GM on the Go
November 29th, 2010
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Dark Designs. Things have been pretty hectic around the office (at least, as of the time that I’m writing this. You probably won’t see this article for something like a month): we’ve got our usual article writing load, plus one or two big, secret products I can’t quite tell you about yet, and of course we’re trying to pump our latest product, Advanced Arcana, because we believe that, frankly, it’s the coolest supplement ever, and want everyone to know that. On top of all of that, I’ve got some personal projects, including my work over at Examiner.com (by the way, if you’re waiting for Scars of Mirrodin’s equivalent to Rising Stars (and part 2), or are just wondering why I don’t talk about Magic as much as I used to, I do all my Magic-related shop-talk at Examiner now), entering into the GDS2, and a number of other things.
Because of this, I’ve been pretty busy (and the rest of the NNW staff hasn’t exactly been slacking off, either), which eats into my time for doing DM prep (yes, occasionally I actually get to practice what I preach, though it’s not as often as I would like. For those of you who are wondering: no, working with the game all day doesn’t make it any less fun to play or DM.). As such, I’ve decided to devote today’s column to a number of tips and tricks for DMs who are too busy to do as much DM work as they would like. Schedule permitting, I’ll find some time in the next couple of weeks to channel my high-school self and do an article on the opposite: DMs with too much time on their hands. But for now, it’s all about time-saving, multi-tasking, and working with limited resources.
Before we get started, I should note that a number of these tips can also be useful if you spend plenty of time preparing, but then find that your players wander off in directions you weren’t ready for, or any other situation where you find yourself caught with your pants proverbially down (note: none of these tips will be of any use to you if you’re caught with your pants actually down, and at that point you’ll be lucky if your group merely laughs at you for your choice of underwear.). That said, on to the tips:
Tip #1: Focus on Where You Want the Players to Go
This one is fairly straightforward, but can be difficult for some DMs to get the hang of, because they’ve trained themselves to operate in a very different fashion (either because they’re big fans of simulationism, or because they were taught that railroading is bad, and feel that this sort of thing is “cheating.”). Ultimately, the point is, when you have limited time to write your plotlines, focus on the places, people, and things you really want to have happen, and then look for ways to guide the PCs onto your existing “stage.”
For example, if you’ve decided that the PCs’ informant is Black Ivan, but the PCs decided to do all of their information gathering in the Noble District instead of the Docks District, the average DM might feel discouraged, knowing that Ivan has no business in that part of town, and so he’ll need to come up with another informant on the spot. While this is more freeform and open-ended, your goal as a DM shouldn’t be to provide a realistic simulation of the world: it should be to entertain yourself and your players. So, rather than think of all the reasons why the PCs wouldn’t find Ivan in the Noble District, think of some of the reasons they might: perhaps Ivan is making a scene while being hauled off by the guards for some kind of crime, or maybe he’s on the prowl for rich widows he can swindle, or maybe it’s as simple as having the NPCs the party talks to simply direct them down to the docks, where you have a good informant anyway. By the same token, if the PCs don’t want to go into Alaundro’s Mystical Potions, but instead decide to go to the next potion shop they find, you may as well just rename Alaundro and put his shop in this new building instead: the PCs won’t know the difference, and even if they did, it’s a lot better than having a boring, no-details shop, or, worse yet, freezing up because you weren’t prepared for this eventuality.
Tip # 2: Names are Cheap
By this I mean that you really don’t need to spend much time on your NPCs’ names. Taking the extra time to pick a name that evokes just the right feeling can be helpful, and when you have the time I strongly recommend it, but, at the end of the day, if the character’s personality is interesting, it doesn’t really matter if his name is a little bit forgettable. This goes doubly (more like quadruply, really) for “background” NPCs that the PCs encounter in the street or in other minor encounters. In fact, I’ve discovered that, if you don’t make an issue of it, a lot of the time your players won’t even bother to ask for a name for such NPCs, and they will remain forever nameless. Generally speaking, when it comes to NPCs you make up on the spot, I don’t recommend even giving them a name unless a player specifically makes it an issue: it’s a minor headache for you, and it will signal to the players that this person is important, when, really, he isn’t.
