FIRST TIME AS DUNGEON MASTER - REFLECTIONS
Welcome, dear readers, to the third and final instalment of the series chronicling my first attempt at being a Games Master (GM). If you have no idea what I am talking about click here to read Part 1 and here to read Part 2. Or just keep reading this. Do whatever you want. Who told me I'm in charge? Sheesh.
As described in the previous post, the original Warhammer Fantasy adventure ran by myself and friend/housemate Sam was not a terrible first GM-ing experience. However, the session itself deviated noticeably from what we had intended to happen. I am led to believe that this is a fairly common experience for GMs, however the dark and depressing tone our story took was a little disturbing. What was it about our planning and delivery that led the story down such a path? I have a few ideas.
I will talk about these in turn, but first it might be helpful to know that the idea which sparked the session did not begin with talk of sheep or beastmen - it began with a ghost that nobody realised was hanging around. Helping the ghost of Elyn was meant to play a far more central role in the plot of this adventure. The game was meant to have a strong 'mystery' element. The other plot-hooks were *intended* as distractions, to make the true plot a bit of a mystery.
All this - the veiling of the main plot, and the mystery element - was far too ambitious for my first game. Due to an absolute lack of experience these aspects of the adventure were under-planned, with other aspects of the story over-planned. So let's discuss exactly what was *meant* to happen, and my speculations as to why it did not.
1. Sidric's initial suspicion of the party
When the party first arrived at Woolly Way there was no way they could have known how tense and unusual the atmosphere at the farm was - consequently they did not treat Sidric with much compassion or tact. Far from introducing themselves in a calm, professional manner, each party member piled on strange, idiosyncratic questions and details, leaving poor Sidric a pool of confused suspicion. While I was a little frustrated about this at first, I later realised it was not exactly anyone's fault, and perhaps I should have emphasised the *need* for tact or compassion, rather than just expecting it. You know the writer's idiom 'Show, don't tell'? Well perhaps the one for penning roleplay adventures should be something like 'Lead, don't expect'. Lead the players to what they need to be doing or how they should approach a person - do not just expect them to 'get' it.
2. The party mistaking the sheep-monsters for beast men
This misunderstanding was born mainly from our skirting details in order to make the creatures seem mysterious. We did not really explain what the monsters looked like, but our continued explanation of them as 'sheep-men' led the party to believe they were dealing with beastmen, creatures considered inherently evil in the Warhammer Fantasy world. This led the party to treat the sheep-men as enemies, rather than victims (of horrible experiments), and meant the party started jumping to conclusions.
3. The cult leaders being too plainly evil.
When we hit the forest, things began to unravel a little for me. Sam took over GMing (which was fine, we had decided before the game that he would take over during the players' Nightwatch) but everything became a bit black and white. Building on the players belief that the sheep-men were beastmen, the cult seemed immediately evil. Beatrice and Alistair's powers may have been too developed as well. Had they seemed closer to sanity, the party may have realised that there was still a chance to save them, rather than slaughter.
4. Anki's subplot not made clear enough
As I mentioned earlier, the core plot of this adventure was intended to be helping Elyn's ghost move on. I did *not* plan this part of the plot thoroughly enough, and I did not give the players a reasonable way to solve Anki's mystery. Originally, we decided that Anki would offer the players a riddle which, if they solved, would reveal that Elyn needed help. They could then perform an exorcism to help her move on. There were two characters who would offer a ritual. The village Priest, Father Abel, and Frank, the madman. Father Abel's was the 'good' path - a true exorcism through which Elyn would have been able to move on. Frank's path was actually a ritual for summoning a lesser demon of Tzeentch, disguised as an exorcism. It would have removed Elyn, but not peacefully. Aside from the exorcisms there were other ways to remove Elyn. This information is from the game notes:
Lastly, I think it's worth noting that there is no way to know your flaws and knowledge-gaps with a setting without running it. I am *not* as familiar with Warhammer Fantasy as I thought. I thought that my years as a player would basically guarantee me enough lore knowledge to run a one shot - NOPE. The thing about being a player, is you only need to know what your character would reasonably be expected to know. The thing about being a GM, is that you need to know (or at least pretend to know) everything that *all* the characters you are playing would reasonably know, plus what everywhere would reasonably look like. I suppose most GMs overcome this hurdle through improvisation - which would have worked beautifully, had I been running a game in an original setting. Unfortunately, I ran a game in a very established universe and, as one of my players was our usual GM, I did not feel confident improvising.
At the end of this experience, I cannot say I have unveiled any secrets to guarantee other first time GM's a good game, but I have figured out a few pointers:
Finally, and most importantly, I want to emphasize that although this adventure did not go as I envisioned, every player seemed to have fun. The players were laughing and joking, keenly attempted to follow the plot-hooks, and seemed genuinely emotionally effected at the end of the game. So although everything did not go as planned, I still feel safe in saying that my first ever game was a success.
As described in the previous post, the original Warhammer Fantasy adventure ran by myself and friend/housemate Sam was not a terrible first GM-ing experience. However, the session itself deviated noticeably from what we had intended to happen. I am led to believe that this is a fairly common experience for GMs, however the dark and depressing tone our story took was a little disturbing. What was it about our planning and delivery that led the story down such a path? I have a few ideas.
I will talk about these in turn, but first it might be helpful to know that the idea which sparked the session did not begin with talk of sheep or beastmen - it began with a ghost that nobody realised was hanging around. Helping the ghost of Elyn was meant to play a far more central role in the plot of this adventure. The game was meant to have a strong 'mystery' element. The other plot-hooks were *intended* as distractions, to make the true plot a bit of a mystery.
