@alice As a GM: add whimsy. I've added teleporting sheep, a goddess that protects bunnies (only), a little demon appears whenever a character swears in Abyssal, a bard in a tavern telling a tale which was one of their completed adventures.

@alice As a GM: end conflict encounters when the narrative question at stake has been answered to everyone’s satisfaction (unless the players are enjoying prolonging it. Power fantasies have their place!)

As a player: the more interesting decision is generally a better choice than the more optimal decision, *especially* when it derives from your character.

@alice More freeform role-play.
Encourage everyone to adhere to the Three-before-Me rule, including the GM:
Try to only ever speak/continue the story/interact after three other players have said theirs.
(especially hard in dialogue, and it's just a guideline, but I've seen many plots slip by players because their character's voice wasn't included in a crucial conversation or negotiation)

@alice My big thing is never forgetting that your players are co-creators of the story. Working with them with that in mind produces richer stories and games with way less friction.

@alice as a gm, you have succeeded when people have spent quality time together. Das it. There is no other metric for success. Any insecurity you feel about your campaign plan, encounter design, improv, voice acting, planning, writing, anything, does not serve you at all if it impedes your ability to bring together people.

@alice GM tip: Your job is to balance the rules and the fun. If no one at the table is having fun you're doing it wrong. Sometimes you have to bend/break the rules to keep the game going. Do it discreetly and with great discretion. A good TTRPG should feel dangerous maybe even deadly but if you just come out swinging hard all the time and destroy the players based on the rules, no one is going to want to play at your table. Keep them on their toes, not one foot in the grave.

@alice
My top tip is to remember no matter what narrative you plan as a storyteller, it will be stressful and near impossible to make that exact story happen without taking away player agency.

So instead, the story should be basic and two dimensional on paper. Your players should be handling most of the creative load on that side of the privacy screen so you can focus on interesting NPCs and encounters to put in front of your players. Let them do the heavy lifting!

You can of course still be a creative storyteller, but the biggest mistake many storytellers make is forgetting the players are the ones telling the story, all you're doing is setting the scene.

@alice

Instead of doing voices, give each named N.P.C. a person you've known that will be how you're going to try to think and communicate.

@alice

Rotate between three kinds of encounters:
• an encounter they can solve with dice
• an encounter they can solve by interacting socially with an N.P.C. that is right in front of them
• an encounter they can solve easily if they just remember a specific piece of information you dropped for them during the immediately prior game session

@alice for all players including the GM.

"You are not on critical role". do not compare your role-playing, voice acting skills, or game play in any way shape or form, with a bunch of voice actors doing it as a performance. All you'll do is remove joy from what should be a fun game. The GM is not Matt Mercer, and the players are (probably) not a group of professional voice actors, you're all just friends looking to have fun. Don't let comparison be the thief of joy.

@alice the GM I've been playing with for years has us ask each other in-character questions before each session. That is, if A, B, and C are playing, then A asks B something, B asks C something, C asks A something.

And the questions can be anything!

"Where did you get your sword, and why is it special to you?"

"What's something you miss about home?"

"What is it about Earth that makes you not want to go there?"

"Who is someone you met in your travels that you still think about?"

@alice Keep a spare list of names behind the GM screen, so that you can seem *really prepared* even when players go in a wildly different direction than you'd planned for.

@alice I have many, but here's one:

If it makes sense in-universe (adventurer's guild, village square notice board, etc.) a job board is a fun and fast way to build a location while also foreshadowing and suppying possible options.

* Advising every traveller: The nearby mines are closed and off limits due to basilisk activity. Extremely dangerous.
* To celebrate a bountiful harvest, Mead in the tavern is 20% off.
* Billy, I know you stole my rake again, it is not funny, I have a job to do.

@alice Ask leading questions. Specifically, when presenting a scene, phrase it so that they players can just say yes as much as possible.

For example:

😒 ✋ "There's a door. What do you do?"
😏 👉 "There's a door. Do you open it?"

@alice for GMs: be the characters' biggest fan.

@alice

"Remember it's supposed to be fun" religiously obeying the stats in the rule book at the detriment of a fun game isn't a good idea. The rule book is a guide at best. TTRPGs are cooperative storytelling. It's not GM Vs the players. It's everyone working together to tell a story and have fun.

@alice first and only dm (I got SO lucky) would do a one shot now and then with our characters, with wildly different settings. A christmas adventure, a cowboy town, a "school of hard knockers" type comedy adventure (I dunno what series inspired that bit in the simpsons), dinosaurland, etc, etc.

all unconnected to the campaign, typically if someone was unavailable, or a special occasion.

And then when we got to the campaign finale, he had them all show up to fight the armies of hell with us

@alice

As a GM, if you have time, props are awesome. Even simple ones. Write out the note they find. If you don't have parchment, drip a bit of water on paper and dry it out in an oven. Gets a nice crinkly texture.

Need a wax seal? Cut a potato in half, carve a design, use regular melted candle wax, and press the potato to it.

The look on the players faces when you bring out even simple physical props is magic.

Players: build a character around a flaw. Easy way to have built in goals.

@alice I missed the previous thread so don’t know what’s been mentioned, but I have a note now at the top of each session’s prep page remind me to ask each player what their character is doing during rests/downtime. It has given them space to relax and grow their character even if they are up against a tight and stressful timeline in the world.

@alice As a GM, I always follow the flow given by my players' decisions, and I build my canvas around it. Like, I bring the world, the narrative and the goals, but otherwise, it's their journey, and we don't have to be linear.

Also, I never limit the options they can find in the rules to make their characters, if one comes with a cool concept, I'm making the world, it's up to me to make sure it finds its place.

@alice "How do you want to do this?" is an iconic phrase for a reason.

@alice Make failing die rolls as interesting as succeeding.

If some information or task is important to advancing the story, don’t let players miss it by failing a die roll. Let them succeed but with some consequence — “You are able to pick the lock, but your tools make enough noise that you think the guards have been alerted.” (This is advice borrowed from game designer Robin D. Laws.)

@alice Get appropriately enthused on die rolls in favour of the players. It lets the players know the DM is not out to kill them. It keeps things friendly, and makes the DM part of the story, not just a voice for NPC's and villains.

@alice

as a GN, let the players go off the rails and make their own plans and stuff.