A forum for discussing and organizing recreational softball and baseball games and leagues in the greater Halifax area.
Good player guidance?
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Seems like there's a butt-load of GM-guidance material out there. In particular things like the Lazy GM's Guide. But it's harder to find good, accessible and reasonably comprehensive guide for building good players and player arcs. I'm a new GM, and have a few new players who having fun, but are not feeling feeling like they know how to develop their character well. Any useful material I can give them would be appreciated. We're currently playing a game that's mechanically a bit more like PbtA (not crunchy), but advice for any game/system is welcome.Sorry for no link, but there's a Matthew Colville video aimed at players that I think is pretty good. There's also (I think) a Pointy Hat video about it as well.
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Sorry for no link, but there's a Matthew Colville video aimed at players that I think is pretty good. There's also (I think) a Pointy Hat video about it as well.
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Sometimes you will make a character that does not fit with the group, you as a player need to fix this. Do not expect the group to conform to your character all the time. I am playing a Druid in a 5e game, over time the character spent more and more time away from civilization, and refused to go into the towns with the group. So any session involving people was me browsing on my phone while everyone else RP'd. then the group got together for a project (we built a fancy covered wagon to travel in) and spent all of our money on it. My character never took much loot because he hunted and foraged. After this he realized he needed money and sometimes needed the city. So I had a character changing moment to get him back into the group again. Ana for the love of a d20, do not be the, "that's what my character would do" asshole. If you want to be a dick in game, at least own it.
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PTBA? Is this home brew? Might be worth asking each player: What are you hoping to achieve in this campaign? What are some key people in your characters past that you’d like to see again?Not homebrew, it's actually Defenders Almanac (which isn't really PbtA, but kind of similar mechanics). I asked them what they wanted out of the *game*, so there's broader goals that I took notes on. I should try to translate that into specific in-campaign goals (there's already a broad setting goal - defeat the mechs).
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Not homebrew, it's actually Defenders Almanac (which isn't really PbtA, but kind of similar mechanics). I asked them what they wanted out of the *game*, so there's broader goals that I took notes on. I should try to translate that into specific in-campaign goals (there's already a broad setting goal - defeat the mechs).
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Seems like there's a butt-load of GM-guidance material out there. In particular things like the Lazy GM's Guide. But it's harder to find good, accessible and reasonably comprehensive guide for building good players and player arcs. I'm a new GM, and have a few new players who having fun, but are not feeling feeling like they know how to develop their character well. Any useful material I can give them would be appreciated. We're currently playing a game that's mechanically a bit more like PbtA (not crunchy), but advice for any game/system is welcome.Some of it depends on what system you're playing. I always recommend reading more games, because even if you don't adopt their rules wholesale there's often ideas you can steal. CofD had this idea of "aspirations". Players are asked to write down one long term thing they want to see happen to their character _as a player_. That's not necessarily what the character wants. The players should also have one or two short term aspirations. Since these are for the player and not the character, they might be something like "Get in a car chase" or "Take a hit that would fell a normal human" This gives the GM a little guidance on what the players want, and if they're like "i dunno" that's a prompt to talk about why they're here. More general advice: Engage with the game and its premises. If you're playing a game about superheroes that go out and fight street level crime, don't make a character that spends all their time making a mundane brass band. If you're playing a scrappy militia defending an outpost from a zombie threat, don't play a guy whose current obsession is writing poetry. Engage with the premise. "Wacky" stuff gets old fast. Playing safe to the tune of "Oh that sounds dangerous I'm just going to stay in the fort" makes for boring gameplay. I ran a game that ended unhappily because of this. I wanted it to be "explore the cursed island full of monsters and traps", and one of the players just wanted to open a restaurant. No. Bad. Engage with the game as pitched. If you want to play something else, talk about it instead of rowing against the current constantly. Engage with NPCs. I have a lot of players that just don't ask NPCs anything. That doesn't mean the NPCs are going to drop everything to help you, but if the GM is doing a decent job they have their own motivations and desires. They should be more than Final Fantasy NPCs that have a few fixed lines and a quest reward that pops out.
