Behind the Screens

== About ==
Behind the Screens is a live discussion show talking about playing and running Tabletop RPGS. Wednesdays 2pm PT on twitch.tv/geekspacetvThe funny thing about this show, and the concept for this show, is that I have literally been playing D&D longer than you've been alive.~Pupil, to Teach.Having played D&D that long, I can still safely say you're one of, if not the best GM I have ever known. [...] I've met Matt Mercer.~Same, to same.Feel free to put any of this up on the Wikia.~Anna.You betcha!~Me.
== Cast ==
* RandomTuesday
* Anna Geeks
== Course Syllabus ==
Of course there is a syllabus.
==List of Behind the Screens Episodes==
=== Season 1 ===
Num 	Title 	Air Date 	Summary 	Link
1 	So you want to run a TTRPG on the Internet. How do you do that?Also featuring popcorn and sh.t sandwiches. 	Apr 18, 2018	This episode mostly deals with preparation, up to and including session 0 and how/when to include the players. Style, tone, mechanics, death, dealing with XP, money and maps, side missionsLauren explicitly mentioned this one (Shadowrun: Corporate SINs #46) which resulted in not just one episode, but also a full subplot., are some of the topics to deal with for a successful collaborative experience.NftE: a few comments that stood out for me in this episode: Do split the party; In Corporate SINs, a character would only die if the player said the character was dead, no matter what the health boxes said; Treat your NPCs like stolen cars.	YouTube
2With special guest @TrooperSJP.	World building, it's not as scary as you think!Title courtesy of this tweet. 	Apr 25, 2018	Introduction: Discussing Seattle'sMoPOP and munching POPcorn.
Tools: Use what's best for you, combine them.
For a collaborative experience, leaving gaps in your world allows the players to fill them in. Thus Duranga was born.
Trooper: focus on motion and tension more than mayors' names.
Lauren: who are the high-level players, whether at galactic (ICA) or town level, depending on the game's scale?
Anna: Keeping the players on the rails by letting them think there aren't any rails.
Claudia creates a lot of NPCs. Lauren creates organizations (ICA, again), then adds NPCs when they're useful. To Trooper, they're all actors. A volcano would be an actor too (Lauren).
Trooper: It's not Is it OK? It's do you do it well, do your players like it? Mix it up. Know your players. Have variety.
Lauren: you can make mistakes as a GM. Try new things.
Show idea: Lauren Bond fixes your game.
Trooper: focus on how the big stuff happening affects the players.
Lauren: For me it's important that the players give a sh.t about the world that they're in, in some capacity. It's on the players to make emotional investments in the world.
Anna, about races allowed in her world: Tieflings are dumb. Kitsune, though...
Trooper: GM's are allowed to say no, it's OK. 
Anna: Yes; and and No, but are important.
Lauren: About gender-neutral dwarves: It would not be weird at all in Anna's world, everyone would know that in that world but elves who only use feminine pronouns would still call all the dwarves She.
Dragonborns would exist, but secluded.
Lauren: Something important to a character may not be a theme of the overall campaign.
Trooper: there are many expectations from players about D&D, because of all the books. You need to be upfront about it if you go against them in some waySay, by allowing only fighters and rangers as classes..
Trooper: even IRL travel used to be dangerous, so it can easily be dangerous in most settings.
Lauren: you can tell the players what their PCs would know about common monsters when they meet them.
Trooper: there is not much mystery in D&D. What about Anna's world? You can use worried NPCs to instill that.
Anna: PCs don't have to be murder hobos. Trooper: there is a mystique, an allure to their ability to travel.
In Anna's world there is a city under a dome where time doesn't flow within.
In Anna's world, sorcerers are self-taught wizards; divine magic is completely different. Warlocks are taught by powerful entities. Druids are pulling magic from the Feywild. After mentioning the Pastry deity again: there may be custom mundane, not very useful spells.
Trooper: to keep the players in the same town for one season, this town should not be close to any exciting place. It's still nice for the players to feel the effects of the larger tension and to be in a special place.
Trooper: a daytime soap opera (such as East Enders) can be so good for RPG inspiration: town gossip, tensions on a small scale, tensions between big families. They also weave stories over a long time.
