One of my ongoing challenges as a GM is "filling out scenes." That is, players typically do a few things, and there are a couple of rolls, and then I'm often at a loss. When other GMs have run things for me there's a lot more interaction in their scenes, and they're more vivid, and they definitely take a little longer.
Given that I'd like to encourage more interesting, richer scenes, with more things for the characters to interact with (where they might be overcoming some obstacles or exploring) and more dialogue (where there are NPC's)?
What are your system-agnostic tips for getting better at this?
Watch movies and plays.
Who are your NPCs? The world should be full of them.
One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard was "Every character in a scene wants something, and each one is going to try to move the scene in a direction that gets them closer to what they want." Now, the messenger may only want to deliver her message so she can leave and go have a quiet drink and a smoke somewhere, but that's what she wants and she's going to try to move things that way.
Et cetera. Just think in terms of "what do these people want and how can they move towards those things?"
Describe your initial scene.Have them interact with it however, and respond how you think make sense. Don't ask for a roll until they ask to do something that would require one. You would be surprised how long players will interact with things if you just give them a prompt and what are you doing, rather than asking for checks.
The only real exception is stuff that is more passive, like perception, since that determines how you describe the scene.
For stuff with NPCs, Old Geezer has you covered.
There are five senses - have fun playing with them:
What do you see?
What do you hear?
What do you smell?
What do you feel?
What do you taste?
One of my favorite things to do in Dungeons (dead space ships, post-apoc buildings, modern era ruins, etc) is to describe rooms that are generally considered Empty, aka the filler space.
On Old Geezer's point about Movies & Plays, give extra attention to the set design and the sound design in your favorite scenes. Also, watch with the sound off and watch what the camera does, aka what does the director want you to know about the scene?
1) Use more than visuals. Intertwine what one or more party members smells and hears.
2) Use items from your own experience. When in Hawaii, I saw this really interesting gnarly old tree growing under a small stream. In D&D I described it larger with a triangular opening at the base that lead to a cave complex.
3) When describing an NPC talk about someone that you know a bit that no in the gaming group has the slightest chance of knowing. Play and magnify those idiosyncrasies. If the party runs into that character again, they may remember that quirkily old guy with one eye that spoke with a lisp.
4) Have some NPCs as the polar opposite of a stereotype. A kind, animal loving Orc; a goblin wizard with an incredible vocabulary; etc. Don't use this one too much.
5) Use floor plans of buildings that you know incredibly well. When running Call of Cthulhu, I like to use my grandmother's 1930 built house. You know all the rooms, and can probably name several items.
6)Describe an item or two that is interesting, but not important at first . . . Like a painting on the wall or the way a warped door squeaks and doesn't really close all the way. Sometimes these things become important later.
By adding some of these details you may find that you can use them a session or three later. Sometimes the party goes off in a plot direction you hadn't planned on and with enough of these items, characters, motives out there, sometimes the story just writes itself later.
Good luck.
Explosions. Nothing moves along a dull scene like explosions.
^^^^^^^^^ Like.
"Listen! Do you smell something?"
Quote from: Old Geezer;810296"Listen! Do you smell something?"
He who heard it, dealt it?
Quote from: JeremyR;810286Explosions. Nothing moves along a dull scene like explosions.
Hell yeah!
Emotional eruptions are awesome. NPCs suddenly freaking out on other NPCs is great fun, forcing the PCs to figure out WTF is happening. Holy shit why are the two Paladins drawing down on each other???
My favorite was I "interrupted" a standard paint-by-numbers Shadowrun shady bar meeting with this week's Mr. Johnson by firing a missile into the bar.
That was...a blast.
Shadowrun is just dripping with all sorts of opportunities for details that can enrich a scene. Melding two to three genres will do that.
Although one COC campaign stands out, I've probably had the most fun as a GM running SR in the 90s. I couldn't pull it off now. Real world tech changed too much for me, plus all of us in our 40s can't play street names with a straight face . . . . But those were the days.
Remember those old point-and-click adventure games? What was missing from the older ones that was added to the newer ones?
Greater Detail -- just sheer more things to look at.
Moving Pixels -- things tended to animate, if albeit briefly, maybe move after clicked.
