TEXT:  
   
  47 TIPS AND TRICKS  
  to Become a better game master or storyteller 
   
   
  OCTOBER 3RD, 2020 
  BLACKSTONE ENTERTAINMENT, INC 
        
  
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  47 Tips and Tricks to Become a better game 
  master or storyteller 
   
   
   
  When we sit down across the table from a group of players – 
  whether they are lifelong friends or merely gaming buddies, we are 
  taking on a role. Across the table from us sit a group of people who 
  have appointed us as caretakers of their trust, their imaginations, and 
  indeed a good many of their evenings for the coming weeks – perhaps 
  months or even years.  
   
  By taking on this role, you take on the responsibility to tell a great 
  and engaging story, to keep the momentum in a world, to make it all 
  link together in a way that is believable, fun, and rewarding, earn the 
  trust of your players, and finally, how to build and keep your integrity as 
  a Storyteller.  
   
  While it could be argued that the roles and responsibilities of a 
  Game or Dungeon Master, Referee, etc. (for the sake of consistency, 
  we’re going to use the term Storyteller from here on out) are not all 
  that difficult to master, it is the little things that an experienced or 
  talented Storyteller does before, during, and even after the game 
  session that really make the difference. From taking good notes, to 
  maintaining a believable, richly-detailed world, to breathing life into the 
  smallest corners of that world, there are specific tools of the trade to 
  accomplish what you want to achieve in your games. 
   
  The 47 Tips and Tricks listed below are intended to help you do 
  just that. In the following sections, we will address five primary 
  methods to become a great RPG Storyteller:  
   
  1)  How to tell a story. 
  2)  How to keep your game engaging. 
  3)  How to tie it all together. 
  
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  4)  How to earn and keep the trust of your players. 
  5)  How to establish and keep narrative integrity. 
   
   
  Obviously, we should mention that there are many, many ways to 
  achieve the things we list below, and that our suggestions should in no 
  way interfere with any system you currently use, so long as that 
  system works for you and your players. Hopefully, even experienced 
  Storytellers will be able to pick up one or two tips or strategies from the 
  following list.  
   
  If we help a single Storyteller to improve upon his or her art, we’ll 
  be happy. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  I. How to Tell a Story: 
   
  1. Find, build, or borrow a world in which your narrative will take 
  place, and make it your own. If you are using an established 
  campaign setting, no matter how detailed the game supplements 
  or materials might be, you need to carve your own niche in it. 
  From picking a scantily-detailed little corner of the world to 
  inventing a small region, village, or ruin for your players to 
  explore, what is important to do here is to find a way to make one 
  portion of this pre-existing world yours. If you are building your 
  own world, but using another setting or story as inspiration for it, 
  
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  make sure to give it your own twist, and don’t allow yourself to 
  create a one-for-one copy of any single place, idea, people, or 
  event. Using other stories as inspiration is a wonderful way to get 
  your own creative juices flowing – just be sure to use some of that 
  creativity to fill parts of that world with your own original ideas and 
  concepts. For those of you who have created your own entirely 
  original campaign world, feel free to move on to the next item . 
  2. Don’t tell your story; present it. Rule #1 of table top storytelling 
  is that a minute or so into your grand soliloquy about the rich 
  history and stunning depth of your world, the brains of your 
  players are already beginning to erase what you told them at the 
  beginning of said soliloquy. Introduce your players to your world 
  with short, detailed overviews of things, and move straight into the 
  story. From that point onward, pepper your narrative with 
  additional background details as the pace of your game allows. 
  Never stop the action to monologue your way through a five-page 
  description of someone or something they encounter – instead, 
  tell them the single most important two things they absolutely 
  need to know, and move on. When you revisit the subject, give 
  them one or two additional details, and move on again. 
  Eventually, your players will learn everything you want them to 
  know about your world and its history, and never once go cross-
  eyed hearing you lecture them about it. 
  3. Develop, copy, or wing your vocal skills. Find a way to alter the 
  tone, depth, and pace of your voice as you run your games. Try to 
  use accents, drawls, and setting-appropriate 
  dialects/idioms/vocabulary when portraying NPCs. This doesn’t 
  mean you have to give all of your NPCs their own voices – even 
  the best Storytellers out there have their limits. Instead, find a way 
  to use your voice to give more flavor to certain NPCs your party is 
  likely to communicate most often with, as a way of helping to 
  make them more memorable and unique. Your voice is also a 
  great tool to use when you want to build a scene – dramatic 
  pauses, subtle use of pitch and volume to help you breathe life 
  
