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Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Starfinder RPG

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GameMastery Guide / Running a Game / How to Run a Game / The Art of GMing

Making it Happen

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 28
With great power sometimes comes a sense that maybe your players don’t appreciate your efforts enough.

You spend time drawing world maps, imagining plots and places, setting up ambushes, and devising schemes for villains. As GM, you have a certain responsibility for everyone’s good time. You strive to challenge the party, but never to break it. You offer a sandbox of a million choices, but guide the party to the juiciest elements.

And yet things don’t always go smoothly. Sometimes, all you want is for the players to embark on the quest you’ve spent all week on, but instead the party accidentally goes off in another direction—or worse, sees the hook for your quest and deliberately decides not to bite because it doesn’t interest them enough, or doesn’t offer enough of a reward. When such things happen, you have several options.

Forcing Things

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 28
In many cases, it’s entirely reasonable to say, “Hey folks, this is the adventure I’ve prepared—work with me.” Many groups of players respond positively if asked for help— after all, they want the game to go smoothly, too. Perhaps they just need a stronger hook for their characters, the promise of a bigger reward, or a change of pace from something too similar to what they did last time.

Canny GMs, though, won’t force it more than absolutely necessary. It’s often worth it to ask your players after the game (or one-on-one later, if that’s easier) to tell you why they didn’t buy into your original adventure premise, and what sort of adventure they’d prefer. If they want more gold and glory, or to find out what’s beyond the western mountains, find a way to make that an option. Player feedback allows you to craft a game that’s more satisfying for everyone.

Follow the PCs' Lead

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 28
If you enjoy improvisational play, the best move may be to temporarily drop the planned plotline (or at least the planned plot hook) and follow your players’ lead. Are they more interested in the dark, brooding mage with a zombie-filled bag of holding than the murder the prince of the city has asked them to investigate? Very well, then: the necromancer is the new patron of the adventuring party, and boy does he know about some dark doings—the prince of the city has sent his best troops out on a suicide mission, and the mage would like the PCs to bring back some heads for a quick speak with dead.

This approach requires you to think on your feet and make up NPCs and encounters on the spot, but it also means that the players are fully engaged; they’re guaranteed to be doing the things they want, rather than following a plot dictated by you. And you get the additional fun of improvising and reacting to the players’ ideas, plus the chance to be pleasantly surprised by yourself as ideas flow fast and furiously.

If you’re especially fortunate, you can probably turn some of your existing encounters, NPCs, or plot elements into elements of the adventure that the party wants to pursue—or use their new direction to steer them subtly onto the adventure you had planned—but it’s not always possible. When forced to think on your feet, one helpful trick is to listen to player speculation and then elaborate on their fears or suspicions to make the plots feel even more complex. If the players say “I’ll bet the duke’s involved!”, a simple option is to take the cue and have the duke actually be behind the nefarious plot they’ve uncovered, thus making players feel satisfied for having figured it out. On the other hand, if it turns out that the duke is actually an unfortunate innocent, with his daughter held as a pawn of the true villains—then the players get both the satisfaction of being partially correct and the thrill of uncovering something new, and your adventure feels meatier and more intricate with almost no additional effort.

The Illusion of Free Choice

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 28
This is the finest of techniques when it works, though it can be overplayed. The illusion of free choice is really a matter of the GM convincing the PCs to do exactly what he wants while making them think it’s their idea. The simplest method in theory is often the hardest in practice: giving the players several choices, all of which lead to the same adventure. This might be as easy as simply changing a hook—the PCs didn’t know that the old man they ignored in the bar was about to tell them the same thing as the ancient treasure map they discover in the town graveyard. The ancient dungeon can be uncovered by order of the king, as the party is marching off into the wilds, or as the only hope for a town surrounded by enemies—once they go there, the adventure is the same, regardless of how they got there.

Sometimes, of course, the party has a reasonable idea what the adventure is and still decides to avoid it. In these cases, it’s sometimes best to subtly make the adventure more and more compelling until of course the players decide to go after the big treasure hoard guarded by their arch-nemesis—they’ve finally learned his weakness, and they only have a few days to exploit it!

That’s a bit of a hard sell, but notice three things about the example. First, it involves a pre-established nemesis; by tying the adventure into the PCs’ goals as characters, you’ve made the same basic adventure seem far more appealing. Second, it provides a lure in the form of cash— because in this case, you’ve watched your players enough to know that this particular party loves loot more than glory or doing the right thing. Third, the hook relies on a change in circumstances that is time-dependent. If the party doesn’t act now, ready or not, this opportunity will not come again. Limited-time offers have a way of selling things, whether it’s adventures or refrigerators.

Above all, put yourself in the player’s shoes. Don’t think about how cool the villain is, how clever the traps are, or how smart the backstory is—think about what’s in it for your players, and why an adventure would appeal to them personally, and you’ll never go wrong.