Qualities of a Good Gamemaster
All good gamemasters have several qualities in common.
If you’ve never gamemastered a roleplaying game before, use the following entries as a guide on what you should do for your players to create a memorable game experience.
Gamemastering—like any skill—takes time to learn.
Narrator
Gamemasters are first and foremost the narrator of the adventure.
A gamemaster describes the Scene, the locales, and the people and creatures that the player characters meet and interact with.
While narrating, you don’t have to go wild with endless detailed descriptions. Just stick to the basics and throw a little of your own personal touch into the mix.
As the narrator your job will be to keep the story moving. If the game stalls—because the players are stuck or have run out of ideas—use your narration skills to throw something new into the story. Maybe a new gamemaster character wanders by and offers help or something unexpected happens that changes the adventurers’ fortunes (for better or for worse).
It’s best to keep things moving so no one loses interest.
Referee
The second job of a gamemaster is to act as the referee.
The gamemaster has the final say on how the rules of the game are interpreted and the gamemaster can override any written rule in favor of a house rule that he or she invents.
A good referee knows the rules better than the players and knows how the rules interact with one another to create a fluid play experience.
As gamemaster, you are also referee over the outcomes of events.
You will decide on difficulties, Target Numbers, and dice roll results and interpret how they affect the player characters, gamemaster characters, and game world.
Your word is law.
Fairness
The gamemaster has both great power and great responsibility.
Keep in mind that as the gamemaster you are not the only participant in the game. In fact, your role is to serve the players in making the game fun.
This means that a good gamemaster is a fair one.
If a rule applies to one player, it applies to all of them equally.
Never use personal grievances or relationships to unduly reward or punish a player and his or her character.
Fairness also means that your interpretation of the rules as written may be harsher or more lenient based on the circumstances.
Treat the players well.
Consistency
Nothing is worse than a gamemaster who keeps changing his or her application of the rules every session.
If you must make a house rule, discuss the issue with the group and take everyone’s view into account.
You have the final say on how the rule will be applied to the game, but once you decide on an interpretation, stick to it for the rest of the adventure.
This also goes for the game world itself, its inhabitants, professions, trades, economies, kingdoms, matters of peace and war, etc.
A consistent universe is a believable universe. And it’s one in which the players can feel immersed in and enjoy because they know that the next time they play, their efforts and ideas will still find their place in a universe that is imprinted by them.
Creativity
A good gamemaster is creative.
Players will certainly ask you questions you never thought of before and do things in the game you never imagined they would do.
The players are also creative and you as gamemaster must stay at least one step ahead of them.
A creative gamemaster is good at improvising.
Overtime, you will build up a mental roster of gamemaster archetypes, adventure hooks, events, people, places, and objects to flesh out the game universe on the fly.
Draw on books, movies, and shows you’ve seen or other roleplaying games you’ve played to help with this.
Recycling ideas is not only okay: it’s the mark of an experienced gamemaster.
Creating Adventures
An adventure is a story arc that takes the group of player characters on a journey to accomplish a single important task.
Each adventure—or campaign, as it’s often called—is “The Story of How X Did Y.”
For example: “How Ardric, Elnowan, and Bertoz Restored the King of Alvora.”
That adventure will have several Chapters and many, many Scenes within each Chapter that describes how these adventurers pulled off their daring feats to restore an exiled king to his throne.
When you first set out to create a new adventure with your gaming group, decide on what the adventure’s story arc will be at this mile-above-the-ground level.
Some considerations at this stage:
- Who are the characters and what are their motivations?
- What will make them come together to achieve the story objective?
- How can I tie their separate motivations together?
Adventure Hooks
An adventure hook is an event or circumstance that pulls a player character into the story.
These hooks tie into the character’s personal motivations and make it more likely than not—if not completely unavoidable—that the character join the adventuring group on its journey.
The gamemaster should craft an adventure hook for each character at the start of the adventure. These can be written down on slips of paper and given to each player to read before the adventure starts. This way, players know what their characters are up to the minute the adventure begins and you’ll know how each character will tie into the story arc.
| Example: The gamemaster decides that the adventure will cover the player characters’ journey to the Kingdom of Kell where a powerful sorcerer resides. This sorcerer—named Gwindon—is said to have magic powers that can raise the dead. Gwindon is believed to be dying himself and time is running out for him to use his magic for those who will return an equally costly favor.
