Hi everyone ! Just to say I won't post in this round because my action is what I did the first round, and now that we are in combat, it would be nice to have 1 post a day per player if possible... Let's keep this game alive :)
Hi everyone ! First, let me introduce this thread concept : Yesterday, I talked GMing with a colleague, and gave him this solution to his problem (which I'll talk later in this post) and he was very happy with it and said it would help him a lot, because he never GMd like that and was always frustrated with that situation. I thought about it and saw no reason not to share it with others. I don't know about you, but I always feel like I've grown as a GM in the last 20 years or so, but I still have so much to learn and am still so far from my (unreachable?) goal of quality. I didn't see any thread like this, so I'm sorry if something like this already exists. Usually, someone has a problem and asks a question and people answer, but I thought : what about just creating a thread where all GMs give general advices, tips, tools for other GMs, no theme, just ideas that made life easier in their games that others could use, you know, just sharing experiences and good results, something they didn't see in rules books, but just tried because they had an inspiration. So I came up with two of my own (for now). It's nothing fancy or revolutionary, just little ideas that maybe could benefit other GMs. It's not a thread to ask questions about a problem (there are plenty of those), but rather to give general advices for others to use... Idea # 1 : Perception checks and players that know something is coming because they have to roll : This was my colleague's problem. He tried to bluff (make them roll when there was nothing around them, but he found it irritating in the end). My two cents : What I do in my games, I ask for players to roll 5 "passive" checks before the game and I note them in a spreadsheet. Every check that can be made without the character trying to do it is rolled and noted, with their bonuses of course if they have some... So for example, if the character wants to find something, I make him roll because he is actively trying to perceive something, but if it's for an ambush and he is not aware that his perception is sollicited, then I use their passive rolls and the players don't know about it. When those 5 rolls are expired (it can be 2 hours later of 6 sessions later), I ask them to do another 5... My colleague found it really interesting, not very long to do and 100% transparent for the players. It can be used to perception, but I found it rather useful for social interactions also (the check VS bluff)... Players don't have to know that the NPC is trying to bluff them... Idea # 2 : Knowledge of characters in the long term : Sometimes, as a GM, I tend to forget details about previous sessions, and if you play for a long time, you forget a lot of details. One of them are knowledge rolls you made them do for XYZ situation. It happened in the past that a player asked me if he knew of that beast, that location, etc... I didn't remember if I told him or what roll he had on his dice, or even sometimes if he did indeed encounter that creature at all. My solution : A spreadsheet in which I note all the knowledge checks I made them do and the result they had, with the info I gave them about that roll at the time. So when 6 months later the same creature pops up in front of them, I just go to my spreadsheet and tell them that either "no, you don't know that because you rolled a 5 the first time you encountered it", or "yes, you know ABC", or "roll me a knowledge check because you never did before for that creature"... So that's it for now about me, I hope I helped a little, and I would be very interested in knowing what you do in your games to make it easier, what you find works with your players...
I did a GMPC myself, but within only 3 sessions I gave up that idea and asked one of my players to play that NPC. He will play his PC the way he did, and in the background he will play my former GMPC. I'll find this a lot easier and he will only have to do technical stuff with her (level up, combats...). I won't ask him to actually role play this NPC, and I'll be able to focus on the game and all the aspects regarding it. @NobodysHome : I'll read your thread about your campaign, it will be a lot of fun I'm sure ! :) I also started Tomi's, but took a break. I should restart his also very soon. I really like the youtube videos also (is it my turn yet)...
No problem at all guys :)
Hi Tomi ! I will GM my first pathfinder game very soon, rise of the runelords, so I checked some forums for tips, and by chance, I discovered your journal. WOW ! What a great job you did ! I admire your patience, and I really like this POV journal from a player. Can't wait to go read it from A to Z, I just wanted to salute you before and tell you how much I appreciate the work you've done, I'm sure it will give me plenty of ideas, and just to share your experience like that, wow again !!! ... and even if it's the 100th journal like this, I don't want to read the 99 others, at least, not until I finished yours, you inspire me, and I would be more than happy if one of my players made just a fraction of the work you did to write about my game...
I'm still not sure if I'll post my games on youtube... we will play in french, so I guess not many people would be interested in seeing it... |