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  into your descriptions and encounters. Try to develop your natural 
  narrative voice as well – the tone and tempo you use when 
  speaking publicly or to a large group. Your narrative voice will be 
  the one you use most often, so find one that doesn’t strain your 
  vocal chords too much.  
  4. Terror springs from the safest places. When building a scene 
  for your story, remember that contrast is a wonderful tool for 
  springing the unexpected on your players. None of your players 
  will so much as bat an eye when zombies leap out at them if you 
  begin your game in a creepy, dark cemetery. Start them off with a 
  light-hearted summer-fest celebration, and fifteen minutes in have 
  a skeletal hand grab them during a potato-sack race. The same is 
  true about campaigns full of war, plague, and suffering – if you 
  want the grim events in your story to have an emotional impact on 
  your players, paint the world with bright colors at first, and allow 
  the stark contrast of reality to have its natural effect. 
  5. Outline, outline, outline. When you first create your campaign, 
  outline every single thought and concept, dividing your story into 
  its most important elements, and leaving lots of spaces in the 
  middle. This way, as you progress with your ideas, you aren’t 
  spending too much time on any one part, potentially burning 
  yourself out before you get to the end. Outlining can also help you 
  with organization – we’ll talk more about that in section III. 
  6. Write a richly detailed story… then throw it out the window. The 
  only time you should ever tell people a story is at bedtime. Good 
  preparation pays for itself a hundred times over, but should never 
  be a substitute for good improvisational skills. A role playing game 
  is a collaborative form of storytelling, which means that everyone 
  around the table not only has a stake in the story being told, but 
  the ability to influence it as well. When creating your games, keep 
  this fact in mind – players; even the ones you’ve been gaming 
  with for years; do unexpected things. Be prepared – even expect 
  – changes to the course of your game, and adapt to them. Never 
  shoe-horn your players into doing what they don’t want – more on 
  
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  that later.  
  7. Iceberg right ahead!. A narrative is an immersive presentation of 
  the game world through the words and aids of the Storyteller; it is 
  equally presented by the depth of the Storyteller’s unrevealed 
  background knowledge. Ernest Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory 
  style of writing requires that the true meaning of a piece of writing 
  should not be evident from the surface story, rather, the crux of 
  the story lies below the surface and should be allowed to shine 
  through. Achieving this requires an in-depth knowledge of your 
  game world; its people, its secrets, and its history.  
  As the Storyteller, your goal should be to reveal only about 
  10% of your world through descriptions, written words, maps, 
  aids, etc. The remaining 90% should remain just below the 
  surface; shadows lurking at the edges of your narrative; revealing 
  themselves as much by their absence as by their presence. Role 
  players, being naturally inquisitive, will always want to know more. 
  Just as the human eye can take a series of still images flashed 
  quickly before them and assemble them into a seamless movie, 
  mentally filling in the gaps and ‘creating’ the illusion of motion, 
  your players’ brains can do the same with a well-presented world. 
  Narrative by Omission can be a powerful tool in the hands of a 
  good Storyteller. 
  8. Yeah, but what’s my character’s motivation…? Always 
  remember: every NPC lives his or her life independent of the 
  choices and paths taken by your PCs. They wake up, go about 
  their day, think about the future, worry about money, love, 
  success, etc. - and most importantly: they want something. It 
  doesn't matter what that something is, so long as it motivates 
  them. Their purpose in life goes well beyond standing about 
  waiting for a PC to come along so they can set them on some 
  quest - always remember to give them realistic motivations that 
  drive them to do the things they do.  
  9. Don’t fear the uncharted. Move out of your comfort zone once in 
  a while, and try new things in your games. Add elements of high 
  