The gamemaster gives the player of each character the following adventure hook: § Ardric: “War has ravaged your homeland of Yanasgad. Among the many dead perished your father, Erdoric. You seek the famed sorcerer Gwindon, who lives in the distant Kingdom of Kell. Gwindon is said to have magic powers that can raise the dead. You wish nothing more than to restore your father to life, at any price.” § Elnowan: “Your people’s fight against the Old Sorcerers is almost complete. One remains: an evil sorcerer named Gwindon who lives in the distant Kingdom of Kell. He is said to control the dead and will use his powers to slay and enthrall any that challenge him. You must keep this final mission a secret, for Gwindon’s powers make him powerful and popular among many. He has many allies. No one can be trusted.” § Bertoz: “Your journey to make a name for yourself in the arts of magic has taken you far across the land. You heard rumor of a powerful sorcerer named Gwindon who lives in the distant Kingdom of Kell. He is said to have not one year left in him. Gwindon guards a secret: the power to bring the dead back to life. If you could add this power to your growing repertoire—and remain the only magician that had it—you would replace Gwindon as the most powerful magician alive.” The players read over these adventure hooks, written on slips of paper, and prepare themselves for the adventure. |
With the above example, the gamemaster intentionally created a duplicity.
Elnowan seeks to kill the sorcerer Gwindon, while Ardric wishes to ask for him to use his powers to restore his father to life. Bertoz wants to know the power for himself and doesn’t seem to care if Gwindon lives or dies, so long as he learns the power to raise the dead.
You don’t have to work these intrigues into your adventure hooks, but they do create a lot of potential for drama down the line.
Will Elnowan realize that the Old Sorcerers—Gwindon among them—aren’t evil? Will Ardric find that Gwindon’s powers are a lie and that these stories serve as a trap for wayward travelers?
There are many possibilities baked into adventure hooks like these. You don’t have to know the truth about the ultimate destination at the outset. You and the players will carry the story in directions none of you anticipated.
The Adventure Arc
From the outset of the adventure design, you should have a rough idea of what the adventure arc will look like.
The major paces of the story usually look something like this:
- The adventurers meet and realize that they have a common goal.
- The adventurers set off on their adventure.
- The adventurers face setbacks.
- The adventurers get halfway to their goal and enjoy some respite and good fortune.
- The adventurers continue their adventure and face setbacks.
- The adventures get three-quarters to their goal and enjoy some respite and good fortune.
- The adventurers continue their adventure and face setbacks.
- The adventures reach the final confrontation.
Each of these points may encompass several Chapters of the story.
Setbacks can be interruptions to the adventurer’s mission or diversions to side adventures.
Perhaps the adventurers are confronted by a roving warband. Maybe bandits capture a member of the party and the others must rescue him or her. Perhaps a town the group encounters is held under a curse that only the adventurers can find a cure for.
Moments of respite and good fortune come after several setbacks and diversions and allow player characters time to advance their abilities, restock supplies, and receive rewards for their heroic deeds.
Chapters
Chapters in the adventure are like Chapters in a novel: they show the adventure over a limited time frame, usually the beginning, middle, and end of a smaller portion of the mission.
A Chapter can be dedicated to a single sub-goal of the overall mission.
If the player characters are on an adventure to seek out a powerful sorcerer in a distant land, the first Chapter might tell the part of the story about how all the characters met and realized they were headed to the same place (so decided to go together).
The second Chapter might depict how the adventurers set off for the sorcerer’s distant land but got attacked by bandits and one of the adventurers was taken hostage.
The third Chapter might depict how the hostage adventurer was rescued, the adventurers defeated the bandit leader, and the group narrowly escaped into a swamp.
Thus each subsequent Chapter would play out only a small leg of the overall story.
It’s good to end Chapters on a cliffhanger or some pending menace or danger. This leaves the players wanting to jump back into the action.
Scenes
A Scene in the adventure is much like a Scene in a movie.
Scenes depict a single setting, a single conversation, or a single event.
