Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #410
Managing Your Group
Contents:
This Week's Tips Summarized
Managing Your Group
- Player and Character E-mail
- Productive Competition
- Managing Finances
- Dispersion of Duties
- Table Control
What's Your Favorite RPG?
Readers' Tips Summarized
- Player Character Quiz
- How I Organize My GMing
- 5 Room Dungeon Index
- RPG Music Suggestions
- How Often Do I Play D&D?
Johnn Four's GM Guide Books
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A Brief Word From Johnn
On Vacation - Next Issue Will Be August 10
I'm taking a couple weeks off from the e-zine and might dare
to venture out into the sun. Next issue will be the week of
August 10, assuming my tinfoil hat protects me well enough.
Spoon!
NPC Contest Winner Selections Delayed
Due to a bit of overtime at work recently, I have not
finished organizing all the one sentence NPC contest entries
for random winner selection yet. I hope to get on that soon
after my vacation (mid-August). So, don't despair because
you haven't received a winning e-mail yet. :) I'll let you
know in this e-zine once all the winners have been notified.
I hope you're having a great summer - and doing some GMing!
Cheers,
Johnn Four,
johnn@roleplayingtips.com
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Johnn Recommends GM Aid: 20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them
This book has been on my GM Aids bookshelf since I first
bought it years ago. It covers 20 fundamental plots that
recur through all fiction - with analysis and examples. Each
plot includes a three-act structure for using the plot, as
well as a checklist to guide you through development. As one
reviewer calls it, 20 Master Plots is like a cookbook for
plotting, which makes this an excellent aid for game
masters.
In addition to the 20 plots, it has chapters on Deep
Structure (themes), Triangles (character interaction), and
final advice in the last chapter, Parting Shots.
GM Aid: 20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them
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Managing Your Group
By Danny East
Group management is a tedious and daunting GMing task. When
can everyone meet? Who's driving whom? Are we going to play
at Mark's? Jamie's apartment? My neighbor's basement? If
everyone plays at Gary's, then Josh can't go because he's
allergic to cats.
We'll play at Bill's, then. Oh, wait. We can't all park at
Bill's. We'll drive together, so it's just a couple of cars.
Except that Gary has to drive separately because he has to
leave early, so there's not going to be enough room for all
our cars. Ah crap. Forget it. If anyone wants to come over
we can watch some Futurama.
Sound familiar? You're not alone. Planning and managing a
player group is the complicated, literary version of the old
canoe riddle.
Why do we get together to game? The laughs, adventure, and
desire to argue over forgotten rules, while noteworthy, are
nothing compared to the camaraderie we feel those evenings.
That's why we have the fun we do.
So, how to increase this camaraderie with the goal of
keeping it relevant to the game is going to be one of the
aims here. There are three major theories in Group
Management: Mass Communication, Player Involvement, and
Table Control.
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1. Player and Character E-mail
There are a number of websites that cater to group
communication, many of which are directly aimed at the
gaming industry. I recommend spending the time to do a bit
of research. Some might be better than others for what
you're doing.
The group I play with uses Gmail, offered by Google. It's
fabulous. We each have our own role playing related e-mail
address in addition to our regular Gmail address, and we
have it set up so that all addresses and aliases are
accessed through the same password. For example,
roleplayingname@gmail is accessed by
[email protected].
What makes this so exciting is that when Joe checks his
regular e-mail, he can also see there is game-related e-mail
waiting for him. This not only gives the playing group that
special feeling of being a select member, but, when used to
its potential, it also alleviates a dramatic proportion of
scheduling confusion.
When I send a mass e-mail to my players, they are able to
not only communicate with each other specifically through
their player mail, but they are also able to add dates and
times directly to their Google Calendar by just letting
Gmail handle it. It's very easy, and I do suggest you try
this.
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2. Productive Competition
Another fine aspect the bountiful genre of table top role
playing has to offer is the arguing. Admit it. You love it.
Ever wonder why that is? It's the competition.
Being right is always fun. Especially when it means one of
your closest friends is wrong. :) That's also why we end up
looking for competition within the game. Ever have feats of
strength amongst the characters while the GM is busy looking
up rules? It happens. Joke contests at the tavern? They're
easy enough to roleplay.
What's my point? What the heck does this have to do with
Group Management?
Proper management, as you can easily find by watching almost
any corporate team-building DVD, primarily involves the
manager (GM) properly motivating their team (players) to do
what's right for the overall good of the company (campaign).
