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Tag: GM-Advice

Thoughts Against Gas-Pedal Pacing in TTRPGs

Published by MichelV69 on March 3, 2020

Post Views: 1,539 “It is a fast [plot]? // It’s fast enough for you, old man.” “Pacing” is one of those nebulous issues in story-telling.  Generally, it refers to how fast a story progresses through the arc of events of the plot.  In an era of non-stop-action movies, it’s easy as a GM to feel that things need be a rolling boil at all times in our Table-Top Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs).  I personally think that’s a mistake. “Just Write” on YouTube does an interesting talk-about “Rise of Skywalker” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD5mLw0A8vI) .  One of the remarks he makes is that the director’s trademark style is to push the plot ahead at a frenetic pace by virtue of exposition sequences that drive action sequences.  There are no scenes as a common…

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Failing to Meta-Game Causes Problems

Published by MichelV69 on February 25, 2020

Post Views: 701 Wait, what? Isn’t “meta-gaming” bad? Not usually. Firstly, we need to pin down what I mean by “meta-gaming”. The way I see it commonly used, it means “cheating”. But cheating doesn’t mean meta-gaming. Meta (from the Greek meta- μετά- meaning “after” or “beyond”) is a prefix meaning more comprehensive or transcending — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta So, “meta-gaming” then, is “actions or knowledge which are more comprehensive or transcend the game space“. It’s on that second qualifier, that I want to focus. Transcend (verb) “to rise above or go beyond the limits of” — https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transcend Imagine what you might know if your full time job involved climbing a hill twice a day, hunting for glowing mushrooms of energy that, under the right conditions, cured a nasty and fatal…

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What’s To Be Done About TTRPG “Murder Hobos”?

Published by MichelV69 on February 18, 2020

Post Views: 652 One of those questions I see go by on Twitter from time to time is a new Game Master (GM) asking for help in reining in their players whose characters are operating under the “Murder Hobo” trope.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, no, I don’t mean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo_with_a_Shotgun .  Essentially, the reference comes from the fact that most Adventuring Groups / Teams, irrespective of genre / game system, are constantly on the move.  If they use that rootlessness to be a “why not” rationale for killing random bystanders, or anyone who annoys the group, or the merchant that wants to haggle, etc … that’s being a “Murder Hobo”. Firstly, this is a problem at the meta-game level.  I’ll talk more in detail about…

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