Chapters are made up of many Scenes, each transitioning in chronological order.
Not everything that characters do needs to be depicted in the story. Scenes provide for a convenient way around this.
For instance, if the adventurers leave an inn in town to travel to the guildhall, you don’t have to describe them travelling or even what they see or hear as the walk (unless the players ask or there’s a mood-setting or story-driven reason to do so).
One Scene can end as the adventurers decide to leave the inn and at the next Scene can start as they arrive at the guildhall.
Transitions between Scenes can be of any length from a few seconds to a few days or longer.
If longer time spans lapse (say weeks, months, or years), it’s probably best to transition from one Chapter to another.
Describing the Scene
Each Scene in the adventure contains people, places, and things that the gamemaster may need to describe.
This section contains a few helpful techniques for gamemasters.
General Overview Description
When the adventurers move to a new Scene or happen upon something for the first time—a new city, a new part of town, a new room, a new creature or character, etc.—the gamemaster should give a general description of what the adventurers perceive.
This general description should give just a few key elements about who and what is within the adventurer’s senses.
| Example: The adventuring group approaches a new walled settlement on the horizon.
The gamemaster says: “As you round a hill, the group stops to survey the land ahead. The road winds to an end as it meets town walled in gray stone. The sunset bathes the thatch roofs in a bright orange, smoke rises from the chimneys of a settlement approaching nightfall.” |
Upon Closer Inspection
If the adventurers investigate more closely—pick up something from a tabletop, listen attentively out the window, taste a drop of magic elixir to test it—the gamemaster should give a more detailed description of what the character perceives.
Senses include sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and the senses of touch, weight, density, and hardness, among others that are relevant to the inspected person, place, or thing.
| Example: As the adventurers draw nearer to a walled settlement, the gamemaster says:
“You see that parts of the walls have been damaged: toppled over, with pieces of dried mortar and field stone scattered outside the town’s boundaries. Moss grows over the gaps. These scars must have happened seasons ago, and the damage had never been repaired. No one approaches the gaps in the walls. People pass through the town gate normally. You also notice that above the gate there is an empty space where a coat of arms once hung.” |
The gamemaster may require adventurers to make Perception Skill rolls to determine what, if anything, they can determine from their senses.
Your descriptions of each person, place, or thing in the Scene need only be as detailed, as necessary.
Hints and Hidden Truths
Some people, places, or things are not truly as they seem.
Closer investigations—including experimentation, thorough questioning, and outright searches—might reveal hidden truths about what the adventurers encounter.
Hidden doors and passages, ancient script written inside of plate of armor, coins made of lead but painted in gold, people in disguise, and any number of possible deceptions may exist.
Your initial descriptions will tell the adventurers what is perceivable to them without investigation. If they choose to explore further, they may uncover more information.
Try not to overuse hidden truths, as they should be a rare occurrence.
Most things are what they seem to be, and the truths uncovered about them upon closer inspection might reveal clues about their origins, history, material components, etc. and not necessarily duplicities.
Gamemaster Characters
The characters in the adventure controlled by the gamemaster are referred to as gamemaster characters.
Each player controls his or her own individual character. But the world around these player characters is populated by many, many gamemaster characters.
The gamemaster must act as and decide upon the actions of every character—or living being—in the game’s universe.
This task is made much easier with a few simple considerations described below.
Degree of Involvement
How involved is the gamemaster character in the story?
If the character is just part of the “background” or appears in only one or two Scenes, not much thought needs to be put into his or her description and behavior.
If, however, the character will be a major feature of the story—a villain, a mentor, an ally, or a contact—much more thought will have to be dedicated to his or her persona.
The gamemaster should tailor each of his or her characters to suit the needs of the story.
Enemy, Ally, or Something in Between?
The first consideration the gamemaster should make about a gamemaster character is how this character relates to the adventuring party.
Does the character have an opposed goal? Does he or she share the same goal?
Most gamemaster characters—most of them—won’t fall into either of these camps. They are just ordinary people trying to lead the best life that they can and have no concern for the adventurers’ mission or plight.
Much consideration should be put into antagonists and fellow protagonists to the adventurers.
