altos
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Need advise for a new GM on preparation

Wed 17 Nov 2021, 10:08

Hi guys, new comer to T2K here. Just got my hand on a physical copy of T2K and wonder how much preparation work is needed typically to start a campaign? My experience in RPG dates back decades ago (but stopped playing for a long time after high school) and have been a GM for AD&D a couple of times. What I found in T2K is the lack of modules (unlike AD&D) providing a complete stories and detailed background for exploration. I have watched a couple of brilliantly performed games on YouTube but they didn't show how much work was done by the Referee behind the screen. Apart from the excellent participation of the players, I can't help but feel the sessions were very ad-hoc, almost like making up the world around them on the fly. I really need some advise for preparation in T2K, any comments on the subject would be very much appreciated.

-Altos (aka Axle)
 
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omnipus
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Re: Need advise for a new GM on preparation

Wed 17 Nov 2021, 10:14

Having done it both ways a number of times, I can say that you definitely can run the game with basically zero prep. But, the sessions I have spent extensive time prepping for have almost always been decisively better. The more I have understood the world, and the more the players understand it, the more interesting and dynamic it becomes.

My advice: give the players some background and a fairly straightforward mission. After that, they may very well start creating their own missions or the world may move in unexpected ways. If it gets stale at all... prep another mission. Every time tying in to the overall world that you are trying to build. The sessions that fall flat are the ones where the world doesn't feel immediate or real.
Author, Central Poland Sourcebook -- now available on DriveThruRPG
 
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ottarrus
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Re: Need advise for a new GM on preparation

Thu 18 Nov 2021, 17:18

Military RPGs have their own unique preparation problems, especially if you've got a military veteran at the table. But these can all be overcome fairly simply.

- Remember that the point of historical divergence in the T2K4 setting is 1992-3. Anything that might have changed in any military after that is at your discretion. If you don't want some super weapon that began fielding in 1995, it's simply not there, period.
- Google Earth is a **Godsend** . You can use it to show actual photos of areas traveled through
- Just like a fantasy game, have an idea of what story you want to tell and use subtle direction to encourage that general path. Players will always have input and often your cunning plans will go sideways, but have the broad strokes of you themes helps a lot.
- Take a look a the 'hex-crawl' rules. Traveling through a problematic hex can easily take up a full session if you're stumped on what to do this particular game session.
- One thing that a lot of people lose track of is that every RPG, no matter how obscure, is about PEOPLE, not guns. Everyone trips up about their gear list in T2K, but how you deal with NPC's is far more important than what you carry.
 
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omnipus
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Re: Need advise for a new GM on preparation

Thu 18 Nov 2021, 19:54

On that last note, having an NPC or two that tags along with the PCs to provide some indispensable function, but also doesn't agree with everything they do and acts like a real person would is probably the easiest GM trick there is and can definitely help when you haven't done much prep. Eventually, it's surprising how attached they may become to these NPCs which can lead to all sorts of things.
Author, Central Poland Sourcebook -- now available on DriveThruRPG
 
altos
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Re: Need advise for a new GM on preparation

Fri 19 Nov 2021, 13:13

Thank you all, those are very sound advise.

-Altos
 
baldrick0712
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Re: Need advise for a new GM on preparation

Fri 19 Nov 2021, 13:48

The hardest part about T2K4 for me is thinking of what the players might actually want to achieve, and how difficult it would be. It probably helps to discuss with the players their backstories and Big Dreams to come up with a campaign structure. Instead of them all just wanting to get home, maybe one member of the group is a Polish or Swedish national who wants to find their family. Rumors could be used about where a large group of refugees where heading. You could also be mean and have their vehicle break down in session 1, so they have to find parts to repair it - or just say in session 0 that their vehicle was found broken down and immobilized so the first thing they need to do is get it working. The players might also not be interested in getting home as they think home is in no better shape than Poland/Sweden and so they want to set up a base that will serve as a beacon of hope to allied soldiers and civilians alike. It's also a good story generator to have one main "baddy" - perhaps a general of either side who the characters really need to defeat. That could result in some sort of "Edge of Darkness" style gameplay as they investigate rumors about his last known whereabouts etc.
 
