Phoenixguard09
2012-10-31, 07:56 PM
Hey guys,
I see these threads a lot and hope that perhaps I might be able to get a little bit of help from this esteemed community, as so many have before me.
Now I'm not entirely sure what I'm after, but I think I'd just like to run this by GitP and see if anyone perhaps has some suggestions with regards to stuff I can do.
So let me begin by saying thank you to anyone who read this far. I appreciate it, especially if you would be so kind as to comment.
The Situation
I am running a test game for a system and setting of my own devising, the details of which can be found by following this link. The setting is called Norbayne. (http://s4.zetaboards.com/Battlehammer/forum/3847483/)
It has been a real labour of love for me for quite a while now, having had the idea for the setting a fair time back. I won't go into any great detail about the setting here though. If you're interested, please go check out the link.
Now I have run many solo games, and a handful of group games, but I've never had four players at once. We had our first session about two weeks ago, and everyone seemed to have fun, but as the GM I can't help but start to stress a little about making sure that everyone has a good time.
So my first question is if anyone has any suggestions regarding the best way to split my attention between four very different players?
The Players
I guess I should probably go into a little detail about the group in particular here.
Harold Oakenshield, an old Invarrian Duellist. Invarrians are dog-men in my setting with a culture and style that is somewhere between pirates and vikings. He is played by a good friend of mine whom I've played several solo games with. He's also had a little experience GM'ing, though not as much as I have.
Maebh Raven-Wing, a Danann Mage. Danann are carnivorous elves basically, though there is a lot more to it. She is played by my girlfriend, who hasn't played before, though she's very much a gamer girl, so she's doing pretty well.
Breanna Blackrose, a Leathe Assassin. Leathe are short, arboreal possum-people. She is played by my younger sister, who tends to be a real crack up, but keeping her focused can be a bit of a hassle.
And lastly, Kel'Serrar, another Danann, but this time a Ranger. He's played by another friend of mine and he seems to fit in pretty well. He's also the only player who has really had much experience with RP.
If you read through that, you can see that all in all I've got a pretty damned good group. We're all pretty close and we don't seem to have any "poisonous" individuals. Admittedly, we've only played one session, but I think it's fair to say that everyone's pretty good.
That being said, we still have some problems. Harold's player tends to be a little obnoxious (he's a great guy, but he does tend to think quite highly of himself) and because of this, the others like to give him a bit of a hard time if his character muffs something up. All this is out of character of course, which tends to derail things a little. I don't mind the derailment so much, but I do worry because I want him to be enjoying himself too, something which is difficult to do when the rest of the players are making fun of him. So I guess my second request is if anyone could suggest a way to curb this OOC a little without coming across like "Dragon GM."
The Story
I think I might begin to wrap this up pretty soon, but I did want to see if I could get a bit of help regarding my storyline. If you're one of my players, and you know who you are, please don't read the following. You've been warned.
Really guys. You have. :P
Now I have them all in a little town called Summer Hill, which is on the border of two kingdoms, yet independent of both. Now, one kingdom (or queen-dom I guess) really badly wants the town, while the other is willing to let them keep their independence. Neither kingdom is particularly friendly with the other, though they are not at war. Yet at least.
Just over a day's travel to the north, ancient ruins have just recently been stumbled upon. I know, it's a bit cliche but I figure that it works well enough.
Anyway, the party has been hired by this merchant bloke, Petyr Rangard, to go and explore the ruins. If they find anything interesting, he'll buy it off them.
They don't know it, but there's more to Rangard than meets the eye. They might suspect it though, I'm not entirely sure. :P
He's hired them hoping they'll find a Focus Stone, which are magical tools crafted by the greatest mages of the past to help them channel their power. They're pretty rare, with even the lowest of them being exceptionally difficult to find. Rangard has reason to believe that there is one in these ruins, one which is really damned powerful.
It's not anywhere near as powerful as he hoped though, which sort of screws his plans over a little. :D
He is a good guy though, just an untrustworthy one. Well maybe not a good guy, but he's for Summer Hill, which I think makes him an acceptable shade of grey.
His plans?
When he was made aware of a cult of warlocks under the employ of the Queen of Elspeth, which had infiltrated Summer Hill and are planning on releasing a daemonic entity to weaken the town from within, Rangard hatched an idea to give the stone to a mage he trusted implicitly.
He sent the mage into the ruins with a hired group, however the group planned to betray him. The mage found out and warned Rangard, however the group killed him in retaliation.
Knowing the cult is getting ever closer to its goal, Rangard hired a ragtag band of misfits (the PC's :P ) to go into the ruins and find the stone, not having much of a plan now beyond that.
What the group's up to and what I want to do next
Well the group has only just found the ruins, having been waylaid by bandits upon the road. (It was a planned encounter. ;) )
I plan on having them find the Stone, and Maebh recognising and using it. At some point over the next few sessions I would like her to somehow earn Rangard's trust, intending as the GM for her to be the mage he requires.
I intend to have the cult release their daemon at some stage.
What I would like is ideas regarding twists and turns in the plot. At the moment, to me it seems a little straightforward, so I'd like to have a handful of ideas regarding plot twists which could be implemented at some stage.
So to summarise:
Would anyone have any suggestions on how to split my attention between four very different players?
How could I curb out of character chatter a little without coming appearing to tell them to shut up and sit down? ;)
What situations could I toss up which would get Rangard to trust Maebh, an introverted carnivorous elf?
Any ideas regarding plot-twists and such would be very much appreciated.
Thank you again if you managed to read all of this. I'm very much impressed if you did so.