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  fantasy – or conversely, stark realism – to your repertoire, and 
  branch out from the genres you are most familiar with. If you’re a 
  died-in-the-wool fantasy purist, don’t be afraid to run a game with 
  elements of Steampunk, Sci-Fi, horror, or even historical realism 
  thrown in. If you’re a dungeon-crawler, run a game or two in the 
  open world. The key here is to take a look at things you don’t 
  think you’ll like or enjoy, and ask yourself why. If you’ve never 
  tried something, you don’t really know if you’ll like it until you have 
  experienced it firsthand. You might surprise yourself. 
  10. 
  Set up is everything. The key concepts should be 
  presented early and clearly. Using both verbal and non-verbal 
  communication, develop the feel of your campaign in the very first 
  session. Play music from a mood-appropriate genre in the 
  background, or display pictures or artwork that captures the feel 
  and color of your campaign world. Create a distraction-free 
  environment, ensuring your players are able to maintain the best 
  degree of in-character immersion – at least for your opening 
  sessions. The tone you establish here should be easy to maintain 
  throughout the course of your campaign.  
  11. 
  Fill your world with people, not caricatures. When you 
  write down ideas for the major NPCs in your world, try to stay as 
  far away from archetypes as possible. If you intend to base 
  certain NPCs on real-world or literary figures, try your best to give 
  them some original life and color all their own. Give every good 
  guy a flaw, and every villain a redeeming quality – however small. 
  Grow your NPCs naturally from concept > detail > portrayal, using 
  large brush-strokes at first, then filling in all the little details as 
  gameplay progresses. Allow room for each and every one of your 
  major NPCs – good or bad – to grow and adapt during the course 
  of the game, just as a real person would change and develop over 
  time. 
  12. 
  Involve your players. As mentioned earlier, roleplaying is a 
  form of collaborative storytelling. As such, when you first begin to 
  write down the ideas for your campaign, keep your players in 
  
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  mind. What do they enjoy the most? What sort of situations, 
  scenarios, or events have they enjoyed in the past, or are likely to 
  enjoy in the future? A collaborative story is only complete when 
  everyone around the table has had their say, so why not include 
  your players’ preferences during the concept phase as well? 
  13. 
  Opening the chest, you find this tattered old… Visual 
  aids, maps, diagrams, objects, sketches, and player handouts can 
  do the work of any long-winded description. Spend some time 
  drawing or creating such things for your game sessions. For the 
  less-artistically inclined, there is a literal treasure-trove of free 
  maps and RPG handout materials online that you can use to 
  spice up your games. Giving your players something they can 
  see, touch, or hold is an instant attention grabber, and really 
  promotes a sense of immersion. 
   
  II. How to Keep it engaging: 
   
  14. 
  Momentum. Perhaps the most important aspect of a great 
  campaign is momentum. The basic rhythm of drama, action, rest, 
  and reengagement must flow naturally, but there are ways to help 
  this along. Take a look at the Outline you created for your game – 
  try to ensure that each “Act” or “Chapter” has both action and 
  storyline drama evenly peppered throughout. Try not to get 
  bogged down by low-performing elements – if you sense that a 
  certain scene or event is dragging, wrap it up neatly and change 
  gears.  
  Another great tool is to manage your time spent away from 
  the table as well. Whether you game weekly, bi-weekly, or 
  monthly, it is important to keep a sense of progress in your 
  campaigns. Keeping momentum going in groups who game less 
  than once a month requires a little more work from the Storyteller. 
  Condense the narrative as much as possible, and make sure you 
  tweak your action scenes so that they can be completed in under 
  a session. Expedite your experience/treasure rewards so that the 
  
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  sense of accomplishment and progress is still viable.  
  For weekly (or more frequent) games, the irony is that too 
  little rest between sessions can kill the momentum as well - by 
  wearing down your players’ engagement with the story. Change 
  things around every few weeks – run fun little one-shot 
  adventures, alternate your campaigns, or just take a scheduled 
  week off every once in a while so that you and your players can 
  decompress just a bit.   
  15. 
  Meet your players’ expectations, and then turn them on 
  their heels. As a Storyteller, you should always seek to bend your 
  narrative to what your players want or expect. Players who enjoy 
  hack-and-slash games are going to want action, so when you 
  start a new game with such players, give it to them. The same 
  goes for hardcore role players – there is absolutely nothing wrong 
  with tailoring your games for your player base, even if those sorts 
  of games are not your forte.  
  The key here is simple – if you want to present something 
  new to your players, wrap it up inside something familiar. Give 
  your hack-and-slash players a couple great fighting sessions to 
  start off, then present them with a token bit of story. If they play 
  along with the story, reward them with more blood and gore. Little 
  by little, you will find them eagerly following more and more role-
  playing or storyline threads. The same tactic goes for mixed 
  groups as well – reward each player for contributing to the 
  playstyle you want to encourage with what that player will 
  consider a reward.  
  16. 
  Drop the boring stuff. If you run across an element of your 
  game that doesn’t seem to work for you or your players, get rid of 
  it. Strangely, a lot of Storytellers and players absolutely HATE 
  travel descriptions – many times because they can’t think of what 
  to describe during an overland/overseas journey. Although some 
  people find travel descriptions great fun, if it doesn’t work for you 
  or your group, drop them.  
  The same goes for any plot thread that has lost its steam – if 
  
