archive off a whole bunch of stuff that I don’t use regularly.

I started with a free capacity of 50.4 Gb. That’s now up to 77.2 Gb – so that’s 26.8 Gb of space cleaned up, most of it in old documents and unwanted MP3s and backups of installation files for software. There’s at least another 2.25 Gb in Campaign Mastery archives that I can ditch from the working Hard Disk if I need to, maybe more. That amounts to about 29 Gb of space freed up to enable the Mansion Mapping project to take place.

And, once I’ve installed CC3, I can delete it’s installation source files, too (they’re already backed up) – that’s another 16 Gb, bringing the total cleared to 45 Gb, or about 10% of the HD’s capacity.

11. Warcry

The Warcry campaign rolls on. Designed to be low-prep, I have a game session in hand but need to start thinking about the next adventure, due to start in just over a month. That will involve between 2 and 20 hours work over the next 5 weeks or so.

12. Campaign Mastery: Other Article Ideas

I mentioned at the top of this ‘status report’ that I had a list of other articles for Campaign Mastery in progress. There’s –

• ‘Looping Rolls’, a new concept in game mechanics, which will take a lot of work;
• ‘Disease At The Speed Of Plot’, about diseases in RPGs, obviously!
• ‘The Collision Of Aphorisms’, which I’ve mentioned already;
• ‘The Alignment Of Decisions’, which is also about GMing style, and which revolves around alignment as a metaphor (which is a lot more problematic these days!)
• ‘Patterns Of Alien Intellect’, which I actually started in 2016 but never finished,
• ‘Measurements In Handwaving’, ditto;
• ‘GMing Style vs Playing Style’, which is barely a concept yet;
• ‘What is Magic?’, which is a shortish article about half-finished;
• ‘Rumormongering For Fun and Profit’, which I started and set aside;
• ‘Beware Old Habits’, which is nothing but a title;
• ‘The Changing Needs Of Content With Blog Growth’, which is a beginning and not enough substance;
• ‘The Trouble With Disaster’, which is about 8,500 words long and about 90% unfinished; and which may end up being a multipart series if I ever get back to it;
• And, of course, all the ongoing series, and a load of other ideas that are nothing more than a line of description or a title.

Not all of these will make the cut. Some have been abandoned for some time – tomorrow, as I write this, it will be six years since I’ve done anything with ‘The Alignment Of Decisions’, for example. But some of them deserve better. The higher up that list an item is, the more likely it is to ever see the light of day. So the top 5 or 6 look good, but the others are on shakier ground.

As you can see, I have a LOT of irons in the fire at the moment. Thinning that list before something else comes along is a high priority of my day, every day.

Well, if the Economics article wasn’t going to be ready, and might not have been finished even if I had started it, I needed something else – and that brings me to the subject of today’s post.

This is one of those ‘set-aside’ ideas that looked like it could be finished relatively quickly and easily. So far up that list of unfinished articles that It’s popped right off the top.

Fade Into The Background: The Premise

GMs should always strive to fade into the background as much as possible during play. It’s impossible to do this as completely as is ultimately desirable, unfortunately.

The goal is one that demands continual monitoring of our GMing habits and style to ensure that we are getting as close to that theoretical ideal as is possible.

Why?

There are two questions that I always like to answer right after giving some advice. The second is ‘How’, and I’ll get to that in a moment; first there is the question of ‘why?’

A player can only pay close attention to a limited number of things at once.

• Where their PC is and what they are doing there;
• The campaign background, and what parts of it matter, and why;
• What the NPC / creature / location in front of the PC is doing or saying;
• What the rules are for what the player wants to do;
• How to enter combat if that takes place;
• The PC’s current health and any ongoing status effects;
• What the GM is saying.
• What the GM is doing, eg what he has just rolled;
• What the PC is saying or about to say;
• What the other players / PCs are saying.

That’s ten things, and the GM’s presence is only one of them (I don’t count what he’s doing, because it’s irrelevant who is doing it; it could be anyone moving a piece on a battle-mat or rolling dice. All the player really cares about in this category is what is going to affect his PC and how).

