The tabletop role playing experience is a collaborative one. That’s a well-established fact. To properly collaborate, everyone at the table needs to be aware of the interactions at the table. I’m not talking about what NPCs the PCs know or how the Big Bad Villain interacts with their lieutenants and such. I’m talking about the “metagame” interactions that exist between the humans sitting at the table. This is a complex web as each player has a relationship with each other player and the GM. The more people you have at the table, the more complex this gets. I would hope everyone is friendly toward one another (if not, find a new group).
To lean into those interactions both in the game level and at the table between the people sitting in the chairs, I have a set of advice here (and in next month’s article, too) to help everyone get along better and deepen the game experience. Yeah. That’s right. This is a two-parter because I have enough to say on the matter to have enough content for two articles.
Each section in these two articles will focus on how the GM can enhance the game with their interactions to the players. In addition, I’ll have advice for the players on how they can act, react, respond, and interact with the game to make things better.
Be Their Biggest Fan
As the GM, you should cheer on the players when they come up with great ideas, make awesome rolls, or perform spectacular feats with their characters. Even if your carefully curated plans are completed foiled by what the players do or come up with, you need to be proud of their accomplishments. Don’t get salty if they find a logical shortcut to what you had in your mind as a solution. Don’t tamp down on spectacular abilities or if a player finds a way to stack up bonuses to get +40 on their athletics skill check to jump between ships to get to the bad guys’ captain more quickly than you had imagined possible. Find those events amazing and congratulate the players on putting things together just right.
For the player side of things, support the GM’s storylines. This is more than just taking the bait to start an adventure. If an important NPC gets introduced, lean into a conversation or interaction with them. If the GM throws you the spotlight for an encounter or scene, then take that light and shine in it. Don’t brush off opportunities to do things or become even more awesome than you already are. The GM has spent time coming up with these things (or has spent copious time studying a published adventure) to enhance your game play. Be eager to delve into the storyline!
Reel Them In
In one of my Adventure Design articles, I talk about good story hooks and starting adventures [1]. The article delves deep into the topic, but the gist of the article is that you need a strong start. Give the players some bait on the hook to latch onto when the adventure starts. It’s hard to catch a fish with a naked hook, so you have to make it appear juicy on the surface. There also needs to be some good content under the surface to keep the momentum going once the players latch on.
As a player, you need to take the bait. Grab the hook. Actually, don’t just grab the hook. You need to swallow it whole! If the GM has dropped an obvious setup for an adventure, don’t complain about it being irrelevant to your character. You don’t know that yet. This may just be a starter session to get things rolling, and it’ll become more obvious later to you that events really are relevant to you and your character.
Higher Powers
Game masters are not a higher power. They are not a deity of great power. Yes, the GM may have home brewed an entire world for the players to romp around in, but this does not make them the all-powerful, all-knowing god that is in control of everything. If you, as the GM, have this concept in your head, I assure you that you have less control over the events that are underway than you think.
For players, you are not to worship the person on the other side of the GM’s screen. They are imperfect and will make mistakes. If you spot a rule being misused and it’s a detriment to the game, bring it up in a nice and friendly manner. If it’s not a detriment to the game, wait until after the session (or between sessions) to bring it up. If you see a flaw in the story or a contradiction in who is recalling past events, ask some questions to get clarity on the situation. Don’t step up and directly challenge anyone (the GM or your fellow players), but some questions of clarification come across as less confrontational and can lead to better storytelling down the road.
Trust But Verify
If a player is about to make a horrible decision or take a less-than-smart action with their character, it’s perfectly fine for the GM to ask, “Are you sure you want to do that?” That opens the door for a conversation about what the character would know versus what the player perceives as reality for their character. There are many times when the character would inherently know something that the player might be oblivious about. This is because the character “grew up in the world” while the player may have only read a “three page summary” of the world. As Ang has said many a time on the Gnomecast, “Trust the competency of the characters.”
For the players, if you get a strong hint from a GM, stop and listen. Consider your planned actions and the ramifications of those actions. It might not mean the death of your character, but it could lead to a paladin being stripped of their holy powers or a druid losing spells due to violation of their neutral stance in the world, or something similar. These are great times for open and honest communication between the GM and the players to ensure everyone is on the same level with the same information. Of course, after the conversation, you can still proceed with your declared action at your own risk. At least you’ll be doing it with full information.
Conclusion
As I said at the top, this is the first part of a two-parter. Next month, I’ll be talking about four additional aspects of how to handle the interactions between GMs and players.