Gamemaster Appeal

There are any number of books and Web sites providing aspiring roleplaying game referees with hints on how to make a campaign appealing to players. The best is probably Robin's Laws, even though the author had to overcome being Canadian. 

But just recently I was jotting down some ideas for campaigns I'd like to run, and the thought suddenly struck me: what makes a game appeal to gamemasters?

Now, obviously, if you're a good "table gamemaster" who relies on published settings and adventures, the main thing is the quality of the product. Roleplaying game publishers stay in business by appealing to that market, so we can judge the gamemaster appeal of published products by sales. Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, the World of Darkness, Rifts, GURPS -- the commercial heavyweights obviously know how to appeal to gamemasters.

But if, like myself, you're the type who likes to write your own material, how do you make a game that you yourself will enjoy running? Because if the GM isn't having fun, it's unlikely the players will have much either.

My two longest-running campaigns were a Space: 1889 game I ran during the 1990s, and a World War II "occult OSS" game I ran during the 2000s. The 1889 game might count as a published setting, except that at the time I was writing tons of 1889 material for Game Designers' Workshop, so that campaign existed in a gray area between homebrewed and published setting.

In both games, I brainstormed long lists of adventure ideas right at the start. Some never got used, and of course I added to them over time. There was never a feeling of "what do I do now?" Instead my attitude was always "which cool idea can I use this time?" 

And I think that's the key: possibilities. A good campaign to gamemaster is one which opens up lots of possibilities in your mind. Obviously different settings hold inspiration for different people, so that you might be able to list dozens of ideas for a Wild West horror game, while I can go on forever with an interstellar espionage campaign. 

Note that both those examples are "mashups": it's not just the Wild West, it's the Wild West with monsters. It's not just interstellar adventurers, it's interstellar spies. Space: 1889 was the Victorian Era with spaceships. My World War II game was the OSS versus magic.

 I think the "mashup" works so well because it increases the possibilities. The cowboy monster hunters can also do straight-up Western adventures, plus you get the fun of melding fantastic elements into a genre everyone knows. Your "high noon" shootout takes place at midnight because the rival gunslinger is a vampire. You have two sets of tropes to play with, and simple mathematics indicates that the possible combinations of elements aren't just doubled, they increase geometrically.

So: go out and explore some possibilities.

  

Comments

[Chuk]

"even though the author had to overcome being Canadian."

*unsubscribe*

[Brian Rogers]

What appeals to me are, in no particular order:
1) I don't want to build something entirely new in terms of themes and setting. I've no problem with running a fantasy about easily-distracted noble swordsmen, or young kids from small towns who find a dungeon and end up saving the kingdom, or the crew of a Utopian-era space ship exploring the galaxy. I also don't have a problem running for angst filled monsters scrabbling to hold on to their humanity. I all cases someone else has done the heavy lifting, it's just in the last one it was a particular game company rather than generations of other creators.

2) If I'm going to do a theme or setting I want to get it _right_. I don't want a game system that's "close enough" or "that generic system that we have lying around or "any game can handle any setting with the right GM." I've no desire to use a backgammon board to play chess, and while I let someone else do the theme work I'll do a lot of heavy lifting to get the mechanics right - but if someone else already has then I've no problem appropriating their work.

3) I usually like things that are pure in their emulation - I want a western, not a western with monsters. For all that "An Invitation" was a Steampunk Mission Impossible it was also just Castle Falkenstein (someone else did the theme/setting heavy lifting) focused on the espionage that is already present in CFalk.

4) When I do have a mash up I want it to be something _new_. Mech & Matrimony works for me not just because no one else had ever mixed Jane Austen with Giant Robots, but to my knowledge no one else had ever done a Jane Austen RPG at all.

[Cambias]

Now, Chuk, I'm not criticizing Robin. I think it's inspiring how much he's achieved despite his handicap.