All this - the veiling of the main plot, and the mystery element - was far too ambitious for my first game. Due to an absolute lack of experience these aspects of the adventure were under-planned, with other aspects of the story over-planned. So let's discuss exactly what was *meant* to happen, and my speculations as to why it did not.
1. Sidric's initial suspicion of the party
When the party first arrived at Woolly Way there was no way they could have known how tense and unusual the atmosphere at the farm was - consequently they did not treat Sidric with much compassion or tact. Far from introducing themselves in a calm, professional manner, each party member piled on strange, idiosyncratic questions and details, leaving poor Sidric a pool of confused suspicion. While I was a little frustrated about this at first, I later realised it was not exactly anyone's fault, and perhaps I should have emphasised the *need* for tact or compassion, rather than just expecting it. You know the writer's idiom 'Show, don't tell'? Well perhaps the one for penning roleplay adventures should be something like 'Lead, don't expect'. Lead the players to what they need to be doing or how they should approach a person - do not just expect them to 'get' it.
2. The party mistaking the sheep-monsters for beast men
This misunderstanding was born mainly from our skirting details in order to make the creatures seem mysterious. We did not really explain what the monsters looked like, but our continued explanation of them as 'sheep-men' led the party to believe they were dealing with beastmen, creatures considered inherently evil in the Warhammer Fantasy world. This led the party to treat the sheep-men as enemies, rather than victims (of horrible experiments), and meant the party started jumping to conclusions.
3. The cult leaders being too plainly evil.
When we hit the forest, things began to unravel a little for me. Sam took over GMing (which was fine, we had decided before the game that he would take over during the players' Nightwatch) but everything became a bit black and white. Building on the players belief that the sheep-men were beastmen, the cult seemed immediately evil. Beatrice and Alistair's powers may have been too developed as well. Had they seemed closer to sanity, the party may have realised that there was still a chance to save them, rather than slaughter.
4. Anki's subplot not made clear enough
As I mentioned earlier, the core plot of this adventure was intended to be helping Elyn's ghost move on. I did *not* plan this part of the plot thoroughly enough, and I did not give the players a reasonable way to solve Anki's mystery. Originally, we decided that Anki would offer the players a riddle which, if they solved, would reveal that Elyn needed help. They could then perform an exorcism to help her move on. There were two characters who would offer a ritual. The village Priest, Father Abel, and Frank, the madman. Father Abel's was the 'good' path - a true exorcism through which Elyn would have been able to move on. Frank's path was actually a ritual for summoning a lesser demon of Tzeentch, disguised as an exorcism. It would have removed Elyn, but not peacefully. Aside from the exorcisms there were other ways to remove Elyn. This information is from the game notes:
- 100% Win = solve complications of all children. Elyn can RIP - she appears briefly and thanks you.
- Appeasement = solve MOST of the complications. Elyn moves on, but the family loses something/not everything is resolved. She doesn't appear. BUT Anki actually talks to you.
- Dark Company = Sidric, or one of the children dies. This pleases Elyn as it means she is no longer alone. Ghostly voice thanks you for "delivering her this one, now I just have to wait for the rest." - do a Willpower check - if you fail by 5 degrees or more you get an insatiable urge to attack the closest child, or Sidric. A fumble will mean you instantly attack.
- 100% Annihilation = kill/banish the ghost by force. Cant RIP. You see Elyn ripped violently from the earth. It's scary and she is obviously in pain. And then vanishes.
Lastly, I think it's worth noting that there is no way to know your flaws and knowledge-gaps with a setting without running it. I am *not* as familiar with Warhammer Fantasy as I thought. I thought that my years as a player would basically guarantee me enough lore knowledge to run a one shot - NOPE. The thing about being a player, is you only need to know what your character would reasonably be expected to know. The thing about being a GM, is that you need to know (or at least pretend to know) everything that *all* the characters you are playing would reasonably know, plus what everywhere would reasonably look like. I suppose most GMs overcome this hurdle through improvisation - which would have worked beautifully, had I been running a game in an original setting. Unfortunately, I ran a game in a very established universe and, as one of my players was our usual GM, I did not feel confident improvising.
At the end of this experience, I cannot say I have unveiled any secrets to guarantee other first time GM's a good game, but I have figured out a few pointers:
- For your first game, run a setting you are familiar with. Do not attempt running something in someone else's world. By this, I do not mean don't run Warhammer Fantasy just because another friend is running it at the moment. Instead, I mean run it with all different characters, in a totally different location. This way you are not attempting to live up to the other GM, and you are freer to improvise and use your own style and flair.
- For Co-GMing - communicate everything and assume nothing! Sam and I thought we had everything figured out. We did not! More communication would likely have smoothed some of these rocky areas.
- Be clear when letting the players know they have a choice. A few times the players took a route, thinking it was the only one. They would have been welcome to explore other areas, but I did not make this clear enough, so things felt a little Railroaded.
- Allow yourself plenty of time. If things are going slowly, that is ok. As long as the players are having fun, there is no need to rush them. You can always have a second session to finish the adventure. A long, fun game of freedom is better than a short game of forced conclusions.
- Finally, always expect the unexpected! Expect the party to split up. Expect them to want to fling the halfling character into combat. Expect them to want to try diplomacy in the most dire situations, and combat in the calmest. GMing seems about 90% going with the flow, so you just have to go with it!
Finally, and most importantly, I want to emphasize that although this adventure did not go as I envisioned, every player seemed to have fun. The players were laughing and joking, keenly attempted to follow the plot-hooks, and seemed genuinely emotionally effected at the end of the game. So although everything did not go as planned, I still feel safe in saying that my first ever game was a success.
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