Running the Game
How to Run the Game as a GM
This section is for the Game Master (GM). Not the GM? You're done - stop here.
Being the GM is a great role. Your job is to give the players a memorable scenario about their characters. Everything in this section serves that goal, and the skills carry over to the real world.
The Basics
Your Roles
You wear many hats:
- Explaining and interpreting the rules
- Breaking the ice for roleplay
- Controlling the spotlight of focus
- Portraying NPCs, organisations, and their agendas
- Painting the setting and scene
- Directing tempo and the narrative arc
- Refereeing outcomes and arbitrating edge cases
Create Situations, Not Plots
Don't railroad. Present situations with interesting choices, then let the players find their own story and solutions.
Listen and Respond
Scenarios are a conversation: you describe, players react, you interpret what happens next. Cheer when the group succeeds. You present challenges to make the scenario interesting, not to defeat the players - you are not the villain, even when you play the villain.
Make sure everyone gets heard, contributes, and has impact. Speak often, and listen just as often.
Focus on the Goals
Help players immerse in the scenario. Translate the rules into colourful fiction rather than surfacing them as mechanics.
Non-Player Characters (NPCs)
You run every character and organisation the players don't control: allies, adversaries, prepped NPCs, and anyone the players invent mid-session.
Hold each stakeholder's primary objective and motivation in mind - that's what drives their decisions. When they act, describe it (or keep it secret), then roll. Use a basic stat block if you have one, or roll raw to save time.
Encounters / Crunch Time
Use Crunch Time when a situation needs to resolve simultaneously, or when many stakeholders want to act at once. Same idea as "rolling initiative" in other TTRPGs.