A gamemaster character’s motivations will help determine if he or she acts as an enemy, ally, or something in between.
Archetypes
Gamemaster characters can fall into the same archetypes as player characters.
It may be helpful to use the Character Concept framework (discussed on page XXXX) to form archetypes for gamemaster characters.
Ordinary people won’t always have such pronounced archetypes and don’t need them. Most people are just “common folk.”
Appearance and Behavior
What does the character look like? What does he or she wear? How does he or she carry himself or herself?
A character’s appearance and behavior can say a lot about him or her.
Cleanliness and fancy clothing convey wealth while dirtiness and ratty clothing convey poverty.
Someone who is seen with books and parchments conveys learning. A character that bears weapons of war—a sword and suit of armor, for instance—appears to belong to a martial order.
Age, gender, physical build, and unique characteristics such as lisps, accents, trembling hands, nervous energy, injuries, and other aspects of a gamemaster character’s appearance and behavior can help bring that character to life and make him or her memorable.
Knowledge and Beliefs
What does the character know? What is his or her profession? Can he or she write and write?
What does the character believe about the gods, about magic, and about local or global politics?
Everyone has an opinion on these things and a select few have studied them and may have some level of expertise in these fields.
Consider what a gamemaster character knows and beliefs and how this knowledge and these beliefs shape his or her personality.
Common folk will know little or nothing about wider areas of study and events and thus their knowledge and beliefs will be fed mostly on rumor, superstition, tradition, and simplified understandings of more complex subjects.
Shades of Color
As your gamemastering abilities develop with practice, you will learn to add shades of color to your gamemaster characters.
Adding unique intonations or accents for each character, making faces, gesturing, getting up from your chair to act out what the characters do are all things you can do to help bring your gamemaster characters to life.
You may consider using props around the game table: toy swords, coins, and other objects that help you and the players get a more real sense of the game world.
Holding a toy sword in your hand as you speak through the mouth of an enraged knight really brings out the energy and intensity of the Scene.
Forking over a pile of real coins to a player as you act out a begrudging merchant making payment helps bring regret and the pain of paying to life.
Try not to make all your gamemaster characters alike.
The game world will be filled with many people; they shouldn’t reflect you personally: spoken in your voice, reflecting your beliefs, acting as you do, etc.
The players will much appreciate any color you can add to the game.
Deciding Skill Rolls
As the gamemaster, you decide when Skill rolls are necessary and which Skills will be used.
Skill Roll or Not?
Not everything a character does requires a Skill roll. In fact, most don’t.
You should only ask a player to make a Skill roll for his or her character if the following are true:
- There’s a significant likelihood that the character will fail the attempt.
- If the character takes a long time to accomplish the task, the likelihood of failure will not diminish.
There’s a significant likelihood of failure when the outcome is less than certain.
For instance, we assume that characters can cook basic food to feed themselves; no Skill roll required. There’s a significant likelihood that most characters can’t properly prepare a ten course, gourmet meal; a Skill roll will be necessary.
Skill rolls might be avoided if the character can take lots of extra time to accomplish a task. For instance, checking to see if a character knows a certain fact about botany might require an Academics Skill roll; this roll and its result reflect the character’s present knowledge. However, if the character takes hours to read a book about botany, he or she may arrive at the answer without a Skill roll.
Which Skill?
The Skill descriptions in Section Three: Skills give an overview of the areas that each Skill covers.
As gamemaster, you should familiarize yourself with each Skill and what each Skill covers.
You are at liberty to change these Skills and their areas of effect; however, it’s advisable that as you find new applications for Skills that you stick to them throughout the adventure.
For instance, you might decide that the Acrobatics Skill covers a character’s ability to fit into narrow spaces. Once you allow for this to happen you should bind the participants (you and the players) to making this the default Skill to use for this application from that point forward.
Difficulty and Target Number
Each time a Skill roll must be made, a Target Number is set to determine how many successes the roll must achieve to be successful.
Some Target Numbers (like those to resist Spells or those tied to special abilities) are already predetermined.
Most other uses of Skills will require you to set a Target Number for them based on the relative complexity of the task.
