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Calendars aren't my strong suit, but if this is Editorial
#52 then I make that a (nearly) full year of doing these things (just
conveniently ignoring those weeks that I skipped). I was initially hesitant
about having my regular content on a delayed release for non-patrons, but it
seems to have worked quite well. The only downside is that I change my mind so
quickly that often the ideas I'm sharing are out of date by the time they hit
the public blog.
So let's see if I can make it to 100.
Ben Milton's Glatisant Newsletter got me onto reading about Blorb
Principles for running an RPG. Whether or not this particular
style of play suits you, this principle-setting is a useful tool for focusing
in on what elements you really want to keep in mind when running or
playing a game. Better still, a shared set of principles for the table avoids
those issues where the game drastically misses the expectations of one or more
players.
So, yes. Set principles. I think it's worth doing.
But what about this Blorb thing? I'm not going to repeat
everything that's been written already, but it largely fits with my own style
of play. In particular there's one section that nicely distills something I've
never quite managed to put into words before.
Quoted here (but you should absolutely
go and read the full post):
Three Tiers of Truth
The DM is asked a question like, for example: what’s in the office?
a. Look in the prep. Maybe this room is in there and the text says what is canonically in there, and you’re all set.
b. Otherwise, maybe you have a rule (“default offices have a stapler, a typewriter, a visitor’s chair” etc) or mechanic (such as a random room content table). Use that.
c. If you don’t have that either, make something up. Try to make it something that won’t help or harm the players too much. It can be evocative and build mood, but shouldn’t be 20 angry beholders (or 20 free healing potions). Don’t feel bad: allowing DMs to start small is how we get new DMs. But, patch the hole, or this category of holes, for future sessions. Then over time your DMing will get more and more solid♥.
Always work in that order, top to bottom, only falling to a lower tier of truth when you have to.
A campaign that’s built on all T2 and T3 truths isn’t as engaging as one that has some solid T1 framework in there (in a cloud, bones of steel), but as you patch holes (as T3 instructs you to) feel free to patch them with mechanics and general solutions (i.e. T2 truths). That’s you building a DM’s toolbox.
Yeah, of course I like the bit that essentially fits into a
3-bullet procedure. I've lingered around the idea of the "impartial
GM" before, but never really committed too hard to it. This feels like a
good, practical structure to put that idea into practice.
But of course I need to make some initialism or acronym in
order to wedge this into my brain, so I'm remembering the three tiers of truth
as:
1: Prep
2: Procedure
3: Patch
The first two should be pretty self-explanatory.
1: If it's written in your notes then don't change it
because of stuff the players have done ahead of encountering it. This goes back
to the quantum ogre and beyond, so not much for me to add here.
2: If it's not in your notes and you have a rule or roll
somewhere that's fit for purpose then use that to generate a new truth. All
part of the appeal of encounter rolls, reaction rolls, morale checks. The stuff
that makes the world feel dynamic and real even outside of the GM's notes. I'll
stress here that there's a huge difference between "making a world feel
real" and "making a realistic world" but that's one for another
day.
3: This is the one that I want to give more thought to. That
essential GMing skill of making shit up when the players do something
you weren't prepared for. I've joked before that this is the most important
skill to cultivate, but here it's presented in a slightly more specific way.
You're patching a hole. You're here because you didn't prep
for it and you don't have a procedure for it. Now that's not innately bad
but on reflection I agree with the Blorb principles that if a game has too much
of this I start to lose interest. The curtain starts to fall and the world
feels a little less like a living place to explore.
The original principles suggest that you change up your prep
to that next time a similar situation arises you can draw on one of the higher
tiers of truth, but I'm more interested in the immediate patching that occurs
in the gameplay.
In the same way that "describing failure" is
trickier and more important than "describing success", I'm starting
to think that I want to give more thought to the specifics of how I patch those
holes that exist outside of the prep and the procedures. The original post has
some good advice (don't invent anything too helpful or too harmful) but how
about treating it as an opportunity. Just because you're avoiding being
especially impactful to the characters doesn't mean you can't have an impact on
the players.
Each time I have to patch a hole mid-game I'm going to make
something up that checks at least one of the following:
- Evoke
the flavour of the world - the intent being to further solidify their
sense of the greater world they're exploring
- Indulge
their senses - shameless attempts at immersion, putting the players
right in the minds, ears, and noses of the characters
- Reinforce
something that they've already learned about this place - I'm not 100%
sold on this one, as there's a degree of quantum ogre about it, but
I also feel like you can never give players too many reminders
So using the original example of the players searching an
office that you hadn't planned for, we could patch in three different ways if
we were running a game in Bastion:
- Evoke:
The office is a mess. Under the piles of paperwork you can just make out
dozens of stacked in-trays and out-trays. The desk is littered with dried
up rubber stamps and empty pill bottles.
- Indulge:
You're hit with the heady smell of correction-fluid, a large bottle of the
white chemical spilt on the faded carpet and paperwork scattered throughout.
- Reinforce:
The office looks abandoned, furnishings thrown to the ground and hastily
searched. Presumably whoever looted the other rooms also had a good
rummage through here.
Sure you can shoot for all three at once, but we don't need
to apply that level of pressure here. Remember, it's just patching the
hole.
