#131: Games For GMs
#131: Games For GMs
First of a series of thoughts from a January full of gaming.
I. Dear Reader
I’ve been playing lots of different games over the last two months: Spire, Swords of the Serpentine, Blades in the Dark, and more. It’s been an embarrassment of riches. These are all very different games and there’s a couple patterns that I’m seeing by playing all these games together. Today, I want to talk about the first one.
When I get excited about a game, the basic reason is that I think it will let me Say A Cool Thing At The Table. Like when I read Spire, I get excited by the opportunity of saying things like “I’m an enemy of Brother Hellion’s Church of the Gun” or “You receive a vision from Rob, the god of mugging”. When I read Blades in the Dark, I’m excited by the idea of saying “I flashback to having bribed that guard” or “On a fail, you get decapitated by that Iruvian master swordsman. Would you like to resist that?”
The best games are when I get to say cool stuff all the time. And the corollary is that games that limit my opportunity to say cool stuff are a drag. For example, any game that has “on a miss, nothing happens” is greatly limiting my opportunities. Which is one of the reasons I don’t like those games.
The most common kind of cool thing a game provides for a GM is the setting: adventure locations, monsters, etc. (For players, the quintessential cool thing is the character ability. For example, “I throw my knife and teleport to its location”. ) But describing the world is just one of the many things a GM has to do. How many games give GMs something cool to say regarding, say, pacing?
In my review for the Indie Game Reading Club, I called Trophy Gold “the rare example of a GM’s game”. By that I meant, it’s the rare example of a game that is much more designed for GMs than players. Same with Brindlewood Bay and The Between really. These aren’t my favourite games but I see why they’re popular and it’s for a good reason.
The history of this hobby has led to a lot of games not wanting to “impose” on the GM. Procedures for GMs - i.e. things that the designer thinks will help the game run better - are often listed as advice. The reasons for this are complicated and probably beyond my ability to explain. But even as that paradigm of “GM advice/Player rules” continues, lots of games do things differently.
I mean, for all the flashy stuff that Apocalypse World is credited with, it’s the GMing side of things that feels like most vital. Even now, for me, the big difference between a “good PbtA game” and a “bad PbtA game” are how effectively it has designed the GM’s side of things. Does it give me tools for pacing? Does it help me come up with interesting situations and dramatic consequences? Same with Forged in the Dark. Running Blades in the Dark, there are a number of small things that exist to make the GMing faster and more fulfilling, including that character creation spits you out with a rival who wants to get back at you.
I need more games designed for GMs.**
Yours plaintively,
Thomas
** Remember, this doesn’t mean that players get less. It isn’t zero-sum. Clarifying because the internet has filled my brain with imaginary haters. It’s the modern equivalent of being haunted by a demon - except the demon is a reddit or twitter user with more numbers than letters in their handle.
In case you missed it last week, this newsletter now has a patreon! Thanks to everyone who signed up. If you’d like to join the 30+ people helping me keep this going, please click the button.
Also, if you’ve released a new game on itch.io this month, let me know through this form so I can potentially include it in the end of the month round-up.
II. City23: Immoria
You can read all the entries at immoria.xyz.
For the rules of what a submission looks like, go here!
Announcing a new compass: TRANSPORT. How do people move around the city of Immoria? How do goods move? We know the city is canaled but what does gliding along the river of time mean and what does it do to you?
III. Media of the Week
Big recommendation this week is the wonderful Team Up Moves, a podcast dedicated to playing and discussing superhero games. Fiona and Stephanie play a one-shot of a superhero game and then spend an episode discussing it with their other players. I think the quality of the discussion is really high, especially if you like superhero comics. And their latest episode features SFF author, Seanan McGuire, if that’s a draw!
IV. Links of the Week
Articles
An interview with designer, Samuel Mui, about their solo game Horse Girl where you document your physical and mental transformation into a horse by the love of your life. (Also featured on Dicebreaker here)
A companion piece to last week’s article about messy games, a related article on how messy folk games get cleaned up and sold.
For Polygon, Em Friedman writes about their favourite Actual Plays that don’t feature D&D. Seems to be a really good list!
What does a good starting adventure look like?
Molten Suplhur talks about the Queen of Mali from The Epic of Sundiata, as inspiration for your NPCs
ZineMonth
Linda Codega’s round-up of games on Gizmodo.
Cannibal Halfing Games does a great job as usual.
The Cozy Cauldron blog is a new blog to me but it has a cool list.
Tabletop Gaming picked a top 25 campaigns as well.
Reviews
A five-part review of Brindlewood Bay by way of Umberto Eco and literary criticism.
A review of Last Oath, a Fighting Fantasy-esque solo gamebook by Lucas Rolim
A review of Mage the Awakening 1st edition on It Came From The Bookshelf blog.
Split/Party are reviewing XIII: Inner Demons, a game about demons, humans, horro and trauma.
Misc
The Andrews McNeel publishing house has announced that it isn’t publishing new RPGs anymore. This means that games like Into the Motherlands, a game by Tanya DePass among others, are left scrambling to figure out a new publishing pathway.
Foundry10, an education research body, published a report on building social and emotional skills through roleplaying games.
V. Small Ads
All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.
Strictly Between Us is a larp for gamers who want to move and dancers who want to tell stories featuring partner dancing, relationships, amazing blues music, and big FEELINGS! On Kickstarter Now
Swann Castle is a multiversal setting of mighty warriors, talking ponies, ghost knights, fairies, dinosaurs, lasers, perfect pizza, superheroes, and more, for use with any RPG. Back on Kickstarter!
The Connection Machine is a science fiction RPG about attachment, trauma and the search for meaningful connection. Explore a dream-like world to create stories about hope, grief, shame, freedom, attachment and love.
Hopes and Dreams of the Orbital Bound is a slice of life sci-fi RPG about living on a gigantic alien space station and everyday community drama.
This newsletter is currently sponsored by the Bundle of Holding.
There’s a big Worlds of 2d20 bundle featuring games form Modiphius which includes Dune, John Carter of Mars, and more.
There’s also Delver’s Lost Tomes, a quick deal on maps and random tables compatible with OSE.
Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. If you’d like to support this newsletter, share it with a friend or buy one of my games from my itch store. If you’d like to say something to me, you can reply to this email or click below!
I think that Monster of the Week has one of the best Keeper's guides of any book. It was the first time I ever read about the GM's agenda and principles and how those can be used to set the tone, keep things moving, and guide GM choices. I also love the use of countdowns (or clocks) to control pacing. From a GM's fun perspective, the framing of the GM's job as making "moves" is very appealing to me because even though as a PbtA GM I'm not rolling the dice, I'm still playing the game not just setting the scene. MotW was also where I learned about "failing forward" and that a "miss" never means nothing happens.