Cheers,
I see these threads a lot and hope that perhaps I might be able to get a little bit of help from this esteemed community, as so many have before me.
Now I'm not entirely sure what I'm after, but I think I'd just like to run this by GitP and see if anyone perhaps has some suggestions with regards to stuff I can do.
So let me begin by saying thank you to anyone who read this far. I appreciate it, especially if you would be so kind as to comment.
The Situation
I am running a test game for a system and setting of my own devising, the details of which can be found by following this link. The setting is called Norbayne. (http://s4.zetaboards.com/Battlehammer/forum/3847483/)
It has been a real labour of love for me for quite a while now, having had the idea for the setting a fair time back. I won't go into any great detail about the setting here though. If you're interested, please go check out the link.
Now I have run many solo games, and a handful of group games, but I've never had four players at once. We had our first session about two weeks ago, and everyone seemed to have fun, but as the GM I can't help but start to stress a little about making sure that everyone has a good time.
So my first question is if anyone has any suggestions regarding the best way to split my attention between four very different players?
The Players
I guess I should probably go into a little detail about the group in particular here.
Harold Oakenshield, an old Invarrian Duellist. Invarrians are dog-men in my setting with a culture and style that is somewhere between pirates and vikings. He is played by a good friend of mine whom I've played several solo games with. He's also had a little experience GM'ing, though not as much as I have.
Maebh Raven-Wing, a Danann Mage. Danann are carnivorous elves basically, though there is a lot more to it. She is played by my girlfriend, who hasn't played before, though she's very much a gamer girl, so she's doing pretty well.
Breanna Blackrose, a Leathe Assassin. Leathe are short, arboreal possum-people. She is played by my younger sister, who tends to be a real crack up, but keeping her focused can be a bit of a hassle.
And lastly, Kel'Serrar, another Danann, but this time a Ranger. He's played by another friend of mine and he seems to fit in pretty well. He's also the only player who has really had much experience with RP.
If you read through that, you can see that all in all I've got a pretty damned good group. We're all pretty close and we don't seem to have any "poisonous" individuals. Admittedly, we've only played one session, but I think it's fair to say that everyone's pretty good.
That being said, we still have some problems. Harold's player tends to be a little obnoxious (he's a great guy, but he does tend to think quite highly of himself) and because of this, the others like to give him a bit of a hard time if his character muffs something up. All this is out of character of course, which tends to derail things a little. I don't mind the derailment so much, but I do worry because I want him to be enjoying himself too, something which is difficult to do when the rest of the players are making fun of him. So I guess my second request is if anyone could suggest a way to curb this OOC a little without coming across like "Dragon GM."
The Story
I think I might begin to wrap this up pretty soon, but I did want to see if I could get a bit of help regarding my storyline. If you're one of my players, and you know who you are, please don't read the following. You've been warned.
Really guys. You have. :P
Now I have them all in a little town called Summer Hill, which is on the border of two kingdoms, yet independent of both. Now, one kingdom (or queen-dom I guess) really badly wants the town, while the other is willing to let them keep their independence. Neither kingdom is particularly friendly with the other, though they are not at war. Yet at least.
Just over a day's travel to the north, ancient ruins have just recently been stumbled upon. I know, it's a bit cliche but I figure that it works well enough.
Anyway, the party has been hired by this merchant bloke, Petyr Rangard, to go and explore the ruins. If they find anything interesting, he'll buy it off them.
They don't know it, but there's more to Rangard than meets the eye. They might suspect it though, I'm not entirely sure. :P
He's hired them hoping they'll find a Focus Stone, which are magical tools crafted by the greatest mages of the past to help them channel their power. They're pretty rare, with even the lowest of them being exceptionally difficult to find. Rangard has reason to believe that there is one in these ruins, one which is really damned powerful.
It's not anywhere near as powerful as he hoped though, which sort of screws his plans over a little. :D
He is a good guy though, just an untrustworthy one. Well maybe not a good guy, but he's for Summer Hill, which I think makes him an acceptable shade of grey.
His plans?
When he was made aware of a cult of warlocks under the employ of the Queen of Elspeth, which had infiltrated Summer Hill and are planning on releasing a daemonic entity to weaken the town from within, Rangard hatched an idea to give the stone to a mage he trusted implicitly.
He sent the mage into the ruins with a hired group, however the group planned to betray him. The mage found out and warned Rangard, however the group killed him in retaliation.
Knowing the cult is getting ever closer to its goal, Rangard hired a ragtag band of misfits (the PC's :P ) to go into the ruins and find the stone, not having much of a plan now beyond that.
What the group's up to and what I want to do next
Well the group has only just found the ruins, having been waylaid by bandits upon the road. (It was a planned encounter. ;) )
I plan on having them find the Stone, and Maebh recognising and using it. At some point over the next few sessions I would like her to somehow earn Rangard's trust, intending as the GM for her to be the mage he requires.
I intend to have the cult release their daemon at some stage.
What I would like is ideas regarding twists and turns in the plot. At the moment, to me it seems a little straightforward, so I'd like to have a handful of ideas regarding plot twists which could be implemented at some stage.
So to summarise:
Would anyone have any suggestions on how to split my attention between four very different players?
How could I curb out of character chatter a little without coming appearing to tell them to shut up and sit down? ;)
What situations could I toss up which would get Rangard to trust Maebh, an introverted carnivorous elf?
Any ideas regarding plot-twists and such would be very much appreciated.
Thank you again if you managed to read all of this. I'm very much impressed if you did so.
Cheers,