GM Techniques

We’re back and we’re stealing everything that’s not nailed down. This episode is all about clever things we’ve seen other GMs do and how we’ve incorporated them into our own games. No matter how many pieces of GM advice you read in books or forums, there is rarely any substitute for learning by example. Many of these techniques may seem obvious, but they were once new to us, and some may be new to you. We’ve stuck to positive examples and not complaints about bad techniques, no matter how much that goes against the very essence of being British. Anyway, if we got Paul started about game sessions he didn’t like, we’d have a ten-hour episode. We recorded this episode before we went to Indiecon, otherwise half of it would be about techniques we plan to steal from Todd Furler. Todd is a legendary American convention GM who visited the UK for the first time this year. We all played in at least one of his Unknown Armies games and highly recommend them to anyone who spots his name on a sign-up sheet, can pre-book a session at Gen Con or learns the incantations to project their consciousness into Todd’s dreams. As well as being a lot of fun, his games are masterclasses in a variety of GM techniques, including structured scene framing, aggressive pacing, shared narration and coordinating a large group of players. This episode also sees us launch our Patreon page. We have no plans to charge anything for the podcast. Our use of Patreon is a purely voluntary thing for listeners who would like to help us with our hosting costs. We make nothing out of the podcast or the website, and our costs, while small, add up over time. We have some minor rewards in the form of shout-outs on the show and the promise to follow a more professional release schedule, but our main inducement is to look at you with puppy-dog eyes. I would post a picture of us doing this, but we don’t want to frighten you. Maybe we shouldn’t have used real puppies. Watching the above video here instead of on the Patreon page means you’ll see Paul gesticulating at buttons that aren’t there. I’m sure you’ll find this as funny as I do. If you want to see it in context, however, you can always visit our Patreon page. Did I mention that we now have a Patreon page? Because we have a Patreon page.