Prologue

The players have it easy. They just say what their characters say, and do what their characters do. But game masters; you have to say and do everything else which includes:

Describing the situation

First and foremost, you describe the immediate situation around the players at all times. This is how you start a session, how you get things rolling after a snack break, get back on track after a great joke. Tell them what the situation is in concrete terms.

Use detail and senses to draw them in. The situation isn’t just an orc charging you, it’s an orc painted in blood swinging a hammer and yelling bloody murder. You can leverage a lack of information, too. The sound of clattering armor and shuffling feet, for instance.

The situation is rarely “everything’s great, nothing to worry about.” These are adventurers on an adventure! Give them something to react to. When you describe the situation, portray it in a way that demands a response.

Interpreting player responses

Depending on the situation and the course of action chosen, this could turn into soliciting the players for cliché rolls or simply making note of their responses and moving the action forward.

Assigning consequences

Consequences are specific things you can do to change the flow of the game. You’ll add consequences when players miss their rolls and whenever the players look to you to see what happens. Consequences keep the fiction consistent and the game’s action moving forward.

Exploiting your prep

In all of these things, exploit your prep. At times you’ll know something the players don’t yet know. You can use that knowledge to help you decide on consequences. Maybe the wizard casts a spell that draws unwanted attention. They don’t know that the attention that fell on them was the ominous gaze of a demon waiting somewhere in the depths below, but you do.

In this guide we will talk about the goals, principles, and consequences that game masters can use to present a fantastic world to their player characters. Whether you are adjudicating over a long running campaign, or just a simple throw away adventure these concepts will still apply.