where my friends and I share with you
our thoughts and suggestions on how to
gain master your role-playing game
I’m your host Satine Phoenix co-creator
of Mazur Khanna and a dungeon master on
Fury’s reach today I’d like to discuss
something I hear a lot about something
that needs addressing today’s theme is
permission
permission to be a kid permission to
roleplay
permission as a game master changed the
rules permission to reward players and
encourage them permission to throw
everything you’ve read about right out
the window to unfold your story the
heart and soul of role-playing is
imagining things with your friends there
are tons of tabletop games that you can
play that each have their own set of
mechanics take these mechanics away and
guess what you can still play in each of
these worlds take away mechanics I’m not
actually saying that I’m actually
talking about the similarities of all
these games playing Ivan Van Norman’s
game Dredd taught me a lot about what’s
actually necessary to roleplay Ivan the
game master made the decision to not
have character sheets so the story would
unfold the way he wanted it to we
discussed her character’s intentions and
backstories with Ivan before the game
started and from there he knew how to
navigate us through his world with the
simplicity of making poles whenever we
made story altering choices we were able
to honestly react to the situation at
hand
having played games with over
complicated mechanics m4e and simplified
games like Dredd it’s clear that each
tables mechanics can change the feel and
pacing of the games you have permission
dear game master to decide which of
these mechanics you want to use and
which you don’t you have the control the
rules are a guideline and before you
start trying to lynch me I got this
first hand for my friends Mike morals
and Chris Lindsay over at Dungeons and
Dragons use what makes sense to you toss
are developed rules you want as long as
you communicate these changes to your
adventures before the game and everyone
knows your rules for the table you have
permission from me from Mike and Chris
to alter as you see fit for your game
you have permission to take the campaign
books and modules and use them as
inspiration you can take the lore and
flip it on its head you can destroy
cities and enslave nations freeze oceans
it’s your story don’t like how racist a
town is you can change them you are the
storyteller and the players are there to
explore your world this might not go
over well for all your players some want
to play in the world they know and love
there are plenty of gamers who run by
the book and there are tables for them
as well
unless you’re a part of organized play
groups you have the freedom to
manipulate everything I can roll on
about this but instead let’s discuss
this with one of the original crew
members and producer for geek and
sundry’s twitch channel
Ryan green hey I’m so happy you’re here
and excited to be here we in our
pre-interview had so much to talk about
it gives pretty crazy I love the history
of you and your gaming experience yeah I
kind of rambled on for quite a bit than
that it was a consensual rambling so
it’s okay but we landed on permission
because what I didn’t realize is that in
order to create the stories and go to
the depths that we go to we need to have
permission and we don’t often give
ourselves permission well it’s
interesting because I feel that that
people feel so limited by the
information that they’re given from
books and modules and you know GM’s Gil
there’s so much stuff in content that’s
there that that people look in and say
this is how it’s done and that’s not
true
no those are guidelines those oh those
are suggestions now it’s good for
players to have players and DMS to share
a general consensus of how rules work
but in terms of what you’re allowed to
let to do both as the player and as the
DM that’s that’s a completely different
story to tell altogether yeah so for me
whenever I begin to develop an idea it
starts as just that just that idea just
that simple little molecule of something
and ice and I write a story around that
I go and I go and I go and I say well
what rules work for this and 15 is such
a friendly friendly storytelling system
because the rules are so simple but it’s
important to know all the rules and and
leave them and then manipulate them and
then manipulate them after you
understand it and we all have our
general mechanics you have you know the
d20 you have your damage you know little
little the algorithm that you have to
perform which is generally only three or
four numbers yeah that’s it and as long
as you’ll have that then you can start
playing with with the permission of what
you’re allowed to do and what you’re not
allowed to do what you allow your
players do and you don’t allow them to
do yeah and so for me one of the things
that I love that I love to do is is
allow my player
to tell me something and so I I
structure my thought process whenever
we’re going say into an encounter I
structure my thought process into three
things first is the narrative the first
priority is narrative then there is the
mechanics and then there is the
storytelling the actual narrative that I
want to have so I have a general
consensus as to what it is that I’m
trying to achieve with my story but if
the role player if the player actually
tells me something that oh they want to
run up and they want you to attack a
bandit and they’re approaching they
start describing the wind on their face
and then that you know going through the
leaves and subject and then sneaking up
behind them and just to soft breath
against the back of their neck to make
their hairs rise and then slit their
throat like yes let’s do this let’s
do it so I’ll have them roll and if it’s
high enough they just get a kill it
HP doesn’t matter AC doesn’t matter I’m
like you you I want you to the only AC
that’s there is how much you gave me is
how much the difficulty is is just it
gets lowered with the more role-playing
the more narrative you give me yeah
because at this point I’m just the
narrator for your story you as the
player I’m just I’m just here to tell it
but if you start writing your own fluid
dimensions to it I’m all about it well
what do you what happens when you have
another player who sees that and it’s
like that’s not fair they have X amount
of hit points and in all this what are