At the same time, the GM wants to be heard; he’s imparting what he considers vitally important game information. There is, therefore, an important distinction to be made: the GM should fade into the background, not the content of what he is saying. That distinction provides the ‘why’ – the more attention the player focuses onto the GM, the less attention he has available for assimilating and responding to the content that the GM is imparting.

In fact, it’s quite common for three or four items on that list to ‘go missing’ at any given time during play. You don’t want to add to that list.

How?

When I’m a player in a game, I like any situation to start with what scriptwriters call an “Establishing shot”. A snapshot of the scene that enables me to visualize the location and environment and what is happening in the background. I assemble this, as best I can, from what the GM describes, then try to keep it in mind as the backdrop to everything else that happens.

This can be more difficult than it sounds, because other players are often more intent on getting to the action, or are more willing to make assumptions about the environment or ignore it as irrelevant. They lean in, asking questions and stating actions or making chitchat or simply start switching off, no longer listening. As soon as the GM perceives this, he has a difficult choice to make: keep imparting the details he thinks important enough to mention (possibly after demanding refocused attention), or assume that the PCs aren’t paying attention to those things and move on to the events that are to transpire.

The first involves the GM making himself the focus of attention, possibly forcefully, then shifting it back to the scene. The second fades the GM into the background, a shadow lurking somewhere behind the information that he is imparting. Doing this successfully means assuming that PCs will notice anything the GM hasn’t described yet as soon as it becomes significant, and also that the GM has been combining obviousness and importance to rank the information he is providing.

A Sitting Room

Let’s say that the PCs have just entered a sitting room. The GM wants to end his description of the setting with the figure seated in an easy chair, because that’s an obvious call to action or interaction. What description of the room and scene are absolutely necessary before mentioning that figure?

Would you spend time on the Oriental Rug? No. Would you mention the fireplace and it’s ornate wrought-iron screen that prevents sparks from reaching the rug before the hearth? Yes, and no, respectively. In fact, if the fire is not lit (worth mentioning), the screen might never rate a mention – or not until a PC pays special attention to the fireplace, anyway.

How can you front-load as much description into individual terminology? “A Victorian drawing room, vivid green wallpaper, two easy chairs before the roaring fire with a small table between them, an instant feeling of comfort and warmth. One of the chairs is occupied by…”

The keywords here are “Victorian drawing room”. Everything else is refining the resulting vision. So long as the GM can clearly envision the room, any additional details can be provided on demand.

In fact, the example description offered is so sparse that an additional detail can probably be sneaked into the narrative, just to further individualize this particular drawing room. “A stuffed owl dominates brick-a-brac on a shelf above the fireplace.” or “Portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert hang proudly on the wall in gilded frames.”

The NPC Description

The decision on whether or not to include such detail comes down to whether or not I need to add such details to the description of the NPC sitting in the easy chair. If I do, that takes priority; if not, then I can spare it to provide some additional color to the room, in the process adding characterization to the owner.

“A man with a long nose is slumped in an easy chair, deerstalker hat, pipe in hand still smoking, with a heavy tome opened upon his lap, finger poised as though tracing a line of text, with two pronounced and bloody holes visible in his jacket.”

Someone has murdered a Sherlock Holmes fan…! or maybe, Holmes himself!

Once again, the call to action / interaction has to come last, because once it is stated, anything that follows will be overshadowed by it.

In Case Of Interruption

What if I got only as far as “pipe in hand still smoking,” before a player announced, “I step forward and present my hand to shake his, saying, ‘Mr Holmes, it’s a great honor and pleasure to meet you.”

The answer is to build the response into the description – “He doesn’t look up at you, his finger still poised above a line of text in the heavy book in his lap; perhaps he’s distracted by the two obvious and bloody bullet holes in his jacket.”

The change to the last phrase is important, as it is just a bit facetious, the sarcasm implying a gentle rebuke over the interruption (my experience with many Americans is that they wouldn’t recognize sarcasm if they tripped over it, but I have high hopes that a gamer will be amongst the cream of the crop in understanding such nuance, and have rarely been disappointed in that regard).