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  your  
  players lose interest, find a neat way to wrap it up, forget about it, 
  or combine it with another plot thread. Never drag along dead 
  weight – and remember the most important maxim of 
  entertainment – no matter how much fun it is for you, if your 
  players are bored, you are doing it wrong. 
  17. 
  Reality Checks. Sometimes, when the players are moving 
  the story along at a good pace for a while, complacency can set 
  in. They’re winning all of their fights, foiling all of the bad guys’ 
  plots, and generally having a great time. While this is the ideal 
  state you want for your adventuring party, always be mindful of 
  complacency. No matter how many victories your players have 
  won, or how well geared/high leveled they are, they should never, 
  EVER think of your primary villains as easy foes. If this happens, 
  the fun will quickly go away, and you will be left with a campaign 
  that just fizzles out halfway through. No one plays RPGs for long 
  when there is no longer a challenge to be overcome. Rather than 
  sit idly by as your players develop an invincibility complex, throw 
  an in-game wrench into the works to remind them of the stakes.  
  The key here is to offer a reminder of why your bad guys 
  were such a threat to begin with. Rather than arbitrarily ‘level up’ 
  your bad guys, switch tactics. Bad guys around the world share 
  one thing in common – they hate fair fights. Rather than go after 
  hard targets (well-armed soldiers, fortresses, etc.) they will strike 
  the undefended weak spots – allied NPCs, player allies, or even 
  the very support structure that your players rely upon (temples 
  where they go to get healed, towns where they go to rest or sell 
  their treasures, inns where they let off some steam, etc.) As your 
  players scramble to respond, improve the bad guys’ tactics in a 
  fight – don’t make them stand their ground if your players have an 
  obvious upper hand. Instead, have them flee, setting up 
  ambushes for those who try to follow to closely – after all, if your 
  players have a reputation for winning their battles, who is to say 
  your bad guys won’t set up escape routes (filled with nasty traps) 
  
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  well in advance of a fight? 
  18. 
  Peel back the layers one by one, but always be ready to 
  rip them all off. When trying to establish a good momentum, 
  always ensure that the flow of information to your players is 
  constant and rewarding. A good portion of momentum is how 
  quickly your players learn about your world and its plots/stories. 
  Try to reveal or at least hint at new information (even in tiny 
  amounts) every session, and keep the narrative going. If your 
  players suddenly find themselves at a loss for what to do next, 
  then it’s time to make your big reveals.  
  19. 
  Make your players care about the good guys AND the 
  villains. This can’t be stressed enough. Almost everything on this 
  list depends on your players actually caring about the narrative, 
  plots, and people in your games. Your players need to have a 
  sense of motivation when it comes to their interactions with their 
  allies and enemies in order for you to use NPCs to drive your 
  narrative. 
   So how do you make players care about the guy in town 
  who appraises their newly-found treasures? Well, much time and 
  wasted effort has been spent by Storytellers the world over trying 
  to make their players like a certain NPC, only to find that their 
  response is lukewarm at best. The key is not to really look like 
  you’re trying at all. Instead of having Bob the Appraiser constantly 
  trying to make friends with your PCs, instead portray Bob as the 
  average workaday fellow he is. Have a local constable or lord 
  accuse the players of tomb-robbing or theft, and when the powers 
  that be have the PCs all but locked up in the local jail, have Bob 
  show up. The appraiser vouches for the PCs’ honesty and the 
  length of time he’s been doing business with them buying and 
  trading rare goods. The PCs are freed. Thanks Bob! 
  Getting your players to like villains is just as easy. The key 
  here is that while the PCs might (and rightly should) hate the 
  fiend, your players don’t necessarily have to. The best way to 
  approach this is when you first create your campaign, wipe the 
  