The Difficulties (and their corresponding Target Numbers) are:
| Difficulty | Target Number | Who Could Do It |
| Easy | 1 | Most people |
| Moderate | 2 | Trained people |
| Difficult | 3 | Experts, professionals |
| Legendary | 4+ | The most talented people alive. |
In everyday life, common people either don’t have to make Skill rolls (as discussed previously) or they may encounter Easy (1) Difficulties.
People who work in skilled trades (artisans, craftsmen, etc.) commonly encounter Moderate (2) Difficulties related to their work.
The most highly proficient persons (guildsman or other experts) encounter Difficult (3) Difficulties in relation to the most complex aspects of their professions.
Rarely does anyone encounter a Legendary (4+) Difficulty.
Target Numbers can, if need be, go higher than 4 (a Target Number of 6 might be the absolute limit).
Such high Target Numbers are reserved for overcoming the most powerful magic or performing truly daring and heroic deeds beyond the reach of mortals.
One of your duties as gamemaster is to decide on a Target Number for each Skill roll that must be made.
You don’t have to tell anyone the Target Number you’ve selected. Decide in your head, call for the Skill roll to be made, and then compare the result of the roll to the Target Number.
Outcomes of Skill Rolls
If a Skill roll achieves successes that are equal to or greater than the Target Number, the attempt succeeds as intended.
If a Skill roll achieves successes that are less than the Target Number, the attempt fails.
As the gamemaster, you interpret how this happens and describe the outcome as it affects the game.
| Example: Bertoz makes an Academics Skill roll to see if he knows the local laws about theft.
The gamemaster sets the Difficulty at Moderate (2). Bertoz makes the roll and achieves 3 successes. The gamemaster tells the player that Bertoz not only knows the local laws on theft, he also knows how to argue in court against arrest or conviction of theft worth up to 100 silver pennies. Example: Bertoz makes a Languages Skill roll to read a magic tome he found in a dead magician’s cottage. The gamemaster sets the Difficulty at Difficult (3). Bertoz makes the roll and achieves 1 success. The gamemaster tells the player that he was able to make out most of the text and believes he knows how to cast a Spell that can change putrid water into clean water. Bertoz believes he can help his group survive in the swamp without clean water to drink. (But in reality—known only to the gamemaster at this time—Bertoz has learned nothing and mistakenly believes he knows a new Spell.) |
The larger the difference between the number of successes achieved and the Target Number, the greater the effect.
Luck Rolls and Critical Failures
When a character would roll 0D or less, he or she may make a Luck Roll.
A Luck Roll is made with a single die. Only a result of a 6 on that counts as a success. (The player may use Action Points to enhance the result, as normal.)
However, when a Luck Roll shows a result of 1 on the die (even if the result is enhanced with Action Points) the result is a Critical Failure.
Critical Failures are always a hindrance to the character’s intentions.
You must invent some way in which the character’s attempt is complicated in this circumstance.
| Example: Ardric is weighed down by both Elnowan (who he carries on his back because her leg is broken) as well as a silver chalice the group had just recovered from a group of thieves.
During the escape, Ardric must get himself and Elnowan over an eight-foot wall to safety. Ardric has Athletics 2D. The gamemaster gives Ardric a -2D penalty for the weight he carries and because the wall is smooth and there is nothing to hold onto. Ardric’s roll is reduced to a Luck Roll. The gamemaster sets the Difficulty at Moderate (2). The player makes the roll and rolls a 1. The player decides to use a few Action Points and finally gets 2 successes: enough to make it over the wall. Because the Luck Roll rolled a Critical Failure (result of a 1) the gamemaster tells the players that Ardric makes it with Elnowan over the wall safely, but the chalice falls off and the adventurers leave it inside the wall. |
Bonuses and Penalties
Sometimes characters experience circumstances that help or hurt their chances for success.
You may apply a bonus or penalty to a character’s Skill roll based on the degree of helping or hurting factors that affect the attempt:
| Bonus/Penalty Type | Dice Modifier |
| Minor help | +1D |
| Major help | +2D |
| Minor hindrance | -1D |
| Major hindrance | -2D |
Minor help: Two or more characters (who all have sufficient Skill training) attempt to aid one another in the attempt; the character has a powerful set of tools or specialized equipment for the task.
