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Terrador
2015-12-30, 03:17 AM
So, I'm gonna be running what's close enough to an IRL game soon enough (and maybe a game that's actually in person besides), and I'm rather worried that my speaking won't be quite up to snuff. Y'know, keeping tone, making sure everyone's engaged, that sort of thing. I imagine I can sort this out a decent bit by arriving up to the gills in prep work and generally being very invested myself, but anyone care to share their experiences and what's helped them improve?

hymer
2015-12-30, 07:50 AM
A detail I need to keep reminding myself of is to look at everyone when making longer descriptions. When sitting at the end of the table, this tends to come naturally, but otherwise I often end up looking at the people across the table while describing things the whole party hears or sees.

There's also a Ustinov thing I'm trying to get into the habit of - contrast. When you're not supposed to draw attention, be very quiet and fairly still. That way, when you start talking and gesticulating, you can easier create a contrast to saying nothing, even if you're portraying a quiet and subtle NPC.

Geddy2112
2015-12-30, 09:45 PM
I try to have a combat style encounter off the bat or fairly early into the session, if it would fit to have one. It does not have to be slaying a dragon, could be a simple attack by bandits, a pack of wolves,swarm of bees etc. It does not have to be a straight fight-maybe an NPc accuses a party member of theft, or a pickpocket grabs some coins or begins running.

Something mechanical and action based gets the players engaged and into the session. After that, it is much easier to keep their attention. Use a lot of texture when describing things, and offer hooks if your players flounder and don't act.

gdiddy
2015-12-31, 02:17 AM
You need to look at how movies do tension. Star Wars dumps you from opening narrative text into the Action everytime. Start with the riff raff in the bar picking a fight with the Hothead PC. Let that drama show up in the third act where the guy he punched out in the bar sees the PC and behaves unexpectedly kind when the hero is in trouble.

You must have a meaningful action or thrilling scene at the equivalent of an hour. I usually go with around the half way mark, I need a tent pole scene. This is the action where the heros lose something or their limitations are revealed to them, the mystery takes a turn, the hero has to start running or pass a test. Leia Loses Hoth, Splinter Gets Kidnapped, Clarice Speaks to Hannibal Lector, Indy Discovers The Arc. This is your first chance to punch your players in the gut, kapow. You will get two more. This will usually be a visually striking scene people remember.

At about an hour before wrap time, your third act better be starting to peak. Helms deep is under siege, the Imperial Fleet Reveals itself at Endor, Clarice Confronts Lector. It's the point where the hero's mistakes or oversights in answering the tentpole scene are revealed.
You can punch them in the gut pretty hard here, too.

20 minutes before break, you need the final confrontation with the Dragon. This is it. If you plan your combats, this should be the most interesting battle psychologically. This is the final courtroom scene in the legal drama, the showdown with the antagonist, and the most important thing to remember here is that the hero doesn't have to win this fight. PCs may be thwarted or driven back. But you must leave the PCs some hope.

Also, don't read large blocks of text at your players. I am a hobby voice actor, I still don't read at people. Describe smells, tactile, and feelings simply or using real world examples. Use your words as if each one you speak makes every other less valuable, because they actually work that way.

Remember they are your cocollaborators, not your audience. Give them the tools, but make use of their tools, too. Let them name places and ask them if they've been there or have a buddy in this neighborhood. Let them help you.

valadil
2015-12-31, 08:13 PM
keeping tone

I'm gonna assume you mean using language that befits the setting? In my experience GMs either have this or they don't. If they can do it, cool. If they can't, that's also cool. My games are full of modern colloquialisms and they run just fine. While I'd love to sound like Tolkien, I don't. But the game still works.

What doesn't work is forcing tone when it's not working. If you drop a forsooth and the players look at you funny, stop dropping forsooths. At best it's distracting. At worst it's cringeworthy and uncomfortable.


making sure everyone's engaged

Enthusiasm helps. If you seem bored, your players will get bored. If you seem excited, your players will follow suit. When I GM, I get an adrenaline rush, so the enthusiasm comes naturally.

Sometimes no matter how interesting you and your game are, you get players who just aren't going to engage. I poke at them directly. IMO, the bystander effect allows a player who is ambivalent towards the game to sit back and let the more engaged players take responsibility to interact with you. To counteract this, I try to engage those players directly in a way that makes it clear that it's their responsibility to respond. When I really have my act together, each session is prepped with at least one interruption per player. By interruption I mean something that I can throw at that player at any point in the game. If I see a player nodding off, I pull their interruption out of the bag and confront them with it to reel them back in.

But don't spend too much time on disengaged players. In my last campaign I had a player who decided he didn't like the system we were using. He spent most of the game checked out. I'd approach him directly in game and he'd ignore it or shake off the interaction as quickly as possible. I tried everything to get him hooked.

In the end, the best thing was to give up. I had four other players who were eager to play and I was spending all my energy on the guy trying to blend in with my couch. I stopped prodding him entirely and wrote plot for everyone else. TBH, I think he was relieved that I stopped trying to put him in the spotlight.

One last thing on engagement. When the players make a decision, carry out that decision. Don't give them the illusion of choice or handwave away their mistakes. They'll respect a game that takes their decisions seriously. They'll love a game that alters itself to the decisions they make.


