One of the things that hampers many novice GMs is the inability to recognize when things in their game are uninteresting.
I played in one such game, where the GM definitely made me feel like I was in a fantasy realm, but I really didn't feel like I was in a story in which I was one of the main characters. A couple of years later, once I started taking screenwriting classes, I realized the flaw in the way the GM approached the game.
He wasn't focusing on conflict.
One of the first things a novice screenwriter is taught is that EVERY scene and even every line of dialogue, must have conflict. Some of the greatest reads on any messageboard are lively debates, even when they devolve into flamefests.
I'm not suggesting people do that on this board, but think about that when running a game.
The first time players walk into a store, they don't know what to expect. They don't know the owner. They don't know the prices. Unless this is just a routine stop for supplies, even this can be a great source of action because the characters may have to negotiate hard for what they want. The store owner may have a quirky personality and ask a lot of intimidating questions. There may be something in the store that the owner doesn't want players to see. There could be a strange smell in the place. Do any of these things have to matter to the adventure's plot? No. But, adding even just a little bit of conflict to the scene gets players involved.
MOST encounters do involve conflict because the players are usually trying to achieve something that is "surrounded by difficulties".
That being said, one of the goals of the GM should be to:
MINIMIZE, SHORTEN, or ELIMINATE/SUMMARIZE any encounter that does NOT PROVIDE conflict.
This does not mean as a GM you have to cut eloquent descriptions, especially if you want to describe to the players what it feels like walking into an ancient tomb for the first time. But, what the GM should strive for is driving the action as often as possible, and conflict is at the heart of action.
I disagree. The main encounters of the story should include conflict. If every NPC is hostile, it just gets annoying.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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No, no, CourtFool. I see where he's going with this, and it's not just some Gygaxian "every NPC is out to screw the PC's" theme.
Your PC wants to buy a horse, for the minimum possible price. Even at the simplest, a willing seller wants to get the maximum price. That's a conflict.
And, even if money is no object to your PC, the seller may have his best stock reserved for the young prince. You want him to sell it to you instead. That's a conflict.
If the seller is entirely in your corner (let's say you're riding off to save the village, and he knows it), then don't spend time around the table enacting the sale.
If you do have to spend time at the table on an encounter, put some drama into it. If you're going to take 30 minutes to calculate crafting a wand of unseen servant, then it would be better to take 45 minutes to craft the wand with some sort of problem or tension.
That's good sense.
If you do have to spend time at the table on an encounter, put some drama into it. If you're going to take 30 minutes to calculate crafting a wand of unseen servant, then it would be better to take 45 minutes to craft the wand with some sort of problem or tension.
That's good sense.
By Gygax, I think you've got it!
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No, no, CourtFool. I see where he's going with this, and it's not just some Gygaxian "every NPC is out to screw the PC's" theme.
Your PC wants to buy a horse, for the minimum possible price. Even at the simplest, a willing seller wants to get the maximum price. That's a conflict.
And, even if money is no object to your PC, the seller may have his best stock reserved for the young prince. You want him to sell it to you instead. That's a conflict.
If the seller is entirely in your corner (let's say you're riding off to save the village, and he knows it), then don't spend time around the table enacting the sale.
If you do have to spend time at the table on an encounter, put some drama into it. If you're going to take 30 minutes to calculate crafting a wand of unseen servant, then it would be better to take 45 minutes to craft the wand with some sort of problem or tension.
That's good sense.
Huge fan of this, and it is great advice to give any new or old DM!
Other possible "glossed over" scenarios to get conflict out of:
Great stuff. I'd like to take this a few steps deeper.
I once sold a screenplay to MGM/UA, and I can honestly say that I wound up learning much more about how to construct a compelling scene from studying the art of directing actors for film than I did from Syd Field and my screenwriting studies. (No offense to the great Syd Field!)
The way I work it, it isn't so much that conflict is what lies behind every dialog, so much as agenda, and two people seldom have agendas that strike perfect accord. There's also characters' sometimes little, and sometimes grand secrets to consider. What is it people aren't saying exactly?
Now... the argument against might be, "Agenda? Behind everything? But when I start a scene with 'Nice day, huh? There's no real intent there."
But this isn't reality. This is screenplay writing and knowing the, usually, temporarily, hidden goals of every character is critical. If your characters don’t have goals, they’re not worth the ink, or anyone else’s time. The person saying 'Nice day, huh?' doesn't seem to mean anything until you read on in the scene to find the turning point, that point where the subtext finally rises to the top.
When Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever finally, after a lot of banter, asks the girl, "Why won't you make it wit me?" we have found the turning point, the point where he finally says what he hasn't been able to say during the rest of the scene leading up to this moment, and now when we go back to the beginning of the scene we understand that if he had said 'Nice day, huh?' it would coming from a guy who is feeling sexually rejected and trying not to talk about it because he is a proud lady's man. That would certainly color his tone and the actor would now know exactly how to feel what Tony feels and thus, how to honestly render every line. To an actor and director, identifying the turning point is called 'scoring the script'.
And, taking a note from novel writing, consider allowing your non essential characters to have their own personal interests that have nothing to do with the goals of the protagonists or the story in general. In Chris Mortika's horse seller scenario, it is entirely possible that one of the PCs looks like someone who once screwed him out of money. No matter how fast PCs need that horse, the seller refuses to move at anything but his own pace. He grindingly gripes ever on, as if almost suspecting that the PC might truly be the party responsible for this haunting upset. It’s a player frustration of sorts, but one that makes this character in a game of make believe suddenly spring to life, and that is not soon to be forgotten by your players.
However this is gaming. Get him over and done with in a minute or you're probably just killing your players. But for that minute you'll be cooking with gas.