GM Manifesto
Discussion at one of my online haunts has led me to think about how I GM, why I GM that way, and what I intend the results to be. So I'm going to take a bash at a mission statement, something to help me express them, and to help those of you reading understand why my GMing has the specific quirks that it does and if it's for you.
NOTE: MANIFESTO DOES NOT INCLUDE [Non-Feng Shui] ONE-SHOT STRATEGY
One-shots need to have a plan in place much more strongly than campaigns; you don't have the time to make good on lost opportunities in a one-shot that a campaign offers, and you equally have less time to lay groundwork and make shapes. Feng Shui one-shots, by contrast, are encouraged to be about the players kicking heads in fun locations, so roll with what seems fun at the time.
DISCLAIMER: NOT FOR PEOPLE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH IMPROV. POSSIBLY NOT FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT ME.
ACTUAL BLOODY MANIFESTO NOW I'M DONE WITTERING ON:
I don't come to a campaign with a specific story in mind. I don't come to it with a cool denouement fixed in place. I don't even come to it with a certainty that Character X is the ultimate bad guy.
I come to any campaign I run with a feel, an ambience, an atmosphere I want to invoke. I have some notion of setpieces that might work and interesting locations/NPCs that I think will help bring that atmosphere out and introduce the themes I'm interested in playing with. I may or may not have specific guidelines for characters, but I'm usually amenable to a wide spread of different character types.
Examples - At present, for I'm running an Unknown Armies campaign at the very highest power level the game's comfortable running; the interface between the physical world and the world of former-human deific power. There are locations and people there who in various ways touch on the theme "As Above, So Below; As Below, So Above" - though not all of them. I knew two of the PCs coming in and added an element of whimsy to the setting which has expanded in play, and much of where the PCs go and who they meet was utterly unknown to me until they got there and met them.
Next term I intend to run a game about superhumans in the Old West. The specific Western ambience I want is heavily influenced by spaghetti westerns; nearer the time, I will be steeping myself in Leone movies, replaying Red Dead Redemption, and revisiting the comics I own about the types of superhumans I'm interested in. I hope to have appropriate music playing during the games to make sure the West the players envision is the same one I do.
That's my preparation style. I do my level best to keep what's been established in theme and accurate to what has gone before.
I don't introduce traps for which there is only one possible solution, nor do I create negative plot arcs which cannot be averted by reasonable PC actions.
I make sure I can think of three different ways to 'solve' any such problem. In my experience, players will discuss a further two, miss the first three, speculate on campaign plot based off a sixth and actually use a seventh. But if I can see three, a team of players can usually dream one up. If not, skill/knowledge checks may well give them a hint regarding one or more of the three I thought up, according to character background and level of success - they're playing experienced characters, after all.
I try not to minimise character success. If someone rolls a crit, I don't want it to feel wasted if they only needed a very minimal amount. Something extra is likely.
I don't guarantee success. But a good plan, appropriate skills, sensible strategy and interesting ideas mean that it's going to take a lot to screw this up. It will NEVER come down to only one roll, but I may make it look that way.
With that said - Your odds of success are appropriate for your character's ability level in the current genre. A superhero game - as distinct from a superhuman one - will eventually come out with a win, but the win may cost you. A pulp-heroes game is not likely to end in defeat, but may end with tragedies and high cost, and may well come out a draw. In a horror game, I pull no punch.
I undertake to deliver a good experience for every player I have, and strive to give players a level of screentime they're comfortable with. (I don't say 'equal'. Some players, I've found, aren't comfortable with equal. But everyone gets their moment in the sun and their chance to shine.)
I expect from my players a willingness to be active, because usually, you drive the damn plot and inevitably, you drive the game. I expect them to keep the atmosphere harmonious with the other players, and I take their character concepts, ideas, and expressed wishes on board in shaping the game's feel to suit as many of us as possible, and it's usually possible for 'as many of us as possible' to equal 'all of us'. I don't expect them to be creative geniuses or to not have off days.
At the end of the day, it's about enjoying the game. That goes for the players, it goes for the GM. It doesn't go for the PCs. But my goal is that we all leave the table not feeling we've wasted our time.