are my friends and I share with you our
thoughts and suggestions on how to game
master your role-playing game
I’m your host Satine Phoenix co-creator
of mais Arcana and a guild addict for
Dungeons & Dragons
today’s theme is the beauty of
limitations
[Music]
Gaming planning big picture epic stories
weeks of preparation we’ve covered all
that breaking rules one shot supplements
and random generators yeah we’ve talked
about that too today we have sex car on
the show discussing one-page games but
first I want to talk with you a bit
about my process behind making and
playing these kind of games from mostly
a GM’s point of view but there’s also
stuff for players in here too tip number
one minimalism and the creative process
one of the things you learn in art
school is how beneficial limitations are
your teacher says use these colors this
material this time frame in this theme
suddenly the possibilities of what you
can make are lessened which is amazing
because you can focus your creativity on
those few items without limitations some
storytellers get choice paralysis or go
off on tangents limiting choices allows
you to communicate more efficiently
things like story are more clear I like
to use this in my adventures players
will overthink everything simplifying
takes my prep time down as well let the
players do a lot of the brain work I
know that a pastry on the table is just
a pastry the players think of all the
horrible possibilities this pastry can
be because their imagination is already
at work tip number two improv we talked
about this a lot but it’s more than just
a skill actors work on improv is about
responding to other people’s actions in
improv everyone listens to one another
in relation to playing at a table it’s
not just the gamemaster listening to
their players or the players listening
to their game master it’s everyone
listening and reacting and participating
with each other and the GM improv panel
at GenCon we play characters based on
three or four items given to us on the
spot class race proficiency and flaw we
weren’t playing a specific fantasy game
and yet we all understood each other
stripped down the game is played with a
d20 and the game master told the player
when to roll based on what the GM
thought was important we all had a lot
of fun even though the game master had
one minute max to read the entire
scenario tip number three knowledge is
power
for players when you understand your
character you’re better able to respond
to others you can have tons of backstory
or a basic character sheet but know how
to navigate your character sheet know
your actions your reaction bonus actions
well and you’ll not only be able to
respond to the scenarios your game
master throws at you but you’ll also
respond to what your fellow players are
doing make a cheat sheet if that helps
you react faster color coding or using
index cards to make your modifiers and
damage easier to see is welcomed you’re
in a game with other players play with
them as well as a game master for gems
you don’t have to know the whole world
and memorize all the NPC’s the players
don’t know what you don’t know that’s an
advantage you have trust yourself
I repeat trust yourself trust that
you’ve played enough games watch enough
movies read enough books that you have
inside of you a well of NPCs locations
monsters guides or taverns to pull from
what’s important to me as a GM is
everyone has fun and gets a chance to
make choices I’m there to set up a story
with a goal the players choose a
direction and I have the choice and
navigate them back on track or play with
them based on the ideas I get in the
game that I didn’t think of I don’t need
much to tell a story give me a sentence
and a couple minutes and I’ll weave you
through an experience you’ll never
forget I could roll on but instead let’s
talk to the showrunner for geek and
sundry’s twitch channel writer and
comedian sax man it’s so good show we
work together for I think as much as 10
years 8 10 yeah actually long time your
brain is amazing I hope so
I had so much fun with you on the
pre-interview and talking about
one-shots I think is really important
not one shots one page games yeah you
can actually fit a lot of information on
one page games I’m looking over there at
honey hi yeah this is this is this is an
RPG this is all the rules you need this
is all the story this is everything
honey heist in one page and this is it
was literally handwritten and
photocopied that’s how one page it is
that’s beautiful
before we talk about how many of them
there are on there let’s talk about the
importance of mechanics and
understanding mechanics in order to
develop games like this well there’s
sort of a threshold that happens when it
comes to rules right so when I started
playing D&D in sixth grade in second
edition we didn’t really understand the