That said, I strongly recommend picking up a random name generator (or just doing the legwork yourself, but, again, this column is about DMs without a lot of time on their hands…), and spending some time in advance just creating a list of 20 to 50-odd good names (again, make sure that they’re good names. A lot of random name generators spew out 12 terrible names for every halfway-usable one), of both genders and a variety of races or archetypes (for example, harsh, guttural names for orcs and barbarians, and long, fancy-sounding names for elves and wizards), so that you have a name when you need it. Few things are more embarrassing as a DM than finding yourself staring at the table going “His name? Ah…well…it’s…er…how about…Tim?”
Tip #3: Reflavor Existing Stat-Blocks
If you find yourself really strapped for time, consider repurposing existing stat-blocks, rather than creating new monsters or NPCs. Obviously, if you have an existing stat-block that is of the right CR and flavor, you should just use that, but if you find yourself needing, for example, a high-level orc barbarian, but all you have of the appropriate CR is a gnoll fighter, it’s probably not the end of the world to simply call a gnoll an orc. Obviously I don’t recommend that you do this lightly, because as a member of the game design industry, I happen to believe that stat-blocks are important, and that different monsters should feel mechanically different at the table, so this definitely falls into the category of “cheating” in my book. That said, I think that, given the choice between facing “yet another” Hill Giant or facing the Ogre Chieftain (with identical stats), most groups would rather fight the same stat-block with new flavor than the same stat-block with the same flavor, if those are the two options.
Tip #4: Let the Players Lead
This part is both harder and easier than it sounds, and ultimately, is more a skill than a trick: the more you do it, the better you’ll get, but at first it isn’t easy. Ultimately, what this boils down to is posing your players with a problem (or, if you have particularly active players, simply letting them come up with their own, such as “we should overthrow the king and become the new royalty,” or something), and then asking them “so, now what?” Then you just sit back and watch what they do, allowing them to drive the story and simply responding to their actions.
They might decide to start sniffing around for pre-existing dissident groups in the area, or try to weasel their way into the king’s court, or start looking for an assassin to hire. As they declare those intentions, asking you things like “is there an assassin’s guild in town?” or “do I know the name of the king’s seneschal?”, first ask yourself if you know the answer. If you do, then tell them that (unless the answer is a secret, of course, in which case they wouldn’t know). If you don’t then ask yourself if it would be more interesting if the answer was “yes.” If it would, or if you aren’t sure, play along, allowing the players the tools to do what they want to do. Don’t hand it to them on a silver platter, of course. The assassin’s guild probably won’t accept walk-ins, and the PCs will probably need to use some Diplomacy, or Bluff, or Stealth to get in. Similarly, worming one’s way into the king’s inner circle is rarely an easy task.
Generally speaking, while you’re doing this, you’ll need to come up with a lot of information on the fly. This is a skill that really requires some experience to master, and my best advice to you is this: just do whatever comes to mind first. Draw on similar situations in other games, and in movies/books/tv/etc. If the PCs are in the docks, odds are they’re going to see rogues, prostitutes, pirates, dockworkers, sailors, warehouses, bars, brothels, boats, smuggler’s dens, and the like. This is especially helpful when it comes to bit-NPCs: if you find yourself needing a rogue, just think back to the last rogue you saw in the media, and make your rogue like him (preferably with a slight twist or two), or, alternatively, just give him one or two one-word personality traits (greedy, irritable) and a motivation (needs to stay low, as the guards are looking for him), and you’re ready to go.
That’s it for today’s Dark Designs. Next week is Ice Week, so you might want to get your snow-boots handy (not that it hasn’t been snowy enough around here, lately). In the meantime, try to find some time for whatever’s really important to you.