View source for GM Primer: Game Design

Primer 1: Game Design
* Outline your work
** Determine run premise
** Outline narrative beats
** Add in mechanics
* Do the Work:
** Outline, plan, prep
** Run better games, not just more games
* Personalize your work
** Run requests
*** Should obviously have key spotlight moments for the run requesters
*** Other runners should have less narratively impactful spotlight moments but should still get the spotlight
** Open Call
*** You know the roles you need - place spotlight moments for those roles
*** Don’t take roles you don’t need. Sometimes that means lower runner numbers, which frankly makes encounter mechanics easier to manage, anyways.
* Key Narrative Points
** Plan out, pre-write if you need to, key narration. What do the important moments of complication look and sound like? What does the key VIP look like? Borrow from DND Modules, etc.
** What items can you pre-plan to make sure those spotlight moments happen?
** Sometimes this can be narratively impactful moments of deep emotional roleplay and character developments
** Sometimes it’s just big numbers and giving the soak tank some ridiculous thing to soak so they get to see their build do the thing they built it to do.
* Overall Narrative Process
** Freytag's Pyramid
[[File:FreytagsPyramid.jpeg|600px|thumb]]
** Agency and Character Driven Stories
*** Players are there to be the stars of the show, not passive observers of it.
*** Things occurring in a run should be anchored in character motivation, character driven, actions.
*** This means planning a “Most Likely” route for success, but pre-thinking alternatives and being open to player improvisation
*** Run complications should not occur, not as “Gotchas!” - we want characters to be surprised, not players
*** Signposting, or foreshadowing, is vital for this. Give them enough clues to put things together. If the complication happens because they’re not paying attention, that’s on them - and the complication will make more sense to them in context later.
** Sometimes the run solution is literally “The Players will do something clever”
** Look for reasons to say that yes, it works, as opposed to shooting down ideas until they magically read your mind
** Look for places to reward character actions with plot points as opposed to holding the plot points until they do Just the Right Thing
*** This will avoid a lot of player frustration because they feel like they are always making progress.

'''Link to Zoom Recording for Session 1:''' https://valenciacollege.zoom.us/rec/share/az7Iw99vHWprt8TIyFuJbGb0tEu1nQIvzpcCbAne5cKdaxAuoaMfXeNar5NhSPlu.Jgb6t968Wrib1W2e