@alice Investigation should happen _during_ planning. When the players start talking about any unknown while making a plan, stop the process. Then together switch to investigation with the aim to figure out this unknown. After this return to planning and repeat at the next unknown.

The investigation can be anything from a single knowledge check to a full adventure (or even a secondary campaign).

This way we got to the action asap, get to give more context to the players even if they fail and avoid spending hours making a plan that might be absolutely useless when put into action.

It's all over the game mechanics with FATE. A roll can be "success at a cost" where you have to come up with some creative explanation for how the attempt succeeded when it shouldn't have. Actually says in the rule book um...

You can also kick the question back to the players, and let them decide what the context of their own failure is. This is a great move to foster a collaborative spirit, and some players will be surprisingly eager to hose their own characters in order to further the story, especially if it means they can keep control of their own portrayal.

@alice This doesn't fit into a pithy toot but I really enjoyed Return of The Lazy Dungeonmaster by @slyflourish . It packs a ton of useful advice for high-ROI prep into a slim volume I found more useful than the D&D 5e DM's guide. My GM tip is read/watch it if you haven't already.

Book: https://shop.slyflourish.com/products/return-of-the-lazy-dungeon-master

Video Summaries: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puapg3APswE8JXskxiUpLttgg

#TTRPG #DnD #GMTips

@alice This doesn't fit into a pithy toot but I really enjoyed Return of The Lazy Dungeonmaster by @slyflourish . It packs a ton more useful advice for high-ROI prep into a slim volume I found more useful than the D&D 5e DM's guide.

Book: https://shop.slyflourish.com/products/return-of-the-lazy-dungeon-master

Video Summaries: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puapg3APswE8JXskxiUpLttgg&si=zYMAF6SmALTKJapd

#TTRPG #DnD #GMTips

@alice As a GM, I keep a bunch of pre-built NPCs in my digital notes that I can drop in when the players want to dig into a rando. Not overly-detailed, just a name, physical description, maybe a motivation/desire, and space to build on the foundation while improving them.

I've been perma-DM for many years now.

@alice

As a GM, sometimes there's gold to be had in scene descriptions you didn't plan for. Improvising what the horses at a horse auction know (because the PCs were interrogating them) is one of the more memorable ones for me, and that was a direct result of the scene description presented to the PCs upon arriving in town.

As a player, make story choices that demand suboptimal gameplay. During one particular adventure, my Fighter essentially transitioned into being an Oath of Vengeance Paladin as a result of particular story elements. The GM supporting that move was great and luckily I was at a table that lacked min-maxers. Easily top 3 all time RP experience for me and that campaign lasted years.

@alice Put some "real time" pressure on them to move forward if they're the type to dither and bullshit for forever. As one of the podcasts I listened to called it - "show them the barrel of the gun" - like in a movie when you foreshadowing that danger is coming. After a few minutes of dithering over go left or right, tell them you can hear rumbling in the distance behind you. A few more minutes, the rumbling now seems rhythmic. Like marching footsteps... Dither too long you get a random encounter.

Or even outside of the dungeon, getting too distracted on side quests, the world keeps moving without you. Ignore the quest hook to save the city? The city gets wrecked. Some of your allies die. Sure you can go fish for mackerel, but there's consequences.

@alice as a GM I try to always think about at least 2 or 3 ways the players can deal with the situation I'm putting them in. They often surprise me by coming up with something I didn't think of, but there has to be more than one way to succeed or move to the next stage of the story.

@alice when an ability check fails, the GM asks, what were you doing / focused on / distracted by to explain it?

That becomes canon, and might also enter the table session, or campaign later.

@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 my GM tip: Your fun matters, too. If your system or table is demanding in ways that are burning you out, consider making changes! D&D specifically is among the most demanding game systems for facilitators, but even it has low prep resources available.

@alice As a GM, be the greatest fan of your players' characters. Test them, challenge them, drag them through mud, but cheer for them and try to give them plenty opportunities to shine.

@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.