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Chapter 9: Running the Game

Tips and Guidelines

Villain Guidelines

During the players’ adventures, they will face opposition – antagonists whose goals run contrary to the heroes’ goals. Below are some things to keep in mind when creating, developing and running characters who serve to conflict with the Player Characters.

Villains are tough

Villains are usually not weak opponents. Most criminals are going to be armed and know how to use a weapon; and, given a chance, they will use them. Don’t labour over every thug to make them all unbeatable killing machines, but do make them pose an actual threat.

When you think up a challenge for players, think realistically for a moment about what kind of opposition it would present. Fighting a powerful crime boss can be exciting, but not easy. The context of that adventure will call for heavily armed opposition during confrontations. Reducing the amount of goons or their ability to fight changes the context. It means that this really wasn’t a powerful crime boss after all. If the Player Characters are still low level, either have the players fight an upcoming crime boss with less resources, or put off this story idea until the PCs are more powerful and capable of taking on such a mission.

Villains can cast spells too

Nearly every human in the Spellchrome world is capable of casting spells. For the most part, villains and thugs use the same character creation rules as players. When running villains, try to keep in mind the spell categories that each knows; perhaps a spell could be used instead of a mundane attack.

Villains are not omniscient

Villains are not all knowing; the GM on the other hand knows quite a lot about the Player Characters and what is going on in the game world. As the GM, it can really be quite easy to have a villain do or say something based on knowledge that they don’t have. Don’t think your players won’t raise an eyebrow; and the natural inclination to justify the extraordinary awareness can be regrettable. So try to avoid it. Stop for a moment and consider what the villain knows or doesn’t know before saying anything. It can be frustrating for players if every villain constantly seems to have eyes and ears everywhere. If the villain has spies then great, that can make things interesting – but consider it ahead of time. Decide how and when the spies are gathering information and occasionally give players a chance to react, intervene or otherwise take action.

NPCs might use any number of spells in the process of spying or gathering information, including: Remote Senses, Last Moment, Sense Truth, Animal Communication, Mind Link, Mind Read, Broadcast and Telepathic Communication, as well as all of the Shadow Spells.
Similarly, an NPC can use a host of skills to sneak and gather information.

Remember also that enemy agents will not always be observing or interacting with the Player Characters directly. Some information can be gleaned by interrogating or deceiving others close to the PCs. (Deciding to approach your game world in such a way can organically lead to some interesting encounters and adventures, once the players find out what has happened to their allies.)

Related: About the Opposition (later in the chapter)

Villains make odd mistakes

Sure, it might make more sense to just kill the heroes given the chance, but villains always seem to have a reason not to do so. Instead, the villain captures and imprisons the heroes in order to interrogate or ransom them. Or maybe there’s still a bigger fish that the villain reports to, so the characters are held until a boss can arrive.

This guideline, which has kept countless other fictional heroes alive, allows the GM to reset the scene and throw players, down on their luck, a bone. Ultimately you are rooting for the PCs to win, even though you can’t make it too easy for them. Whenever you can, give them a chance to regroup and reassess the situation. If they find themselves shoved into a prison cell without their equipment, give them a chance to escape on their own. If they come up with a plan, let them try it. If they fail to come up with a good idea, then change the situation after a while. Present opportunities, but don’t gift wrap those opportunities. Fictional villains may make odd choices, but they’re still going to lock the door.

Successful Gaming Session

Below are some tips and suggestions on having successful gaming sessions. Most of these tips have been mentioned already, and some might not really make that big of a difference. Still, it can’t hurt to give them a read, especially if you’re not certain about how to run a game session.

Show up early. If it’s your own house, make sure you’re at home on time.
Tell players to arrive a bit earlier than you want them there.
Control your environment. Clean up a little. Turn off distractions. Add something to the tone of the game – putting on a CD is usually fairly easy.
Be a good host. If a new a player has been invited to the game, pretend you’re at a party: get up and greet them. Show them where they can sit. Introduce them to others. Try to use other people’s names during the game so the new player gets a chance to remember them.
Allow some time to talk. Don’t be concerned about starting right away. Ideally these are all people who know and like each other. Give them a chance to chat and talk about the last week or two; better before the game than during.
Use the time before the game to address any questions, such as Player Character equipment purchases. And of course use the time to socialize.
Have an adventure ready; something that will hopefully motivate the players to action. Have some notes and an outline of how the game’s story will progress.
Let everyone know you’re about to start the game, and then actually start it. Tell the players where their characters are and what’s going on.
Start it off with a bang, with either combat or something else dramatic happening; get some dice rolling before the opening credits would normally begin.
Keep an eye on the clock. Do what you can to not let the game session stall. If the players seem to be dithering about, try to figure out what they’re missing. You may have initially failed to communicate something.
Watch and listen. It’s alright if the GM isn’t talking every minute. Take a moment to consider which players are engaged and to decide where to steer the game next.
Give them some time to plan. If they know what they must do and seem to be having fun deciding how they’re going to do it, don’t be in too big of a rush to charge in with your backup plan.
Be open, flexible. When the players do things you did not anticipate, do your best to accommodate. Improvise the best you can and don’t let on that it’s outside of what you made notes for or planned.
Make notes as you go along. If you make up a name, write it down. If the players are coming up to a section of adventure, jot down a couple of reminders for yourself.
Don’t actively split up the Player Characters’ group. It can become boring for other players if you have to resolve what one or two other players are doing for a length of time. Sometimes the PCs will split up, but try not to make it a critical part of an adventure.
End the game in a logical place. It’s great if you can conclude an adventure during a session. Make sure though that there will be enough time left over to give out XP, possibly level up characters, clean up a little and do other game related things.