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Some of it depends on what system you're playing. I always recommend reading more games, because even if you don't adopt their rules wholesale there's often ideas you can steal. CofD had this idea of "aspirations". Players are asked to write down one long term thing they want to see happen to their character _as a player_. That's not necessarily what the character wants. The players should also have one or two short term aspirations. Since these are for the player and not the character, they might be something like "Get in a car chase" or "Take a hit that would fell a normal human" This gives the GM a little guidance on what the players want, and if they're like "i dunno" that's a prompt to talk about why they're here. More general advice: Engage with the game and its premises. If you're playing a game about superheroes that go out and fight street level crime, don't make a character that spends all their time making a mundane brass band. If you're playing a scrappy militia defending an outpost from a zombie threat, don't play a guy whose current obsession is writing poetry. Engage with the premise. "Wacky" stuff gets old fast. Playing safe to the tune of "Oh that sounds dangerous I'm just going to stay in the fort" makes for boring gameplay. I ran a game that ended unhappily because of this. I wanted it to be "explore the cursed island full of monsters and traps", and one of the players just wanted to open a restaurant. No. Bad. Engage with the game as pitched. If you want to play something else, talk about it instead of rowing against the current constantly. Engage with NPCs. I have a lot of players that just don't ask NPCs anything. That doesn't mean the NPCs are going to drop everything to help you, but if the GM is doing a decent job they have their own motivations and desires. They should be more than Final Fantasy NPCs that have a few fixed lines and a quest reward that pops out.I think my players are doing a decent job of most of this. The newer ones perhaps less so with the engaging with NPCs, but that's also probably substantially my fault as a GM, for not making opportunities more explicit. I/we identified that while reviewing our last session, and discussed with a more experienced player, and I have some ideas for how to improve.
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Seems like there's a butt-load of GM-guidance material out there. In particular things like the Lazy GM's Guide. But it's harder to find good, accessible and reasonably comprehensive guide for building good players and player arcs. I'm a new GM, and have a few new players who having fun, but are not feeling feeling like they know how to develop their character well. Any useful material I can give them would be appreciated. We're currently playing a game that's mechanically a bit more like PbtA (not crunchy), but advice for any game/system is welcome.
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Some of it depends on what system you're playing. I always recommend reading more games, because even if you don't adopt their rules wholesale there's often ideas you can steal. CofD had this idea of "aspirations". Players are asked to write down one long term thing they want to see happen to their character _as a player_. That's not necessarily what the character wants. The players should also have one or two short term aspirations. Since these are for the player and not the character, they might be something like "Get in a car chase" or "Take a hit that would fell a normal human" This gives the GM a little guidance on what the players want, and if they're like "i dunno" that's a prompt to talk about why they're here. More general advice: Engage with the game and its premises. If you're playing a game about superheroes that go out and fight street level crime, don't make a character that spends all their time making a mundane brass band. If you're playing a scrappy militia defending an outpost from a zombie threat, don't play a guy whose current obsession is writing poetry. Engage with the premise. "Wacky" stuff gets old fast. Playing safe to the tune of "Oh that sounds dangerous I'm just going to stay in the fort" makes for boring gameplay. I ran a game that ended unhappily because of this. I wanted it to be "explore the cursed island full of monsters and traps", and one of the players just wanted to open a restaurant. No. Bad. Engage with the game as pitched. If you want to play something else, talk about it instead of rowing against the current constantly. Engage with NPCs. I have a lot of players that just don't ask NPCs anything. That doesn't mean the NPCs are going to drop everything to help you, but if the GM is doing a decent job they have their own motivations and desires. They should be more than Final Fantasy NPCs that have a few fixed lines and a quest reward that pops out.> I wanted it to be “explore the cursed island full of monsters and traps”, and one of the players just wanted to open a restaurant. No. Bad. Respectfully, that player is an ass. A game about opening a restaurant sounds really fun. Playing a character like that in a different kind of game ain't the time or place though. I just started running a game of Broken Compass, and I truly am blessed to have my group, because they're great, but we still all built characters together as part of session zero so I could make sure they all fit the theme of the story I'm trying to have them inhabit.
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> I wanted it to be “explore the cursed island full of monsters and traps”, and one of the players just wanted to open a restaurant. No. Bad. Respectfully, that player is an ass. A game about opening a restaurant sounds really fun. Playing a character like that in a different kind of game ain't the time or place though. I just started running a game of Broken Compass, and I truly am blessed to have my group, because they're great, but we still all built characters together as part of session zero so I could make sure they all fit the theme of the story I'm trying to have them inhabit.I definitely learned from the experience. Specifically, be explicit about what tone and such we're going for, and be firm if someone is going off in some other direction. In her defense, she'd played little to nothing before.
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Lean into it. Engage wih the mechanics and the theme of the game. Don't have a huge backstory laid out, because it's fun to be able to make stuff up in the moment without it having to be a huge retcon. Know what everything on your sheet does.