What Makes A Good GM, Thoughts and opinions Options

[Arethusa]

Basically, for ever solitary plot thread, you take a separate page or file of notes.

So, instead of note pertaining to Jack and every mess he's gotten himself in over the past three sessions, you have notes about Jack's stolen bike, which may be relevent to Jack and Aislyn. You also have notes about Aislyn's heroin addiction, which may only tangentially involve Jack in some way. And should Aislyn become unable to pay and try and quit, resulting in her dealer beating her up, you can start a new file on Jack's smirking revenge.

While this system is really not useful for coherent narrative summaries, it is useful if your players ask question about specific events and situations, as they are far more likely to do. It's a good approach, really.

[Sunday_Gamer]

Arethusa pretty much has it, here I found an old note sheet... looks kinda like this.

Stolen Sniper Rifle

Feb 22nd Nicky Nitro, BK's neighbor, grabbed his sniper rifle case. Didn't know what it was, had seen it in the closet for months. (has access, cares for plants and cat for BK). Nicky has a gambling problem, in debt for 500 with Aftershock of the 405 Hellhounds. He took it, he pawned it to Fixer Fred, payed off Aftershock and all is well, for now.

Fred still has the rifle, does not recognize it as the one he sold BK eons ago. It's gathering dust in one of his warehouses.

Aftershock, barely remembers. The wager was on a pit fight in Puyallup.

April 30th: BK goes into his closet to get sniper rifle, notices theft.

Currently suspects Jimmy Two-Feathers. Who he had over 2 weeks ago and who left while he was in the bathroom saying it was an emergency.

Jimmy Two-Feathers: Has nothing to do with any of this, it really was an emergency. It was a runner emergency, so he's not going to talk about it. BK growing more suspicious... BK and TF almost had it out in "6 Feet Under"... TF starting to think BK is quite the ahole and had better piss off now... Drunken BK picks a fight with TF at 6FU, BK mod stun, TF mod stun. Mouse and Rat broke up the fight. Rat casts analyze truth and convinces BK that TF has no idea what the hell he's talking about. BK tries to apologize, TF is pissed, storms out...

BK contacts Fred to get new rifle... Fred says he has a second hand one in good condition, BK gets new rifle. Fails roll to recognize rifle as being his own.

May 10th BK sees TF downtown, TF ignores him. He is still pissed off at BK.

**************

That's a small one, but something like that. As long as you keep the bigger picture staight in your head, this keeps track of all the little threads.

Not sure that helped but there it is.

Sunday

[Zazen]

Ahh, I dig it. Thanks for the example :)

[Ezra]

Sunday Gamer and McQuillan are speaking sense.
I have a few points to add to their original posts.

1 - The Ali G Factor : Keep it real. Everyone at the table should be rooting for the players, the GM included. I work on a system of "Truth and Consequences". A player who decides to stand up to a group of vampires, take a pot-shot at a bunch of Red Samurai or just throw a finger at Frankie "The Trigger" Motola, had BEST have the ability to see things through. Realism makes the game more enjoyable, and in every one of the scenarios above, the player in question is going to have to deal with the results. Blindly running across 4 lanes of the interstate during rush-hour can (and has before) result in an 18 wheeler broadsiding you.
Conversly, what happens to the players also happens to the NPC's. Realism.

2 - Your NPC's: When your players say things like "Johnny would never do that." OR "Johnny would rather have the Roomsweeper, leave the Predator for Frankie" when Frankie and Johnny are your NPC's....then you have made it. Find a sounding board. I normally get my girlfriend to listen to my plans and my NPC's. Answer questions about them....where are they from?....what do they think about Renraku?.....blah blah. Shadowrun 2nd Ed had Twenty Questions to flesh out a PC.....my NPC's are made to that mould. Obviously, not ALL NPC's need that attention to detail. Generic Goon #1 is expendable fodder, and is created as such.