Of course, the book itself might mean everything, or nothing; its simply what the NPC was doing when he was shot. Unless and until one of the PCs moves the hand, perhaps to try and take a pulse – in which case, it was pointing at a last dying (and frightfully obscure) clue from the great detective as to his murderer, a clue that has just been carelessly lost!

Content Is More Important Than Delivery

There’s enough of an example here, I think, for readers to begin to discern the key elements. Description is kept minimal, but leaving out nothing important. Save for any calls to action /; interaction, information is delivered in a logical sequence – it will often be that of decreasing significance, but may not be. Loaded terms are used to provide maximum description and flavor for minimal verbiage. And the GM has followed the important principle that the content that he is delivering is more important than the delivery itself. He doesn’t want the object of attention to be himself, he wants it to be that information content.

Other logical sequences include distant to close, left to right, right to left, floor to ceiling, ceiling to floor, or still to moving.

One More Iteration

I couldn’t resist one more variation on the example as a further demonstration of the technique. What if the figure wasn’t dead, hadn’t even been shot, but was simply concentrating hard on what he was reading?

“A man with a long nose is slumped in an easy chair, deerstalker hat, with a heavy tome opened upon his lap. As you enter, he raises one hand in an unspoken plea for silence, smoking pipe still clasped between fingers and thumb, while his other forefinger traces lines of obscure text in the book. Reaching the end of the passage, he looks up at you, almost visibly changing mental gears.”

I don’t know about you, but if I heard that as a player, I would expect that the Holmsian figure was about to say something, potentially profound, possibly whimsical. Instead of a call to action / interaction, there is a foreshadowing of such, which is what creates that impression. Notice also that the sequence of items has changed so that the action elements – hand calling for silence, finger tracing lines of text – follow details of the static environment

Training

The final point to make here is that if you make a habit of always (and deliberately) making your final phrase the call to action / interaction, your players will learn to recognize that, and generally get into the habit of waiting until they hear one. Sometimes, eagerness will get the better of them, but any improvement in this areas is a good thing!

This is a habit that you have to get into; it will very rarely happen of its own accord. Similarly, listening for such a cue won’t happen overnight; but that is less important than the effects that a call to action / interaction will have simply by virtue of their nature.

The Wall

Some GMs use a Screen (some of the most popular posts ever, here at Campaign Mastery, have been on the subject)..

I use a laptop for the same effect, plus I get to turn it around to show images to the players (a single image can replace whole tracts of text – 1000 words is a lot, but even a saving of 100 words of description is a LOT. See A Picture Should Be Worth 1,000 Words for more on that.)

One of the benefits of such devices is that the GM can hide behind them, presenting a disembodied voice for the players to interact with – but that rarely seems to get mentioned. All the attention is on hiding game content and die rolls from those ‘on the outside’, and the benefits of putting tables and reference material at hand.

Creating a Wall between players and GM makes it easier to separate message from messenger. There are other benefits, and there are liabilities as well; this just adds another to the list.

Mechanical Narrative

Another habit that I’ve been trying consciously to get into is the use of a specific format when it comes to player interactions with game mechanics.

1. Recapitulate what the character is trying to do, or if this has been articulated sufficiently clearly and is a straightforward maneuver, describe the beginning of the movement. Use verbs – ‘action words’ – as much as possible and try very hard to make the moment described ‘live in the now’.
2. Ex-cathedra, specify any game mechanics needed to advance the description of events further, and – if necessary – who is to perform those game mechanics.
3. Perform any game mechanics and privately interpret the results. Avoid telegraphing with simple statements like “You hit” that suck away any trace of the atmosphere, if you can – that’s the part I’m having the most trouble with.
4. In a single statement, still living in the ‘now’, advance the attempted action, bearing in mind the admonition in (3). If there are no more game mechanics interactions needed, exit the process and move on to the next character to act.
5. There will often be a need for further game mechanics interaction before the action can be resolved. Specify it, as per (2).
6. Resolve these mechanics as per (3). If more game mechanics interactions are potentially needed, go back to step (4).
7. In a single statement, still living in the ‘now’, advance the attempted action to a conclusion, whatever it may be, bearing in mind the admonition in (3).