rules um and that was a good thing
because we didn’t think we had to so at
some point we just rolled dice and it
kind of seemed to make sense and the
game flowed very effectively but as I
grew up and I read more and my
collection of D&D books filled shelves I
got so into the rules that I stopped
trying to tell the story and sort of
trying to essentially apply rule
mechanics in a row and you you get so
caught in the minutiae of the the rules
of the game that you lose sometimes the
world that you’re in so sometimes but
it’s hard when you’ve taught been taught
a rule to disregard it yeah so
understanding what the mechanics are
trying to do is the number one key to
sort of smooth effective role playing
and with a one page RPG you have one
rule like I’ll show you my favorite this
is roll for shoes this is literally this
is the entire RPG and it’s played with
these sixes so these are my lucky few
sixes I carry them with me everywhere
their their gravity dice and so they
just roll really nice yeah please do
well they’re there um so these are our
lucky two sixes this is an entire RPG
you can play with all your friends ten
friends can play this waiting to get on
a plane it’s very effective and because
the mechanics are so small you’re forced
to do all the storytelling to sort of
make make sense of it all and we can get
into the brilliance that is roll for
shoes later but when you when you’ve
paired down RPG to essentially one role
or one concept like in what is all at
bubblegum in the game all in a bubblegum
you have a number of gum if you want to
kick ass you roll more than that if you
want to do anything else
chew gum you roll less than that that’s
the whole game but you can build
incredible stories and play together all
night long and go through like ten six
packs while you’re doing it and it’s
really fun and but you understand what
the mechanics are trying to get you to
do they’re adding that little element of
chance and they’re sort of pushing
things along so when you go back to D&D
you’re like oh I’d get it
understand what this perception check is
doing it’s not just some perfunctory
thing that we all do
perception checks are actually kind of a
really cool way for you to pass the ball
back to the player yeah so it’s like all
right well when you are asking me what
you see in the room and I ask you to
roll a perception check I can also say
what are you looking for and what do you
think might be in this room and okay
you’ve rolled your check really high oh
oh now I can go even further with this
and if you take every little mechanic
that you’re going to use on the regular
with any game and you understand how it
pushes the story forward it makes for
better play so do you like it when
people when you have a big set of rules
and some game masters just kind of like
okay I’m not gonna use these mhm does
that does do you like it well there’s
sort of a player opt-in for rules so
when I’m sitting down and I’ve got a
stack of books next to me I’m sort of
telling my players we’re gonna be
playing by the rules so if you have a
special mechanic or if you’ve worked out
some sort of tweak of the rules and I do
it myself I’m working right now on
trying to figure out how to make a
lizard man wrestler in fifth edition and
I’m trying I’m going through all the
rules to try and get exactly perfect and
exploit every little change in nuance
and weight of his bite is 1d6 what does
that mean and and if I’m that kind of
player and I’m at that kind of table I
want to be able to do that but if we sit
down and I’m like all right here’s my
notebook let’s play D&D I’m essentially
telling you the player I just want to
make this fun for you and I’m the kind
of I’m definitely kind of GM that it’s
like all right well you want to jump out
of this you want to jump off this hippo
Grif and you want to catch on to this
flying balloon and then you want to jump
up in there and you want to fight the
kobolds yeah that happens I don’t need
to roll that that’s amazing like of
course you’re gonna do that because if
you fell ten thousand feet to your death
the game would be over like and so like
and if you if you come to your players
and say listen we all know the rules
they’re fun they’re great guideline the
mechanics makes sense we know what
rolling to attack is all about but at
the end of the day I just wanted us to
all collectively to tell a great story
and I’m not looking to make it about
like no lawyers here yeah then I think
it works I think a good way to do that
would be having if like a lot of people
have pre being characters mhm so if you
hand them a fully fleshed out character
sheet that you print out multiple pages
that says this is the game we’re gonna
play or if you do like Keith Baker like
here’s one page and here’s a handful of
numbers and a couple questions that’s
the kind of game
gonna play so I think that’s a really