3 - Fade to Greys: Sunday Gamer's movie analogy rocks. Any good movie doesn't focus only on the good guy. It is pointless watching our heroes fight their way through the bad goons, unless we know that the bad guy and his nefarious sidekick have a nuclear bomb ticking away. Suddenly the tension is real, suddenly there is more at stake than the next karma award. I start every session with a review (Normally told in as a narrative) of the last session, read out to my players. This cuts through all the "I need to find a glass for my Coke" shit that happens. The players focus, and thoughts are drawn into character. Then I do the "Fade to Grey's" These are little scenes for PLAYER knowledge only. They divulge something of what is going on around them. This can take the form of a dialouge between the Bad Guy and his sidekick "Finally Sidekick, the players are stumbling into my death trap! Yes yes oh evil one.....if only they knew that the sentry guns are set to fire inwards!" This knowledge is for the players, not their characters. It adds to the roleplaying experience for all concerned. The players are rightfully nervous before the big hit.....and you have the satisfaction of knowing that the players appreciate your plot.

4 - Planning. There is no substitute. I really love GMing.....and I spend hours planning each session. I run a 4 hour session once a week. On average I will spend about 10 hours planning for that session. This includes prepping my fade to greys, typing the review of the last session, anticipating the player's actions (and reviewing the rules I am going to need to use for their actions. NO sense in stumbling through a hot-wiring proceedure of a VTOL in heavy rain......rather have the modifiers at hand.) and of course, plot and NPC development.
Before a final session, or a milestone session in the campaign, I will typically spend about 15 hours planning for it.

GMing is a lot of work. Or rather.....good GMing is a lot of work. Personally, I regard roleplaying as my hobby. Some people play golf....I plan shadowrun campaigns. The finest reward I have ever recieved was after the finale of a year-long campaign I had run for 3 players. I concluded the run with a fade to grey which incorporated the epilouge to the tale. I finished reading, and looked up, expecting smiles from the players who had succeeded in the campaign. INstead, two were actually crying, and the third was blinking back tears and had an obvious lump in his throat. They were so wrapped up in the story that the final sacrifice of one of their friend NPCs and the subsequent failure of the Bad Guy had proven to be very emotional.
I could have asked for no greater accolade. :)
(Still my favourite session.)

[MrSandman666]

:notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy::notworthy: :notworthy:

You have achieved what I believe to be every GMs dream. It certainly is my dream. Unfortunately I never had the chance to GM such a long running campaign and it's hard to get the players emotionaly wrapped up into a campaign when you're running four sessions spread over half a year... Ah, I'm whining again.

Anyways, I'm currently getting a new group together which looks very promising and I'm going to try some of the things you guys suggested.

And contribution which is actually useful for this thread:
I recently bought the new Cthulhu Gamemaster's Handbook (or Keepers Handbook or whatever it may be called in English). The first 70 pages of it focus solely on how to be a good GM. Of course, the main focus is on Horror games but I'm trying to get this horror twist into my SR games anyways.
I've found that even though I probably will play a pure Cthulhu game this book was well worth the 40 bucks...

[shadd4d]

Planning time is probably one of the big problems. For a 4 hour run each week, I've probably put in 10 hours before hand pouring over books and taking a look at what I need to challenge them and force them to think. That's a lot of time, but it is worth it.

Don

[Sunday_Gamer]

I will confess... I'm a free form ad lib ninja. I plan the broad strokes and the rest is me trying to keep up with my crazy players and their wacky schemes. =)

You can never really be prepared for your players, who knows what madness lurks inside their dimly lit skulls?

I gave up trying to get the players to go where I wanted years ago. Now, I know what's happening where and how the PCs will fit in is up to them. I'm ready for their fraggin asses ;)

You know, this is a damn fine thread. GMing does rock. Here's to all the game masters, working behind the scenes to keep this Shadowrun movie entertaining!

Sunday

[lspahn72]