Lauren: there is nothing wrong with pulling in ideas from an unrelated genre.	YouTube
3 	Maps and player meetingsTitle courtesy of this tweet. 	May 2, 2018 	It's useful to give players a short pitch about your world before the first character-creation meeting, as some players are thinkers rather than snap-decision makers. That includes the tone, general guidelines, highlights about the world, setting and setup: You're here because <blank>.
Loner PCs are hard to play in a collaborative campaign (hence, don't be Batman; but Superman is OK).
Even if Anna's players don't want to take the specific job she has in mind to kick off the campaign, they need to be willing to accept jobs in the future, just like a Shadowrunner must be willing to run some shadows... or at least jaunt them (Anna).... slowly saunter (Lauren).
.
Silly, stinky, sexy is an improv tool that may help establish connections between characters.
Death (or loss of character control) is not the only way to make people feel bad.
Discuss what is unacceptable in your campaign (torture, sexual violence...) and what players want (say, shippable characters). Lauren prefers to avoid PvP rolls.
Maps: Lauren draws continent-wide maps using real-word shapes and concepts such as tectonic plates and initially puts only what players ask for and what she needs on themIn chat, @pumpikin1 described various way of mapping the world: "Entire World", "Entire Known World" and "Relevant World".. Having maps helps place people and describe how they look or what their cultures are.
Anna started her map with the requirements for the city frozen in time.
Have as many climates as you can because that's more fun.	YouTube
4 	First sessions and possibly NPCsTitle courtesy of this tweet.
Also some unplanned Star Trek. 	May 9, 2018 	Homework (Anna's first session with players): point, evidence, explanation: It went well. We established character ideas and how they integrated together. I am looking forward to session 0 on Saturday.
Exhibit A: an organization known as Habitats for Halflings, which creates houses for nomadic halflings.
Lauren: Why are they nomadic? Anna: I haven't gone that far, OK? Ep. 0 will be about them leaving Crag(s)fall and then getting to Mountain, the mining village that they're going to. This led to more questions about the halflings from Lauren and chat, and ways to add depth to the lore, such as groups meetings in bakeries, walking groups having a communal bag of holding, or quests to find better ingredients.
Adventuring is just work, a way to earn money or GTFO; the hope is to become one of the few who become rich.
Lauren doesn't remember on her players remembering what their characters know, or taking notes: she just tells them.
Lauren aims for 3 encounters, or challenges for the players, per 4-hour session and rather for 2 encounters/challenges for 3-hour sessions. Speaking of challenges, managing a limited number of spells in D&D can be a challenge in and of itself. This led to a discussion about short rest and long rest.
Regarding planning, Laurens has short-term goals, problems that won't go away until they're solved. It may take longer than one episode to solve one. Longer-term goalsSuch as defeatiing the Baking Bad. for the heroes and Big Bad needn't be clear from the get-go.
Story structure, regardless of longterm narrative goals: may be episodic, with events not carrying from one episode to the next and possibly no Big Bad arc; and serial, which is the opposite.
On a world building and management spectrum lie sandbox, where players have a world/universe to explore and several factions with which they can choose to interact and narrative, where they are led through a longterm story.
A one shot is by nature episodic and requires no broad, longterm world building and management.
Monsters: starting with Tucker's Kobolds, Lauren evoked the expectations players have with D&D from the monsters angle, and how to turn them on their head without being unfair to the players by having, say, a goblin with 500 HPFunnily enough, Bossman's Buffs happened the following Friday. But he was not an antagonist..
Traps: Lauren uses passive detection, assumes that, unless PCs are explicitly moving quickly, they are on their guard, on alert, looking for traps. Lauren also encourages a narrative, in-character (say, a player will not have their character try to avoid a trap on purpose because the character would not care about traps) approach to them. Individual players may still role play their appreciation of traps differently (think rogue vs barbarian face to a door). Traps also don't just deal damage, they alert people, they may be the only way for the players to open a door.
Metagaming: Metagaming is OK as long as everybody has fun. Trust is the best way to limit it. Players are less likely to metagame if they don't feel the GM is actively trying to kill them. It's also useful to remind the players of that their characters would not know. Rolls are useful when the GM themselves doesn't really know what a character would know.