good way to communicate to your players
well I also think that you learn in
playing different systems too so if
you’re playing mean D all the time and
people are all into the D and B rules
then they can get very comfortable being
like well the fireball does this and
here’s how it does it but if you’re like
well let’s play three other systems in a
row and then come back to D and D that
lack of familiarity is gonna force them
to fall back into story which is the
same thing that a 1-page RPG does you
don’t have any rules to depend on so now
you’ve got to tell me why it’s cool now
you have to explain to me why you crack
your whip this way because you’re not
gonna you’re not going to go back to a
couple rules and show me exactly what
the result is we’re gonna decide the
result together because we have only
this to work off of and for me when
you’re when you’re trying to get the
best the game that feel most epic are
often the ones where at the end if you
said hey wait which one mechanics did we
use today and everyone goes like did we
open the book do we not open the book
who knows that’s the game you want to be
in that’s the one that feels like you’ve
suddenly written a movie together those
are the ones that you try to explain to
your friends and they can’t get it
because they weren’t there those are the
ones where you lose track of what’s
happening and if you know the mechanics
really well like if you know D&D fifth
edition absolutely every basic mechanic
and the players handbook it can almost
fade away and you’ll never know and a
one-pager by gzz
it’s two rules or one rule or three
rules DNA is a little bit harder but if
you’re like looking at something like I
don’t know riffs like that’s never gonna
let you be in that place so the cool
thing about these is mechanics are
simple the story you can navigate them
through but there’s not a lot of lore I
mean I’m looking at all the pages you
have here it was like twelve games and
they’re just like wait twelve pages
there are there there are one page RPGs
and here’s a couple of examples so
here’s honey heist where your bears and
you’re robbing honey con 2017 here’s big
mother effing crab truckers where your
truckers and your crabs this is tactical
waifu one of my favorites this is where
your japanese school kids your TT
schoolgirls and the hottest boy in
school got kidnapped and you’re gonna go
rescue and lift some machine guns this
one if everyone is John where you’re all
the personalities inside a person’s head
and you fight for the one control of one
body swords and scrolls is kind of like
a mini D&D which is kind of nice it’s
very simple I think it probably borrowed
art I hope they hope they license that
and then
here is this is leiserson feelings which
is basically Star Trek the RPG in one
page and then this is all in a bubble
gun which we talked about earlier which
is basically kicking ass and chewing gum
and just one set of rules none of these
really have a lot of lore around them
you’re sort of forced to build the world
around them but there are also rules
light or heavy RPGs which are you know
it’s a whole book of the world and then
the last page is literally like and
here’s how you play the game I guess if
you want to you know and another one
that is sort of fun mechanics is like
goblin quest goblin quest is a whole
book and where each person plays five
goblins because goblins are so death
prone that any mistake you do you die so
you have to have five and that that’s a
big book and has a lot of Lord and as a
lot of alternate rules and everything
but it’s basically the same mechanic
it’s one page at the end of the day and
you can even look at stuff like fiasco
Fiasco is essentially a rules rule
simple world heavy RPG it may not be in
a page but it works kind of like that
and so you have to build the world world
around them which is great too because
you can play all at a bubblegum you can
play all the bubblegum like you know
sort of them scenario like the movie
it’s clearly based on you can play sabi
RPG it’s a space RPG it’s a bunch of
kids sort of you know stranger things
style it’s you’re on a plane that just
got hijacked like whatever you want to
do all the bubblegum is there because
the rules are the rules yeah but are you
making it all up or do you like how do
you allow the players to be involved in
that well I always like to imagine all
roleplay as collective storytelling and
with you know when you look at someone
like Matt Mercer and the amazing world
he builds around it it’s hard to see
exactly where the collectiveness of that
storytelling is it’s definitely there
it’s the same percentage those players
are adjusting that story the same way
that he is he just has the pretty pretty
words but but every time he says how do
you want to do this he’s asking them to
contribute to the story essentially