Many companies institute a reward system for this. It's
called "Employee of the Month." Though yours truly has never
pawed such a title, I still implement its alter ego into our
sessions: Player of the Game.
We all pitched in some funds and bought ourselves a fancy
tavern-style mug that we had engraved with "Gamers Group
Player of the Game." This chalice is rewarded to the MVP of
the session, as voted by the players (GM decides ties). They
are allowed use of this divine drinking device until the end
of the next session, when it passes hands.
This forces the reigning champ to come to the session to
hand off their prize, and makes everyone else jealous for a
few hours. Not only that, but eyeballing a tangible trophy
being hefted to an adversary's prideful face makes you want
it something real bad.
And that, my good reader, is motivation for some of the
smoothest and best role playing you'll ever bear witness to.
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3. Managing Finances
All of this is a lot easier to do with proper financial
backing. I know what you're thinking: "The new seats in my
Bentley were expensive enough, now you expect me to pay for
something free?" Well don't worry; I'm going to tell you how
to make it easier.
Try collecting annual and monthly membership fees. I suggest
a $20 annual fee due in June (opposite Christmas) and $5 a
month.
A five dollar monthly fee is the equivalent of giving up a
vending machine soda once a week. If you have six in your
group and the host never pays the monthly, it will add up to
over four hundred dollars a year. Wow. That should pay for
dice and books and miniatures and doodads and gadgets.
I would never suggest this payment as a prerequisite to
playing. But it does buy convention tickets and gas for road
trips.
I also suggest dedicating everyone's recyclables to the
cause, as well as having fund raisers. Nothing quite so
exciting as bikini car washes or bake sales, but something
realistic and functional.
Used DVDs and books aren't worth much, but the combined
value of six players' used and unwanted goods could be a
pretty piggy bank, including money from selling the less-
used role playing books.
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4. Dispersion of Duties
This may be the most functional tool to quality player
management: dispersion of duties. Everyone wants to feel
useful, so let them!
Dedicate specific jobs and titles to the players in your
group and you'd be amazed about how much smoother and more
fun everything is.
The Treasurer will handle the group's funds, ensuring that
none gets lost and that it all goes to good use. The
Librarian will keep track who has what books (I highly
suggest group ownership) and what's needed. The Secretary
maintains communication; the Historian keeps track of
campaigns.
This is good for the more dedicated players you might have
in your group, and of course, titles might switch hands
throughout. We like to have new players in new roles for
every campaign, thereby giving everyone a chance at each
position.
This might seem a bit harsh, but once started it can be a
true pleasure. It gives everyone a chance at the actual
production of the evening. When everyone has a stake in the
final output of any system, that system will be run with
much more pride and dedication than otherwise.
Remember this: you work really hard to produce a good game,
and you can expect everyone else with an actual job to put
in as much as you do. Wouldn't that be nice?
But what can be done about the more subtle difficulties?
Those last minute conundrums? The meat, rice, and vegetables
are all fine; but it's the spices that make the meal. I'm
talking about the snacks and accessories.
Each member of the group is given a task to carry out in
preparation for the big evening. One player comes to the
show with chips and dip, another with home baked cookies.
We are an older group, and two members each bring either a
bottle of wine or variety pack of beer. Be forewarned,
however: more than a drink or two will lower anyone's
charisma, and our designated driver is rewarded with
experience points, as is the hosting player.
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5. Table Control
Now that we've covered two of the issues related to Group
Management - Communication and Involvement - let's move onto
the third: Table Control. We'll investigate how to keep your
players from LARPing at the table, and how to persuade them
to pay attention to the dice and move the story along.
There are more than enough ways to keep players busy during
the gaming session, but the internet and television are more
distracters than motivators. There should always be an
activity to keep everyone involved and moving, but try to
keep it relevant to the theme.
Crossword puzzles, word searches, and word scrambles can be
found online and offer a way for the players to remain
engaged while still not losing that feeling of being part of
the game. Hide clues to treasure hordes in a word scramble,
or make the crossword puzzle act as a layover for a dungeon
map if you're incarcerated and have nothing else to do.
Try to leave some relevant information lying around the
table. The Castle Guide is good thumbing material, as are
sword and armor catalogs. Want them to role play while
waiting? Suggest that they go to the local tavern and have a
joke telling contest, with one of them acting as judge.
Popsicle sticks and glue have been happily invited guests at
many a table. Crayons and a cheap coloring book will bring a
few laughs and keep everyone sitting down.
Try this one: have an NPC hire the party to open up a
restaurant and let them discuss what to serve, how they run
the layout, where to get the meat and veggies from, what
kind of beer to serve and who will act as bouncer. Side
quests? How about looking for some red dragon pepper flakes.
