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Game Master's Laboratory

Public • 146 • Free

14 contributions to Game Master's Laboratory
A Free Proactive Adventure
Hey everyone! @Jonah Fishel and I have been working on a new style for TTRPG adventures, and the first test of this method is now available in the classroom tab! These are meant to facilitate proactive play and emergent narrative. At the same time, we're working on making resources that both make this style of play easy to introduce to players, or are easy to bring to your friendly local gaming store and set up a new group. When we released the Game Master's Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying, we weren't quite satisfied with the adventure provided in the back of the book. We'd been scratching our heads on how to combine a prewritten adventure with the player-driven narratives of proactive play; they seemed to be at complete odds with one another. After lots of discussion and failed drafts, we're very happy with the result, and we think the core of what makes an adventure useful is preserved in this type of module, alongside the freedom to tell stories with friends around the table. We're almost done with a Proactive Adventure Manifesto that explains the details of this format and why we think it's an improvement on the industry standard, but for now, we can offer a quick explanation. These adventures are built around encounters as the fundamental unit of play, and those adventures or organized and altered by player goals. We've tried to reduce lengthy prose and make it as easy as possible for GMs to run these at the table with minimal prep, while keeping enough information to minimize prep and put newer GMs at ease. We also threw in some small changes we find useful: color coded highlighting, mechanically interesting monsters, stat blocks placed in the encounter where they are used, etc. Down the line, we'll be adding premade character sheets and pools of goals to choose from for groups in an extra hurry, and a compendium of stats (right now they're all only found in the encounters where they appear), but for now we want to get the basic adventure design down. We'll also be creating more game aids like printable paper miniatures, a map of the area (as opposed to battlemaps), a video walkthrough on how to use the packet, and possibly some art. For now, please check out the packet, and let us know what you think! We'll be making it available outside of the lab eventually, but in the meantime, you're welcome to run it, show it to whoever you like, and otherwise use it as you will. I'll post a feedback form on here in a few days, but feel free to discuss it in this post and chat with your fellow gamemasters.
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New comment 16d ago
0 likes • 16d
Has anyone had a chance to look over it? I need to take a deeper dive, and am looking forward to the video walkthrough. I only gave it a quick once over, but I like what I saw, mostly because I have been preoccupied with the question of how to prep for traditional, non-Proactive RPing groups or scenarios. Because I think there’s a better way to package and offer scenarios that aren’t big books full of text and deep background detail that will probably never see the light of day, whether you’re playing in a Proactive-Positive group or not.
1 like • 16d
One other quick comment, recently I’m keen to dive into Sly Flourish’s Lazy DM advice and books, as I think a lot of advice dovetails with what we’re talking about with Proactive campaigns here. But there was also a lot of great stuff in Ben Rigg’s Encounter Theory (https://www.writerbenriggs.com/encounter-theory), and one of the things he tried to provide were “workbooks” (things that he called “Play Plans”, I think), that tried to help give fillable sheets and prompts and things to help people get organised. Today, I think they might just be better as clean form-fillable PDFs or some kind of Google Doc, in all honesty.
TUNIC principle
Ben Milton of Questing Beast recently talked about Time Until Next Impactful Choice (TUNIC) and I thought it was an interesting, though nebulous suggestion. I mean, I know exactly what he means, but it’s less of a technique and more of a piece of generalized advice. Wondered if anyone else saw this and what their takeaways were? https://youtu.be/j-ywPjMEtq4?t=396&si=xPRn3Km85r0JFxVn
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New comment 18d ago
TUNIC principle
1 like • Jan 4
@Tristan Fishel Yeah, I think that makes sense and it does seem like how it’s intended, like the agenda principles from some story games. And I am with you, I am not sure the dungeon is some kind of “perfect form of roleplaying” like some of these OSR folks seem to think it is. Ben Riggs, of the now defunct Plot Points TTRPG podcast published an advice book called Encounter Theory that had some great advice, but also seemed to adhere to this concept. Or maybe it’s just guys named Ben that think that way, I don’t know. Anyway, sure dungeons give you “choice” but is really going left or going right a truly impactful choice, or is it just a choice?
1 like • Jan 4
@Tristan Fishel TUNIC is great as a guiding thought, but I’ve been thinking a lot about prep, and sadly, because I can’t seem to get anyone to try out the principles in Proactive Roleplaying with me, I’m looking to other shortcuts, like the ones on Deeper in the Game. The aforementioned Encounter Theory also talks about some of this stuff, in that a lot of scenarios aren’t written to be actually played at the table, and try to create a fictional narrative like in a novel, whereas it should just be all about the problems. But Bankuei talks about solely focusing on the sources of the problems, which I think dovetails nicely with Proactive Roleplaying concepts. It’s a pretty good and short read. https://bankuei.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/gm-improvisation-101/
Grimwild?
Has anyone tried playing this? For me, there’s probably too many rules, but I do like the presentation. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/507201/grimwild-free-edition
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New comment Jan 4
1 like • Jan 3
@Briggs Schneider Oh, if you get to it, I’d love to hear your reaction. I looked at the quickstart and it seems like it might be great for some D&D adjacent groups.
Tomorrow City
Hi Proactive friends! Looking for a couple of players for a mini campaign (3-5 sessions maybe) of the dieselpunk RPG Tomorrow City, to start within the next couple of weeks. The time would be UK evenings (ideally start at 6pm GMT or later), cadence to be determined but ideally either weekly or every two weeks on Sat or Sun (one player is in Pacific time).
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Poll: Mechanics and Style
We've had some great posts this last week about preferred mechanics of a game, and styles of GMing. It got me thinking---what sort of games are people in the lab running? Out of the following, what would you describe as the main focus in the game you run, a combination of your personal preferences and what the system you run is designed for? There isn't room to list every option, so some (like Blades' heists or Cthulhu's mysteries and horror) are lumped under other categories. If something really doesn't seem to fit, pick unlisted and comment yours below!
Poll
13 members have voted
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New comment Oct '24
0 likes • Oct '24
As a matter of fact, I have, @Briggs Schneider! Although I’m still caught up in a long-running Call of Cthulhu campaign, which I’m hoping I can wrap up soon. Though to answer your question, though, I’d be up for either, really, with a slight preference to play. When I considered running it (for some non-trad folks), I was waiting to pick up FoundryVTT in a sale and to get the module for it, so it takes some of the crunch and bookkeeping out of the equation. Anyway, I’d love to give it a try, depending on scheduling.
0 likes • Oct '24
@Briggs Schneider sounds good! :)
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Jon Jones
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30points to level up
@jon-jones-5045
Former Londoner from California, love story games like PbtA, etc.

Active 2d ago
Joined Aug 10, 2024
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