High Level Games
High Level Games
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Store
    • Storytellers Vault Products
    • Fantasy One-Page Adventures
    • DMs Guild Products
  • Podcasts
  • Video
  • Trusted Resources
  • Join The Team
  • About
  • Contact
    • Star Trek Adventures
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Store
    • Storytellers Vault Products
    • Fantasy One-Page Adventures
    • DMs Guild Products
  • Podcasts
  • Video
  • Trusted Resources
  • Join The Team
  • About
  • Contact
    • Star Trek Adventures

Welcome to the High Level Games Blog, News, and other stuff to take your games to the next level!

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

The Three Fs Of Role-Playing: Broad Stroke General RPG Pointers For GMs

8/3/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
GMing styles are as diverse as RPG settings. Strict, lenient, a combination of the two, or a combination of a dozen other variants and gaming-upbringings, you're bound to run into a few of these during your role-playing tenure.

And as good and encouraged as diversity is around these parts, and as it should be around the world on a daily basis, there are those that run their sessions with a bit of an iron grip; those who turn players away by either adhering too strictly to the rules or not knowing how to cater to a particular group's needs.

Role-players are possibly even more diverse than the GMs themselves – if even for the fact that they tend to outnumber the impartial role-playing referees on a bunch-to-1 basis – but this doesn't mean that they don't have a certain common denominator that makes them tick, and helps them get the most out of a given RPG session.

What follows are 3 short, general guidelines that I find a GM should follow to get as much response out of their players, and to immerse them in the world/adventure/campaign from the get-go.

I call these... *drum roll*
*more drums rolling*
*drums rolling down the stairs out of control*
The three Fs of role-playing... playing... aying... ing...

1. Freedom
Freedom is a beautiful thing to have, in life, as well as gaming. Being able to feel like your choices in-character take you in one direction or another and help you evolve over time, without the contrivances of railroading or others pushing and prodding you into making "the right choice," can do wonders for someone's self growth.

It's all well and good that you've let your players know taking on that dragon using nothing but balsa wood and chewing gum might end up with them having to roll up new characters, but who are you to rain on their wannabe-MacGyver moment? Work WITH the players when building your adventure. Have them make their mark on anything and everything you throw at them. You'd be surprised at the amount of good content a party can come up with, provided they feel their input is valued.

A GM's duty is first and foremost that of setting the scene, then giving the players the tools they need to achieve whatever they set out to do, and then carefully, and without much interference, seeing to it that they are supplied with any and all set pieces that they feel they need.

Within reason, of course.

If anyone wants to jump off the edge of the Disc, it's their funeral; there's no need to drag the rest of the party down with them.

2. Flexibility
The aforementioned F brings with it a second one: the ability to bend and adapt to any actions the players may attempt while still making sure a certain logical plot arc exists amidst all the shenanigans, one-liners, witness-me-events, and other incredible feats of polyhedral-assisted madness.

There should always be a reason for that madness.

Unless you're running a Monty Python campaign. That always seems to descend into hamster/elderberry-related parenting jokes, political commentary regarding lake-residing females, and generally Antiochian amounts of taunting, French or otherwise.

One or more players' freedom should never come at the expense of the party's main goal, else you risk ending with a fragmented group. This often ends with players aiming for something entirely different and trying to reach it in a completely different way. This may also stem from a party not having perfect chemistry with one another, but that's where the GM steps in, distilling every person's individual strengths, showcasing them, and allowing them to shine within the confines of any given situation... and, of course, make sure their weaknesses are thrown in as a monkey wrench whenever the situation calls for it. Insert evil laughter here.

Stick some yoga in there, in the literal sense of the word and you're bound to score some extra points for creativity!

3. Finesse
Role-playing is all about the je-ne-sais-quoi...
The piece de resistance...
The boogie that rocks the woogie!

You know, that one little aspect that takes a regular session, uses what the players have added to it, spins it around and turns it into a time of greatness, an epiphany, a jaw-dropping crescendo reveal into an exploding epilogue that nobody saw coming but the seeds of which you've been planting from the get-go.