The key to keeping everyone happy and coming back for more
is to keep them in the mood and at the table. You will never
control all of the distractions, but limiting those
distractions and providing healthy, game-related options are
a must.
They may not be actively rolling at the time, but if you're
running a pirate campaign and a few of your players are
looking through the Pirateology book or old nautical maps,
then they're still in the proper mood and will be "there"
when needed. There should be no OFF button at the table.
* * *
It is our hope these guidelines will inspire you to keep
faith in your party and try to jazz it up enough to keep
them coming back to the table.
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What's Your Favorite RPG? Savage Worlds
From: Telas
My current gamer crush is Savage Worlds, for many reasons:
- It's only $10 for the core rules (Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition). That and a few pages of addendum particular to
your campaign are literally all you need to run the system.
- It's a point build, classless, level-less system, which
includes some aspects of personality as part of chargen.
- I am not good at the GNS model, but I find far fewer
clashes between Savage Worlds and reality than I do between
D&D and reality.
- Game prep time is minimized. The GM once came up with an
entire session's gaming, including basic maps, stat blocks,
and all, while we showed newbies how to gen characters
(about 20 minutes). It only takes about 5 minutes to gen a
character, once you've gotten the hang of it.
- Character growth is linear, not exponential. You can
achieve powerful characters, but it takes a while getting
there. You can create complex characters, or "get your
crunch on" by trying to min-max the Ultimate Warrior.
- There is no "fixed" genre or world, but there are plenty
of settings out there, from prehistoric times to advanced
space opera. I've considered running a "time cops"
millennium-jumping game using this system.
- The Test Drive is free.
- Many of the conversions are free.
Savagepedia: The Unofficial Savage Worlds Wiki
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Readers' Tips Of The Week:
Have some GM advice you'd like to share? E-mail it to johnn@roleplayingtips.com - thanks!
1. Player Character Quiz
From: Don Foley
Hi Johnn,
I really like your e-zine. I am a new user and have read
about half of the archives. I have something that I found
helpful in my game and thought I would share it. If you have
already covered something like this, I apologize.
I found this more helpful than I expected. One player who I
thought would send witty one liners of little use, ended up
sending me many paragraphs of insightful, helpful dialogue
that will better my game.
I sent all the players of my 7th Sea game the following
email text. I would suggest sending a questionnaire maybe
every six months or so, just to make sure you are on track.
Hi,
Here is a chance to earn some extra experience points in
the 7th Sea game. I will award between 1 and 5 free experience
based on your answers to the following questions. If I get
one sentence answers expect few experience points; however,
if I get well thought out, helpful paragraphs, expect 5
experience.
Note: These questions are in regards to Don's game sessions
only, and should be sent to me privately; do not use reply
all.
- What was the best game session you can remember? Why
was it so memorable? Could it be replicated or was it just
one of those things that can never happen again?
- What was the worst game session you can remember? What
was the reason it was bad? Could it be avoided, or was it
just a bad night?
- Is the game balanced? Is there too much of one thing,
and not enough of another? What makes the perfect balance,
in your opinion?
- The game seems to be on course in a certain direction.
Are you happy with where the game is heading, or would you
rather see its course change?
- In your opinion, how could the game be better? Give good
details. Suck up answers like, "It's perfect oh master!!"
will garner no free experience points. :)
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2. How I Organize My GMing
From: Kenneth Gauck
I have a binder with commonly referred to rules, tables, and
lists photocopied inside. These go next to my homemade
encounter tables, expanded skill lists, and any notes I have
taken for the campaign or the game system.
Specific adventures go in a different binder, or a folder
with three-hole clasps. There are some days I think I need
to memorize the NPC reaction table.
I like to keep an up-to-date copy of player character
sheets, but mostly I rely on index cards that include basic
stats, primary weapon, and a list of skills.
Players are generally pretty good about keeping track of
their own spells and other bookkeeping duties, but I like to
be able to roll secret skills checks and refer to to-hit
modifiers myself.
So basic PC data, along with party NPCs, are on white note
cards. Using a highlighter, I can color the name according
to PC, henchmen, or common contact. Colored note cards hold
enemy, rival, or specific encounter NPCs for use during an
adventure.
As I said, full copies of player character sheets are also
kept. They go in my campaign binder. The campaign binder
includes all the data I have invented about a particular
setting, including place description, political connections,
history, genealogy, legends, rumors, unique magical items,
encounter tables, and so forth.
