Do you have any pithy observations or mottoes regarding gaming? I just came up with this one in response to a thread on Facebook:

"Whether the PCs run roughshod over the world without consequences, or the GM refuses to let them have an impact on his precious plot, someone's masturbating."

I like this mantra for GMs from one of Jeff Rient's blog posts:

"Your NPCs suck and they are all going to die."

I try to keep it in mind when populating my sandboxes. Don't get too attached to anything or anyone, otherwise you will unconsciously start hampering certain courses of action the players should reasonably be able to take.

Easy one:

If your campaign's structure hinges on the players choosing options A, B or C, they'll choose Z.

Mine would be.

"What? that was a throw NPC not some huge plot point, but since your interested . . ."

This coming from making up an NPC and suddenly everyone wants to get to know them when originally they were just some guy selling noodles from a stand or a Crazy Cat guy.

And in a similar vein

"NPC's are suppose to be cool and interesting and disposable"

What didn't you detail? Because that's what the players will want, every single time.

Success and failure are Schrödinger's cat, both exist simultaneously until you experience them, and as GM, I plan accordingly.

If you choose who the PCs are "supposed" to ally with ahead of time they'll murder them every time. So don't bother.

I always make a plan for the most obviously stupid idea that nobody would ever choose.

I use those plans often.

I once had this dangerous magical artifact, a crystal skull that was used to siphon life from victims and enhance the user. I thought 'what if they just destroyed it without doing any research?' and came up with dire consequences (the skull was actually a valve on a rift to negative energy plane (more or less)).

So, sure enough, player immediately smashes the thing while everyone goes 'noooo!' Nothing happens at first!

Theeeeen everyone in the area starts spontaneously turning into zombies. Woops. (Half the party died, but of course the nut who smashed the skull managed to flee successfully. )


We also use the term 'hockey' to refer to distracting chatter not related to the game. IE: 'stop talking hockey, guys... game!'

"Let your players choose their own difficulties. And let the dice determine their fortunes."

I'm a bit laissez-faire when it comes to content direction and context creation.

Quote from: Necrozius;784663Easy one:

If your campaign's structure hinges on the players choosing options A, B or C, they'll choose Z.

Totally this. Oh, and is it wrong to yell "Yatzee, motherfuckers!" when you roll good? Just a random thought.

"It's not my job to tell the players what to do.  It's my job to react to what the players do."

"Not gaming is better than bad gaming."

"If everyone is having fun, you're doing it right."

From my players on the games I ran...

"One mistake and you're fucked"

From my own DM experience

"Show not tell"

"You have 2 minutes to explain your setting"

but at the same time

"Setting is context and context is more critical than specifics"

Oh and

"It's the GM's job to roleplay the World"

I've personally taken to heart OG's line:
Get together with the players and talk things through.

If that doesn't work, kill them and take their stuff.

"Never roll the dice unless you are willing to pay the price."

Means never put a task into the game unless both failure and success are something that you are willing to accept in your game world. Frex, if you don't want PCs to die quickly, don't put "save or die" poisons in.