Author Topic: Some Help for a GM new to the System  (Read 1714 times)

Offline Mindflayer94

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Some Help for a GM new to the System
« on: August 20, 2010, 10:44:07 PM »
So, I've been GMing for a while (about 9 years), and a skill I've never seemed to have is spreading adventures over multiple sessions. This hasn't been a problem before, none of the games I've ran have had a mechanic resolving over multiple session run, but with the Fate system's advancement being central to this idea, I've run into a bit of a snag. I had hoped I'd be able to learn the skill by the end of my intro (to the setting/system) arc but with that having just closed about 10 min. ago, it appears I haven't. So any help you can offer?

Bonus Question: I've also been having trouble balancing encounters (often winding up too hard), is there any tips/tricks you can offer in this regard?

Thanks in Advance
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Offline Bruce Coulson

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Re: Some Help for a GM new to the System
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2010, 11:15:07 PM »
Have your players complained?  Although it's nice to have a scenario run multiple sessions, if everyone in your group is happy with resolving all the issues in a single night, then I wouldn't worry about it.  Just call each adventure a minor milestone.

Complexity is the key.  If you want your games to last more than one night, then you need to have a complex scenario.  Make the players investigate the strange issues; get them moving throughout your city, talking to NPCs.  Scatter the clues among various locations.  Read a few mysteries (or watch them on film); the hero(s) never find everything out in the first few minutes or chapters.  Use red herrings or sub-plots that work with the current main adventure.

Example, in our last sessions, the players had to find out why a crazed, feral supernatural was attacking people.  By talking to the first victim (which they saved), they found out a storage vault of old books, etc. had been broken into and fenced to various parties.  Some of the group went to the original vault site; others began researching whose books these were.  The group found that a wealthy family had gone decadent and mad; the sole known survivor had died, instructing his butler to burn all of the family documents.  Meanwhile, an illegitimate son (thought dead) ended up being cared for by the local Dominicans...until he broke out of his cell, ranting about recovering 'his stuff'.  The break out occured as the vault was being burgled... Then the group was attacked by construct rats fueld by Outsider energy; it seems the family had made a bargain with Outsiders to protect themselves from being taken over by vampires.  And the documents gave details.

In the end, the group confronted the warlock in a deserted park, protected by ghouls.  The group aided the crazed survivor and managed to kill the warlock, recovering the book detailing the family pact with the Outsiders.  One of the ghouls escaped (sans any documents).

This all took about three sessions, given the amount of interaction with NPCs (the abbot, the various criminal types, the WCV who was buying some of the documents as blackmail against another branch of the family; (the family had gathered a lot of info about who was trying to take them over); and a few battles (vs the thugs sent to intercept the document sale, and the construct rats).

It also left me with numerous plot threads to follow up when the time is right.

Hope this helps...
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Offline Lanir

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Re: Some Help for a GM new to the System
« Reply #2 on: August 21, 2010, 01:43:30 AM »
Very generic advice here: Add a side motive to an NPC the group has to deal with for some reason. If the NPC has something the group wants then he can involve them in his side project, which could easily have complications and repercussions of it's own. Especially if the NPC is someone the PCs would not normally wish to deal with. The most obvious example of this is someone who the PCs just aren't capable of strong-arming into submission but it could also work fine with a character where such tactics would lead to grave consequences. What's safe in this scenario depends on how much your PCs think with their fists.

Another possibility is to just add more middle men to whatever got the PCs motivated. A hit? A heist? A kidnapping? They were mercs. Lost item found? The perp fenced it already. Some supernatural boojum is acting up? Someone's pushing it's buttons and it may or may not have a choice in how it reacts.

Some of these have the side benefit of presenting a bad guy who isn't necessarily bad.