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  terms hero and villain from your mind entirely. Instead, write 
  characters. A character has good points and bad, and a 
  motivation to do something great or terrible in your story. The best 
  villains became so because of perfectly rational but tragic events 
  – the death of a loved one, being wrongfully accused of 
  something, or a single mistake that snowballed into a life gone 
  wrong. The best villains aren’t evil people, they simply do evil 
  things along the way to achieving their goals. 
  20. 
  Give your players a stake. The player is the crux of any 
  role playing game. It isn’t called role-telling, or role-game-
  mastering; the whole point of the game and its genre is the player. 
  Without their involvement and personal connection to our stories, 
  there is no game. So how do you forge this connection? 
  Ownership. 
  When your players realize that the game world is theirs, they 
  will naturally begin to take ownership. The roads, trails and tides 
  are theirs to master; the choices they make give birth to new 
  stories, new allies and enemies. The concept of ownership lets 
  your players know that they can do, become, or take on anything 
  they desire within the bounds and rules of the world and its 
  denizens. Always give your players a path by which they can 
  achieve their goals reasonably, fairly, and successfully. 
  This doesn’t mean you should let your players run your 
  game for you. Much the opposite; make the rules and setting 
  clear to them, keep your boundaries fair and transparent, and let 
  them work within the rules and boundaries to achieve their ends. 
  Give your players the room to explore their characters and their 
  roles in the story, and they will create their own narratives that fit 
  within the shared world – taking some of the burden from the 
  Storyteller, and along the way, develop a feeling of ownership 
  over their little part of your world. 
  21. 
  Rewards, rewards, rewards. This can’t be stressed 
  enough. We are not saying that you need to run Monty Hall 
  campaigns, giving out treasure like air and water, but always 
  
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  ensure that accomplishments are recognized with a 
  commensurate feeling of achievement – whether that comes in 
  the form of Experience points/skills advancement, treasure, in-
  game recognition (fame and glory) or simply approval and 
  congratulations around the table. Rewards should be given out 
  liberally, but never freely. Make your players understand that 
  rewards must be earned, and ensure that when rewards are given 
  out, they are given out equitably. When your players put in a lot of 
  effort and hard (in-game) work – no matter what that effort is, it is 
  up to you to ensure that such things are not being ignored. 
  22. 
  Penalties, penalties, penalties. The other side of the 
  reward coin is an instant and commensurate penalty for failures 
  as well. When your players bite off more than they can chew, 
  make sure they know it – at no time should your players feel as if 
  they are ‘too big to fail’ (See Reality Checks above). Furthermore, 
  in-game failures (in whole quests, not merely dice rolls) should 
  have consequences, giving your players a dose of negative 
  reinforcement to go along with all the positive. Balance any 
  penalties your players suffer with their rewards, and make it clear 
  what level of consequence each of their actions or decisions will 
  have – it is unfair to penalize players for a mistaken impression or 
  misunderstanding of a rule. 
   
   
  III. How to Tie it all together: 
   
  23. 
  Keep an adventure journal. As you plan the game, start a 
  journal, filling it with important NPCs, places, ideas, story threads 
  and arcs, and notes on encounters and battles. As you run your 
  game, update this journal with all of the new or updated 
  information derived from your sessions. Little by little, you add to 
  your original notes on NPCs and places, fleshing things out as 
  you go. This way, you avoid the burn-out of trying to completely 
  flesh everything out before the game begins, and you are left with 
  
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  plenty of room to change and adapt the various people, places, 
  and events in your game.  
  24. 
  Outline by NPC, Time, and Plot Thread. Using a simple 
  linear chart, plot the progress of your story in three ways; first, plot 
  the actions of each major NPC (particularly the villains) during 
  each chapter or act of your story. Then, on a separate page, plot 
  the Timeline of your campaign, taking care to note important 
  events and their intended dates – even if those dates are very 
  rough. Finally, plot the actual narrative events on a third page, 
  keeping track of significant story elements and plots as best as 
  you can, and taking care not to allow too many loose threads or 
  unresolved stories to develop. Once you have your three plot 
  charts filled out, compare them, and rectify any disparities you 
  might find by overlaying them. The final outline for your campaign 
  should reflect lessons and consistencies you discovered during 
  this process, and it will allow you to think of your story in three 
  dimensions, better enabling you to alter certain events (to account 
  for unexpected PC choices, victories, or failures) without throwing 
  the whole plot out the window. 
  25. 
  Encourage your players to take notes. While a good 
  Storyteller keeps detailed notes on all of his sessions, events, and 
  NPCs, it never hurts to have your players get into the habit of 
  taking notes as well. This gives you a fallback in case you forget 
  something, and helps to create an air of honesty and 
  transparency at times too. When your players know they can ‘call 
  you out’ on something you forgot or didn’t keep consistent, it not 
  only makes you a better Storyteller in the future, it bumps your 
  integrity up a notch or two in their eyes. After all, while everyone 
  makes mistakes, it is most admirable when someone can 
  immediately and gracefully own up to them.  
  26. 
  Make character sheets for your most important NPCs. 
  Keep their stats, abilities, and resources written down for easy 
  reference. This will enable you to quickly confirm various facts in-
  game, and help you to keep everything together over the course 
  
