When I was younger and less experienced, I remember getting frustrated or disappointed if the game didn't proceed down the carefully crafted plot line that I or the published story author had devised. If my players wanted to do something outside what was anticipated, which happened quite often players being players, it would throw me a little. If scenes were jumped or missed out, I would feel a little like I had failed. I would have 'succeeded' if I had carried out the scenario successfully and my players would have a good time accordingly.
As I have run more games and written more stories, I have to come to redefine success in running a game. I am successful not if I tick off all the different parts of the story (like a compliance document), but if my players have a good time. If that means they decide to jump certain parts of the story or bulldoze through my plot, that's fine, as long as I can run it without missing a beat so they still enjoy themselves. This involves being way more relaxed about how the game goes and to stop worrying if things don't go as planned.
An example of this comes from Thursday's game where the characters were investigating the kidnapping of a child from a wealthy family. The story, as written, pretty much has the characters doing waiting around until the money drop before they follow the kidnappers back to the hideout at the docks. However, thanks to the proactive investigating of one character, I decided the location of the hideout would be found sooner, thereby jumping all the scene relating to the money dump.
Now I could have 'blocked' his progress in order to keep to the story as written, but that would have felt really artificial as part of the story. So I relaxed, rolled with it and let the story take its course. The result was a really good scene that felt organic, natural and something my players seemed to really enjoy.
Taking a more laid back approach to running game has been helped by using the GUMSHOE system, which is a style of play that I am coming more and more comfortable with and fond of. The focus is on giving the players clues for the story without getting bogged down in the mechanics of how they get them. This is articulated well by another blogger sharing his thoughts about Trail of Cthulhu:
So now I don’t worry about whether a clue would be better found by Evidence Collection or by Forensics. I just see that a character is looking where they should to find a clue, and give it to them. I keep a list of what abilities the different characters have, and I phrase the evidence in keeping with whichever of the abilities makes the most sense given the information. If they’re looking for more, I’ll ask for a spend from a particular ability, or I’ll ask them what ability they’re using to get more information.
The two important things are that the clues get found and that the players enjoy themselves.
Once the characters have the clues, it then up to them to decide how they want to proceed with them. This take a lot of stress out of running a game, as I don't have to quickly shoe horn another scene in if the players miss their roll, since plot advancement isn't dependent on dice. It also means I can spend more time on the stuff I really enjoy, like setting the mood, building the back story or working on the plot.
The total result being that my perspective on running games has changed, in my opinion for the better, which has in turn enhanced my enjoy of the process and I think that of my players.
On an unrelated topic, this weekend I watched the recent Sherlock Holmes movie that came out here in New Zealand about 6 months ago. I really enjoyed it as a movie, but what struck me how very similar it was to a roleplaying game, from the plot to the pacing. It also re-sparked my interest in running a Gaslight Cthulhu game again, so watch this space.
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