It's your duty as a GM to tweak and finely tune any and all aspects of a story in order to make it more about the players and their characters than the story itself.

There's no way you'll be able to impress a group if you've got a sterile plot onto which you just slap their characters' names and hope they'll enjoy it. Even with a pre-published adventure, you need to dig around its set course, veer slightly off it when the situation calls for it, peppering each scene with character background hooks, corner-of-your-eye details, or otherwise obscure references that may or may not add up to anything in the long run... but they should!

It's all of these tiny details that you sprinkle liberally across the entirety of an adventure, the smallest mannerisms of a random passerby performing a mundane task or the way some wizard or another is holding their wand, harkening to a long-past conflict the players may have had... these are the elements of Finesse that bring out not only your idea of a grand story arc, but also blend the players into it and make them feel like the world they're traveling through is lived in by them as well as your NPCs and beasties.

So get tinkering, keep your eyes and mind open at anything the players throw at you – beware of Core Books, those always make a dent – and organically insert their quirks into that apocalyptic post-dwarven dieselpunk-unicorn saga you're brewing.


In closing
We could talk about these ad nauseam and go into a bunch of details for each point, so I hope I've covered the basics of the three Fs of role-playing,,, playing... aying... ing... and you can take these and explore what each of them means to your particular situation.

Either that, or I've just wasted your time on some random words beginning with F that have little to no bearing on your enjoyment of the role-playing experience as a whole.

Thanks for stopping by anyway!



Writer, gamer, and - provided he's got the time for it - loving husband, Costin does not rule out sacrifices to the Great Old Ones in order to get into the gaming industry. He's been role-playing for the better part of 6 years, but has been a joker, gamer and storyteller for as long as he can remember.


His greatest pride is once improvising a 4-way argument between a grave digger, a dyslexic man, an adopted child, and a sheep, all by himself. That moment is also the closest he's ever come to giving himself a role-playing aneurysm... Thus far.

He's been dabbling in plenty of writing ventures lately, and you can find him hanging his words around the Oh Be Wandering hangout page on Facebook - https://goo.gl/4be3Bj 


Savage Worlds: Fast, Furious, and Fun! - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    All blog materials created and developed by the staff here at High Level Games 

    ​

    Picture
    Click here to support our community for as a little as $1.00 for exclusive content, free downloadable stuff, and even discounts on role-playing game items.