More Clickable Things -- self explanatory.
Variable Consequences -- more range of consequences depending on sequence and current status.
Now take all those ideas and realize that in tabletop RPGs you have an unlimited FX budget and access to Unscripted responses.
So describe and animate the environs. Give license to interact with it. Allow them to have different responses depending on the journalist standard of "who did what, when, where, why, and how."
Breathe life into the world, have things function around and beyond the immediate task at hand, and try to respond consistently to PC actions.
edit: oh, and explosions -- and ninjas.
Let's take NPCs. Aside from the advice others have given, your best bet is NOT to play them one-dimensional. If you've got back-and-forth dialogue, then play your NPC as if he/she was your own character. (Well, the NPC is, but you know what I mean.) So you've got these high-handed adventurer types grilling you for information? And you're a death-or-dishonor type who isn't in any event inclined to kowtow to these outlanders? Great: your decision comes down to whether you're going to lie, delay them, mislead them or defiantly refuse to talk. How would you go about doing that as a PC?
Even if the NPC is a mook? Even if the NPC is a mook.
You know, I'm not sure longer scenes are necessarily better scenes. And while in theory the GM that can paint a vivid picture when setting the scene may sounds great, it is important to realise that amount of spotlight in a game session is a limited resource. The more spotlight GM takes with colourful descriptions and NPCs they less spotlight is left for the player characters.
Which is to say the the more theatrical GMs aren't always the best ones. Some times less is more so you aren't necessarily doing anything wrong.
With that out of the way, if you want the players to interact in more detail with the scene make sure the players are specific about what they are trying to achieve with their actions.
For instance when if a player says "I want search the room for clues." that is kind of vague. If you ask the player to be more specific about what kind of clue ("any sort of paperwork" for instance) then in turn you can start describing the parts of scene that are relevant ("the desk", "the waste paper bin"). You can also ask how is approaching searching ("carefully so that no one will know he was there or quickly pulling the drawers right out and overturning the bin").
Basically the detail, the meat of the scene from making the players chosen actions specific. I think this is the roughly roleplaying equivalent of the old writing advice "show, don't tell".
Quote from: Ravenswing;810360
Even if the NPC is a mook? Even if the NPC is a mook.
Giving mooks a personality helps bring the world alive. Good movies make good use of screen time featuring mooks to make them memorable.
It doesn't take much to make henchman #1 memorable. For example in the movie
Die Hard there was a scene featuring Gruber's henchmen in a lobby entrance of the building preparing for a police assault. The henchmen are all loading their weapons and taking positions. One of the henchmen (Al Leong) glances down into the glass countertop and notices the boxes of candy bars. He slowly reaches down and snags one after glancing around to see if anyone is looking. It's hilarious! It only takes a moment of screen time and it provides a bit of character to an otherwise generic thug.
Quote from: Old Geezer;810265Watch movies and plays.
Who are your NPCs? The world should be full of them.
One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard was "Every character in a scene wants something, and each one is going to try to move the scene in a direction that gets them closer to what they want." Now, the messenger may only want to deliver her message so she can leave and go have a quiet drink and a smoke somewhere, but that's what she wants and she's going to try to move things that way.
Et cetera. Just think in terms of "what do these people want and how can they move towards those things?"
The Best Advice I ever saw OG give.
This ten times over.
All good ideas. I tend to do none of them so implementing at least a few of them should help!
Exploder wizard said:
"It doesn't take much to make henchman #1 memorable. For example in the movie Die Hard there was a scene featuring Gruber's henchmen in a lobby entrance of the building preparing for a police assault. The henchmen are all loading their weapons and taking positions. One of the henchmen (Al Leong) glances down into the glass countertop and notices the boxes of candy bars. He slowly reaches down and snags one after glancing around to see if anyone is looking. It's hilarious! It only takes a moment of screen time and it provides a bit of character to an otherwise generic thug."
I Love Al Leong
https://www.alleongfanclub.com/
Quote from: Vic99;810487I Love Al Leong
https://www.alleongfanclub.com/
I remember him from Big Trouble in Little China. :)
My #1 tool: interesting npcs. Motivations yield responses, and events more or less create themselves.
