For the Game Master

Getting Started

The first step to get the game started is to sit down with all the other players and help them each create a character. It is incredibly important that you, the Game Master, already know how to create a character. Before trying to help out your players in the character creation process, it's a good idea to make a few characters yourself to make sure you know the ins and outs of creating characters.

Help your players understand that these characters are like characters in a story book and that they will be taking on these characters as personas, pretending to be them as they progress through the game.

Once everyone has a character, you're ready to play.

Running the First Session

A game session is when you and your players get together and play the game for a while. These can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 8 or more hours. It's all up to you!

Running a session work like this:

1. Introduction - Introduce the game to the players. This usually only needs to be done during the first session. Tell them about the world they are entering, give a little bit of imagery to pique their interest, and overall set the stage for the story to play out on. This should take place in the form of a narrative. For example:

(Game Master) “You are all on a train headed to the town of Felmhaven. Your guild has sent you to this backwater town to find a man named Gerald Lindsman. Supposedly he stole a priceless heirloom from one of the great houses and has been laying low somewhere in this quaint town. Your task is to locate Gerald Lindsman and collect the heirloom by any means necessary.”

This is just one example of how to present an introduction. This gives them a taste of the world they're entering (simply by mentioning a train, you are introducing the technology of this world), a clear direction, and something to pique there interest. Why did Gerald steal the heirloom? Why did he come here to hide? Questions will arise in the players' minds and hopefully get them interested in the story.

2. Hand the reigns to the players - Now it's time to let the players be players. In this scenario, you've only established that the players are on a train, heading to their destination. For more experienced players, they may want to take this as an opportunity to have an in-game conversation, where their characters talk with one another to establish a plan, introduce their characters to the story, or talk about the world.

If your players are less experienced, or just uncomfortable getting started, it may be hard to throw them into a situation like this. This situation (sitting on a train) is aimless, and players might not be comfortable with jumping into the game here. If your players are less comfortable or less experienced with role play, continue the story just a little further - to the point where they clearly have options for things they can do.

(Game Master) “Your train slows and reaches your stop, Felmhaven. You're tired from your journey and there's a small motel nearby.”

When handing the reigns to the players, they need to feel like they're in a position to make choices that impact the story. Otherwise, they may freeze up and get uncomfortable. In this scenario, they've just ridden into town and now have a workable setting with at least one clear option of what to do. Now would be a great time to turn to your players and say, “What do you do?”

Allow each player the opportunity to express what they would like to do to kick off the game. Some may want to find a place to rest, some may want a quick look around the town, others may want to talk to other passengers from the train. No matter what they want to do, it's your job as the Game Master to let them make their own decisions. However, you should encourage two things: (1) That they stay together and (2) do something that progresses the story. The second one is not as important in this specific scenario, as the story is just getting started.

This is where things can be a bit tricky, especially if your players have never played a roleplay game like this before. Posing the question, “What do you do?” can be intimidating for new players and they may freeze up and be unsure of how to respond. When this happens, it's good to remind them that the sky is the limit! In a roleplay game, everyone is in the driver's seat. You can do anything you want. If they still seem unsure, give them a few suggestions like going to the motel and resting, talking to the other train passengers, or talking to the other players (in-game as characters, though).

3. Give an outcome for the players' actions - Once the players have decided what they want to do, it's your job to tell them what happens next. You need to narratively describe things as you go.

(Player 1) “I would like to head to the motel.”

(Player 2) “Me too!”

From here you could give them the name of the motel, describe the atmosphere of the inside, let them know if there's other people milling around, and a description of the front clerk.

At this point you hand it back to the players and then it's wash, rinse, repeat from there. The players make decisions, you give them a narrative that results from their actions, and repeat.

4. Guide the narrative - The trick about being a Game Master is being able to take what the players want to do, let them do it, but still find a way to drive the story forward. If you've planned out the story a bit, then you'll try to guide them to specific plot points.

In the previous example, say you wanted something exciting to happen when they reach the town, but your players just want to get to the mtoel and rest. It's important to identify that there is a lot of whitespace between getting off the train and into the motel.

Whitespaces are moments that are glanced across while players are doing things. In this case, it's walking to and into the motel. That doesn't need to be given a narrative, that would be boring. But it does give you space to make something happen that would guide the story where you want it to go.

In this moment you could spring an ambush of thugs on them, perhaps they run into a shady character that delivers a cryptic message, maybe they hear something beyond the town that foreshadows an encounter to come. Or maybe they just get to the motel, and nothing happened along the way. It's just important to recognize whitespace and the part it can play for guiding the narrative.

5. Improvise - Another thing that every Game Master has to learn is how to improvise. This something that can be hard at first but gets easier and easier over time.

The main thing you will be improvising is in-game conversations. Anytime a player wants to speak to an NPC (Non-Player Character) such as a front desk clerk, a beggar, or an officer, you will have to suddenly jump into the that character and be them.