I imagine I can sort this out a decent bit by arriving up to the gills in prep work and generally being very invested myself, but anyone care to share their experiences and what's helped them improve?

Prep helps, but don't write anything you won't throw away. See what I said about carrying out player decisions. If they want to sneak around the combat let them. Just because you spent three hours prepping it is no reason to force them to play it.

I have strong opinions and techniques for engaging players, but I still struggle with speaking. My players are louder than me. I'm incapable of talking over them. Maybe I should get a gavel.

Jay R
2015-12-31, 11:10 PM
Believe in your world, believe in your game, and believe in your NPCs, and believe in yourself.

This is a cool thing you're doing - dive into it!

avr
2016-01-01, 05:12 AM
I have strong opinions and techniques for engaging players, but I still struggle with speaking. My players are louder than me. I'm incapable of talking over them. Maybe I should get a gavel.
Sometimes a little volume does help to gain attention. Sit up straight (or even stand up) and consciously draw breath from your chest, but only speak loudly for the first few words, maybe just the first one. If you haven't got people's attention early, you probably aren't going to get it that way.

Fri
2016-01-01, 11:03 AM
The best lesson I learned for GMing live is to not have the game stutter. In PbP, or chat, you can think for a while when a player does something unexpected, go check the rulebook, and such. In PbP sometimes you get a whole day for it!

It won't do in GMing live. Your PCs will do something unexpected, try to roll with it. Be spontaneous. If this is a game with story, and there's specific plot point your players have to arrive, don't be limited on the way to go there. I mean, you can have "default" path, but if your players start to stray, and they absolutely need to arrive in that plot point, you can have that plot point arrive in another way, the important part is to keep the game flowing.

Also, keep important rules in cheatsheet, and tell your players that you might have to wing the rules sometimes if they do something unexpected. In my opinion it's better than pausing the game for 30 minutes looking for rules minutia in the book.

But of course, sometimes they do something completely out of the way, and you need to gather your thought. Tell your players that when that happen. "Uh, I totally didn't expect that to happen, give me 15/30/45
minutes to think what'd happen next and map up the destroyed planet."

Other things that I've seen mentioned and I usually do:

-start the game with something exciting. Usually I open with a cold-open prologue, to get everyone's blood pumping, then continue with slower pace for the adventur, until they meet something exciting again of course.

-if you see someone not doing too much, engage them more. Like, if someone's always silent, have a bandit engage and talk to them personally. Of course you should understand if someone just feel not like talking too much that day.

-Don't solve everything in-game. Sometimes if there's problem, you could, and should talk to the player instead of the character, out of the game world.

mephnick
2016-01-01, 03:00 PM
Believe in your world, believe in your game, and believe in your NPCs

Pretty much. If you understand your setting inside and out then you barely need to prep for sessions. Nothing can go wrong because there wasn't a much of a plan in the first place.

Players do something. World and NPCs react. Players do something. World and NPCs react. You know how they'll react because you created them.

Prepping too much can actually hinder your game because you rely on a game plan that will never happen and then get stunned when it falls apart. It's a lot easier to control the flow of the game when you can just invest yourself in the world and react to anything.

Jay R
2016-01-02, 12:06 PM
One other point: keep the game moving. Don't waste five minutes trying to find the exactly perfect response. Just respond. Sometimes you'll look back and wish you had done something else - just like real life.

And just like in real life, the world will continue on, and people will keep on going.

KillianHawkeye
2016-01-02, 04:09 PM
To be honest, while all of these tips people have given are great, it really just takes time and practice. If D&D teaches us anything, it's that you need experience to improve.

frost890
2016-01-02, 09:56 PM
Find a balance in prep-work. You may find that the players will always find a way to go in the wrong direction. They will take interest in people you never intended and you will not know why. Have a few generic NPC's with names that you can throw out there and if you use them write a note about the encounter. The interactions will flesh out the ones the choose to interact with. it is the same with locations, let them wonder and see where it takes them. they can find new ways to invest in there PC's.

Elvenoutrider
2016-01-03, 12:29 PM
It sounds like an issue with public speaking - so do what the best speakers do - practice your monologues and descriptions and tense moments beforehand - once or twice aught to do to just remember where to raise or lower your voice, practice your accents, and make sure to practice while scanning your eyes to where each person will be sitting

GentlemanVoodoo
2016-01-04, 12:05 AM
So, I'm gonna be running what's close enough to an IRL game soon enough (and maybe a game that's actually in person besides), and I'm rather worried that my speaking won't be quite up to snuff. Y'know, keeping tone, making sure everyone's engaged, that sort of thing. I imagine I can sort this out a decent bit by arriving up to the gills in prep work and generally being very invested myself, but anyone care to share their experiences and what's helped them improve?

1. Practice speaking in a mirror or practice speaking to an invisible group. Works for public speakers, it can work for you.
2. Realize to use descriptive words to craft your characters what ever they be. To often in my experience DM's spend more time trying to come up with a voice to speak as someone (in the same manner as a voice actor does) when using descriptive words to express tone, emotion, thoughts, etc. can get the job done just as effective and quicker.
3. As you said, prep work.