A separate binder includes all the homemade rules I have for
that game system including new spells, expanded skill lists,
large scale combat, and things I would export to another
setting.
Duo-tang folders are used for discreet adventures.
Highlighters and colored pens and pencils are used to color
code all kinds of things throughout the game materials.
From the color of binders - every game system has its own
color (those who GM many systems would have to group them,
since there are only five colors in most major brands of
binders), to using yellow to identify the player characters
in all my notes.
On one day I might come with readings on yellow, white, and
pink cardstock, or with highlighting around the edges. I
know that the yellow page concerns information that the
players already know. It could be nothing more than rulings
on what had been decided at the end of last game session.
"Borak's armor is now repaired, Thiubalt has earned 18 gold
pieces entertaining in the tavern," and so on. It could be
significantly longer if players told me they were doing
research. "The requirements of the potion you
investigated..."
If information is to be divided I try to print two on a page
and cut them in half (or less if you just repaired your
armor).
If the faux-warrior who is really a thief checked in with
his thieves guild, pawned items picked from his party-mates,
converted gold and silver to gems, and had his ring
magically identified, that would obviously be a page for his
eyes only.
The white sheet might be a history of some ruin which I will
read if the players ask some knowledgeable person.
Otherwise, I might consult the rumors table.
The red sheet might be the speech of the vile wizard
Xankripas before he leaves the players to be feasted on by
ghouls.
When it's time for the wizard's speech, I want to find it
easily, but I may not want to carry my folder around with
all its encounter information. This way I can get up, be a
little theatrical, and know what Xankripas says without
worrying about an eagle-eyed player seeing that ghouls have
24 HP apiece, or that Xankripas has a ring of protection
from fire.
My players may not rifle through my stuff when I leave the
room, but I don't want to tempt them either by putting
secrets in plain view.
Every magic item is marked with blue. Spells are in blue,
and identifying a character as a magical class is blue. So
color is used so that I can quickly identify what is what,
answer questions as quickly as I can, and generally aid my
multi-tasking.
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3. 5 Room Dungeon Index
From: CyberSavant
Here is an index of all the 5 Room Dungeons published
earlier this year. The index contains dungeon title, author,
and a brief summary. Hopefully this is a useful tool for GMs
looking for a quick adventure to run.
5 Room Dungeon Index [RTF]
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4. RPG Music Suggestions
From: impClaw
I've seen discussions about music in roleplaying games often
now, so I'll just post my recommendations (most of them are
cinematic music):
Background Music:
- Movie & Game Soundtracks (Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Half
Life, Final Fantasy, Vampire: Bloodlines & Redemption,
Fable, 300)
- Anime Soundtracks (Kawai Kenji makes good horror music)
- Midnight Syndicate
- Nox Arcana
- E.S Posthumus
- Future World Music
- Immediate Music
- X-Ray Dog
- Loreena Mckennitt
Also searching around for local LARP bands (people playing
at LARP Events) have proven useful for me, since most of
them have CDs recorded that you can purchase.
Sound Effects:
- BBC Sound Effects Library
- Sony Sound Effect Archive
- Sound Ideas Sound Effects
- Silent Hill Soundtracks contain some good sound effects
These are just some. I'm always on search for more....
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5. How Often Do I Play D&D?
From: Dave S.
Hey Johnn!
I recently tried to calculate how often my gaming group
plays D&D. It seems like some campaigns and/or groups are
able to meet at the gaming table more often, and I'm a minor
stats nerd, so I thought this would be interesting. I wrote
down all of the session dates for several campaigns and
graphed them, to compare play frequency and play duration.
After looking at the numbers I tried to see if anyone else
had done something like this. Unfortunately, my internet
searches didn't turn up much. I thought I might send this to
your e-zine to get the word out: have any of your readers
ever tracked how often or how long they play?
I put a copy of my methods and results online.
Comments and critiques are welcome! If anyone else has
tracked something like this I'd love to hear from them.
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Johnn Four's GM Guide Books
In addition to writing and publishing this e-zine, I have
written several GM tips and advice books to inspire your
games and to make GMing easier and fun:
How to design, map, and GM fresh encounters for RPG's most
popular locales. Includes campaign and NPC advice as well,
plus several generators and tables
Advice and tips for designing compelling holidays that not
only expand your game world but provide endless natural
encounter, adventure, and campaign hooks.
Critically acclaimed and multiple award-winning guide to
crafting, roleplaying, and GMing three dimensional NPCs for
any game system and genre. This book will make a difference
to your GMing.
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