Metagame playing is not the same thing as Metastory playing, which is players deciding their characters' actions depending on where they think the GM is trying to lead them. Lauren 100% does that as a player.	YouTube
5 	Building encounters with unpredictable players!Title courtesy of this tweet. See also an alternate title here.Special end-of-show guest: Claudia.	May 16, 2018	Planning: Lauren usually plans for a session, which is an arc with a beginning, a middle and an end. That's 2 episodes for a twitch show, with a cliffhanger in the middle. Cliffhangers improve viewership and increase player investment. They also require work.
Pre-made modules and pre-made encounters are a good way to start. 
The players need a problem to solve, say, a job. The hook/setup is the most detailed part of Lauren's notes: what they need to do, why, what the problems are, and names for NPCs. In Leviathan, Ary is the NPC who gives directions when needed.
The jobs have to fit the players.
About NPCs: Morva, Ellaine and Carl.
About unpredictable players: think in terms of problems (big and small), don't ever think about the solution because they will not do what you think; they just won't. It's still useful to have a couple possible solutions in case players get stuck. <Right Clique example: stealing horses.> 
It's easier to manage creative solutions when you think in terms of problems.
When players are stuck, it can help the players if they summarize the situation. Lauren also tells them what their characters would know. Rolls can help determine how much a character knows. Breadcrumbs can be tailored to characters according to their core skills. It makes the players feel their characters are useful. Ellaine could be recognized, Lauren reminded Megan Lyra had a Disguise skill.
In D&D, most abilities are combat-related. So: murder. In Right Clique there was a bard: hence, social stuff. There was a sneaky monk: voilà, sneaking.
Lauren doesn't overbuild the monsters because fights may not happen or be very short. They have AC; damages; and one cool thing that they can do and that sets them apart (say, in Shadowrun, the latest spell Dan had picked). She spent more time on the Shadowrun guards until she realized it wasn't worth it.
Not all encounters are combat situations; the Battle of the Bands in Right Clique was not supposed to be one; the whole premise of that episode was there was gonna be a challenge from the other band.
The kidnapping in Right Clique was a narrative beat that needed to happen at the end of an episode, regardless of the short-term plot.
Lauren doesn't rewatch the VODs. She takes notes, and keeps track of how problems were solved, which may lead to new problems (think: stealing horses). Players can help with tracking, too.
"Cheat": using go-to powerful spells such as Stone to Earth to solve problems doesn't mean the players can't still get in trouble. Rewarding or sabotagingQuoting Iffrithiel in chat, here: So being a Gm is about creatively sabotaging player's solutions? the players' creative solutions is a question of balance and ensuring there are enough problems for them not to get away with everything. The Right Clique friended the goblins who wanted to attack them because they engaged them in the right way. Finding unconventional methods of solving problems is Lauren's definition of unpredictable players.
For Good Society, which is much more egalitarian in terms of who is doing the core of the storytelling, Lauren would mostly take notes on a few important things of the previous episodes and come up with suggestions for scenes.
Most of Lauren's planning takes place in her head, Claudia writes more.	YouTube
6 	Spychedelic debrief & Improv in RPGs 	May 30, 2018	The world Anna has been creating will be used in the future even the show that was initially planned for it doesn't happen.
Spychedelic was inspired first by Austin Powers then by Get Smart. It was going to be campy and silly and fun but still, like, dramatic in a silly way. There was little preparation before the first episode. The "system" used for the first episode was Agency, but it is just a cool mechanic. The racism and the sexism of the era were intentionally cut out, and so they had actual equality in 1965.
Anna came to the show with a plot line and characters (or, in Lauren's words, a setup and a first location). She regretted not having cards with the acronyms for the first episode.
The character creation that took place in a stream allowed the players to create the world and the idea of the organization gathering an elite team from the best agencies. In Lauren's words: lightweight building.
What helped Anna most during the first session/episode was her reference sheets. She felt very underprepared and had even less time to prepare the second session. It was still entertaining. Having misplaced the reference material actually usable at the table is what hurt most going into the second episode. The plot was better fleshed out. As players, not using Agency implied more freeform storytelling.
