Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #43:

How To Maintain Game Consistency, While Winging-It,

For Left-Brain Game Masters, Part I

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SENT BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY With Compliments
From: Johnn Four, http://www.roleplayingtips.com
mailto:feedback@roleplayingtips.com

CONTENTS:
--> A Brief Word From Johnn

--> This Week's Tips Summarized

1. Focus On Tracking Key Information
2. Use a Numbered List For Cross-Referencing
With Players
3. Use A Campaign Calendar
4. Write a Campaign Journal
5. Enlist Your Players' Help

--> Reader's Tip Of The Week:

Crime & Punishment in Harsh Worldframes
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A BRIEF WORD FROM JOHNN

Campaign consistency is a big deal for me because I'm on a

quest to master the art of GMing on-the-fly. Also known as
freestyle, ad-libbing, winging-it, and "flying by the seat
of your pants".

I think it's important for you and I to become good at GMing

without scripted or published materials because you never
know what your players are going to do. Almost every session
I need to depart from my planned notes and make things up
quickly for a new encounter, NPC, world detail, etc.
Becoming good at that will definitely improve the quality of
our sessions.

A key to winging-it successfully is maintaining game

consistency. It's important to keep track of what you've
invented and to play it correctly in future game sessions.
Players are adept at picking up mistakes and
inconsistencies. And your campaign as a whole will suffer.

I titled this issue "How To Maintain Game Consistency, While

Winging-It, For Left-Brain Game Masters" because this week's
tips are based a lot on what I do, and I'm pretty left-
brained. By left-brained, I mean I like taking notes, making
lists, using charts, being organized and analytical.

For all you creative, right-brained game masters out there

who hate taking notes and making lists & charts, I've
written an article for Fiction-Fantasy.net titled "How To
Maintain Game Consistency, While Winging-It, For Right-Brain
Game Masters" Guess what that one's about? ;-)
I suspect you will fall somewhere between left and right-
brained, so perhaps you should read the tips for both groups
and pick the ones that suit you. The article for Fiction-
Fantasy.net should be out this week, and I'll confirm it
next issue.

Regards,

Johnn
mailto:johnn@roleplayingtips.com

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HOW TO MAINTAIN GAME CONSISTENCY, WHILE WINGING-IT,

FOR LEFT-BRAIN GAME MASTERS, PART I

1. Focus On Tracking Key Information

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Learn to track only the information that is critical to
campaign consistency. If you do this, then any additional
information you record or remember is a bonus and you can
feel confident about your campaign.

* Names (NPCs, places, things...)

* Dates (Current campaign events, historical dates, future
dates & obligations)
* Passwords, command words, unique & special instructions
* Locations and distances
* Descriptions (NPCs, places, things...)

Tracking hard facts like dates and names always goes a long
way towards keeping your campaign consistent.

2. Use a Numbered List For Cross-Referencing With Players

---------------------------------------------------------
This is a great way to track stuff if you're making it up as
you go along. On a sheet of paper or an index card, write
down important information as you invent it and number it in
the left margin. If the information involves a player's
character, have the player write that number down on their
character sheet for future reference.

For example:
1. Diamond, 50 gps (treasure found, I ask the player to put
diamond #1 on his character sheet)
2. Belgorn: capital of kingdom
3. June 21, 12pm: when PCs must return microfiche

Tips about using this method:

* Never repeat numbers. Always count upwards and don't start
back at #1 in the same campaign. You'll find that you can
number a lot of different information if you like this
method, and using unique numbers makes all information easy
to reference and track.

* Split your page or index card into 2 or more columns. I

find most of my entries are brief and take up half a line or
less. You can fit more numbered items on a page/card if you
use columns, which means less paper to worry about in the
long run. (Use the back side too!)

* While you should track things as soon as you make them up

so you don't forget, pick the right moment when giving
players numbers to record (i.e. Diamond #1 in the example
above). It can ruin the mood if you stop play for book
keeping. So, wait until the action or excitement is over and
then do your player number tracking.

3. Use A Campaign Calendar

--------------------------
A calendar is an excellent tool to track information on-the-
fly. If you use an imaginary calendar, create blank ones for
two years ahead and one year behind your current campaign
time. If you use a modern calendar, download a shareware or
freeware organization program and print out calendars for
two years ahead and one year behind.

As you make up information that's relevant to dates, simply

write it in the calendar for easy future reference. Use the
one-year-behind calendar to track things like villain plans
and groundwork, NPC travels and important events as you
mention them, so you can do accurate calculation in future
sessions if needed.

Also, create a general timeline page to track historical and

scheduled future events. Your timeline only needs to track
things on a time scale you feel necessary. For a modern
campaign it might only be 10-200 years. For an ancient
civilization you may need to track 10,000 or a million
years.

Another tip, create two blank sets of your calendars and

timelines. One set you use for private GM information. The
other set you give to the PCs to track campaign stuff for
you. At the end of each session take the players' copy and
add that info to your own. That way, you have 100% of the
information to maintain consistency, and the players have
only the information that they need to know.

