An Introduction to Game-Mastering an Old School FRPG

This piece was originally written for a planned Brave Halfling publication, geared toward younger gamers. Alas, that project fell through. 

When John gave me the go-ahead, as he had dibs, I revised it for another intro type game, that was being planned out on the OD&D Boards. That project took a different turn and looks stalled out now, as well! My recent post, asking if the article was still wanted, went unanswered.

So, I've made another, rather extensive revision and I'm posting it here, for archival and easy retrieval. Any criticism is most welcome.

An Introduction to Game-Mastering an Old School Fantasy Role-Playing Game 

by James A. Smith

I

Imagine you're the designer and caretaker of a magical place. A fantastic world, built in your imagination.

You’ll have a lot of fun creating this world, entertaining your friends and yourself with challenges, thrills and adventure! Your friends will be making their own contributions, as well, but as chief builder and host of this realm, you'll have to own a lot of the responsibility for bringing it to life.

You can name your world, whatever you want. A French word, Milieu, meaning "setting" or "environment," is often used when referring to RPG settings in general. You may guide your friends through a single adventure, or instead, run a series of adventures, set in in the same milieu and incorporating its own fictional continuity. This latter mode of play is called a Campaign and may last for a few sessions, or many years! 

The use of the terms "Campaign" and "Milieu," comes from the Miniature Wargaming hobby, from which the first Fantasy Role-Playing Game, arose. If you've read The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien, then you're already familiar with these ideas, as they appear in the form of a novel.

Middle-Earth, with all its history, features and lore, is the Milieu. The  action, which creates and unfolds the story, is the Campaign. The Fellowship, of course, is the Adventuring Party, which will be comprised of your players’ characters.

Through playing in your game, your players will build the Milieu in their imaginations as well. Their actions during play will drive, shape and flesh-out the campaign. Allowing them to contribute ideas to the Milieu itself is a good idea. If a player creates a Fighting-Man and thinks of a cultural, or historical background for his character, which he finds enjoyable, consider incorporating those ideas. Another player might take the role of a Cleric and have an idea for his character's god and religion, which excites his imagination and fits his conception of what he wants to play, closer than the material you've already selected for inclusion. 

There are times when this sort of player input can clash with your vision of the Milieu and there are valid reasons for wanting to establish limits on this kind of thing. If you're going for an Arthurian mood, a la Sir Thomas Malory, then you don't want Monty Python and the Holy Grail thrown into the mix. But, allowing room for the imagination of your players is always a good idea. For your first campaign, I would suggest a loose framework and generous allowance for player input, as the experienced gained from that approach will prove useful in future endeavors. 

Pre-existing Milieus, or Campaign Settings, may be purchased, or downloaded for free. If you're going this route, I would recommend picking up one of the smaller settings of this sort, as it will allow you plenty of elbow room and facilitate your making the setting your own. Pre-made worlds make for a good set of training wheels, but you might also consider consulting them for instruction and inspiration, instead, then going ahead with a creation of your own.

Some GM's prefer pre-fabricated Milieu's. It can be quite a bit of fun, playing around with someone else's world and there are several such creations, which have developed a strong and loyal following.

II

During the game the players will describe their actions, to you and each other. They can do anything they can imagine, within the boundaries set by the established reality of the milieu. In most fantasy game world's, they can walk to the next town, for instance, but can't fly there without magical aid. If there is a chance that their chosen action may fail, or a question regarding their degree of success, a random die roll is used to determine the outcome.

The GM (Game-Master) describes the actions of everything else in the Milieu, which the characters interact with and perceive. When it comes to conversation, the players and GM may "speak in character," like actors in a play, though some groups prefer to describe what is being said, as opposed to "speaking in character" and often a mixture of those two approaches is used.

As the GM, it's your responsibility to create the various people, places, things and events, which provide opportunities for adventure. Perhaps there's an ancient ruin, near the village where the Characters live. A place containing several underground levels, wherein live dangerous monsters, guarding fabulous treasures.

An underground complex, containing monsters, traps, treasure and wondrous things, is called a "Dungeon." Adventures also take place aboveground and "Wilderness,” or “City" adventures, can come into play.

But, a Dungeon, Wilderness, or City, isn't a place with monsters and Non-Player Characters, NPC's, for short, just standing around, waiting to be killed. It's a living, breathing environment. The intelligent inhabitants have their own goals, doings, friends, pets, enemies, etc. Non-intelligent creatures have drives, instincts, habits, predators, prey and so forth. Think of a large Dungeon like it's a weird, underground city, filled with monsters instead of civilized inhabitants.  

