Discussion: When Do You Finalize Your Plot?

Early discussion for this week. Sorry, but I hurt my right wrist so typing is a bit more awkward than it normally is. My prompt for this discussion is when do you feel is best for finalizing the plot for your game? Now, granted, the plot is generally in flux as the game goes through, but key features usually need to be set for things to progress in some semblance of order.

For me, personally, it usually happens about 4-5 sessions in. The sessions before that I have an idea in mind, but I tend to just scatter mysteries and plot threads that could be related but aren't necessarily. Four to five sessions in I get a sense of who the PCs are, how they act, and can test them in a few ways. Once I know them, I can start getting the plot set down. Even better, I can talk to the PCs about what has happened so far and ask both where they think things are going and where they want things to go. With all that in mind, generally I can craft things into a nice plot that leaves most folks happy.

Now, granted, this method would cater more to a plot style game than a campaign. For a campaign I tend to have more of the various stories in place, and then let the PCs interact with the story as they will - often breaking the story in the process - and see how things fall out. How about you?

Confidence

Surprisingly enough when it comes to most of life's choices and requirements there actually is one piece of advice that can help almost universally: be confident. Confidence is one of the key things 'required' for attracting the attention of the guy or lady you are looking for, it is one of the key things people look for in a leader, and it is one of the key things people look for in professionalism. No surprise then that confidence can be a key quality to have when it comes to running a game, right? Right. Except, how many times do you let your confidence slip away? I know I do it a lot.

Dice, Specifically Specialty Dice

Just a short post today. Sorry it is up late. I had a different post set to go but at the last minute I realized it wasn't really ready to go out yet and pulled it down. However, I have been thinking a lot lately about specialty dice for games; mostly due to the Fate Dice Kick Starter (which you should check out.) So, today I want to talk about that.

Discussion: What Makes You Geek Out?

Gamers are generally decently excitable, especially when it comes to our games. The stereotype that a gamer will talk your head off about their favorite character does have some grounding in truth, after all. So, my question for you today is what makes you geek out about your games? What gets you so excited that you'll find yourself telling people who maybe don't even game about it?

For me, it is generally when I manage to pull something clever off as a GM. Things like the Shuten Doji fight in Shadowrun that I posted about yesterday. I love it because it is fun as a narrative, and as a game, and also as just something silly and neat. What about you though? What kinds of things just make you want to tell people about what happens in your game?

Making The Unfair Fight Winnable

WOW! So, not only is this post late but I totally messed up on the scheduling for the notice that this post would be late. My humblest apologies. But wait, why is today's post late? Honestly, because I had planned to write about something I was going to do in my Shadowrun Game (which was last night) then decided I'd wait until after so I could also show how it played out. Only, after the game I was tired so I decided to sleep. Now though, now I'm ready to share it. So what happened? Well, I had a bunch of PCs - who aren't very good against magic - fight against a very old and powerful demon. It was stylish, it was challenging, and it was a lot of fun. How did it work? Well, let's begin.

Have Fun

This is going to be the last post, for this week, on positive thinking to help with your game. That said, despite the previous two posts, I forgot to mention one of the most important factors in enjoying your gaming time: you need to have fun. See, the G in RPG stands for game, and games are supposed to be fun. We get together with our friends for our regular gaming sessions to have fun. So, why are we letting all this other stuff get in the way of that? So here are some quick and dirty ways to remove the obstacles to have fun.

What I Do Well

This is something of a follow up to yesterday's post. Yesterday I talked about the need to focus on the positive aspects of one's game instead of always focusing on the negative. Today I want to write down the things that I feel I do well. The things that are strengths in my game. In other words, reasons why a player would enjoy being in my game.