right so in a in a one-page RPG you
literally can just say okay what do you
pick up in this room and they can pick
up whatever they want because they just
say it’s there you know what I mean and
so you sort of you basically give the
player a little more agency and it
allows them to develop the universe
around them or like with with dick and
Johnson let’s show that we play here on
geek and sundry where we use the all out
of bubblegum rules I let those two
characters literally
hit anything so I’m like how do you want
to get from here to Washington DC and if
they say we tie eight fan votes together
then that’s definitely how it works
that games a comedy but you can do the
same thing in a in a more serious RPG
you know you when you say we did an RPG
and all role for shoes was role pursuit
it was a one-off role for shoes game
that we played with the cast of Eric’s
t-midi RPG and it was kind of a stranger
things it sort of thing so I’m like
alright which kids are you you know how
you’re all kids what where do you live
what’s going on what’s in your house and
they told me the whole stories around
them and in that they basically had a
lot of control because if they’re like
oh well I’m a sports champion well then
okay sure now your character can do all
those things and now you have all that
equipment or if they said well my dad’s
a cop well now there’s a gun in that
house you know what I mean you know and
and but but if they also if they said
the same thing like if at the very
beginning like well I’m pretty sure my
parents on a gun can I go get it then
yep sure what it’s not for me to tell
you the universe if we’re playing on a
two by five card you know or a three by
five card like the standard people use
never mind that’s actually interesting
allowing the players to really build the
world because you’re there to facilitate
their fun and these are also playful
these stories don’t seem serious at all
like these one-pagers they can be it’s
interesting that the mechanics certainly
don’t need to be that you can facilitate
any kind of game people want to play and
and I can I can tell a lot of stories
about very simple RPGs but but they tend
to be more fun they tend to be more
casual I actually think that they’re
sort of a steam release for role players
who get like real serious you know
you’ve just rated the zombie key for the
90th time and you keep losing or you
having trouble finding that table of
players you like I want to play an RPG
where I just have fun that’s that’s kind
of what these can be but they can be
serious and you can really craft great
incredible stories you know what
actually is it essentially could be
considered a one-page RPG with a lot of
lore thread it’s one mechanic it’s just
the dread tower and everything else yeah
and and of course an in that in that by
creating your characters and saying what
you’re doing and creating your backstory
you’re telling the story back to the
game master and so like that that’s
that’s
that’s a very serious experience so
there’s a lot of ways that you can go in
any direction but it’s really about
saying okay what is in the room with you
that you want to use I want to use it
this way of course you can where do you
wanna go with it
of course you can go there it’s a lot of
saying yes it’s a lot of crafting
stories but also being ready to take
what they give you and build that
universe yes the goal is to be a lot
less like those early video games where
as you walked into a room you would like
see the white cells around you’re slowly
fading into the actual background as
they load it in like you want to try and
load quick you want to get ahead of them
but you also want to let them go
wherever they want I’m going to ask you
three questions
go ahead what is your pregame house role
like all right well I mean it depends on
the system obviously which I’m sure I’m
not the first DM to say that but my
number one thing when it comes to like
pre prepping players my house rule is
usually that I want people to do
everything as much as they can in
character if they if they possibly can
because I think that’s how you get lost
in games so and some people are not
willing to at all
they’re like my character who is on the
sheet does the thing that I’m telling
you and I’m gonna roll dice and that’s
fine I’ll play with that person for the
rest of my life and never be upset but
if you can see like I jump on the table
and I grab the thing you like you know
and I remember once we played together
with chloe dykstra yeah we won’t be like
360 thing and it was a great game and
like the second it went to my character
for the first like Rp moment and i
dropped into character you could see
everyone be like oh this is where we’re
at yeah and what I try to do is do that
with the characters with the players
right away I’m like yeah be your
character
