Tesslerj: Created page with "Primer 2: Table Management *This System Is Dense As Hell **It’s ok to not remember everything. Write shit down so you don’t have to Do the Planning work first Sort out your dice pools for the opfor in advance Rule of thumb: About 10 Dice for Mediums and Lows About 20 Dice for Highs and Deadlies About 30 Dice for Extremes About 30-40 Dice for Semi Primes Anything over 40 Dice is Prime territory **It doesn’t actually matter the composition - you..."

2025-04-14T02:42:40Z

Created page with "Primer 2: Table Management *This System Is Dense As Hell **It’s ok to not remember everything. Write shit down so you don’t have to *Do the Planning work first **Sort out your dice pools for the opfor in advance **Rule of thumb: ***About 10 Dice for Mediums and Lows ***About 20 Dice for Highs and Deadlies ***About 30 Dice for Extremes ***About 30-40 Dice for Semi Primes ***Anything over 40 Dice is Prime territory ****It doesn’t actually matter the composition - you..."

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Primer 2: Table Management
*This System Is Dense As Hell
**It’s ok to not remember everything. Write shit down so you don’t have to
*Do the Planning work first
**Sort out your dice pools for the opfor in advance
**Rule of thumb:
***About 10 Dice for Mediums and Lows
***About 20 Dice for Highs and Deadlies
***About 30 Dice for Extremes
***About 30-40 Dice for Semi Primes
***Anything over 40 Dice is Prime territory
****It doesn’t actually matter the composition - you can plan it if you need to, but anything over extreme the requirement get wobbly
**Record book and page number notes in your planning notes
***This will let you Control-F look up things in legally acquired PDFs swiftly
***When someone hits you with an unexpected power, take 30 seconds to ask them for a book and page and look it up. No one will mind. We all know how crunchy SR5 is.
**What happens if someone throws you a curveball?
***Depending on who it is, it is ok to trust them with their mechanics - get a book and page to confirm, and let it roll.
***If it unbalances the encounter, LET IT.
***This just became their spotlight and you’ve learned something
***When in doubt, take a ten and check the rules or use the On Call GM tool.
*Set the Tone
**Plan your intro and outro
**Don’t just wrap at the end unless you’re crazy short on time
**Music? Think like how audiobooks do the opening and closing 30 seconds
**Landing Pages help set the overall run tone
*Setting Tone:
**Word choice, overall tone of voice, and content all contribute to tone.
*How to Do Good Picks
**Mechanically
***Pick characters who will have a mechanical spotlight during the run
***Pick characters who are “just right” - not overpowered, not underpowered
***There are exceptions to this - narrative choice overrides it, sometimes characters are overpowered on a different aspect than the run focuses on, etc.
**Narratively
***Pick characters who will have a narrative spotlight
***Faces should get more than just the Johnson negotiation
***Street Sams should have chances to intimidate, to do Physical Things, not just attack
***Mages should have something more than just “I zot the watcher spirit”
***Deckers/Technos should have more than just host diving something once or doing a matrix search
***Riggers should have a chance to use their drones or vehicles to some effect
**Splitting the Party
***Handling the “Van Sam” problem
****Notably, consider narrative spotlights above
****Pick characters with wider toolboxes
***“Decker Time”
****Communicate time expectations
****Let people take breaks while handling magic time, decker time, solo infiltration time
***During the course of the run, make sure, make sure each person gets a spotlight solo time - by removing the pressure of “making everyone wait for decker time”, you can communicate better - give players the agency to hang out and listen or take guilt free breaks without “missing anything” for their character
****Social face negotiations, narrative decker fights, etc
**COMMUNICATE
***Let players know time expectations - how long will decker time take? Is it the end of a session break where they can sign off early?
*RYG and the IC / OC line
**We know RYG / X Card for content on runs
**Use RYG for player stress, frustration with things, etc
***Failing sucks, sometimes the dice roll bad
***Discord actually kind of sucks for this - people talk over each other because there are no visual cues that someone wants to talk
***Actively communicate timing of breaks, of RP sections, of dice rolling sections, etc
***Actively get the quiet ones involved - “what is XYZ doing while the decker does… etc.”
**RYG is player safety - and that means both about questionable content as well as the modalities of gameplay
*Handling table management in a Play By Post
**Consider the ideas of Chapters and the old Choose Your Own Adventure books.
***What makes PBP difficult is that it is asynchronous - players are more likely to get lost
***What makes PBP difficult is that it is 100% text based - reading comprehension is hard
**So what to do?
***Give clear updates at each “chapter”
***Give potential follow up bullet points (Originally an Asmo idea) for the players to follow to reduce decision paralysis
***Requires a LOT more forethought, pre writing, and clear “checkpoints”
*Let go
**Shared Story
***Remember the goal is to lose well - and so any plot point which can be edited on the fly to have come from character choices and consequences is better than whatever you might have already written
***You are not a Game Master or a Storyteller, you’re a Guide - your goal is to guide these people through the story you’re created for them, but they are going to take their own route through it
***GM determines WHAT plot points are present, players determine HOW they get there.
***Be prepared and open for them to Go Left on something - when in doubt, call a ten minute break and plan.
**Set the dice up to be against the players. Set the world up to be against the characters. And then be entirely on their side the whole way through.
***Drak: “I’m going to make you bleed, but I have the bandages”
**Sometimes they come up with Better Shit. Roll with it!

GM Primer: Table Management - Revision history