Running a Game

This page describes how to GM a game once you've planned it.

By now you should have detailed notes for each Encounter and understand how the story can change based on what the PCs do. But how do you actually play the game? As the GM, your goal is to first **set the scene** and then to **respond to player actions**. Of course, things will go wrong, so there are later sections for dealing with some of the possible ways that can happen and what you can expect. As a rule of thumb, the solution to these unforeseen situations is to improvise with whatever will be most enjoyable for everyone at the table. Remember that this game belongs to you and your players - the story you build with your players is more important than the rules!

## **Setting the Scene**

This is the easy part. Back when you were first building your quest, you wrote a description of the Journey. Tell the tale of how the PCs got here, and what the travel was like.

Now that they have journeyed here, they are somewhere in the Map, and you’ve prepared a description of that too! Specifically, the description of the Space. What is this area like that they’ve found themselves in? What are the creatures and objects they might want to interact with? Where are the exits they can see? What is there to explore?

Specifically, put descriptive emphasis on:

* The **interactable content**
* The **passages** to other areas
* The meaningful **story elements**

After you’ve set the scene, give your players a chance to act as their characters and explore the area, interacting with anything they want. And if they go to a new Encounter, set the scene again! This repeats until they’ve completed the Quest and have found a way to return home.

Occasionally, the game will slow or halt. The players won’t know what to do next. In this situation, remind them of what they haven’t done yet. What interactable content have they not interacted with fully? What areas are left unexplored? These reminders help keep a steady pace to the story and keep the game progressing.

Note that players will get stuck more frequently if “finding the plot” requires them to take very specific actions or roll very well. As a rule of thumb, if an action is critical for the story to continue, it always succeeds. Similarly, if finding something is critical for the story to continue, it is quite obvious based on your description when you set the scene.

**Wrapping Up**

At the end of the game session, try to set the scene once more in closing. This will be improvisational, but the goal is to describe the resolutions that happened at the end of the session, or perhaps the tensions that still exist. If the PCs completed their Quest and are returning home, describe the journey back. What does it feel like to return home? How do others react to their objective being completed or failed? What story arcs are resolved, and how?

If the PCs didn’t complete their Quest yet, what tensions still exist? Is the story pausing on a cliff-hanger? Perhaps emphasize the danger that the PCs are in, or the intrigue of the areas yet unexplored.

Consider asking the players to submit an Adventure Report in preparation for the next session.

## **Responding to Player Actions**

As the GM, this is by far the most fun and most difficult part of the job. Your goal is to understand what the player is trying to do and then interpret the rules to guess at how this action is resolved. And there will be a lot of interpretation.

If the player tries to do something that can either succeed or fail, it falls into one of the following categories:

**Effectively Impossible**

This could happen if the player attempts to do something that cannot succeed, such as lifting a building with their bare hands. In this situation, make it clear to the players through description that what they are trying to accomplish will have no effect no matter how they approach it. Try to draw their attention away from this fruitless task toward something they can interact with successfully.

**Story “Breaking”**

The player’s action would either circumvent a large portion of the game content you’ve created, or create an exploit in the game or the narrative continuity, or otherwise just ruin everyone’s enjoyment of the story. In this situation, you could let their action succeed, rewarding them for their cleverness. However, this is only viable if you have more game content prepared for the players to keep going. Talk with your players out of character - let them know the potential consequences of their actions both within the game world and as part of the larger story. Then you can decide as a group whether the action is right for your game. If not, consider making up a reason together for why the action might be impossible. Perhaps there is some magical force preventing it, or in the time it would take to execute this action, the Quest would be failed. (In general, having time-constrained Quests can be very helpful narratively!)

When you build your quest, try to ensure that the players won’t want to leave the bounds of the Map in order to minimize how much improvising you need to do while running the game. Letting them know ahead of time what your expectations are for the game can be a great way to ensure you are all on the same page going into the game and reduces potential future conflicts.

**Possible**

This category includes most actions the players will try to attempt, such as shooting an enemy, dodging a trap, looking for clues, In this case, the PC makes an Attribute Check of a Difficulty Level (DL) that you set. See Check Difficulty further on.

Importantly, this should be done only when there is some penalty for failure, either because of time constraints or potential damage. If the action can be repeatedly without penalty and may succeed on one of the attempts, it is either a **passive check** or Trivial (see below). A passive check might be used if it’s possible that the player will never succeed no matter how often they try, such as trying to remember something they may or may not know. As a rule of thumb, rolls should be made if and only if the outcome is an interesting progression of the story no matter what happens.

**Trivial**

The action is so easy and simple that it automatically succeeds. This saves time from asking the player to roll when there is no penalty for failure or the player will almost certainly succeed and it would not be interesting to the story to see otherwise.

**Ambiguous Outcome**

Sometimes the player will try to do something that doesn’t have clear success or failure, such as talking to another creature or using an ability which has some intended effect. In this situation, what happens next is entirely up to you. The GM Tips page provides general advice, but what happens to the story is up to you and your players. The players can make suggestions, but you have the final call in what actually happens. Try to consider how the NPCs might react to what the player is doing - what might they say or do in response, given their personalities and desires? How would the environment act in response to the player using their abilities? Once you have a sense of how the world reacts, your goal is to describe what happens, either through the voice of NPCs and/or by narrating the action, and then translate these actions into “mechanical” effects using the rules of the game. There are many right answers to how to respond - the most important considerations are that everyone enjoys the game and the story continues to progress.