show us your character if you’re a
lizard man talk like a lizard man let’s
do it let’s have fun and and the more
they get into it then again I’m looking
for building epic stories for the bar
after the game and the number one way to
do that is they just be your character
nice question number two favorite you a
moment well this is actually one that
people can look up I played role for
shoes role for shoes is a really
interesting system in that you start
with one skit stat you start with do
anything one and if you roll a six
without doing whatever you did you get
that stat so if you’re climbing a fence
and you roll a six you get climb fence
one and so that you can well then you
roll two dice to climb fences and so on
or the convents – whatever and then if
you climb a fence again I roll a six
then you can get like get over barbed
wire three and so your character
basically builds in a weird way like you
do your character develops out around
you you have to play it to sort of
understand it and I played it with a
bunch of really cool role players it was
it was that same it sort of stranger
things parody if you will that we did on
in Eric’s TV RPG and you know normally
in that game people traveled you know
your character forces you into being
very weird because you roll a bunch of
dice and you end up being like I am
Susan of the flaming beard and you’re
like this but in this one it got serious
it got interesting
it got compelling and we had we had
these four kids trapped in a house with
a terrible monster and like they liked
it there was a coming out story and
there were like having these emotional
turns and two characters kind of fell
for each other and then after we wrapped
it up and sort of dealt with the monster
I let them sort of say where are you
kids end up and just hearing them take
what we had just essentially made
together with no prep and build these
epic stories of like growing up together
I was like okay this I get it now I get
how this card can be the most powerful
role play tool I have and that’s on the
VOD on Twitch you can check it out if
you want to and you can watch these
characters like get scared and whatever
and again they’re playing with a pile of
these sixes and some weird ideas and and
a special mechanic I developed called
kid logic which allowed them to
basically do anything as long as it
would make sense to kids and it was the
one of the best games I’ve ever played
question number three quick tip to the
audience
pass the ball as a DM I think it’s very
easy to fall into the trap of trying to
paint the world as much as you can
trying to explain everything that’s
going on I try and give it back to the
players every chance I can anytime I can
let them tell me what’s going on I want
them to do it I know Keith Baker talks
about how he you know asked them tell me
which zombie is in this horde I’m the
same way I want I want it if you if the
if the players have handed you the
agency hand it back to them it’s their
it’s their world to build and you’re
just facilitating it and it will always
be a better game and at the end of the
day no one’s going to accuse you of not
having done the work because passing
that ball can we
hard sometimes getting characters out of
their shell can be hard sometimes but
every time somebody every time the
players are like okay what’s in this
room just sort of as best you can
without being a jerk look back at them
say I don’t know
what is in this room and it will make a
better story that’s our show for today
thank you
sax Burke for coming to my own problem
where can we find you on the Internet
aside from geek and sundry uh well the
best place is probably saving throw show
which is another twitch channel I used
to be on I did Phoenix Don come in there
for two seasons well for one season than
sort of produced the next check it out
it’s really worth it cool as always I’m
Satine Phoenix at setting Phoenix you
can ask me GM tip questions at hashtag
ask Satine and find me every Sunday at
noon on maser connoisseur phone echo on
twitch.tv slash mais Arcana and every
Tuesday night dungeon mastering on
twitch.tv slash D and E thank you so
much for watching us here on geek &
sundry see you next time
except for you would you please and GMOs
out of here okay let’s make your honey
heist bear yes you’re gonna need one of
my lucky D sixes and go ahead and roll
that once you are an incompetent Oh roll
that one more time you are an
incompetent black bear yeah and I’m
gonna roll this d8 who is wearing a flat
cap oh like mine and and also I’ll roll
this one for you you are the thief
alright so from there we can build the
whole world of teams and honey Kahn has
no idea what’s going to hit it so let’s
get started and you can roll your bears
at home and we’ll see what we can do
we’re gonna steal that honey
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