Hello everyone, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it takes to run a successful game. I don’t mean a single session, or a one off campaign idea, but an entire game built out of a few simple ideas. And truthfully what do we define as successful anyhow? Is there a way to measure actual success when it comes to a campaign? How often do we track any sort of feedback? All of these questions are important, and it’s good to take note of where you are currently not only as a Dungeon Master but as a storyteller as well.
When we think of successful games, we can really feel successful when we look at two trackable metrics. Have my players completed the missions laid out in front of them, and are my players having fun. Honestly, if one of these two things have been completed, you can ultimately say yes you’ve had a successful game, or at least one successful game session. But the hard truth is that running a campaign is multiple sessions and therefore a host of multiple reasons to check back in every so often.
The first thing I do is layout what the campaign will or will not be. For example, if my game will be horror based and focus less on fantasy role play and more on fear, I have to explicitly lay down my plan for how that will work out. My players need to know what to expect, and if they don’t, they often are confused or get bored. This campaign can change and will often change as you figure out what your players are enjoying the most, but having a clear idea of what your campaign is or isn’t is necessary.
To expand even further on this point, it is also good to note that while you know what kind of campaign you’re running, you also have to have some sort of story idea; where it begins and likely where it will end. You’re telling your characters stories that take place in your world. The focus is on your heroes (or villains if you’re telling that story). The idea is that regardless of how much you like or want something to happen, or even need it to happen you can’t railroad or shoehorn your players into doing it.
If every player at your table is the reluctant hero (such as Frodo Baggins) then none of them are going to willingly go on a life-endangering-quest. Seriously, even Frodo needed help just to get out the door. The problem with that help is that if you FORCE it to happen, you’re not setting up high expectations of the player-characters being able to do what they want or how they want. Of course there are rules and repercussions but the line is drawn at the very beginning – what type of story are you going to tell.
The second thing I like to do, is get feedback from my players. When your party is bored, you know they’re bored. They’re not progressing any story, they’re not really participating in the game, and they’re distracted by anything that seems mildly amusing such as their phones, side-conversations, and doodling on their character sheets. And that is what makes getting feed back so important. What do your characters want to see? What do they want to do?
A quick example from something recently is that I had a party who knew full well that our story was going to be more intrigue and espionage – full frontal assault combat would be minimal. Skirmishes would happen. They kept asking for combat, so I made sure to bring combat to them. And were they happy? No. They ran from the combat, and let one of their party members get arrested. Directly following, they found help to make sure he didn’t get sentenced to death (which worked in his favor) and in return they have to find a little girl (payment for the help they received). So far we’re on track, but finding the little girl is a side quest to the main story. They focused on the wrong details, and it felt like they got bored, because they kept barking up the wrong tree.
Now, here is where we cannot place blame on the party or the Dungeon Master. The party could have rolled Knowledge checks to put them on the right path. I could have prompted knowledge checks, and they could have prompted knowledge checks. But none of us suggested knowledge checks – which created a scenario where minimal progress was being made. So how do we fix that?
The best fix is simple, and something every dungeon master forgets from time to time. Don’t let your party flounder! I did it, and there are a few things that went on that made the perfect storm possible for me to let it happen. But, by the end of the night, I caught it and I sent out a message to all of my players going over a few of the expectations in the game and where some of their character development issues are lacking (which they know) and gave them an opportunity to re-skill and change their feats to make them more adapt now that they’ve been in the game for a while.
Ultimately that session in particular was not successful because very little happened, the party didn’t get to where they wanted to be, and the story didn’t progress much. The response was to assess why it played out like that and give my characters a way to change things up so they’re better prepared for the world.
How often do we have to look at the big picture and small picture though depends on your players, granted you also have to be good enough at picking up on how your players are feeling about your story. Mad Max: Fury Road was a great chase movie, but if you just describe it as a band of raiders following an outlaw, it could really be any generic movie where the antagonist is following the protagonist for what ever reason. When you notice your players behaviors or character behaviors switching, take note because you should assess what caused them to sing such a different tune.
I’ve written about Thull in a previous post, and while he is a fantastic barbarian, and great at playing dumb he is rather intelligent. Currently he is in a game where he actually needs to think and plan versus just blow shit up and eat things. I had to make the switch because the party makeup wasn’t allowing the development of the DM’s story. It’s not that I was bored, but had an opportunity to go against my characters grain and create a character profile that could assist the DM.
We’re still transitioning, and I still go hog-wild at times with the guy. He’s killed a chieftain’s daughter and blamed it on his party member most recently. So sure, build’em up and knock’em down.
Running a successful game is a constant assessment of if your players are having fun in your world and making sure they’re not beating their faces in while doing it. Yes, there are other things we will look at in the future, but for now have fun and make it memorable.
