MATT: Hey guys! My name is Matthew Mercer. I'm a voice actor and dungeon master for Geek & Sundry's
Critical Role, and welcome to my video series about tips and tricks for burgeoning and/or
classic GMs and DMs. Today's topic is going to be preparing for the unexpected, which is a large
part of the actual GMing experience.
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Preparation is the key to not being prepared. I know that sounds crazy, but you can definitely be
comfortable pulling stuff out of your ass. You'll be doing that a lot. The best that you
can think of alternative scenarios, or give loose notes as to other possibilities that your players
might dive into, does help you be a little more prepared for the crazy. Especially if you've had
some time with the party and with those players, you kind of get a feel for their game style and
the type of questions they ask, the type of off the cuff actions they take and the type of
directions they tend to veer towards. Once you get a feel for that you can start preparing a
little bit some alternate paths from the main story that you've been developing.
Even so, the players will always, always surprise you. You'll be caught off guard, they'll
do things that make you go (bewildered) "okay!" and you've got to roll with it. You
don't want to deny the players their actions, unless they're completely ridiculous, and over the
top, and don't fit within the world or the setting. For the most part you want to let them go
along with their choices, as cockamaimy and weird as they may be. Because those will make for some
of the best stories, for one, and will take you in some of the best places as a GM that are hilarious and fun.
I get most of my fun when I'm thrown off the mark as a dungeon master. I like the mental gymnastics
that are part of it, and the kind of back and forth with the players, creating this unknown
future path. It's a really exhilarating experience for me and it's scary at first, trust me, I
understand, but it's really exhilarating. On that note too, you don't want to try and railroad
the players too much. I know you've built this wonderful story that you're working so hard to get
them through, and you will be able to keep them on that story path for the most part. Unless they're
completely insane. If they veer a little bit left and right let them steer out of the way. Let
them find some weird side elements and you can always guide them back in slowly. Don't try
and force them on that particular path or get frustrated if they begin to veer from your set
plan. Because that's kind of what really makes RPGs its own special genre of gaming aside from
other formats is you
Don't be afraid to roll with some of the stranger player choices, because it can be
interesting. Make sure you can help justify in the moment how it would work in that world. If
the player comes to a locked door and they're like, "I want to unlock it" that makes sense. If
instead they're like "I want to see if I can get this vial of acid to slowly dissolve parts of the
wood, then set up a barricade that can push and focus all the energy--" and you're like "Sure, go
for it. Give it a shot." Let them build their strange idea and give that-- especially if it's
very unwieldy, that very mildly slight chance it could function. And if it succeeds,
fantastic, and explain the awesome, fantastic success that it was. If it fails, which is more
often than not, explain the awesome, fantastic, epic failure that it was. These are the
stories that you'll continue to tell for a very long time.
Just to reiterate on your preparation for the session, parallel avenues are a really good focus,
and try and have those side pocket aspects at your disposal just in case they veer off to the sides.
Ways to help with that, I find, keeping a list of fantasy names nearby. That you can find online,
you can find-- or sci-fi names if you're using a sci-fi genre game, or if you're using a modern
game. Just having a list of names that would fit in your world or your setting near your session
setup allows you to pull quickly if you have to spontaneously create someone that doesn't exist.
"Oh, you're going to the hospital? Okay.. uh.. You run into a nurse. The nurse is named David.
Can I help you? I'm David." It makes it feel and gives the illusion that you know exactly what
you're doing. And that's part of the fun. It's the whole kind of Wizard of Oz element.
"Don't look behind the curtain!"
You want to stay in control and having those resources near you really helps with that.
Having a list of player names is really good. You can also create a small cache of unused random
NPCs that you can flesh out a little. You can create bartenders, you can create policemen, you
can create space bounty hunters. You can create all sorts of characters that aren't really part of
the story, and they're just kind of in your box, waiting to be pulled out in case something like
that happens. That's a really cool thing to have at your disposal. You'll be very thankful
you kind of did that preparation for yourself.
Also, you can make a list of small, minor story hooks. There's a lot of great resources online
that you can search, or look in your resource books for your various RPGs to find good story
hook elements. There's lists and tables you can roll up. Those are really cool if you have to
create an NPC to try and decide what their story is. Dave, the nurse. You talk to him for a bit and
you find out that he's missing his left arm, and you ask him why, and he says, "Because it was
taken by demons!" That would be a terrible story, but it's a story that came out of nowhere, and now
the players are like, "We've gotta find Dave's arm!"
It's cool to have that resource at your disposal because it makes you more comfortable with the
environment, more comfortable with the improvisation, and makes the storytelling more
fluid. Also a cool little cache of rewards is also good to have in case they do some weird stuff on
the side and succeed in an unplanned way. You can have a couple of magical items, or cool laser
weapons, or some sort of bit of information about the story that is sitting in this amorphous pile
for use in case the opportunity arises for you to gift it to the players.
It's cool to have those in your pocket as well.
So overall, the key of improvisation for your games is comfort. That can come from taking
improv classes, if you have the opportunity. Those are very helpful, even if you don't plan to go
into performance art. The improvisational skill is useful in all facets of life, I've found, and this
is very much so. As you get more comfortable with it all these little notes, all
these little things you can do to prepare for the unexpected are tremendously helpful in building
your fast storytelling skills and to maintain a consistent narrative. Regardless of what the
players throw at you, which is kind of fun.
Thank you for watching, we'll have other episodes of this you can watch of this up on
geekandsundry.com and I'll see you next time!