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  of a game. Write down any important information revealed by or 
  to each major NPC during your sessions, and refer back to them 
  in the future when your players encounter him or her again. 
  27. 
  Resources, resources, resources. Boil down the plots, 
  intentions, and capabilities of all of your major NPCs (ally and 
  villain) to resources. Figure out how many soldiers, spies, 
  assassins, apprentices, henchmen, etc. each of them has, as well 
  as the amount of money they have on hand, their income, and the 
  source of said income. Determine what properties they own, how 
  many specialized retainers (blacksmiths, ink-makers, scholars, 
  seers, bakers, etc.) they have at hand, as well as their more 
  intangible sources of wealth or power – public support, royal 
  protection, powerful allies, religious influence, etc. This is one of 
  the best ways to determine allied and enemy strength at any 
  given moment. Referring to this list can give you all sorts of new 
  ideas and plans when it comes to these NPCs and what they are 
  capable of doing at any given time, as well as their strengths and 
  vulnerabilities.  
  28. 
  Leave nothing behind... The biggest no-no in storytelling is 
  the unresolved plot thread. Too many storytellers (especially in 
  television) forget this fact, and write themselves into a corner with 
  certain plots and storylines, only to drop them completely. This 
  leaves your players hanging, and creates a sense of 
  unpreparedness and disorder in your games. Every single plot 
  thread you introduce should have some sort of resolution, even if 
  it is down the road a bit. If a plot thread is underperforming, never 
  just forget about it, sweeping the rubble under your rug. Give it 
  some sort of resolution, even if that resolution is sudden, and be 
  sure to find some tiny element of the now-dead plot to tie back 
  into one of your main threads. 
  29. 
  But pack lightly. Dovetailing with leaving nothing behind, 
  make sure that every single plot thread you do come up with 
  drives your primary narrative forward, even just a little. Economy 
  here is very important – while every campaign should have a 
  
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  number of primary and secondary plot threads, care should be 
  taken to ensure that there aren’t too many of these floating 
  around at any one time. Try to find a number of simultaneous 
  threads you can manage without too much hassle, and stick to it. 
  Don’t let yourself get bogged down with too many storylines at 
  once, and you won’t feel the need to drop them or leave things 
  unresolved. Find the happy middle-ground where your players 
  each have at least one personal or secondary plot line to follow in 
  addition to the two or three primary story threads in your 
  campaign. 
  30. 
  And I keep hitting repeat peat peat… Role playing games 
  are verbal narratives, in that the information being passed from 
  storyteller to player is spoken, rather than being written down. 
  This means that information being passed should be passed 
  clearly, often, and repeated when necessary to ensure it is driven 
  home. Never be afraid to hammer a key concept into your players’ 
  memories over and over again. Information retention among 
  players is about the same as with any sort of public speaking – 
  about 50% of what you say will be remembered by your players 
  by the time you finish saying it. To counter this, always present 
  your key pieces of information early in the session, before people 
  are tired, bogged down, or thinking about going home/to bed for 
  the night. Present information when people are most likely to pay 
  attention and remember it – moments when none of your players 
  are distracted, absent, or talking. Make a habit of revisiting 
  important moments from previous games at the beginning of each 
  new session, and don’t be afraid to develop a non-verbal clue 
  when presenting important information to your players – an 
  eyebrow waggle or dramatic forward lean that lets them know to 
  take note of what you’re about to say should suffice. 
   
