I’m a new Game Master (GM) that’s chronicling my dive into the GM world of building worlds and allowing players to romp through them. These posts are my take on different aspects of being a GM and some insights for new GMs (and, let’s face it, more of a journal of my progression). My hope is that those interested in making the leap to GM can learn from my research, mistakes. and growth (and spelling errors).
This post is on story building. As a GM, you don’t want your players to know too much about the story that you are all about to collectively unfold. You want them to know things on a need-to-know basis. You as a GM also don’t want to know specific details beyond the next few sessions. Your goal as a GM is to provide a world for your players without forcing a linear path through it. If the players disregard the obvious hook plant, don’t force them to take it. Let the players explore and determine their own path in your world. It will be more fulfilling for them when they succeed at their own goals (or fail trying… trust me… they will fail spectacularly). Your job as the GM is to provide the feeling that the world is built for them to play in it without letting on that they are still loosely following the story you have planned out.
Planning
When planning your story, think about the big picture. Who is the “big bad guy?” What or where do you want the climax to be? How do you want to culminate all of the elements together into an epic encounter? These are the questions you don’t need to worry about… Throw all that in the trash… What you want instead, is a very loose, very fuzzy outline of a story. You want the “big picture” that your players are in. You want the story to develop as your players play through your world. Sorry for the emphasis there. If you you plan something out to great detail, you will lose that time when your players ignore it. If you force your players into that situation you do intricately planned, you will lose your players.
Outline
If you’ve ever played a video game role-playing game (RPG), think back on the epic moments. Sure, some of them were the end game scenes. Why were they memorable? They were the result of your choices throughout the game. They were a highlight reel of the changes you made to the world around you. They were reminders that your actions had real in-world consequences that changed the face of the world. They were reminders that you left your mark. Give this to your players.
Give your players the opportunity to make their mark on your world. However, unlike video games, you can adapt on the fly and make things up to cater to your players if they decide to go off the rails of your planned story. If they decide they want to abandon the town they started in to make a name for themselves, let them! Let them leave those who rely on them. Let them experience the consequences of their actions. Perhaps that act will be remembered later in the story. Perhaps that action let something else take over. Perhaps their outlook changed the lives of that town forever. Eventually, you as a GM will have the opportunity to present the consequences of player actions to them.
If you find yourself wanting to deny players an option, provide them an option anyway. Let them make a choice. There are no saves in this game. No do-overs. Let them know their choices mean something. Let them die because of their actions.
Build
When you’ve sufficiently not planned and instead have a general overview of the overall story you would like to take your players through, this is when you can plan your world. World building is the heart of the GM’s planning. While you cannot control the actions of your players, you can control the actions of your NPCs. Use your story outline for inspiration on points of interest. Use your points of interest and the flow of your story outline as inspiration for the NPCs that occupy the point of interest. Start big and work your way into the details. You don’t need to plan a city the player’s aren’t going to learn about next session. A name? Sure. Having the government of that place planned out? Not yet. You will know well before your players start making their way there whether or not they will be heading that direction. When you know this, this is when you can start fleshing out the point of interest.
Theme
Theme your points of interest based on some overarching concept. Is this a lawless town full of anarchistic entities? Is it a town full of law and order regardless of morality? Is this town simply one that grew out of wandering people that happened to settle here, attract, and collect other wanderers? Creating a theme for a town will shape the NPCs you place in it and how they react to certain scenarios. With a theme in place, you’re done! At least, for now.
Location, Location, Location
Before you tell your players about a point of interest, you need to locate it on your map. You have the theme of the point of interest, but where you place it may affect the terrain of the point of interest, which may affect the type of citizens. Perhaps it’s a mine. Your NPC population would be interested in mining and perhaps have skills related to it or special abilities related to the main attraction of the point of interest. When your players learn of a point of interest, they need find it. This is when you place it on your map. You should know when this will happen before it does and place it before the session. Once you place your point of interest, it becomes a location. This location has NPCs, shops, rules, economy, and perhaps something (or someone) the players need.
Laws
Once you have a location placed, you need to define some rules that govern it. When a player breaks these rules, what consequences are necessary? Are the rules well known? Do the players have to figure out what these rules are? Is there a governing body? Enforcement? Determine these laws keeping in mind the theme and the location. Perhaps there is a city that’s on a frozen lake where those that break the law are thrown into the Ice Hole. What would those laws be? Would fires be bad enough to outlaw? If the party wanders in at night with a lit torch what should happen? Would those torch bearing heroes be immediately arrested or just warned? Define these laws and hold the NPCs to them.
Populate
Once you know what your point of interest is called, where it is located, and how it operates… you can populate it! Don’t worry about all the nitty gritty details. Create a few major NPCs that have real authority within the location. Is there a leader? Lawman? Council? How do they treat the citizens? Are the citizens oppressed? Do they live normal lives? Is there a feature of the location that the population would interact with daily? Who enforces the laws? Define some key NPCs as you would build a player. Is the Lawman good or evil? Do they have traits that would suit the Lawman role? Would they welcome outsiders based on the theme of the place? Think of how the day-to-day lives of the citizens run. Do they shop or hunt? Are weapons allowed? Is there a store that sells them? How about creating them? Is this a town of miners? Is ore available for sale? How about services to refine ore? You can define NPCs and other points of interest within each location. You don’t need to place them within the location, but being aware of them is ideal when the players want to look for an enchanting shop and you didn’t add one. You have the option to create one on the fly, reveal there is one already, or reveal there is not an enchantment shop. Options make storytelling much smoother. And, if a player never asked about the enchanting shop in the last place, you can always move it to this one!
Remember that for each point of interest within a location, you need a few details on the key NPC at that point of interest. Is the Blacksmith skilled? Is the gem merchant shifty and greedy? Is there a secret shadow organization that is running the town that can be slowly revealed as a plot hook (wink)?
Flavor
Now that you have a named and placed location with points of interest within them that have NPCs running them, you can continue to add flavor (as I did with the secret shadow organization). As you may have noticed, like any good meal, each layer of world building is another opportunity to flavor the world. You don’t have t0 do it all at once. Take your time when you build your world. Note that only what the players are actively seeing is what becomes canon for the history of the world. Anything the players haven’t seen can be changed and refined. Once you do establish a location with your players, it can always change! That blacksmith could have been run out of town for being greedy and ripping patrons off, only to set up shop in another location where nobody (but, perhaps your players) knows them. There may be trade lines between locations yet to be discovered that allow the same merchant to appear in seemingly every city. Remember, this is a collective storytelling experience. If your players kill a merchant, there are consequences to their actions based on the location it occurred in.
Retroactive Continuity (Retcon)
If you goofed and mentioned the wrong NPC at the wrong location.. don’t worry. If you’re like me, who incorrectly named the main city of the campaign, you have choices to fix it! I opted to just let it be and that was the name it was going to be. I can always reuse the name elsewhere. I could also provide a reward to heroes that complete some sort of plot to rename the town. I could also just retcon the name. I’ll discuss this concept in more detail in a later post, but just remember, it’s OK to make mistakes!