Wanted to talk about advice on GMing, settings you prefer, and styles or issues you as a GM have. I generally tend to prefer dark fantasy or sci-fi settings rather than trying something a little different. I also tend to have a style, depends on the system though, where i have a combat heavy session or two and then a more intrigue/exploration focused session. I have been working on how to better balance games I run, but trying to tie that to timing a game session gets tricky at times. Another issue I noticed is that puzzle solving or investigative games can be a lot harder for a player to get into the mindset for than the dm. It is easy to think everything you planned makes sense when you thought it out in your head but the players might not have the same line of thought.
>>97218290Old fa/tg/uy here. Started with AD&D. I'm old. I have kids. I don't belong here. Been a DM for 25+ years.Setting is all us. We make it, define it, explain it. Occasionally I'll have a player or two that I can trust to engage in the worldbuilding, but this whole trend of "shared worldbuilding" (a la Daggerheart) gets fucked fast. You aren't responsible for "balancing" the pillars of combat, exploration, or social. Your players are responsible for that. You're responsible for setting up the scenarios and encounters that they can interact with. Don't write "plot". Straight puzzles and riddles either have to be very obvious or you need to allow the solution to be open ended (such as flexing the solution to reward player creativity). Always have a way around and tell your players there's always a way around. Don't lock something behind a single door, let them come up with solutions and - challenge them- but reward them with an outcome you didn't plan. If you want exploration you need a carrot in addition to the stick. The danger with exploration is that you use up resources and encounter danger. If you're going to do that you need to reward them with good shit when they explore. Not just treasure but reputation, titles, fame, land, contacts etc. After every session ask your players what they plan to do next session. This gets them thinking ahead and gives you a chance to plan some encounters. For mysteries, give a lot of clues and give them out easily. If the players look for something they'll find it, but it'll take some time. You can make that interesting by applying some pressure. It'll take them an hour to search the room but the guards are going to come by in two hours; which rooms do they want to search? Do they want to risk it? Do they want to fight the guards instead? Give them clues and let them put the clues together, but don't be stingy with clues.
>>97218365I guess what I mean by having more combat or intrigue focused sections is sometimes my notes tend to go for one side over another. I used to plan more stuff out, but as you said, it is a lot more fun seeing players solve issues by thinking outside the box rather than having a set solution.I do like your advice on asking players what they want to do before the next game. That really made all the difference when I started doing it a while back.
>>97218290To echo some of what >>97218365 said, you don't need to dedicate sessions to intrigue/exploration.If the goblins in a dungeon don't attack the PCs on sight, and instead scheme with the players to try to get them to kill their boss, that's intrigue. If the players are discovering things in the new rooms of a dungeon, that's exploration. Intrigue is just 'talking to NPCs that have their own motives', and exploration is just 'discovery'. It's on the players to engage with that.As far as investigation games go, that tends to work better in dedicated systems, but you basically want to flood the players with clues. Remember that the players aren't actually Sherlock Holmes, and so if you're expecting the players to make the deductions, you need to give them an appropriately difficult mystery. You also want to avoid including a purposeful red herring. The players are already likely to pick out the wrong person as the culprit, so you don't want to muddy things further by trying to trick them on purpose.