As opposed to a statue in the town square, merchants running shops and townsfolk, going about their business, you may find the following:

A magical talking statue, worshiped by lizard-men who jealously guard it's secrets, while a goblin shaman plots to acquire the lizard-men's treasure for his own monstrous tribe. Meanwhile, an imp has made contact with the goblin shaman, planning to use the tribe of humanoids for his own ends, which involve events two dungeon levels down.

A small group of ogre's have recently taken up residence in an out of the way corner of the dungeon level and are building a cooking-pit, because they find BBQ goblin to be tasty. Within their newly established lair, a secret door awaits discovery, hiding an ancient evil, which has lain dormant for centuries.

Giant rats lair in many of the chambers, not in use by the other inhabitants. Groups of goblins hunt the rats for food, keeping a wary eye out for the lizard-men and ogres. The lizard-men, who recently became aware of the ogre incursion, have decided they must drive them out, before the ogres kill or enslave all the inhabitants of the level.

And everyone avoids the door at the southeastern corner of the level. The one made of black oak, banded in Iron, into which has been etched blasphemous sigils and the names of dark gods. Ghastly screams are sometimes heard, emanating from the corridor which houses that door. And one of the less cautious goblins, recently saw the door opened, as inky black tentacles dragged a lizard-man, his struggling as futile as his cries for help, into the darkness of the room beyond.

Ok, in a fantasy world, a similar situation might be found in a more "conventional" city as well. Or, in a wilderness setting. Perhaps there's three statues! One in the dungeon, one in the city and another, somewhere in the wilderness and all three are magical and connected somehow, with one another! The situations surrounding each statue should be varied, of course, though the nature of the statues themselves, may dictate certain commonalities. 

III

During the course of play, characters will meet all sorts of people, creatures, animals, etc. Some of these will become friends. Some may be business contacts, such as shop owner's. Some may become allies. Some will be enemies. It's your job to bring all these Non-Player Characters (NPC's) to life! Give them personality, goals, plans, secrets. Often, these will be bit-players, with only a few thoughts necessary for their portrayal. Other times, they will be more important and you’ll want to create more detail.

NPC's have their own goals and motivations. Here, the opportunity for conflict may arise, bringing into play one of the most important aspects of your role. Challenging the party. Your aim is to entertain and challenge your friends, not kill their characters. That's easy. You can kill a character with just a thought and a word. As a GM, you're running the game for your friends as well as yourself. The GM is pro-player and pro-campaign. Ultimately, you're on their side. Ultimately. But, to provide them with the experience they’re looking for, you need to challenge them. In short, you're going to try to kill their characters, but you'll be doing so, within boundaries designed to give them a decent chance at survival.

While playing out a battle against the PC's is fun, the GM's actions should reflect neutrality, whenever the player's are dealing with persons, places, or things, aside from themselves. Combat, haggling over prices at the market, dealing with local rulers, etc. NPC's and Monsters will do what's best for themselves. A friendly NPC may go out of his way to help the characters. A hostile monster may try to kill, cheat, or otherwise harm them.

IV

As the game progresses, you'll create more opportunities for adventure. Your world moves along, independently of, as well as in interaction with, the Characters. Obviously, you can't plan out EVERYTHING. Stay a few steps ahead of the players, while working on a few longer ranged ideas. You'll soon find your own way of handling things.

A good idea is to give the players more than one "adventure hook," or lead on where to find the next Treasure Hoard! They’ll start setting their own goals, giving you plenty of ideas. Always let the players choose their own coarse of action! This doesn't mean, that they won't occasionally find themselves boxed into a corner, or left with unpalatable choices. No one ever said, that adventuring was easy! This can be difficult on a new GM, especially when players go off in an unexpected direction. Experience and practice will come to your aid.

After your campaign is under way and you have a bit of experience, invite your players over for an unplanned, spontaneous gaming session. A one-shot game. Roll-up some pre-generated characters, or let them roll their own. Then, GM an adventure completely on the fly. Make everything up right there, at the table. Use Random Encounter Tables to spontaneously discover whatever is inhabiting dungeon rooms, or wilderness hexes!

Some GM's let this idea freak them out. Don't! By this point, you'll probably have already discovered that you can be just as creative while GM'ing, as you can while doing prep work. And unless your players have gone out of their way to be very solicitous, you've probably already had to do a bit of serious "winging-it."

Your players will give you all sorts of wonderful ideas. Not verbatim, usually. It's like using a random table. Their conversations, speculations and plans, spark off all kinds of useful ideas, when your creative juices are flowing.

Once you feel comfortable with the process, try going into a few gaming sessions, with the plan of running them "on the fly." Some GM's prefer this style, or a mixture of prepared encounters, combined with spontaneous happenings. The DM's best friend, the Random Table, will serve as a secret weapon, generating ideas and spurring your creativity, whenever you need a helping hand. Once you're comfortable flying without a net, you’ll be ready to deal with whatever your players throw at you!