What Aspect of Your Game are You Improving?

[cailano]

I don't know about you guys, but I always feel like a bit of an amateur at game mastering. I've been running RPG sessions since I was ten years old, and I've heard plenty of people tell me that they think I'm good at it, but honestly, I always feel like I could do a lot better, even with the basics of our craft. So, I'm always trying to improve my game, usually one aspect at a time.

My question to my fellow GMs is: what aspect of your game are you working on right now? Why that one? What are you doing to improve it?

Last year, I focused on improving dungeon crawls. I went all-in on mechanics I'd long ignored, such as time-tracking and resource management, and I learned the joy of a well-placed trap. I learned the importance of wandering monsters and encumbrance rules. There are so many things that, in years past, I thought of as time-wasters or unnecessary bookkeeping. Yet, it turns out that if we just use the rules given to us forty years ago, dungeons become terrifying and (more importantly) immersive places to explore.

That was last year. This year, I want to work on hex crawls. I want to bring the same sense of exploration that players get in a well-made dungeon to the world as a whole. To improve, I'm reading books like So You Want to Be A Game Master and watching videos LIKE THIS ONE.

I'm also running a game that is heavily focused on exploration. How heavy? When we started, the only things the players knew about the game world were the names of a few major gods and that of the inn they were staying at.

But enough about my games. Where do you want to improve as a game master this year? How are you going about it?

[Penchant]

Myself, I am working on NPCs and dialog. I'm good with plots, scenarios and running combats but I find that my NPC's are generally lacking. So I'm making an effort to seed in more than the bare minimum of plot critical NPCs and fleshing them out more. And making them chattier.

[cailano]

17 hours ago, Penchant said:

Myself, I am working on NPCs and dialog. I'm good with plots, scenarios and running combats but I find that my NPC's are generally lacking. So I'm making an effort to seed in more than the bare minimum of plot critical NPCs and fleshing them out more. And making them chattier.

That's a good one. I think towns and NPCs will be something I look to improve in the future, as well.

[Mindcrime]

I have a very hard time creating things from scratch, whether they are encounters or just about anything else. I have never tried my hand at creating my own adventure and have ALWAYS run premade modules. I'm an ISTJ (for those familiar with Myers-Briggs), and can get rather buried in the details and not being able to make sense of things can be a huge determent for me. Whenever I do sit down and just try to create something myself, I always end up with more questions than answers and ultimately scrap the idea. For example, just trying to modify a monster in Pathfinder, something as simple as adding a class to a base orc turns into a headache for me as I usually get hung up on some vague rule that doesn't make sense and that I can't seem to validify. It can be.....frustrating and I don't really know how to improve upon it. lol

[cailano]

I feel that! I also tend to run published adventures, although it's partially because I enjoy the process of bringing them to life in-game.

But I'd like to do more original stuff, too. I used to do more back in the day but published content has gotten much better since then.

[Powderhorn]

For me, I'm all about incrementalism - I often think of the British cycling team that eventually won gold by just improving little things here and there consistently.

Recently, I decided to lean on the Monstrous Manual to just roll up the encounter and see what happened, which in turn got me into a much larger scale battle than I usually run on account of the logistics of it.

Today, on a whim, I decided to number the baddies for my own ease of tracking and for everyone else's ease of targeting. Everyone seems happy by the outcome, so I'll implement it in for all encounters going forward.

 

[Mindcrime]

You could also add Letters along the top and Numbers down the side to help with positioning. Here's one of my maps as an example:

 

[Powderhorn]

It's funny - as I was writing that post, I was having the same idea. Not sure how it would work with hexes, as I typically use though. Happy for ideas on that front!

[matt_s]

it would be a pain but you could define a reference point. One value is hexes right, other value is hexes diagonal up to the right. Only one unique duo of values for any given hex. so basically pick (1) a diagonal and (2) a distance along that diagonal.

welcome back to geometry class

[Actana]

Not burning myself out, and keeping (live) games going for longer than a few months. Of course, I don't think the games themselves are the cause of the burnout, but that's a whole other issue entirely.

[bwatford]

I am currently in the process of working more on NPC dialog and accents. Both here and in my live games. Trying to write more descriptively with better word selection and emphasis, rather than just typing it out and hitting post where all the NPC dialog sounds the same.

Of course I am working on my writing skills as a whole, it's one thing I feel needs improving. I do find for my live games if I write out a few lines of dialog the way the NPC should talk in my mind before the game it is easier to do it in person if you are looking at those lines/notes.

[CharmingSatyr]

Momentum.

This year, I'm attempting to make a GM post within 48 hours of all players posting. Not counting weekends.

[cailano]

18 minutes ago, CharmingSatyr said:

Momentum.

This year, I'm attempting to make a GM post within 48 hours of all players posting. Not counting weekends.

Any success I've had in PbP over the years, I credit to posting frequency. That's at least 90% of it. I try to post daily.

[Eagleheart]

I have the opposite problem - sometimes I am bad at just sitting back and letting my players RP. I always want the plot to be moving forward (mostly because, yeah, momentum is important to PbP) but sometimes it's best to let the players vibe for a bit.

[cailano]

4 hours ago, Eagleheart said:

I have the opposite problem - sometimes I am bad at just sitting back and letting my players RP. I always want the plot to be moving forward (mostly because, yeah, momentum is important to PbP) but sometimes it's best to let the players vibe for a bit.

Also true and a good thing to point out.