With enough time, Anna would pull elements from Star Trek Adventures to give a hypothetical third episode of Spychedelic an actual system. One element Anna likes is the Buffy RPG's Drama PointsSidenote from Anna: The Buffy System works very well on twitch. and STA's Momentum. This mechanic allows a player to change failure into success, and tell an important part of the story as they want it to be told, thus sharing some narrative control with the GM. In a spy adventure, it makes sense to have a player come up with the right device... or the wrong one, but using it in the right way. at the right time. Lauren points out that Fate is a simple system that has a similar mechanic.
Lauren likes that Anna is wanting to recreate the feel of the show that you are emulating and, as a player new to the system, that Anna was explicit about what she wanted her to roll. Lauren expects some knowledge of the system from her players. For Shadowrun, she couldn't know all the rules for all of the characters skills and Dan still knows the rules for Shadowrun better than I do.
The fact that the characters were constantly chasing after the bad guys provided rails. Anna would have liked to lay out those rails better and plan more than just the beginning of the second episode, which included a problem and its proposed solution. The fact that the players had to return to the bakery after a chase that had started from there was improvised. Anna is already thinking of what's coming in the next episode and would like to do infiltration and a standoff with a bigger villain.
Returning to a previous theme, Lauren remarks that Anna encouraged the players to find their own creative solutions to the problems she was presenting them with. That would work with the various stages of an infiltration. Also, it's OK for her to not have a defined end, because, as a player, it is nice for the GM to accept whatever outcome results from the players' actions.
Anna would have liked to flesh out the various organizations (the PCs', GRANDMA) more, in addition to all the jokes that were made about them and also to come up with calling cards during character intros like in the first episode. For such one shots, fleshing out GROOVE HQ would not be as important. Having an NPC as the recurring point of contact would bring continuity and be a spy thing.
In addition to the documents used in planning and at the table, the GM needs to store and keep track of informationUnless you have the benefit of having some amazing people who keep track of your wiki and the wiki has in it so much information that you can go reference as a GM. NtfE: thanks for the kind words, Lauren.. Having easily accessible information at the table is even more important for a streamed show than for a home game.
As a player, Lauren was still given enough information and she liked how Anna encouraged creative solutions, used dice rolls and handled their consequences and kept the feel at the table consistent with the world that they were collaboratively creating. Lauren also saw the fear in Anna's eye when she ran out of things to do and she didn't always know where things were.
Scene painting and setting a scene verbally are important and harder to handle without mapsPro tip from Lauren: Use all your senses. . They will be even more important when podcasts come.
Expect interactive Reverse Pictionary in an upcoming episode.
In a campaign, Anna would have an easier time taking her time. In the next episode of Spychedelic, she would have her cards back and a starting point. Anna did a great job of moving things into one direction ... until she had nothing else.
Lauren prefers having a stable cast. It was not ideal for character depth to have some players in just a few episodes during season 2 of Leviathan. A larger, rotating cast would also come with challenges, such as knowing in advance when a character actually returns in the story. Having a temporary guest in addition to a stable cast would be easier to do.	YouTube
7 	 	Jun 27, 2018	 	YouTube
8 	 	Jul 4, 2018 	 	YouTube
=== Season 2 ===
Num 	Title	Air Date 	Summary 	Link
9 /1 	 	Nov 29, 2018	 	YouTube
10 /2	 	Dec 13, 2018	Special guest: Steph. Lots of EPK talk, and more... 	
11 /3	 	Dec 20, 2018	 	YouTube
12 /4	 	Jan 10, 2019	Special guest: Markus 	YouTube
13 /5	 	Jan 17, 2019	Special guest: Claudia 	YouTube
14 /6	 	Jan 24, 2019	About improvising as a GM. Season finale. 	YouTube
15 /7	 	Apr 24, 2019	Lauren and TrooperSJP talk about the 2 games they GM'ed that recently wrapped up: Night Witches and Worlds Beyond.	
== Trivia and quotes ==
=== Ep 1 ===
It looks like there will be divine mixing spoons and a god of pastries in Anna's world, or at least a pastry cult. Lauren's pastryon, a sort of pantheon, didn't seem to pass muster though.