Major help: Another character (who is a master in the attempt in question) guides the character’s attempt; the character takes extra (twice or more) time, has ample resources, tools, equipment, and additional help for the attempt.
Minor hindrance: Environmental conditions make the attempt more difficult than normal; the tools and equipment available for the attempt are of inferior quality.
Major hindrance: The character has no access to the needed tools, equipment, records, or help from other characters to attempt to task.
You should only grant one bonus or penalty that considers the net balance of positive or negative factors.
For instance, if a character attempts to make a Pilot Skill roll to maneuver a ship and you decide that he or she receives a +1D bonus for favorable winds but a -1D penalty because the ship’s crew is tired and weak, the net bonus or penalty to the Pilot Skill roll will be +0D.
Be careful in granting too many bonuses or penalties.
Most Skill rolls are made with adequate tools, facilities, and time and the positive and negative factors for most attempts balance out.
For instance, you shouldn’t grant a character a +1D bonus to his or her Craft/Mend Skill roll to repair a damaged suit of armor just because the character has the appropriate tools: the Skill roll is only possible in the first place if the character has the tools to make the repair.
Action and Intrigue
As the narrator and referee, you decide on the balance of action and intrigue elements for the adventure.
This game is designed to lean more on the intrigue side of the spectrum.
Combat is very deadly and it’s unlikely that even if the players wanted to that they would survive long in fight after fight.
The ratio is up to you, but we suggest something like 10 or 20% action and 80 to 90% intrigue.
Action encounters revolve around fights, crossing chasms, fording raging rivers, disarming traps, or anything else that puts the characters in deadly situations.
Intrigue encounters revolve around conning enemies, using diplomacy, stealth, and wits to overcome social, financial, and political challenges, and anything else that tests the characters’ intelligence and mettle.
Rewarding Characters
Here we discuss several ways you can reward the characters along their journey.
Experience Points
The most common way characters will be rewarded for their efforts is through Experience Points.
Experience Points are accumulated at the end of each Chapter in the adventure and can be spent on upgrading a character’s abilities (see Section Eight: Character Advancement).
At the end of each Chapter, reward each character Experience Points based on his or her performance in three dimensions:
| Action | |
| Poor | 0 |
| Fair | 1 |
| Excellent | 2 |
| Intrigue | |
| Poor | 0 |
| Fair | 1 |
| Excellent | 2 |
| Roleplaying | |
| Poor | 0 |
| Fair | 1 |
| Excellent | 2 |
A character could earn as few as 0 Experience Points or as many as 6 Experience Points at the end of each Chapter.
A “poor” rating means that the character contributed little or nothing to the group’s advancement in that area.
A “fair” rating means that the character contributed some.
And an “excellent” rating means that the character was instrumental in the group’s success.
Not all Chapters will allow for all dimensions to be rated in this way.
For instance, a Chapter spent negotiating the terms of a peace settlement with foreign diplomats is likely to be rated only on Intrigue and Roleplaying (if not solely Roleplaying), thus there will be no Experience Points given out for Action.
Most characters will average 2 to 4 Experience Points each Chapter.
If your adventure has twenty Chapters, this means that each character will earn between 40 and 80 Experience Points on average.
Riches and Treasure
The characters may happen upon riches and special objects along their travels.
These rewards will typically come as either a payment for services rendered (e.g. the group saves a town mayor’s son from the clutches of a warband) or a discovery left behind by someone else (e.g. the group finds a gilded blade buried at the bottom of a dried up well).
After major milestones in the story the characters should come across hefty sacks of coin, letters of credit made out in their name from a thankful guild, or a Legendary Item or two as payment for their efforts.
Be sparing with these kinds of rewards. Reserve them only for the most important occasions. This keeps the players hungry for more and marks these rewards as truly rare and special.
Titles and Prestige
Rewards may come in the form of titles and prestige.
Favors and service rendered to monarchs and nobles can confer payment in coin and in kind, but also in the form of political rewards.
Perhaps a thankful noblewoman rewards the characters with a letter of safe passage bearing her personal signature and seal or a king the group has served knights one of the characters for his heroism in wartime.
These rewards may not translate directly into treasure, but many times, they’re worth much more.