Note that I use the same process for NPCs that a PC can see / sense.

Let’s break that down at bit with a simple attack sequence with a weapon that mandates a saving roll of some kind on a successful hit.

Attack Example Step 0:

There are game mechanics which determine the sequence in which characters act. I work this as an ‘out-of-game moment’ – padding the event with gossip and rumor and news from real life. Nothing a player says gets interpreted in-game. Once this is done, the results are never mentioned to the players in game mechanics terms if I can avoid it.

Sometimes, prior events will mandate a specific action on the part of the character, for example if he was knocked prone, the character can either act while prone or get up in some fashion. This can trigger responses or give the character an attempt at a further action, depending on how they go about it – but sometimes this takes an action that is normally automatic and imposes a die roll requirement for success.

I will introduce the action by stating any such situation, if I can; if not, I will use more general action: “Next, [Character Name] makes a decision on how to respond to the situation,” or whatever (from now on in this example, I will use ‘Blaine’ as the Character Name, and John as the player’s name).

I try (frequently unsuccessfully) never to say ‘Next, it’s Blaine’s turn to act”, or worse still, something along the lines of “It’s John’s Turn”!

Attack Example Step 1

If I know what John has said Blaine is trying to do, I proceed from there. If not, I ask: “John, what is Blaine trying to do [this round]?” – if a player specifies an action that will take multiple rounds, I tell them that, giving them the chance to change their minds; once they commit to a multi-round action series, they may or may not be able to readily abandon the sequence.

In a multi-round action, if it can be abandoned, I will use language such as “John, Blair is about to continue {doing X] unless you change your mind or interrupt it to do something else.” This invites the player to interact with the game system as the character, placing the mechanics at arm’s length, and helping the GM fade into the background.

In this example, we’ll assume that John has indicated that he is going to attack Enemy #1 with a (roll of mental dice) Dwarven Battleaxe (which probably means that Blaine is a Dwarf, who knew?) – so I will announce, “Blaine twists to get his axe into position to strike,” or .something similar.

Attack Example Step 2

“John, make your attack roll. You are at -1 because of the slippery conditions and dim lighting.”

There is a hard divide between character and player, and all the game mechanics belong on the player’s side of that line. I try (and again, frequently fail) to avoid saying “Blaine is at -1 because…” or anything like that. It’s not always possible. Sometimes, i will omit such things when it’s an NPC acting, but sometimes I’ll throw them in just to show that the mechanics are even handed and affect NPCs as much as they do PCs – and are being taken into account.

Attack Example Step 3

John rolls a 14, which is enough to hit the target. He announces “I roll a 14. That should hit.” Note the implied assumption that if it doesn’t hit, either I’m cheating or there’s something he doesn’t know, which is perfectly fair – he thinks he knows what is going on, and is telling me this fact. My mental analysis shows that John is quite correct, and not just because these targets are easier to hit than might be expected, because they move sluggishly.

Attack Example Step 4

“The axe head flies toward the target’s chest, who attempts to block it with his shield but fails.” In other words, I tell John that he is correct, and Blaine has hit the target, and hint at the sluggish nature that I mentioned. This calls for a second round of game mechanics focused on the damage done.

Attack Example Step 5

“Roll your damage. Don’t forget the Strength bonus.”

Attack Example Step 6

John selects dice and rolls them. “12 plus 3 is 15 points.”

Unknown to John, a successful hit is not as good a thing as he thought. Having failed to kill the enemy outright, there is now a consequence. So I go back to step 4.

Attack Example Step 4 (#2)

“Blaine’s axe bites deeply into the creature animated by the lightning that runs through its veins and arteries like blood.” (Uh-oh).

Attack Example Step 5 (#2)

“You can’t bring the weapon back for another strike, your muscles have locked up. You will need to make a Strength roll at -4 for Blaine to let go of the weapon. Until he does so, he will take 2d6 damage every round. Next round, the penalty will be -6, then -8, and so on. You can’t talk, your lips and tongue are no longer under control, but you can emit a painful half-scream.” (Swearing from the other side of the table indicates surprise) “Oh, and if you’re wondering, the hilt bindings are insulating you, otherwise it would be 4d6 or more.”