they what happens when they start I said
well yeah if they just slit the pandas
throat and you don’t like it that
happened in two seconds what do you want
to do you tell me how you stop that from
happening tell me what the problem is
that your character sees that because
that you’re getting out of character
emotions and you’re getting in character
emotions you just told me you’re out of
character what’s your in character and
and then I want them to start engaging
and start giving me that role plan that
narrative because it’s not about it’s
not always about min maxing it’s not
always about the strict and stern
mechanics of something DMS rewrite stuff
all the time it might just be a simple
spell or you know a little thing here
and there but to completely forego
combat mechanics in favor of
storytelling
that’s what D&D is about it’s about
storytelling not about number crunching
at least not
so if you have a lot of players who are
doing this super heavy descriptive
role-playing do you manipulate the
mechanics to the point where they all
just kind of succeed because of the
heavy role play well that’s where the
next step comes in which is the
mechanics and the storytelling itself
because I might intend for a villain to
escape now if they do things really well
may start rolling those NAT twenties and
they start getting there then I might
have to change my story quite a bit but
mechanics do have to limit what the
players do just a little bit because
otherwise if I if I let them do
everything that they wanted at all times
it gets out of control so that’s where
the mechanics do come in and I have to
say well you do have to see you know if
you get hit you still have to perform a
concentration check yeah because I like
that and that does make sense you can’t
you can’t stay focus on something after
getting bludgeoned in the side of the
head yes exactly and so that’s why that
rule does exist but you know again if a
rogue is going up and slitting a throne
I’m like that’s something that you do as
a rogue like that’s that’s a function
that you have if a wizard did that
different story Oh interesting
so unless unless the character is
dynamic in their backstory in their
history says that they have this
criminal origin that they you know the
skull drudgery that they try and perform
and that’s a little bit different but
that’s because you’ve written me a
narrative you’ve given me a reason why
your character acts the way and performs
that way as a wizard which is it seems
out of character for the wizard class
but in character for you so it’s like
honest role playing will encourage you
to reward the players absolutely
constantly and and I feel that that’s
the greatest thing that you can do for
the players is reward them for
role-playing and reward them for telling
their story again I’m just narrating at
this point yeah cuz I want them to come
up with their dialogue I want them to
come up with their monologue and
furthermore whenever you’re you’re
looking or you’re you’re listening to
the story I want everyone at the table
to stop and just listen and just think
for a moment and not try and just go
over to the ladder
I don’t know this anime the Doritos and
you know just going and I just want them
to to be able to listen to what they’re
saying is you’re gonna get so much more
out of that because it’s about reacting
that’s the that’s the honest role
playing is reacting to the other person
and there’s so many people at the table
say there’s four players and a game
master everybody’s reacting to one
another so listen to what the other
players are doing is what you’re saying
listen to the game master and then kind
of feed off of that yeah and then it
because that’s gonna establish the type
of things that you might that might
influence your character and the player
again that the in character in the out
of character at dynamic which are two
very different things and that that’s
something that I feels really important
for the roleplay itself is understanding
those two elements because I might be
angry that so-and-so just kind of bent
the rules in the favour and the DM
allowed it but then a and I had to say
well what would my character do what
would my character do in this moment if
they can bend the rules I bet I can’t –
but how far can I go to the limitations
of my character so I think that a lot of
people are afraid of letting go of the
numbers I I agree I agree so how do you
that so you gave one example on how to
overcome that or do you have any other
examples III try and tell everyone
yes and no matter what yes and if if you
know we’re having conversation of forest
and one of the character says that
Beehive is nearby suddenly a beehive is
nearby and I’m like sure why not it
really has no influence over the story
yet
but it’s there but and at the same time
if like we were talking about the the
Bandit going up or the Bandit standing
there and someone slitting the throat
now a dagger has a certain number that’s
associated with it but at that point
a dagger still deals a lot of damage to
a jugular yeah I don’t care what a
number says at that point if you’re if
you’re telling me specifically what
you’re doing then then that allows the
numbers to just not exist but if you say
I’m gonna go up and attack the Bandit
then the numbers will exist okay so if
you have like you have you have your
dagger at the jugular and you’re like
this is what I want to do heavy heavy
role play I roll a one you still get to
more or less do what you are doing but
as you were approaching you misstep and
you stepped on that twig getting the
attention of the other ones you end up
getting the dagger into the side to the
side
there because of the sudden attention
that was drawn to you you still hit the
guy and you still you know scratch the
throat yeah but you don’t necessarily
deal all the damage that you were
intending and now as a rogue that was
standing there all the attention on you
is exactly what you don’t want to have
happen yeah so I don’t want to take away
from what you did from the intent of
your action in the intent of your
roleplay I don’t want to take that away
but I am going to punish you because the
mechanics told me to interesting so as a
game master you are the one who can
guide how far the role-playing can go
I’ve seen some the mechanics a base on
the mechanics but I always respect the
role play first and then if the