    Archives

    February 2021
    November 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All
    13th Age
    2d20
    2nd Edition
    3.5 Edition
    3Deep
    4th Edition
    5th Edition
    7th Sea
    Acquisitions Inc
    Actual Play
    AD&D
    AdventureLookUp.com
    Adventurers!
    Aether Sea
    A+ Fantasy
    After Collapse
    Alignment
    Amazing Tales
    Amazon
    Anima: Beyond Fantasy
    Anime
    Apocalypse World
    Atomic Robo
    Australian
    Award Winning
    Basic Fantasy
    Belly Of The Beast
    Big Eyes Small Mouth
    Black Lives Matter
    Black Void
    Blades In The Dark
    Blood Pangea
    Board Games
    Book Of Exalted Darkness
    BrigadeCon
    Burning Wheel RPG
    Call Of Cthulhu
    Capers RPG
    Casual Roleplaying
    Changeling: The Dreaming
    Chaosium
    Character Arcs
    Character Creation
    Chris Spivey
    Cinematic RP
    Classics
    Comic-books
    Conventions
    Corvus Belli: Infinity
    Crawl
    Creators
    Critical Role
    Cthulhutech
    D100 Dungeon
    D20
    D&D
    D&D Beyond
    Deadlands
    Defenders Of Tokyo
    Degenesis
    Detako Saga
    Discord
    DMsGuild.com
    Dnd
    Dndbeyond
    Doctor-who
    Double-cross
    Dread
    Dresden-files
    DriveThruRPG.com
    Dr. Who
    Dungeon Crawl Classics
    Dungeons
    Dungeons And Dragons
    Dungeon Slayers
    Dungeon World
    Dystopia Rising
    Encounters
    Era: The Consortium
    Era: The Empowered
    Esper Genesis
    Evil Hat
    Exalted
    Faith RPG
    Fandom
    Fantasy-age
    Fantasy-flight
    Fantasy Grounds
    FATE
    Fate Accelerated Edition
    Fate Core
    Fate Rpg
    Fate-rpg
    Final Fantasy
    Forgotten Realms
    Fragged Empire
    Free League Publishing
    Furries
    Game Design
    Game Lore
    Gencon
    Ghosts Of NPCs Past
    GMTips
    Golden-sky-stories
    GoodmanGames.com
    Grognards
    GUMSHOE
    GURPS
    GURPS Lite
    Halloween
    Harlem Unbound
    Harry-potter
    Hero Builder
    Heroes Against Darkness
    Heroes-unlimited
    HERO System
    High Level Games
    Historical Fantasy
    HLG Con 2018
    HLG Reviews
    Homebrew
    Humble Bundle
    Indie
    Interface Zero 2.0
    Interview
    Invisible Suns
    Japanese RPGs
    JRR Tolkien
    Kickstarter
    KoboldPress.com
    KULT
    L5R
    Lankhmar
    LARP
    Lasers And Feelings
    Legendlore
    Legend Of The Five Rings
    LexOccultum
    LOTR
    Low Magic
    Mage
    Mage: The Awakening
    Magic And Steel
    MAID
    Mayhem
    Mazes And Minotaurs
    Meikyuu Kingdom
    Mekton Zero
    Mental Health
    Middle Earth
    Mighty Narwhal
    Mini Six
    Modern Adventures RPG
    Modiphius
    Monarchies Of Mau
    Monsterhearts
    Monte Cook Games
    Morra
    Mummy: The Curse
    Mutants And Masterminds
    Mythender
    Narrative Games
    Nechronica
    Night's Black Agents
    Novel
    NPC
    Numenara
    Odyssey Of The Dragonlords
    One Shot
    Online Gaming
    Orun
    OSCRIC
    Osr
    OVA
    Palladium
    Pathfinder
    Pathfinder 2.0
    PbtA
    PDQ
    Pire: The Masquerade 5th Edition
    Play By Post
    Player Tips
    Podcast
    Powered By Apocalypse
    Power Outage RPG
    Preview
    Promethean: The Created
    Pugmire
    Pulp
    Puzzles
    Questlings
    Ravenloft
    Ravnica
    Red Markets: A Game Of Economic Horror
    Research
    Review
    Review Article
    Rifts
    Risus
    Role Play
    Roll20
    Romance Of The Perilous Land
    Ryuutama
    Satanic Panic
    Savage Rifts
    Savage Tokusatsu
    Savage Worlds
    Seeds Of Wars
    Setting
    Settings
    Settlement Building
    Shadowrun
    SIGMATA
    Snowhaven
    Social Combat
    Social Systems
    Solo Play
    Standard Roleplay System
    Star Trek Adventures
    Star Wars
    Storytellers Vault
    Suited RPG
    Summerland
    Supplements
    System Design
    Table Top
    Tabletop Simulator
    Tales From The Loop
    Tales Of Equestria
    Talislanta
    Tariffs
    Teenagers From Outerspace
    Ten Candles
    Tenra Bansho Zero
    The Dark Eye
    The End Of The World RPG
    The Great Long Dark
    The One Ring
    The Very Important Task
    Titan Effect
    To The Temple Of Doom
    Trial Of Cthulhu
    Trinity Continuum
    TSR Marvel Super Heroes
    Ttrpg
    Twitch
    USTR
    Va
    Valiant Rpg
    Vampire: The Masquerade
    Video Games
    Villian
    Volo
    Vs Ghosts
    Warhammer
    Warhammer 40K
    Werewolf: The Apocalypse
    Westbound RPG
    Wild West
    World Building
    World Of Darkness
    Writing Tips
    Year Zero
    Zweihander

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly