1. Give the players what they want.
There is a common misconception that, because the GM is technically in charge of the game, the GM gets to decide what kind of game should be played. In fact you should never forget that this is the players' game. It does not matter if you wanted to run a sweeping epic and your players just want a good fantasy action flick with plenty of gold, explosions and tits. If you want your game to be a success, and by “success” I mean anything from merely “fun” to “awesome,” you will have to swallow your pride when you know the players would appreciate a certain scene, outcome or style of adventure. In the end, if they have fun, so will you. And you will feel appreciated that much more by your players.
2. Work with players, not against them.
I was once running a game of Changeling: The Lost, and one of my players told me he wanted his ogre to get involved in an underground boxing ring. I took the time to run some side scenes with just his character while the other players debated their next move. Rather than trying to figure some way of coaxing or forcing his character to go along with the group, I let him tell his own story – which ultimately turned out to be a Changeling form of “Rocky,” but hey, he thanked me in the end. The moral of the story – if everyone is playing die-hard battle tanks (or worse yet, if you were planning a campaign with such characters in mind) except for one fragile magic-user, just go with it. Find ways to turn this apparent outlier character into a feature of the larger story. Put the main plot on hold if you have to to run a few side encounters. Let the other players be an audience for a bit. And if you do figure out a way to tie these side scenes into the larger story, so much the better. But the less you limit the players with their own characters, the happier you'll make them.
3. Be adaptable.
So you set up an adventure for players to burst into the front of an evil temple, and they sneak around the back side instead, thereby avoiding all your wonderfully planned mayhem. Adventures should never be spoiled by player ingenuity. When your players do the unexpected, they are taking control of the story. Until the players actually encounter something, nothing about an adventure is set in stone. Encounters, clues and events should ideally be like free-floating modules you can shift around as needed. The bottom line of any adventure design is to ensure players encounter what they must to fully succeed, regardless of how badly they bungle things in your mind. I've learned a handful of very useful parlor tricks to do this well. I'll share them on a later post, so stay tuned.
4. Cheat creatively.
This is a follow-up to the previous point. There are no rules in a tabletop RPG. There are only guidelines. The ONLY rule is do what you must to make it fun for your players. Players having fun with an encounter that you realize you made too easy? Give the monsters some more hit points. Players nearly killed off by a monster's first attack? Adjust the monster's stats so it's virtually impossible to miss. I personally like to avoid tracking enemy health as much as possible and instead let the game play dictate when enemies should die for maximum enjoyment.
5. Respect your game.
Off-the-cuff humor, in-character wackiness and jokes on the side are part of any gaming experience. But as a rule of thumb, I try to limit it to 50% of any session at most. Any more, and a game quickly dissolves into conversation or looses the suspension of disbelief that keeps an adventure vivid. Keeping a game focused helps players to respect you for the time and effort you put into prep work, and it shows respect for them taking the time and the gas money to show up in order to play.
6. Keep it moving.
It's very tempting for some G.M.'s to get lost in logistical details – making players role-play out every night's watch on the trail, every meal eaten, and every mile traveled. This is a case of realism hijacking fantasy. Running a game is like writing a book – the plot is all that matters, in the end. Skip the details of everyday mundane tasks such as choosing what to wear or where to eat and just move on to the next good scene. Summarize the rest for the players and allow them to make any relevant decisions or actions they wish after the fact. Similarly, I've found it unnecessary and tedious to make players roll literally every time they want to do something. Save dice rolls for challenging actions, not for mundane actions like cooking meals. I also suggest no rolls are needed in cases when players are “supposed” to notice something. If it's a clue they must find or a detail they must notice, don't give it a chance at failure. Just give the information to the character that would be the most likely to obtain it.
7. Make it personal.
Motivating players or their characters to engage with the adventure can be a challenge. One sure-fire way to do it is to make the main threat or adventure hook as personal as possible for the characters. It wasn't just the princess that was abducted by the evil wizard, it was the PC fighter's daughter. The rival vampires aren't just invading the character's home city, they're trashing the PC's own personal neighborhood and threatening their havens as well. People only act if they have a vested interest to do so. The best adventures leave characters with no choice but to act, because the price of indifference is too high or the reward for success is too tempting to pass up.
8. Make it matter.
Always remember that the PC's are the main characters. I don't care how cool an NPC is you've made to “assist” the players. PCs should never be spectators. Even if a scene would normally mean the PCs literally ARE spectators, figure out a way to pull them into the main action. Another common mistake is to make low-powered PCs people of little importance in the game world. Players come to games where they can play people who matter, who's actions and decisions will determine everything important about what happens to the world around them. Even if players are beginning a campaign as base-line characters, there should be some clear message that it is they who are the important figures, not just because they're the “main characters” but because they're important to someone or something significant within the game world itself.
9. You are the group's imagination.
The best G.M.'s I've encountered are the most imaginative ones. You can't expect players to come up with vivid descriptions for their actions, nor to talk in a distinct voice when speaking in-character. As the G.M., YOU are the stage. You are the whole production. You are the one who sets the mood of scenes, the pace of combat, and the tone of an entire game session. The players will take their lead from how you act and how much effort you put into your presentation of the scenes. This has unexpected benefits. For example, if you provide vivid description during a combat round, you'll find there's less confusion about who is where and what's going on.
10. Practice creative writing.
Designing adventures is a lot like writing a story. There are characters with distinct personalities and motivations to consider, a plot to organize, story hooks and twists to insert, and description to sculpt. If you gain experience writing your own fiction – of any genre – you are also gaining valuable skills you can bring to adventure designs.