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omnipus
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Re: Need advise for a new GM on preparation

Sat 20 Nov 2021, 05:06

This is why I'm working on the module/supplement that I am. I had a pretty hard time off the bat visualizing the area and working out how people actually lived and survived. I ended up doing a lot of research and reading and looking at videos and images, and after a while had amassed a good amount of detail that all went into one small city the players were using as a home base more or less. The more I fleshed this out, as much so they could understand how the world worked around them as for me, the more crucial I realized it had been. And truly full of easy adventure hooks, NPCs, and encounters of all sorts.
Author, Central Poland Sourcebook -- now available on DriveThruRPG
 
leonpoi
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Re: Need advise for a new GM on preparation

Wed 24 Nov 2021, 12:18

All these posts sounds like very good suggestions. I'll tell you what I have found as helpful as a GM. Almost all of my games have been semi-improvised / character driven rather than using pre-baked modules. As an idea, you can get your hands on 2nd edition twilight modules if you are interested on drivethrurpg as pdfs - these might be helpful.

I'm also assuming you are doing more face to face games?

First things first I think improv games need some basic prep - you need to have some tools at hand to help quickly fill in some gaps. What you need will depend on what your strengths are, but for me it's
- random generators for things like names (I can NEVER think of a name on the fly). Even the backers list in the covers of the book can be handy in a pinch! e.g. a "polish name generator" might be helpful
- some maps you can use for villages etc - for me - I tend to get some big-sized sketch pads and lay them in the middle of the table. Then, if there is an encounter etc, I draw a map quickly so that everyone has a sense of what's where
- some form of "oracle" (omnipus) has mentioned such things in a few posts. There's one in the GM book. My favourite is the Mythic Game Master Emulator (really all you need is one page from that whole book with the fate questions and thread generators). I actually got the Mythic Game Master card deck since then - but the original method was more than fine. What an oracle will do, is allow you to ask questions and they generate ideas that you wouldn't normally think about - the Mythic one is a nice balance of ease and interesting outcomes

For prep, I suggest you have some ideas or encounters already mapped out. For me, I might sit down one morning and search the internet or just come up with some ideas, and I summarise key points of the potential encounter. Maybe 3-6 ideas. I don't go into huge detail because 1) I don't have the time, 2) the players may never actually use the encounter, and 3) I may want to tweak it based on what the characters are doing. Regardless I write down the list of the adventure ideas (more "adventure seeds" with a tiny bit of fleshing out) in a notebook and I use these ideas if and when they are appropriate to what the players are doing. Importantly, because I have mapped out these ideas before hand I can seed rumours and side adventures related to these to make the whole thing feel more connected to the world - i.e. "foreshadowing". If I think that one adventure idea might lead to another then in my notebook I draw a line connecting the two to remind me that this can be structured like a mini-campaign. \

In this way I am railroading players slightly without them strictly knowing it because they are hearing rumours about 2-3 adventure seeds and getting to choose which (if any) they are interested in investigating. By subtly giving hints of things they can do that might be interesting they are making their own choices but 80% of the time within what I have very loosely prepped for.

e.g. an encounter with a band of marauders could be foreshadowed by sightings during the day. Rumours with locals about the trouble this band is causing. Intercepted radio chatter overheard. Then maybe a small ambush or fight can be set up, perhaps the PCs come across a few marauders looting bodies - depending on what happens then the PCs may have prisoners, may have the option to pursue / track the fleeing marauders etc. Even if all the marauders are dead, perhaps a villager who was hiding comes out and thanks the PCs - maybe this leads to a nice event in the neighbouring village, maybe the PCs learn that the marauders have taken hostages - now what to they decide to do with that info ?? etc etc. Perhaps they now want to learn where the base is. Then track it. Then get some good equipment. Stage an ambush. Scout them. Attack them. Before you know it you have 3 sessions of play based on one idea that just took root and grew!