mechanics say that I can’t respect the
role play do you know a die roll says I
can’t respect I’m like well we’ll see
I’m fudging it here and there budging I
hear things
you’re the game master you want to give
the players a certain amount of openness
but just here and there and then
resurrection is actually another great
example a character dies and it’s like
well I’m a cleric I’m I guess but are
you trained enough are you powerful
enough can you actually do it do you
have access to that spell do you still
have the spell slot available or did you
drain all of that ratings within you one
day you know for that day and you know
so the role play might be really rich
but I’m like you know what’s better the
fact that you can’t do something yes
role play that you can’t do it you place
your hands on their chest you feel the
magic begin to surge through that
radiant energy begin a search through
you and in slowly pit her out you feel
exhausted and you begin to collapse
sucks because because that spell slots
not there but I’m like I’m now going to
let you know that you are fatigued from
this and you are actually suffering
exhaustion because you are over
stressing your body yeah do it
and then the players need to know that
it’s okay yeah it’s okay to fail and
it’s okay to have flaws and to be below
a certain amount of hit points and all
that I mean that’s that’s how life goes
right and I want I want to as bring as
many real-life rules that we have in
restrictions that we have in our reality
to the game without making it feel like
real life and still feel like a game
yeah are you ready for the last three
questions I hope so
what is your pregame house
rule mmm definitely yes aunt mm-hmm
definitely yes aunt I want people to
feel comfortable and I want them and
then I want and that they are able to
make the story such as the beehive or
the Bandit and I want them to know that
it’s okay to not know everything as long
as you’re trying yes as long you know
you don’t need to know all the rules you
need to know more crunch you don’t need
to know exactly the the right path to
take to level up in the most efficient
way do what matters to you
I this is your story this is your
character just go do with it and
everyone else is going to accept that
around you because they don’t know
better either what is your favorite GM
moment I’m so lucky because it is a
thing that I get to experience again and
again with every campaign and it’s
character creation oh and it’s because I
can sit here and create characters all
day you know that’s that’s what a DM
does they create hundreds and hundreds
of characters but especially with new
players if I say we’re gonna create a
character in a fantasy environment right
now you already thought of something I
don’t know what that is and it’s the
first time that I get to interact with
my player where I get we get to share
our imagination and it comes together
and we think of the exact same thing
eventually we get to it but we get the
exact same thing yeah and if I say it
that you say Bart I’m like great you
already know who your mother and father
are you already know if they’re dead or
alive you know if you were raised by
wolves or bears you know all this I
don’t tell me so I just it’s a
questionnaire and an inquiry
why I just start going in and you were
writing a story together in that moment
but it’s our story no one else in the
room knows it and so to see a story
written in seconds in moments that’s my
favorite DM experience because then I
look at everything that you created in
that very moment I say well now how am I
going to fit this in and how am I going
to make sure to best represent your
story in this game because it’s about
you not me beautiful no GM tip for the
audience okay so I kinda meant a little
bit before but it’s listening stopping
and listening
whenever the dam is speaking you are
listening whenever a player is speaking
you are listening
because there is so much to get out of
those small moments the little nuances
and it’s not just listening it’s
watching because if I say sure we can go
there that’s one thing but sure we can
go there
the influx in my voice yeah the
expression on my face the the little
bits of acting that you get from that
can have an entirely different meaning
exactly just because you weren’t talking
to your friend because it wasn’t your
turn
yes and and if it’s stopping listening
and paying attention like those are so
important to be able to do absolutely
thanks for watching GM tips here on geek
& sundry a big thank you to Ryan for
hanging out with us a pleasure where can
we find you on the Internet so off for
Twitter you can find me at hydro snail
and my twitch is twitch TV slash hydro
snail underscore Ryan green very long
very nice
I’m sateen Phoenix as always at sateen
Phoenix and you can ask me questions to
explore on this show at hashtag ask
sateen you can find me Sundays at noon
on orphan echo on twitch.tv slash major
arcana and tuesday evenings dungeon
mastering on twitch TV slash D&D and if
you haven’t seen sagas of sundry dreads
check it out on project alpha comm Ryan
will you GMs out of here
I’d love to so you find yourself on your
knees hands bound behind your back
you’re in some form of stone room
possibly a cathedral moonlight shining
through the stained glass looking to
your left you see that stained glass the
moonlight shimmering in the dust on it
you see a falling star no an angel some
sort
crashing before you a man steps out of
the shadows his face obscured with
darkness he spreads his long black wings
they’re broken and battered from combat
feathers begin to fall from them and
from the tips you can see that they are
they have been burned and charred with
battle but they are stained with blood
looking at you hello bishop you look at
me with such reprise you’ve seen me
before yes
you see his focus still the glance up
back up to that stained glass window and
back at you you can’t hear you you know
hell hell is not a place of fire and
brimstone you feel your body begin to
heat and swell no he’ll there’s not a
place of pain as you get an image of
hooks flying towards you or agony you
feel the hooks descend into your flesh
no hell is a place where God doesn’t
listen placing his hand upon your head
your head you disintegrate into ash
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you
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