4. Write a Campaign Journal

---------------------------
I take a few sparse notes during sessions and then flesh
them out into a campaign journal, or adventure log
afterwards. I send the journal to players before each
session to refresh their memories and I re-read the journal
as well for the same reason.

You can find many good journal tips here:

http://roleplayingtips.com/issue7.html

5. Enlist Your Players' Help

----------------------------
Let your players give you a helping hand by documenting,
handling and/or archiving your campaign information:

* Calendar duties
* Campaign journal creation & maintenance
* Campaign web site
* Campaign e-mail list
* Note taking

Also, at some point between sessions, think of anything that

you don't remember clearly about last session. Make a list
of questions and then send them to your players to answer
and clarify for you.

These techniques make campaign consistency a group effort

and takes some of the load off your shoulders.

====

Next week I'll have a few more tips on keeping your facts
straight if you game master on-the-fly or if you need to
depart from your plans & notes.

If you have any tips concerning ad-libbing, or GMing on-the-

fly, please send them in. Not only would it help my GMing
personally, but if the topic is popular we can help all the
other GMs who receive this e-zine too. Thanks!

Send your freestyle, ad-libbing, on-the-fly tips to:

feedback@roleplayingtips.com

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READER'S TIP OF THE WEEK:
Crime & Punishment in Harsh Worldframes

From: Riina

Hi there!

First off I really liked the article, it neatly expressed

something I've only fuzzily comprehended in the past, and
the mechanic looks rather helpful...

[See issue #41 Law, Crime & Punishment in Fantasy Role

Playing Games http://roleplayingtips.com/issue41.html]

But to my point. One of the problems I've often come up

against in very authoritarian and brutal game worlds is how
to justify not just killing the characters when they break
the laws.

For example, in some societies you might wish to represent,

justice may be swift and lethal e.g. Vampire, Cyberpunk
street gangs or the kingdom of the "Evil Overlord".

First of all, one might ask why not just kill the
characters? Well, for starters, without the characters the
story is over, and anything you've built up is over. Also,
if you kill their characters the players will start to wrap
them in cotton wool - it will get to the point where they
won't even walk on the grass. Not good if any of your plots
rely on characters taking the initiative, or rebelling
against the system.

This is well and good, but how do you then preserve the
atmosphere of your game world, and avoid the perception that
the characters can get away with anything? Firstly you need
an in game reason to let them live. Here are a few that I
can think of:

* They have friends in powerful places who the ruler cannot

afford to annoy too much

* The PCs are more useful alive, perhaps there is a war and
they need every sword they can get (for example)

* The ruler is in an unstable position and doesn't want to

create a martyr

* There are worse things than death (some of which are not
so bad to roleplay, especially if you like angst)

* Maybe the PC is too high status to just kill (eg. ranking

royalty, or a war hero)

At this point you have to work out what those in power will
actually do to the offending PC, because they will need to
do something, or else the illusion of control will slip, and
your evil overlord (or whatever) will look powerless.

The best punishments I have found tend to be inspired by the

middles ages, but you could pick any era or place in which
human rights have held little sway :)

Here are a few that have worked for me, and if done
carefully, they can promote rather than hinder roleplaying.
Just remember, if you go to far your players may become
over-cautious. Of course, if they are in need of more
caution, go your hardest....

* Social ostracism of some kind. This seems soft, but when

the society is small, and all important, and the character
is prideful this can be very harsh. Have them mocked and
insulted. Good for Noble concepts.

* Enforced servitude. Have the character forced to a term of

service to the leader or whoever is relevant to the
situation. Have them do horrible nasty things that they
don't want to do or are highly demeaning. (don't upset the
player!)

* For worldframes with a supernatural element, have them

magically restricted or cursed in some way. Be wary of
taking away all free will though, if you do that you may as
well kill the character as far as many players are concerned.

* Horrible mutilation. Particularly in worlds where healing

is easy you can deal out endless horrible physical
punishments (in public is even worse) of the most medieval
variety. If healing is not an option, think carefully about
how what you do will effect the game, but here's some ideas
that are not too crippling; branding, cutting off a finger
or toe, scarification of some kind.

* Public physical punishment, like the traditional ten

lashes, can work well.

Example: In a recent episode of a Vampire: the Dark Ages

game I run a player insulted and broke some of the property
of the Vampiric ruler of the city, who I have been setting
up as a particularly oppressive and cruel specimen of an
oppressive and cruel society. Now the player had been
roleplaying rather well in doing this, considering the
context so I didn't want to kill him (which is traditional
in such circumstances). Also, the ruler found his alchemical
skill useful. Instead the Evil Ruler in question had his
tongue cut out for his insolence (which he could easily
heal, being a vampire) and stole his shadow with a
supernatural power. The harshness of the NPC was maintained,
and in addition the character now gets to worry about what
the guy is doing to do to his shadow and how he is going to
get it back - something that will be a future plot.

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That's it for this week's issue.

Have more fun at every game!

Johnn Four
mailto:johnn@roleplayingtips.com

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