  IV. How to Earn and keep the trust of 
  your players: 
   
  
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  31. 
  Integrity. As a Storyteller, you have an important covenant 
  with your players, who will look upon you as their guide and 
  window into the world you’re presenting. There is no greater asset 
  to a Storyteller than integrity. If your players can’t trust you, then 
  they can never enjoy the stories or encounters you bring to the 
  table. All of us at Blackstone Entertainment are players or game 
  masters ourselves. We know full well what it’s like to have an 
  unreliable or dishonest game master. You slay a dozen foes more 
  quickly than your game master expected, and a dozen more 
  appear from nowhere. You figure out an elaborate scheme and 
  corner an important villain earlier than your game master wished 
  – and that villain miraculously manages to escape. Such tactics 
  make for a thoroughly bad gaming session. Be honest and 
  forthright in all of your decisions, and never trifle with the trust of 
  your players. 
  32. 
  The adversaries are on the table, not around it. 
  Sometimes, from the other side of the table, it is easy to forget 
  that your players are just as invested in your story and world as 
  you are. You spend hours making maps, designing encounters, 
  and breathing life into your world. Your players are just visitors, 
  right? They’re just here to foil your best-laid plans and trample 
  over your carefully crafted stories. It is a frighteningly simple thing 
  for players and game masters to become adversarial in their 
  outlook. This is only made worse when your players feel they 
  can’t trust you.  
  33. 
  The world belongs to the players – you just work there. 
  Always remember that at the end of the night, whether your world, 
  your session, or your ideas were good or not depends entirely on 
  the opinions of your players. Players are the heart and soul of an 
  RPG, and if they’re not having fun, it’s a bad game – period. It 
  doesn’t really matter how much the Storyteller enjoys the game; 
  the thing that keeps your players coming back to your table again 
  and again is their enjoyment. Luckily for you, if the players like it, 
  then it probably goes without saying that you’ve done well, and 
  
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  should be proud. 
  34. 
  Consistency. One of the worst deal-breakers for any game 
  session is a lack of consistency. If Rule 47 states that dragons 
  always sleep on Thursdays, and your party enters your cave on 
  Thursday, then the dragon had better be snoring his scaly head 
  off. Ensure your rules are clear, concise, and known by all, and 
  abide by those rules, even when they work against you.  
  35. 
  No one is the Storyteller’s favorite, even if they are. 
  Worse than a lack of consistency for utterly ruining a gaming 
  group is the presence of favoritism at the game table. Nobody 
  expects Bob the Storyteller to ignore his wife’s character at the 
  table, but they do at least expect that their own characters are 
  going to be given the same level of attention and fairness as she. 
  We all play favorites at one time or another, but the gaming table 
  should not be one of those places – after all, everyone is there to 
  have fun, and deserves an equitable amount of playtime, fairness, 
  and fun.  
  36. 
  Reward your players for ruining everything. The easiest 
  trap for a Storyteller to fall into is an unwillingness to allow an 
  easy victory over a carefully-made encounter, foe or villain. We’ve 
  all seen this scenario play itself out at one time or another – 
  Evilpants Vilebreath has trapped the PCs in a deep, dark 
  dungeon, and laughs maniacally as he monologues his way 
  through his dastardly plot. Suddenly, a PC picks up a sharp stone, 
  and gives the rock a toss (queue the sound of a d20 rolling across 
  the table…) and boom! A critical success! Rock to the skull, lights 
  out, massive hemorrhaging and death.  
  But Mr. Vilebreath wasn’t supposed to die until the 17th Act of 
  the campaign, and this is only day 2! What is a Storyteller to do? 
  Well, if the rules state that the damage kills him, and he had no 
  pre-existing defenses, then I’m afraid Mr. Vilebreath is dead. If 
  you fudge it up here, your players will remember it, and never 
  trust your impartiality again. They will see that your story is more 
  important to you than either the rules or their die rolls (not to 
  
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  mention think a little less of Mr. Vilebreath in the future), and 
  cease to buy into your illusion.  
  37. 
  Ensure everyone knows the rules, and abides by them, 
  especially you. Simply put, if you don’t know the rules of a game 
  very well, don’t run that game. Familiarize yourself with the rules, 
  and ensure you at least know the rules that are most likely to 
  come up during your next session. Help new players understand 
  the system by running practice combat sessions before their 
  characters’ lives are on the line, and always take the time early on 
  to explain things so that everyone understands. If a question over 
  rules comes up, make a quick ruling so as not to break your 
  momentum, but take the time to thoroughly read said rule once 
  the game session ends, and explain what you’ve learned to your 
  players afterwards.  
  38. 
  Be an arbiter, even away from the dice. Though the 
  purpose of this list is to provide tips for better Storytelling, one of 
  the key ingredients of maintaining trust in-game is the Storyteller’s 
  reputation for conflict resolution outside the game. Nip unhealthy 
  player-on-player conflict in the bud, and ensure it doesn’t disrupt 
  your game sessions. Gaming groups who are easily distracted, 
  fight with one another or shun certain members, or who engage in 
  disruptive or disrespectful behaviors are rarely successful groups.  
  No matter how much planning, drive, or good intentions the 
  Storyteller might put into his or her games, bad group dynamics 
  will invariably bring down the mood, drag personal grudges or 
  distrust into the session, or outright sabotage the evening. 
  Harmless ribbing is perfectly acceptable (even encouraged), but 
  anything that goes beyond a jovial or amicable level should never 
  be tolerated in a good gaming group. Responsibility lies largely 
  with the host of the game, but the players must also police 
  themselves from time to time as well. Everyone around the table 
  needs to feel as if they belong to the group, and that they 
  contribute meaningfully to the dynamic. 
  39. 
  Pay attention to your players, especially the quiet ones. 
  