This means that when a player tells you: I go up to the beggar and say, “Excuse me, but where would I find the nearest hotel?” You have to suddenly roleplay that beggar and give an in-game response.

Anytime a player character wants to communicate with a person that is not one of the other player characters, it is your job to roleplay that person.

It's also important to understand that no matter what you plan, how much you plan, how many possible choices you expect your players might make, it's guaranteed that your plans will get turned completely upside down at some point. The longer a game session goes, the more and more likely it is that your plans will fail.

That's okay.

The best part about a game like this is that no one, not even the Game Master, knows exactly where the story will end up. As the game progresses, don't be afraid to suddenly shift tracks and let the story be what the players are trying to make it be.

Often times your players will do something completely unexpected, like successfully seduce the dinosaur that was supposed to eat them. Trust me, it's happened. When stuff like this happens, you have to be able to think on your feet.

Be prepared to suddenly create characters for the players to interact with that you didn't know they would need. Be prepared for them to go somewhere that you never even realized would exist. When this happens, just make it up as you go. Eventually, you'll get to the point where your players won't even know you're making it up.

Planning Ahead

One time, I had a player say to me, “Wow! That was so cool! How do you come up with this?” and the truth is that I had only a few notes jotted down and a general direction I wanted to take the story in. The rest was completely done on the spot.

That being said, it's good to plan ahead, but bad to plan too far ahead.

Ask anyone who's ever been a Game Master for any game similar to this one. They will tell you that players are incredibly unpredictable and will do the most wild and unexplainable things they can think of. And that's just because everyone in the world has a different way of thinking, so trying to guess what a player will do in any particular situation will rarely work.

Coming up with where you want the game to go is great and highly encouraged. Give yourself and players direction by coming up with an overarching narrative.

But when it comes to planning each session, plan sparingly. Don't try to assume that you know what a player will do. Ever. The best way to plan ahead is to sit and go, “The story is currently here. I want the story to get here.” Then plot out key events that must happen in order to get there. From here, find ways guide the players to those key events, based around what the players want to do, not what you want the players to do.

Using Dice

Often times, a player will want to do something that takes skill to successfully do. This can be anything from persuading a non-player character to give them information, to crafting a horseshoe. Anytime the outcome of a player's actions would depend on how well they did it, you need to roll some dice.

The first step is to identify what their trying to do and see what skill that would fall under. If they're trying to persuade someone, they would be using their character's social skill. If they're trying to craft a horseshoe, they would be using their character's craft skill.

Once that's established, the player rolls dice (2, 6-sided dice) to determine how successful the outcome of their action is. It's important that you, as the Game Master, read through the Skills chapter and understand how rolling for skills works. Also, read through the rest of the chapters, too. Trust me. It's good to know what this game is capable of before your players blindside you with magic drugs (see the Myth chapter).

Cultivating an Experience

We've covered how the game is played, but how do you, as Game Master, create the story to guide the players through. Let's treat your game like a tree. All trees start from a seed, and so should your story. A seed is a general concept that has the potential to grow into something great. It's a simple sentence that describes what you want the story to start out as.

Some examples of seed:

• The players are tasked with protecting cargo on a train, and it gets attacked by bandits.
• A great monster is attacking some farms and the players need to go find it and stop it.
• An ancient ruin has been uncovered and the players must explore it.
• A political figure is corrupt, and the players must assassinate them.

And the list goes on. When thinking up a seed, it's a good idea to look at the five guilds from Character Creation. Guilds were designed to give the Game Master a place to start thinking up a story, as well as give players a reason for their characters to be together when the game first starts.

Once you've got your seed, you'll need to plant it. That happens in the form of game session number one once all the players have created characters and are ready to start playing. This session should contain a call to action that helps kick start the story.

Hopefully, your seed points out a clear call to action that gets your players going, such as a bandit attack, a monster attacking a farm, etc. Then you just have to find a way to guide your players to that initial action point. Getting them to that initial action point should be fairly straight forward. The players can just play for a bit, let them wander about and do things, then have an event that kicks the story into gear.

Once the seed is planted and that initial call to action has taken place, all that's left is to water it and keep it alive. That comes in the form of guiding the narrative towards points that seem exciting. You don't need to know what how the story will end, only how it will start. Once started, allow the players to search for the end. Take the direction they move in and cultivate that. Never try to ram them into a direction they don't want to go. That's the best way to kill the experience.

As you and the players play, you'll get ideas on where the story should move to next, and you'll just need to find ways to get it there. Eventually, an end will be in sight and a climax will happen. Then the story will be over and the game ends. Beyond all that, its up to you and your players.

This is obviously just a brief rundown of how to play this game. There's a lot more to talk about, such as how to create a vibrant world, how to roleplay effectively, how foreshadow without planning too far ahead, etc. None of that will be covered here because everyone does it differently and all of that is best learned through experience. If this is your first time being a Game Master, it's going to take some experience to see what works best for you and your group to make the game fun. The best way to make it fun and get better at it is just to dive in and give it your all.

Good Luck!