One important thing to remember is that the players' interest should drive how much time is spent on what. If they want to move on, don't fret about it. If you don't provide enough that interests them enough to explore, then that's a problem to address.
Be a Player more often.
Go to conventions and store gamedays, be a Player. Play games you would not play otherwise. Watch what works for you and what doesn't. Copy and use the ideas and actions that worked for you in your own group when you run your games.
Quote from: Old Geezer;810296"Listen! Do you smell something?"
Like the night Phil ran us through the Red Fort in Delhi, and hugely enjoyed making us literally sweat with his description of just how hot and miserable it was in the 'Underworld' of the fortress's Mughal casemates and lower chambers? :)
(And just how surprised he was that the Indian Army didn't just shoot him out of hand for sneaking around the place?)
Quote from: Exploderwizard;810392Giving mooks a personality helps bring the world alive. Good movies make good use of screen time featuring mooks to make them memorable.
Yep. Stunts I've used:
* Party fighting a bunch of mooks in a grand melee. Mook #1 goes down. Mook #2 flings herself across Mook #1's body, screaming with grief and rage, before whirling back to her feet over him, plainly hellbent on defending him to the death.
* Party rogue, with two NPC assassins in tow, infiltrating the enemy army's
castra with an eye towards mapping out a surgical strike. She finds herself at an aid tent, where a priest of the Wicked Evil Faith is busy setting up bandages and herbs for the next day's efforts. He turns out to be a genial duffer, and they chat amiably for a few minutes before she goes on her way. On the way back, however, one of the assassins goes in and waxes the priest, saying that he could have remembered her face. Poor rogue is so distraught, she tracked down the priest's home parish and made a donation for his soul.
* Good Guy Nation is being invaded by Bad Guy Nation, and party is helping the guerrillas harassing enemy columns. They run into a fellow they've met before, the mook henchman of a Bad Guy. He's a sadistic bastard, and they know it, and are somewhat astonished that he's working with the guerrillas. He knows damn well what he is, he hisses, and he knows damn well he's bound for a bad end. But he's a patriot, damn it, and he's fighting for his country, and the party can go fuck themselves if they don't like it.
Y'know, Pencilboy, I don't know where you live. But following Chirine's comment, I've another key bit of advice.
Okay, this is all very well and good for me to say -- I'm a native of New England. But if you want to make it real, go to some of these places. I've been in colonial forts. I've been in a stockade. I've walked the clamshell-paved streets of Mystic Seaport. I've been on USS Constitution when the cannon has fired and on the Mayflower II on a turnaround. I've pumped bellows for blacksmiths, been in Pilgrim homes, hauled ropes to the songs of the last shanteyman of the Age of Sail.
I can't tell you how much this helps to make it real: to know what a low-tech farm is really like -- to know what a period inn is really like. To know what a cobblestone street is like after a heavy rain, to know how heavy a mainyard on a whaling ship is on a dry summer's day (and wonder how much it must have sucked to be raising it in a howling winter's gale). To know what a cavalry charge coming right at you feels like ... I can depict it because I've seen it.
If you're at all in a historic area, visit such attractions. If you're not, seek out the local reenactors.
Lots of good suggestions from people. A little while back I dropped my thoughts on what GMs typically do and some cues into a mind map. Here's a link in case it's of use to anyone:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/v724pvfga9faqld/GM%20skills.pdf?dl=0
Study fiction writing.
http://www.amazon.com/GMC-Motivation-Conflict-Debra-Dixon-ebook/dp/B00DZ01FRY/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1421688933&sr=8-9&keywords=gmc&pebp=1421688910269&peasin=B00DZ01FRY
Great advice. Thanks!
The other thing I would recommend studying is stagecraft.
See, I no longer worry about most of the NPCs in my world. Yes, the village blacksmith's wife's sister's husband's cousin's dog has a name.
Absolutely nobody gives a fuck what it is.
Just like when you visit the Baron in his great hall to talk to him, all those nobles and retainers and knights and ladies and such?
They're a bunch of extras standing around going "rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb" for a day's pay at SAG scale and a catered lunch.