This explains the game mechanics that he needs to know to the player.

Attack Example Step 6 (#2)

John attempts his Strength check, as required, while I roll the damage. His roll would have succeeded if not for the penalty, he announces, considerably deflated. I have rolled a 9.

Attack Example Step 7

“Blaine jerks and his mustache begins to smolder as his muscles lock in place. He can try again to release his painfully tight grip next round.”

I note down that Blaine will be at -6 on next round’s strength check while John records the damage done.

From there, it’s on to the next Round 0 introduction. It’s probably worth the effort to reread that example, skipping the explanations and my descriptions of events. Like this:

GM: “Blaine moves up to the attack, as eager for battle as ever. He twists to get his axe into position to strike.”

GM: “John, make your attack roll. You are at -1 because of the slippery conditions and dim lighting.” [John rolls].

John: “I roll a 14. That should hit.”

GM: “The axe head flies toward the target’s chest, who attempts to block it with his shield but fails. Roll your damage. Don’t forget the Strength bonus.” [John rolls].

John: “12 plus 3 is 15 points.”

GM: “Blaine’s axe bites deeply into the creature animated by the lightning that runs through its veins and arteries like blood. You can’t bring the weapon back for another strike, your muscles have locked up. You will need to make a Strength roll at -4 for Blaine to let go of the weapon. Until he does so, he will take 2d6 damage every round. Next round, the penalty will be -6, then -8, and so on. You can’t talk, your lips and tongue are no longer under control, but you can emit a painful half-scream. Oh, and if you’re wondering, the hilt bindings are insulating you, otherwise it would be 4d6 or more.” {John attempts a strength check while I roll damage].

John: “I would have made it if not for the penalty.”

GM: “Blaine jerks and his mustache begins to smolder as his muscles lock in place. He can try again to release his painfully tight grip next round. Take 9 points.” {While John documents the damage, the GM notes that he will be at -6 on his STR check next round].

It’s really hard to stay immersed during combat and other game mechanics. The best that you can usually do is to touch base with it at regular intervals. It gets even harder if your games revolve around combat, because the language itself very quickly becomes repetitive.

Prep is the Sword

It’s a lot easier to Improv when you have good prep. Because I was writing it in advance of anyone reading it, I was able to revise and edit the “Drawing Room” example – some of what you have read is my third draft (about half of it isn’t).

You will notice that my preferred construction methodology for game narrative, bullet points, are deliberately reflected in the example. These make it so much easier to find any details that are relevant, or find where you were up to before being interrupted.

Prep is the weapon that the GM can bring to the quest to hide in shadows as much as possible.

Rather than a whole heap of relevant links, I’ve decided on just two:

• One word at a time: How I (usually) write a Blog Post
• Stealth Narrative – Imputed info in your game
• The series on Writer’s Block and the one on Stylish Narrative might also be helpful.

Experience is the Shield

All things are easier with practice. If Prep is the weapon, experience is the shield that tells you when to follow advice like that contained in this article, and when not to.

We get better at the things we do regularly, usually without even noticing it. Where it first shows up is an ability to cope with circumstances that would once have thrown us for a loop. I have enough experience behind the (metaphoric) GM’s screen that I can go into an RPG session with no prep at all, without even an idea, and run something on the fly that will at least be satisfying.

Add an idea to that, and it gets easier, permitting a greater focus on entertainment. Polish that idea with some forethought and running the game session becomes relatively easy.

The downside lies in documentation of events, and integrating them into a broader narrative than a one-off game session. Nuances are already being lost by the end of the game session. And improv game sessions can take a lot out of you – enough that you don’t have the energy left for any documentation that’s more substantial.

You don’t need prep to run a game, or even a campaign; but it makes an effective glue to bind one together over multiple game sessions. It might not be the magic fairy dust of RPGs, but it will do until something better comes along!