Skull RPG: Game Masters Tell Your Story

Hey Storytellers,

Sometimes your gaming table has a conflict between the players. I am not speaking about a conflict just on the table, but one that spills out to the players themselves. The kind of conflict where you can feel it in the air. Maybe even coming to verbal or physical blows. What is a game master to do?

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In this episode, we cover the five different types of gaming groups and things that the Game Master can do to diffuse the situation in each case.

I will state that in some cases you need to disband the group and keep those that weren't a cause of the conflict to begin with.

Hey Storytellers,

As a thank you gift for listening to our show Jacob and I want to give you a free book, but there is a catch.

The catch is that it is free from 11/23/20 to 11/25/20 on Amazon Kindle.

Here is how you can get this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NQ38H2K

Act fast and go there today.

Thanks for being a listener! 

Hey Storytellers,

There has been some buzz lately on the role of a Game Master in RPG's. Is this person responsible for making it fun to play? Are they the "god" of the game? These sorts of big questions.

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Today we explore the many different roles that a game master can have. I don't believe there is one correct way to be a game master, but a spectrum of options. That said I do believe there are wrong and abusive ways of being a game master.

Give this episode a listen.

Hey Storytellers,

There is a tension sometimes between telling a good story (or having a cool concept) and following the rules of the system you are using. This is more pronounced in games where the rules are highly structured. In this episode, we will explore this concept.

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If you have a great idea but it is against the rules you have several options.

1) As long as the idea isn't an object that can be easily stolen then it could be from another time and that knowledge is lost

2) I would suggest staying away from relics or artifacts on a person because many game masters inadvertently break their games this way. Eventually, the players will obtain this item, and then what would happen to your game?

3) Some game systems allow you to break the rules more easily than others for the sake of the story, but I would highly recommend that you only break those rules in a way that the players cannot abuse.

Hey Storytellers,

Many Game Masters roll in the open and let the crits fall where they may, and that may be good with your gaming group, but what if one of your players gets an automatic secret roll? In my games when I have asked for a random roll then my players get suspicious and look for things their characters couldn't know about.

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In this episode, we explore several different ways to roll secretly without taking away a player's ability to roll the dice themselves.

1) Have all players roll die 5 - 10 times before the game. Write these down in order and then roll a D10 secretly to determine where in the list you will start.

2) Have the player take 10 on any secret rolls and reveal successes.

3) Make everyone roll randomly for no reason 3 - 5 times in your game.

Other tips in the episode.

Hey Storytellers,

Gathering intelligence is used in long term wars or conflicts (cold war,  corporate espionage could fit into this as well) to gain the upper hand on your enemies.

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Gathering intelligence is different than gathering clues because intelligence is about finding out critical information to pass back to an organization to make a call about what to do with that information.

These are good missions for mercenaries or in war campaigns.

Another way to run this is in a Shadowrun game where the players are more in bed with one corporation than others.

Listen to the episode for more information.

Hey Storytellers,

In order to pull off using clues in your campaign you need to figure out what the players are to discover and then work backward for how the players can figure it out.

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Once you have the final result for the players work backward for how they could obtain pieces of information in parts. Three parts is the easiest way to do this. 

If your players have to find the names of three people they need to obtain one at least one name and could do side quests for the other two.

I would put the roll to obtain the fact that they need to track down three people and one of their names so low that even if all of your players rolled a one they would find out that information. If they rolled higher they could get two and if one rolled a critical success maybe give them the third name.

Otherwise they get one or two names and have to do side quests to find clues to the third person.

Listen to the episode for more on this.

Hey Storytellers,

The classic summoning trope. The players walk in on a group of mages/cultists/clerics/etc. and have to stop the summoning by this group. Normally by killing enough of them that the spell will fizzle out, but what if there was a different way of doing this?

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Think about how ritual spells could work. What if the first part of the spell just calls the one they are trying to summon? The hard part of the summoning is where they are putting in the binding conditions for that creature to appear. This is the part your players come in during. If they kill all of the summoners the monster still appears but without the binding magic being finished it is free on our plane of existence.

Listen to the episode for more ideas.

Hey Storytellers,

The classic dungeon-crawl adventure. I was hesitant to even talk about this except that Jacob said what about power vacuums in the dungeon? And then we were cooking.

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Power vacuums are anything that creates a gap in power that other things will need to fill. A dungeon has its own ecosystem and the monsters on each level are a part of that. If the players are going through a dungeon they are creating power vacuums in their wake by killing the denizens of the dungeon.

Then as often is the case the players will leave the dungeon several times to sell loot, take a long rest or maybe travel weeks or months away to upgrade weapons and armor or to sell the rest of the loot.

What happens in the dungeon? Well, most game masters have literally nothing happen. What a great opportunity for something to happen while the players are away. So instead of just waiting down the four empty floors, they are greeted with a new entrance and armed guards, not from the town but the denizens on the floor they would have killed next. 

Now they are waiting for the players and ready for combat.

Here more about this in this episode.

Hey Storytellers,

Keeping your players moving is all about not allowing them to stop and rest. In a game like Dungeons and Dragons that can cause some anxiety in your players. Typically the party moves at the pace of the spell caster(s). Once they are out of magic or cool tricks then the party should rest. I know that D&D 5e made this more balanced, but even if this isn't your players' style let's examine what this can do for you the game master.

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Your players have just walked through rooms of enemies with ease. No damage is taken and most of their magic is intact. What could you do to spice up the game more?

One idea would be to have the room they need to leave has a locked and trapped door. The lock will need an 18 or higher on a d20 to open (since you know the rogue's skill). So they might need 18 rounds to open unless they roll lucky. If you tell the rogue after his/her first crack at it that it looks very complex you might want to take 20 on it. You have now delayed the players. Now spring the trap once you say that to have the team make a check to hear what is coming down the hall. Then have many small level monsters coming to the players and they need to get the door open and fend off this attack. After 18 rounds they open the door and flee through it. With the horde of small monsters on their heels.

To not kill your players have a rope bridge in the dungeon they are exploring that can easily be cut to stop the seemingly never-ending horde of monsters coming at them.

I guarantee your players will talk about that adventure for a long time.

Listen to the episode for other ideas of how to run this concept in your game.