Successful Gaming Campaign

A campaign is made up of a series of related game sessions. When looking at your game in the long term, there are some things to consider.

Before you start a new campaign, you may want to dedicate the first session to just creating characters. If there’s time left over, you can have the Player Characters meet and go on a shortened adventure.
Try to come up with a workable context for the Player Characters to come together and naturally work as a team. Maybe most of them have trained together somewhere. Maybe an individual who needs something knows and trusts each of them, and believes they would work well together. Whatever you come up with, it’s worth putting in the effort.
Get to know the characters. Ask the players about the character they have created. Listen for hooks that you can use to make the adventure more personal. If the player doesn’t have much to say, ask about the character’s family and acquaintances.
Get to know the players. Most players will have at least a vague notion about the kind of adventures they want to participate in. Ask them what they think from time to time. Do they want more action or more talking? What movies would they like you to borrow from? What do they think would spice-up the game?
Present different situations and contexts each game session. Some players will want to wear their full combat gear and kick in every villain’s front door. Other players will prefer gameplay that demands a certain amount of subtleness, like situations that require characters to use talking, subterfuge and their skills and spells to their full advantage. A variety of circumstances and locations will encourage different play styles.
Have a consistent thread run through all of the game sessions that draws them together; an overarching plot or story, if you will. It doesn’t have to be much: it could be the same insignia showing up in a couple places, uncovering a secret communication between two sets of villains or something more interesting. Not everything needs to add to the overall plot, but little by little you can build towards something. In the meantime, you can keep the players guessing what’s really going on.
Try to game at regular intervals. A game that is run every week at the same time will feel more like a campaign than one that gets together once or twice a month at different times. That said, life sometimes gets in the way – and gaming once a month is better than never!

Game Issues

Some issue may come up during your game. Below are a few thoughts on these topics.

Player can’t make it

Sometimes you know that one of your players will not be able to attend a game session. Try to ask the player ahead of time if they want someone to play their character. If they do, make sure you have their character sheet. Also, let them know that there is a small chance that something bad could happen to their character. If they don’t want anyone to play their character, hopefully the adventure is at a point where that PC is able to leave the story in order to attend to personal business.

Whether or not the character should receive XP is up to you as the GM. Understand that everyone has things come up from time to time, so consider giving everyone a couple free passes. Also know that the GM’s job is easier if everyone is close in level. On the other hand, most people think you have to earn XP – and you can’t earn it if you’re not there.

Unbalanced characters

When a number of people create characters, they will all have their own strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes it might seem like one character is a way tougher and more capable fighter than the other characters. This imbalance can make it difficult to design appropriate opponents and combat. The super fighter mows through the opposition unless you make combat extra challenging, which make things deadlier for everyone else.

When the above situation happens, first understand that the player probably created their character for the exact purpose of winning each combat. Other than throwing a few more bad guys their way, they’re probably fine. You can always ask them. A bigger concern is how the other players are doing. Do they see the super fighter as filling a roll – the person they turn to when combat occurs – or are they a little annoyed that someone else dominates combat? If a player is feeling over-shadowed by the super fighter, maybe you want to boost the other character a little. You can make a suggestion about choosing a new feat when their character levels up to help them become more competitive, or make some new equipment available.

Another way to look at this situation is to mirror the PC group when creating opposition. The enemy team should not (always) be composed of the same clone of a single thug. Make one of them a super fighter. Make the other Player Characters happy that they, too, have a super fighter on their team, someone who they can use to step up and fight. (This works best if the players know ahead of time that one of the antagonists is a majorly tough combatant. They can learn this information by rumour, reputation, description, pre-fight dialogue, etc.)

Broken

As the GM it can be fun to create new equipment, feats, and so on. Give it to the players and sometimes you wish you had not. The problem really isn’t the players‘; it’s that you made the item or feat a little too powerful, without any sufficient drawbacks to balance it out.

You can deal with the problem either in game or out of game. In game means that the item begins to malfunction and become unusable, or the player loses it during the course of an adventure. This solution can work – characters gain and lose things all the time. But don’t be surprised if you get some resistance. When toys break in game, most players will go to lengths to fix them in game.

The other option is to deal with the problem out of game. Own your mistake and explain how you should have put more thought into the item before letting a player have it. Let them know that you appreciate them play testing it for you. If the new thing is a feat or other intangible bonus or ill-considered house rule, out of game may be the only way to fix the mistake. You probably want to offer something in trade when taking anything away.

Obviously, neither of these fixes should be taken lightly. Something needs to be quite disruptive or game unbalancing before you should take steps to remove it. It is best to consider how a player will use something (how it will impact the game) before you offer it to them in the first place.

Players don’t accept a mission

Occasionally, you have an adventure all planned out but the players fail to take the bait. The first thing you want to figure out is whether it’s the characters or the players that don’t want to accept the job.

If the characters don’t want to take on the adventure, figure out why. Do they not like who they would be working for? Do they think the pay or reward would be too low? What detail bothered the characters? Maybe they were just Roleplaying, looking for clues to a double cross and unwittingly said “no” without realizing it. Once you know what’s going on, take another shot at it. Sweeten the pot (there is more than silver credits in the world) or have a better-known NPC request the characters’ services – same adventure, but rivalling the original NPC’s goals. Make it personal when you can – desperate pleas can be harder to ignore, if framed properly.

If the players themselves don’t want to go on your adventure, you might have a bigger problem. Ask them what kind of adventure they would rather go on. What adventures have they enjoyed, what elements worked? Is it time for new characters? Talk to your players and decide as a group on a course of action.