Prestidigitation is the most powerful spell.~Anna
Speak to Animals is the best spell.~Lauren
=== Ep 2 ===
Pandas are not helping themselves.~Lauren
Koalas are super flammable.~Lauren
New Zealand won't kill you but Australia will (Trooper). It's the Shire.~Anna 
Alignment isn't a thing.~Anna 
Worst spell? Time Stop. The high-level magic user stops time, deals with all the problems, unstops time and the rest of the players are like: "Well, that was cool."~Trooper 
=== Ep 3 ===
Don't be Batman! [...] Have something to care about.~Anna 
I don't like Batman.~Lauren. 
Do not tempt me to cancel this show and go with that other idea.~Anna 
How adorable is that, a roving band of little tortlesSee, for instance, this page about tortles. playing instruments? That's amazing.~Anna 
Communicate! Pretend that you are all adults at the table and actually talk about things honestly and openly.~Anna 
How do you roll a 1 on eating a cupcake?~Anna I took clumsy.~Lauren 
Would you like this cupcake of healing?~LaurenReplying to @pumpikin1's question: Are Pastry Deity's Spell Scrolls, really Pastries or Cookies or something that they eat to "cast" their spells?NftE: The Pastry Deity was also referred to as the Great Pastriess (thanks to @quasi79 for the spelling)
=== Ep 4 ===
As long as you're not exactly 37, you're not basically dead.NftE: I am relieved. I lived through that tricky age.~Lauren 
I'm not anticipating people lying on my cutting table. Or am I?Comment in chat by @CaptSardonic: It's a cutting table: hopefully it can support at least half a person.NftE: #NotAKnifeGirl
~Lauren
Your work is never done.~Lauren
The discussion about "canning" vs "jarring".
Halflings are great, halflings are my favorite.~Lauren
At the end of the day, you can house rule whatever the fuck you want.~Lauren
Tucker's Kobolds were a recurring theme in chat, and Anna addressed that.
RPGs should be, generally, a collaborative experience. The GM isn't opposed to the players, the GM is a facilitator for the players. You're working together to build an entertaining and enjoyable narrative.~Anna
Episode 1 will take place either during the fundraiser on May 26th or mid-June.
=== Ep 5 ===
There is absolutely nothing wrong with using pre-made modules.~Lauren
Fishing is not a helpful feature in a combat encounterNftE: I put this quote here because the story behind is so cute..~Lauren
I wouldn't give, like, dark and gritty shadowrunners a, like, rescue a cat from a tree mission.~Lauren 
There is an impetus, when you're doing D&D, to put more combat in.~Lauren 
I like success with consequences.~Lauren 
[Markus] was not nearly as chaos muppet as the chaos muppets that I have.~Lauren 
Claudia, I am never going to be upset about having you as one of my players, I hope you're aware of that.~Lauren 
What would Fang do?~Lauren 
Oh, I just need to broadcast all of Seattle.~Anna 
=== Ep 6 ===
Spychedelic is absurd [...] It is puns and innuendo and super spies in 1965.~Anna 
I don't have any idea what that looks like yet and historically speaking that's okay.~Anna
Coming in without an end is actually not as bad as you think.~Lauren
I played a character called Cassandra Straight. Her friends call her Cas.~Lauren
Cookies are great and I want more.~Lauren 
You can be, like, allergic to your own enamel.~Lauren 
My hair is purple, I promise you.~Lauren 
== Glossary ==
Crag(s)fall: the city the party will be leaving at the start of ep. 0See . It is a great vacation spot. It is known for being like Disney World: it's very clean, and very happy and very pleasantSee .. It is a combination of dwarvish and gnomish. Where tourists don't go, everything is made for the shorter folk only.
Cragslist: a big bulletin board in Cragsfall where people go and post job listings.See 
Habitats for Halflings: The Habitats for Halflings will make several houses and the halflings will take apart all but one of them, which they turn into a temple for Pastrius. That's right, they make it a bakery, because halflings love baked goods, but as a nomadic people, they don't really have good access to bakeries[...]See 
Mountain: the mining village the party will be going to in ep. 0.See 
Pastrius: the Pastry Deity.See but the idea of a Pastry deity was there in already.
== Notes ==
Category:Behind the Screens