Friday, March 26, 2021

Things You Will Likely Need in a City

My previous post outlines the possibility (probability?) that even in a closed-matrix adventure, players will infer locations and NPCs that you may not have prepped and thus "escape" the matrix. This is more or less likely depending on the locale. The safety and beauty of the dungeon is there will be virtually none. But in the wilderness and especially urban environs the likelihood of players inferring an un-prepped entity becomes a near certainty.

Things players are likely to infer exist include

  1. Blacksmiths, armorers, and other skilled tradesmen
  2. Mundane and magical shops
  3. Libraries and sources of information
  4. Criminal, professional, noble/diplomatic, and familial contacts

If not prepared you will need to improvise the likelihood of a good or service being available, prices, and the time to fill orders (which possibly buys you time to resolve details off-screen).

Fortunately, if it isn't too immersion breaking, you can resolve much of this with a few rolls without inventing specific NPCs or places of business. You're welcome to invent them - but if your player asked if something exists, unless you're abundantly prepared or extraordinarily confident (try your best to at least be confident), they will know you're improvising so it's not so important that specific and colorful NPCs and their businesses exist.

Consider your party - Paladins and Clerics will likely seek a temple. Rogues and criminals will seek the underworld - seedy taverns, gambling dens, and illicit businesses. Wizard-types will want apothecaries and libraries for ingredients and information. Fighters are probably the easiest - while you can pleasantly surprise them with training grounds and fighting pits, unless they are part of a wide-spanning organization they won't expect such things tailored to them, even in large metropolises. Prepare one of each of these with an NPC and a small menu of goods or services available at each place.

In the end there's always a chance the players suggest something you haven't prepped. That's supposed to be part of the fun. But perhaps these strategies and items to prep will you avoid those anxious cold sweats when it happens.

Thursday, March 18, 2021

Improvising Beyond the Closed Matrix

Players can only go to places you tell them about. This is the closed matrix. But what do you do when they ask if something exists? A library? A magic shop? A wizard or cleric who can cast a certain spell? In general we should reward inferring possibilities about the environment - but unless the session ends soon, saying yes will always mean improvising whatever it was they wondered at.

So what to do? Ask what they hope to achieve. Finding information? Acquiring a specific item? Using a spell to some specific end? Focus on their ends before their means. It may be you can abstract the entire endeavor into a single die roll. If their ends are tied into your adventure you can plant location-agnostic secrets at the end of any clever path of inquiry. If they're attempting to upend some other part of the adventure, buckle up or consider calling it a night.

GM 101: Set the Scene

The basic loop of an RPG is this:

  1. The GM describes the situation
  2. The PCs act
  3. The GM adjudicates the PCs’ actions and describes the new situation.
The GM does literally 2 things while playing a roleplaying game: set the scene and adjudicate. If setting the scene is half of the GM’s job, to be a good Game Master you need to master setting the scene for your players.

The goal of setting the scene is to provide all the necessary information for the PCs to act. It should tell the PCs where they are, what is happening, and invite them to act. A GM should set the scene many times in a gaming session, even between combat turns when appropriate. Remember, players only have the information you give them and are prone to forget details that aren’t conspicuous or repeated. The GM is the conduit through which the PCs perceive all of the game world except the other PCs.

To set the scene you need to answer:

  1. Where are the PCs?
  2. What is this place like?
  3. What invites the PCs to act?
  4. What do the players need to remember?

Where are they?

State where the PCs are. If there is a notable passage of time or a change in location, clearly state that transition. The PCs should know where and when they are unless space and time warping is an intentional part of the adventure.

What is it like?

Describe the area. You don’t need paragraphs of prose, just a sentence or two about what they see, hear, and smell to help the players imagine the scene. Don’t detail every mundane piece of furniture, you can simply say the chamber is a barracks or note enough primary features (bunks, lockers, etc.) to convey what the room is. Make sure the PCs know that they can infer or ask what else is available in the environment. Be sure to mention anything that would be obvious to the PCs such as the floor is covered in soot or the walls are scorched. Give the PCs the opportunity to deduce “there was a fire” and wonder what that might imply, but if the fire is a key detail they seem to be missing, point it out.

What can they do?

A scene needs to present opportunities for the PCs to interject and respond. You need a hook. Justin Alexander has a great video on this subject. Make something happen to a PC. Speak to them. Steal from them. Attack them. Threaten someone or something they care about. Present something mysteriously tempting. Put something nasty between them and what they want.

Focus on the primary elements of the scene in ascending order of urgency. For example, “An iron chest sits in the center of this 30-foot square chamber. Two gnolls defending it raise their glaives toward you. Just then, the doors slam shut behind you, and the room begins filling with water.” 

Suggest options to new players in uncertain situations. Tell them “Well, you could say ‘I walk up to the door and open it’ or ‘I tip-toe up to the door, press my ear to it and listen’ or ‘I toss a copper piece at the door and wait to see if anything happens’ or ‘I turn to the rest of the party and suggest we go a different way.’”

This step of setting the scene should draw attention to points of interest and invite the players to act.

What might they have forgotten?

If there’s any details about the situation that would be immediately apparent to the PCs, but the players might have forgotten because this is a game played in the imagination, or because you've played a single adventuring day over several sessions, be sure to remind them. Re-iterate in your recap and opening scene of a session what the goal of the adventure is. Don’t let your players do something stupid because they forgot something their PCs would know. That’s being a bad GM.

Examples of Setting the Scene

Below are examples of setting various types of scenes. Note each of them succinctly describes where the PCs are, what the situation is, and presents something for the PCs to respond to or act upon.

Roleplay

After minutes of knocking on the Regent’s manor door and shouting in the dark, an annoyed butler in wrinkled pajamas and a house coat yanks it open. “Yes? What is so urgent to wake my Lord at this ungodly hour?”

Exploration

Exiting the kitchens, you find yourself in a dusty 10-foot wide hallway that continues for 30 feet before ending in a set of heavy, wooden double doors. A plank of wood is propped against the wall.

Combat Encounter

As George lowers a rope to help Mickey out of the pit trap, footsteps pound towards the double doors and they fly open revealing three gnolls grasping spears.

Combat Round

The gnoll, still held in place by Karina’s spell, takes a nasty slice from George’s axe and howls. The other two fall back to defend the next room. Mickey, what do you do?

My Players are Still Stuck

If you find even after working on setting the scene and creating inviting things for your PCs to interact with, they are still standing around talking about doing things but never actually doing them, it's possible they're politely waiting for a group consensus. One option is to wait it out. Sit there quietly until the conversation meanders back to “Wait, what’s happening? Why are we here?” and that’s when you remind them and tell them they actually need to take action for the story to go anywhere. They control the characters. Their characters need to do something or things will start happening to them.

On Doors

One of the weirdest things about old school Dungeons and Dragons is how doors work.  From Book III: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventur...