Last month, I introduced some aspects of GM/player interactions, and I’m going finish off what I have for you on this topic here and now.

Make Things Interesting

GMs should set up and introduce interesting/difficult choices to the players. They don’t always have to be life or death. They don’t always have to be “save the victim or catch the villain” type choices either. Interesting choices are things that will hit with deep, emotional resonance for the players by way of what is important to their characters. There are also difficult choices to make where the PCs can gain advantage in one aspect of the story by sacrificing something important to them or losing ground in a different aspect of the story.

On the flip side of the conversation, players need to step up to challenges and do their best to conquer them. Yes, working around them is sometimes the smart thing to do. Yes, running away from a challenge can also be the proper action, but (as Ang likes to say), you’re playing the Big Damn Heroes, so you really should act like it.

Let Them Shine

GMs need to establish scenes, settings, and scenarios to allow the different PCs in the group to display their competencies. This is part of spotlight management. If there’s nothing to shine a light on, then why is there a spotlight in the first place? This basically means to tailor some challenges to allow PCs to leverage their special skills, abilities, and powers. If you can get a single challenge to require teamwork between the disparate abilities for a better chance of success, all the better.

For players, you’re going to see some amazing things tossed in front of you from the GM. If you want to see more of what you have on your metaphorical plate, compliment the GM on what you’ve experienced. This will naturally encourage the GM to include more of that type of interaction in future sessions. We, as a people, tend to focus on what we didn’t like in an experience, but if you can seek out the positives and reinforce those, then you’ll get more of those positives.

Celebrate Accomplishments

As a GM, be happy when a scenario, die roll, skill check, or some amazing plan of the PCs goes as it should or exceeds all expectations of success. Cheer them on. Even if that “nat 20 with max damage” critical hits your Big Bad and almost kills it in a single strike, cheer on the PCs. This will make everyone happier. Also, if things doesn’t quite go the way the players had planned or if a “nat 1, drop your sword” happens at the wrong moment, sympathize with the player who just had their precious math rocks betray them.

Players also need to celebrate the GM by congratulating them on a well-run session, an interesting experience, an engaging interaction, or a wonderful campaign. This will go a long way to prevent the GM from burning out and stepping out from behind the GM screen. If you want your GM to run more (and maybe longer) games, let them know that via compliments and thanks.

Critique (NOT Criticism)

Some definitions to start this section:

A critique is a somewhat formal process in which the carefully expressed judgments, opinions, or evaluations of both the good and bad qualities of something are delivered to the creator.

Criticism is most often used broadly to refer to the act of negatively criticizing someone or something.

GM’s will almost always have opinions on PC decisions, choices, plans of action, and approaches at overcoming challenges. Hold back on those while the game is actively going on unless a player is making a decision that goes against something their character knows, but the player does not. There are times where “in world knowledge” might be apparent to a character, but not their player. This could be because the player took a bathroom break during a key moment, missed a session, simply forgot a detail from many sessions ago, or maybe wasn’t exposed to that information in the first place. Once some certain set of actions are resolved, let your players know what they did well, how they could have maybe worked better together as a team, and if something went sideways, what they could have done to manage the situation better.

From a player perspective, the feedback loop via critiques to the GM are very important. This helps the GM bring forth more of the “bright spots” of the game to the players, and assists the GM in finding the “rough edges” that need to be sanded down to a more smooth interaction (or maybe eliminated completely). If you, as a player, find anything in the game (plot, story, theme, NPC, setting, situation, location, etc.) especially interesting or inspiring, let the GM know. The other side of the coin for pointing out unenjoyable moments is completely fair game, but try to not focus only on the negatives when delivering a critique. There are always shining moments in every game session.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this two-parter of an article. This particular topic has been sitting in my “Gnome Stew to do list” for a very long time, and I’m happy that I finally got it to bubble to the top. Do you have any interactions that I may have missed between the first and second article on this topic? Let me know! I’d love to discuss it with you in the comment section.

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. 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.

Session zero is packed. Like, really packed, with so many things to do and consider and take care of. There’s establishing the style/theme/tone of the game. Discussing safety tools. Establishing a genre to experience. Determining which system to use. Figuring out what setting to romp around in. Collaborating on character creation. Maybe even some shared world building between the players and the GM. Actually making characters. Perhaps an intro scene where the story is set and getting ready to roll before the campaign launches into orbit.

Yeah. It’s lots. Maybe too much.

However, I’m going to pile onto the stack a few more items that I think could be handled offline after session zero to help the GM really hone the campaign’s blade to razor sharpness. This can be handled via Google Forms, emails, Discord, Slack, or whatever communications methods your group uses between sessions.

Here we go!

Player Goals

Break the fourth wall here. Don’t think about character concerns, but what do you as a player want out of the campaign? Do you want to skulk around alleys? Maybe save a nation? Maybe be the big damn hero to rescue people of lesser abilities? Do you want to shoot between the stars, or delve deep underground? Do you want to level fast to see how the higher tiers of play run? Do you want to roll in the gold and spend as you please? What do you want out of the game? There is no wrong answer here.

Player Motivations

Why do you want what you want? This question is more important than actually stating goals for game play. Letting the GM peek into your brain to see why you want to accomplish certain goals will help the GM facilitate those goals more easily… and probably with a great deal more fun.

Character Goals

Now it’s time to delve into your character’s inner self and figure out what you want your character to accomplish as you roll through the campaign. Riches? Fame? Infamy? Revenge? Redemption? Do you want to find your long lost father and reunite with him? Do you want your hard-working mother to never have to punch the clock again? Cure a disease that plagues your hometown?

When developing goals for your character, try to come up with a short-term and a long-term goal. Make them achievable within the framework of the game/setting/group. Most of all make them matter to your character (and maybe the world at large), and have fun with them!

Character Motivations

Here we go again. I’m beating the “motivation drum.” If your character doesn’t have a reason to accomplish the goal, they’ll give up on it at the first sign of trouble or when the smallest challenge presents itself. If your character has a core reason to get out there and do the thing, they’ll go do the thing!

Events to Experience

This (and the next few areas) come from a combined player/character perspective. Think of yourself and your character as a melded entity when venturing through these next few areas.

What events or scenarios do you want to encounter? Why? Do you want high seas danger? Maybe you’ve never swung from a chandelier while rescuing a princess during a ball and that’s on your bucket list. Maybe you’ve never actually gotten to level 23 of Undermountain beneath Waterdeep, and you really want to get there (once properly leveled up and equipped). Never owned a starship? Cool. Let’s do that! Want to command an army on the field of battle? Sure. Let’s go for it!

Location Types to Explore

Are there locations in your setting that you’ve never gone to? Maybe you’re playing in Forgotten Realms, but you’ve never been to the ruined nation of Netheril. Time to head north and go explore. Want to fly a spaceship through a black hole and see what the GM imagines is on the other side? Yeah. Set course for the center of the Milky Way Galaxy and see what’s there.

Caveat: Newer players may not know what they don’t know, so they may need some guidance on this front. On the other side, veteran players may think they’ve seen it all, but there’s no way they have. They may need some nudges to get them going on the creative side of this question.

NPC Types to Meet

Like with locales in your setting, there are innumerable NPCs to meet and greet and debate and fall in love with and hate with a passion. Give your GM some ideas on who (or what) you might like to encounter in the setting in a non-combat situation. This can greatly assist the GM in world building. You don’t have to go super detailed into this. Something as simple as, “I want to haggle with a spaceport junk seller who has a gambling problem,” will work beautifully. There are numerous hooks just in that one quote that any skilled GM can hang onto and run with.

Monsters to Defeat

Never fought a dragon? (WHAT?!?! You need to fight at least one dragon in your career as a gamer!) How about a mind-flayer or a beholder? Those are great challenges even for a higher-powered set of characters. Want to kill a lich and successfully destroy its phylactery? Yeah. Send that to the GM as something you’d like to experience. Have you ever had to cleanse a small village of a doppelganger infestation? What? No? Propose that to the GM as an idea, and let them run with it! You never know what cool stuff your idea will implant into the GM’s brain.

Conclusion

As I said at the start, this is not session zero material, but something to take offline. If your GM puts time and effort into posing these questions, answer them. Don’t forget to answer or fully ignore the questions. If the GM is asking about this kind of material, then they truly do care what you have to say. Don’t consider it a waste of time. Consider it your contribution to the story arcs, campaign setting, and general campaign material the GM will pluck from to formulate future sessions.