I have been a GM for over 20 years. I started the same way many GMs did: picked by my friends to run the game for them. I don’t know if I was a good GM or bad GM, but my friends always said nice things about the games I ran, and I know that we had a lot of fun. Over the years though, my skill as a GM has certainly improved as I have learned from other GMs, the Internet, and other sources.

So I got to thinking, what if I could pass information to my past self, about how to GM better, just what would I tell myself….

Dear Phil,

This is DNAphil, your future self. Don’t worry about the name DNAphil, you will figure it out in time, but let me say, make sure you pay attention in Biology class. Let me give you some good news, you are still gaming. You are still the GM most of the time, and people say we do a nice job. So, I am writing you this letter to share some advice on what you can do to improve your GMing skills, based on the things we have learned through the years.

Pace Yourself– At this point in your GMing, you are coming up with great ideas for stories, and then running the whole story in a single session. You are burning through ideas faster than you can generate them. That is why you have had to restart your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles campaign 4 different times. You need to take those great ideas and slow down. Get a notebook and write the ideas down so that you don’t forget them. Then when you write your notes for your game, break up the ideas into a few stories. Remember back in 7th grade when we did those little diagrams for English class, with rising action, climax, and denouement? That did not just apply to books in English class; it applies to any kind of story, including role playing games. So, break up your idea and run a a few sessions of rising action, a session of climax, and wrap things up in another session afterwards. It works.

Then, just to keep in interesting, every few sessions, run an unrelated single-session story to break up the current storyline, and stretch your plot out even further. That is an idea we will get from a TV show called “The X-Files.” It works great. You run a few sessions in a row to advance your story and build to the climax, and then one session you do something completely different. The players will enjoy the change of pace and will be anticipating the return to the main storyline. It will make your campaigns longer, and it will give the players something to look forward to week after week as your story slowly grows and builds.

Spend More Time Developing Characters– Right now your sessions are not focusing on developing the personal stories of the characters in the game. Your adventures are focused on the players completing some objective and fighting bad guys. Those are still important aspects of any good campaign, but so is the development of the characters. Take some of that time and make up some stories about the characters. What are their wants and needs? Focus on some of their relationships: are they married, do they have kids, a girlfriend, etc? Put some of those people in the game, and for starters send some bad guys after them. That will get the players’ attention.

Later on, work to discover the dreams and goals of your characters. Then, challenge their beliefs; take them out of their comfort zones. A player likes to kill and kill, then have people start to be afraid of him. His friends do not want to hang out with him, his enemies are more aggressive, as they are afraid that he will kill them (the “get ‘em before they get you” idea). Then give the player a chance to redeem his ways, mend his friendships, spare an enemy’s life, etc. Your players will love to have their characters grow and change through the opportunities you present. They will love playing their characters and will be even more eager to play, every week.
Dress Up Those Stolen Ideas– You are a young GM, and you are very impressionable. More than one idea from a movie or book has jumped out at you that you have put into one of your games. But seriously, the Intergalactic Kumite arrives on Earth the week after going to see Bloodsport? Or what about, the Space Marines idea for your Teenage Mutant Turtle campaign, after seeing Aliens? I am not saying, not to borrow from other sources, but dress them up a bit. When the players instantly recognize the elements you borrowed, it cheapens the quality of your work, and it breaks the 4th wall of the game (try not to sleep in theater class in college and you will learn what the 4th wall is). So when you see something cool in a book or movie, figure out what element makes it cool, and translate that element into the context of your game world.

Let’s take the Kumite idea: an international fighting competition that is sometimes fought to the death. What is cool about that? Well it gives you a chance to make NPCs with different fighting styles and pits the players one-on-one in fights to the death. So, rather than having the Kumite show up in orbit of Earth, and having it called the Kumite, change it up. Have the players get captured or crash on an alien planet. Then have them put into (against their will) a gladiator-like environment, where they can fight for parts for their damaged ship or their freedom. The fights could have different aliens with different fighting styles. And don’t call it a Kumite. Take a few minutes and make up some alien name for it. I think you get the point. Sometime in the future you will come up with an idea for a Star Wars game that is based on Gone With The Wind. Trust me…it worked.

That’s the end of my advice to you. Keep GMing, because you are going to love it over the years. There are a few games for which you need to keep your eye out. They are going to be some key games in your career as a GM. Here is a short list: Amber:Diceless, Vampire, Conspiracy X, and D&D 3.0 (they are going to make a third edition of the game, and it is much better than that blue and white rulebook that you currently have). Oh yeah… one more game: Iron Heroes; you are going to do some great things with that one.

Have fun gaming, and I’ll be you in the future.

DNAphil