Because if the players are there to talk to the Baron and one of the party wanders over to the sidelines and starts talking to some random guard, either that person is bored with what is going on in the main part of the scene, or the person is poking at the stage set to see if they can punch a hole in the canvas.
Either way, the correct solution is to talk about why they aren't engaged in the main direction of the scene.
And even if it's a sandbox game, if the game has reached the point where "let's go talk to the Baron" is what the players want to do, somebody saying "I'm going to go over here and talk to this peasant slopping the latrine instead" indicates something isn't working right.
(nods to OG) It's why the listings of NPCs of most RPG products drive me crazy: they're just freaking wasted space. Overwhelmingly, a city writeup (say) is loaded down with loving descriptions of the monarch, the chancellor, the knight marshal, the high priestesses, the guildmasters ... complete with detailed combat stats and lists of magical items.
The players aren't likely to encounter these people. They're not going to do business with the Grand Master of the Alchemists' Guild; they're going to patronize Malabar the crazy blind alchemist on the corner, and him they need to know about. They're not going to fighting Duchess Dame Beryl val Almareth, the Knight Marshal and commander of the national military; it's Captain Tamara, the commander of the 4th Company of the Potent Destiny Legion, the one who the party rogue lurched into and spilled his ale all over, who'll demand a duel, and we need to know her stats.
Hell, I've been running the bulk of my parties out of Warwik City, the national capital of one of my world's great seafaring powers, since around 1979. The first player to meet the King was just two years ago, and she's a native of Warwik City who's now a foreign princess married to the admiral-in-chief of the Kingdom's strongest ally.
Quote from: chirine ba kal;810593Like the night Phil ran us through the Red Fort in Delhi, and hugely enjoyed making us literally sweat with his description of just how hot and miserable it was in the 'Underworld' of the fortress's Mughal casemates and lower chambers? :)
(And just how surprised he was that the Indian Army didn't just shoot him out of hand for sneaking around the place?)
Lordy, I'd forgotten about that. I think we were surprised they didn't just shoot him too. How the hell did he get away with some of the stuff he did?
Quote from: Old Geezer;811135Because if the players are there to talk to the Baron and one of the party wanders over to the sidelines and starts talking to some random guard, either that person is bored with what is going on in the main part of the scene, or the person is poking at the stage set to see if they can punch a hole in the canvas.
Do you reckon that's always true? What if the Baron was seen by that random guard in a poor disguise consorting with ladies of the night instead of the Baroness? My players often try to talk to the "window dressing" for some info from the common man while still moving the scene forward...at least I think that's what they're doing.
Quote from: Old Geezer;811135And even if it's a sandbox game, if the game has reached the point where "let's go talk to the Baron" is what the players want to do, somebody saying "I'm going to go over here and talk to this peasant slopping the latrine instead" indicates something isn't working right.
I wouldn't say things aren't working right just because someone wanted to chat with the piss boy for a moment. If there are six characters in the group and at least half of them are going to speak to the baron, I don't see anything wrong with some others perhaps wanting a perspective from people in less elevated places.
Lowly working class people and children are often treated as if they aren't there by some high born folk. This sometimes puts them in positions to see and hear things that may be valuable to know. Players seeking information from such people are showing a genuine interest in things and attempting to gather intelligence from multiple sources. To me, that means things are working just fine.
The Stagecraft advice is spot on in this respect: what holds your attention gets the more detail.
Basically it is a question about relevance. That which the PCs spend the most face-time with holds the highest relevance. This is beyond what should versus what did hold attention. The shift can happen on campaign demands, but that's another concern.
In a structured adventure there are competing demands of relevance, one for the adventure's main arc, and another for the player's current interest. In a structured campaign (domain mgmt, mission based, guided sandbox, etc.), again it pulls between what GM wants to run and PC interest. This spectrum continues on into a completely freeform sandbox where the GM steps back and is only interested in the player's interest (and thus free to worry about the latrine boy's daily life).
Regardless of the manner of competing tensions, that central stagecraft advice holds for each.
Quote from: AndrewSFTSN;811182Do you reckon that's always true? What if the Baron was seen by that random guard in a poor disguise consorting with ladies of the night instead of the Baroness? My players often try to talk to the "window dressing" for some info from the common man while still moving the scene forward...at least I think that's what they're doing.