It's also important to get the tone right of the game and to understand some of the area in which the PCs. Again, Omnipus has mentioned he's working on modules for this very reason. There's a few ways of managing this - all the normal advice you get from the GM section of rpg books. Describe sights, smells, sounds, etc from a scene. For me I find it useful to take something that I have adopted from Fate and other rpgs - it's the idea of environmental "aspects" - or maybe traits / truths / descriptions are a better name for it. In every area, including the overarching part of the map that the PCs are in, I write down 2-3 of these "aspects" (I use small posit notes on the map). These posits describe the key features of the game area currently (and can and do change over time and due to the PC actions).
e.g.
the area around Kalisz might be 1) overrun by Russia troops hunting stragglers ; 2) drenched by persistent drizzle ; 3) devastated by the war. Stick these on the map and the PCs can immediately see what kind of things are a threat or opportunity in the area. e.g. when they enter the village, maybe the village is 1) busily preparing damaged defences ; 2) once beautiful church lies in ruins ; 3) suspicious of strangers. etc etc

I find this super helpful as it helps set up the tone and creates some common understanding of the scene / area.

Some other fairly useful GM hints:
- ask the players what they expect to see when they enter a new location - e.g. you see the village just down the road and you will enter the village soon- what do you expect to see when you get there, do you expect it's bustling or do you think it's silent? Something else? This throws the improv back on the players, you can always overrule if you don't like it, you get some feedback about what they are thinking and what makes sense to them given the version of consistency in the world
- my favourite from apocalypse world games is the "what do you do?". So, they fight the marauders - but two escape and are running into the woods - you don't ask "the two remaining marauders turn and start running into the woods, do you give chase?" you ask "the two remaining marauders turn and start running into the woods, what do you do?" ok - this is a bad example BUT in general, the open ended what do you do? opens up more options from the PCs because they think of things you haven't.

So ...... in summary !!!
1) get some basic tools to make prep on the fly
2) prep a few ideas or locations that might be interesting
3) seed these ideas from time to time - try to semi railroad the PCs without them feeling like their options are cut off
4) use a few scene / area descriptions to set the mood and theme of the game
5) when the action actually starts, don't railroad at all - use "what do you do?"
 
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omnipus
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Re: Need advise for a new GM on preparation

Thu 25 Nov 2021, 20:23

That's all great advice there. I will second the recommendation of Mythic GME. However, I also wouldn't sell short the small set of oracles provided in the Solo Play section of the Referee's Manual. Yeah, it's kind of hiding there, but it's got some great stuff that provides solid context or surprising answers for all sorts of situations. It's all left very open to interpretation, but that's what makes it powerful. You can easily use these tables to roll up a number of the encounter sketches that leonpoi was talking about in just a few minutes. These often can lead to clues or story threads that can be handy in helping the players decide what they want to be doing, getting back on the trail of the big campaign goal, etc... so I'm just always spending a little bit of my prep time thinking of ways I can add a little bit of that stuff in.

Another thing that makes a big difference is how aligned or decisive your players are. Some groups have a goal in mind and will set out and basically generate their own missions and encounter ideas all the time. Others are much more reactive. I've found it's handy to have some "priority missions" in the back pocket that get forced on the players sometimes when they seem indecisive, which serves two purposes: 1) it keeps the momentum going, 2) it builds even more context for "what is important to some of the players in this world." I mean players in the non-game sense here. Agents, factions, forces... whatever. If it's a priority, it must mean something, right?
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finarvyn
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Re: Need advise for a new GM on preparation

Fri 26 Nov 2021, 01:51

- some form of "oracle" (omnipus) has mentioned such things in a few posts. There's one in the GM book. My favourite is the Mythic Game Master Emulator (really all you need is one page from that whole book with the fate questions and thread generators).
Not to sound obtuse, but I have the Mythic GM Emulator but have never used it. Can you tell me which page is the most useful one? Do you mean the one called "Fate Chart"?
Marv / Finarvyn
Fell in love with Tales from The Loop, Vaesen, 5E LotRR ... Now hooked on Dragonbane, which still should be called Drakar och Demoner IMO. Played OD&D since 1975..

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