Quote from: Exploderwizard;811221I wouldn't say things aren't working right just because someone wanted to chat with the piss boy for a moment. If there are six characters in the group and at least half of them are going to speak to the baron, I don't see anything wrong with some others perhaps wanting a perspective from people in less elevated places.
Lowly working class people and children are often treated as if they aren't there by some high born folk. This sometimes puts them in positions to see and hear things that may be valuable to know. Players seeking information from such people are showing a genuine interest in things and attempting to gather intelligence from multiple sources. To me, that means things are working just fine.
It would be lovely if the players I'm thinking of would say something like "I'm going to talk to the linkboy to see who he's escorting from whom's chambers at night," or the like. That would be lovely.
Instead, I'm talking about "You've been announced and you move forward and approach the Baron" and one player suddenly says "I'm going to go over there and talk to somebody else." Not "I'm going to go over to the pillar and talk to the captain of the guard"; sometimes it's even "I'm going to go talk to somebody else." Um... and what do you think the Baron and his court will think of this major insult? "Waah waah waah, you said we could do whatever we wanted."
The process of only playing with people who share your vision of fun is a neverending refining process.
tl;dr If your idea is "talk to the servants and see what dirt's out there," say so; do not suddenly break the action in the middle of a scene about something totally different.
Quote from: Old Geezer;811303It would be lovely if the players I'm thinking of would say something like "I'm going to talk to the linkboy to see who he's escorting from whom's chambers at night," or the like. That would be lovely.
Instead, I'm talking about "You've been announced and you move forward and approach the Baron" and one player suddenly says "I'm going to go over there and talk to somebody else." Not "I'm going to go over to the pillar and talk to the captain of the guard"; sometimes it's even "I'm going to go talk to somebody else." Um... and what do you think the Baron and his court will think of this major insult? "Waah waah waah, you said we could do whatever we wanted."
The process of only playing with people who share your vision of fun is a neverending refining process.
tl;dr If your idea is "talk to the servants and see what dirt's out there," say so; do not suddenly break the action in the middle of a scene about something totally different.
Ah. Indeed the search for better players is forever ongoing. :(
Quote from: Old Geezer;810265Watch movies and plays.
Who are your NPCs? The world should be full of them.
One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard was "Every character in a scene wants something, and each one is going to try to move the scene in a direction that gets them closer to what they want." Now, the messenger may only want to deliver her message so she can leave and go have a quiet drink and a smoke somewhere, but that's what she wants and she's going to try to move things that way.
Et cetera. Just think in terms of "what do these people want and how can they move towards those things?"
Aka motivations. Really important.
Quote from: PencilBoy99;810262One of my ongoing challenges as a GM is "filling out scenes." That is, players typically do a few things, and there are a couple of rolls, and then I'm often at a loss. When other GMs have run things for me there's a lot more interaction in their scenes, and they're more vivid, and they definitely take a little longer.
Given that I'd like to encourage more interesting, richer scenes, with more things for the characters to interact with (where they might be overcoming some obstacles or exploring) and more dialogue (where there are NPC's)?
What are your system-agnostic tips for getting better at this?
Well, first and foremost, make sure you create a clear mental image for yourself of the place the PCs are. Think of the things that are there; don't necessarily describe absolutely everything (there can be such a thing as too much information for the players), but keep in mind what's present, in case there's something that they may be inspired to interact with.
As for NPCs, keep in mind that everyone in your virtual world should be a fully-fleshed out person. I call this the "Cast of Thousands", and so it means that while you don't necessarily have to think out the life story of every background NPC beforehand, you should trust your instinct in terms of just what an NPC might say, do or act like in reaction to the PCs. Sometimes, some idea might just jump out at you from out of nowhere; that's when you know you're creating a living world, and you should trust that. Don't be afraid to suddenly let an NPC, from something crazy that jumps into your head, suddenly become more than just a two-second interaction with a PC. I've had at least a couple of NPCs that ended up starting out as being background nobodies for a single scene and through this process suddenly ending up being important recurring characters in the entire campaign.