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  Recognize the contributions of each and every one of your 
  players - if you can't do this, remove the player from your group 
  because you are doing him or her no favors as their Storyteller. 
  Many players fit into the category of the "Shy One" or the 
  "Newbie", and as such they often remain quiet and relatively 
  passive during your sessions. Some people stay in this phase for 
  months, even years - it is up to you to figure out how to challenge 
  and reward them based on the level of their ability to contribute, 
  and praise them for their achievements. In the personal 
  experiences of those of us at Blackstone Entertainment Inc., it is 
  often the quiet or shy players that surprise and amaze you when 
  you least expect it. 
   
   
  V. How to establish and keep narrative 
  integrity 
   
  40. 
  Fall in love with your story, not your characters. A major 
  sin for any writer or Storyteller is to like an NPC so much that you 
  turn him or her into a Mary Jane. Avoid this at all costs – nobody 
  likes an infallible or immortal NPC. Give your best heroes flaws, 
  give your worst villains redeeming qualities, and when it is time for 
  someone to die, let it happen – if a favorite NPC has to fall 
  because it makes sense for the story, don’t spare him or her out 
  of nostalgia or fondness. The trick here is to make your players 
  love your NPCs, rather than just you.  
  41. 
  Both allies and villains have long memories. Be sure to 
  reward your players for their accomplishments, ensuring their 
  actions and decisions have all of the consequences – good or bad 
  – that they warrant. If your players help out an NPC ally, make 
  sure that ally remembers it, and adapt their outlook accordingly. 
  The same goes for villains – the best villains are the ones who 
  last, and making a nemesis out of a villain early on in the game 
  should have lasting and meaningful consequences down the 
  
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  road. 
  42. 
  Consistency builds your world for you. While players 
  might not remember your thirty-minute speech about the history 
  and politics of The Three Kingdoms, they will remember all of the 
  little encounters and events that happen along the way – a border 
  skirmish here, a murdered diplomat there, and the ever-present 
  whispers of escalation and plots in the halls of The Marcher 
  Lords. Through your consistent portrayal of your world and its 
  major NPCs’ reactions to events, you are cementing the laws and 
  rules of the campaign setting in your players’ minds. Tiny, 
  consistent portions fill a stomach more efficiently (and 
  comfortably) than binge-feeding. 
  43. 
  Fall in love with your characters, not your story. Wait… 
  what? Didn’t you just tell us to do the exact opposite?!? The 
  reverse of our first lesson in this section is also true. Too many 
  Storytellers fall in love with the story they WANT to tell, rather 
  than the story their players are actually EXPERIENCING. We all 
  let ourselves forget that the narrative belongs to the players, not 
  us. While the Storyteller may write about, populate, and even 
  paint the game world, it is not really a world at all until the players 
  enter it. If you find your players going in a direction that they want 
  to go, resist your knee-jerk reaction to ‘steer’ them back into the 
  channel, and try to determine whether their enjoyment might 
  better be served by a change in heading on the part of the story. 
  Let your players steer your campaign when they’re so obviously 
  enjoying themselves, and never try to ‘take their toys’ from them. 
  Your story belongs to them, after all. Instead, create character-
  driven narratives that depend on people, not specific story arcs, to 
  drive momentum. Present your world not only through your own 
  voice, but that of important allied and enemy NPCs as well; allow 
  these NPCs and their basic nature and motivations to evolve 
  naturally, and your story will seem to flow just as naturally. 
  44. 
  Condense the world around your players. One of the best 
  ways to both build player trust and keep their attention is to weave 
  
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  a living, breathing world around them. This might seem a difficult 
  task to do properly – how in the world are you supposed to make 
  every single NPC, place, and event seem natural and alive? 
  Simply put, you do so using the greatest tool in a Storyteller’s 
  arsenal: you portray only the tiny portion of your world your 
  players actually see. If they are in the village, all you have to do is 
  make THAT village come alive – sprinkle a half dozen mundane, 
  perfectly village-like things going on around them; a blacksmith 
  absent-mindedly hammering at a horseshoe; a baker angrily 
  pulling a burnt loaf from his kiln; a farmer fussing over turning his 
  fruit about to present their best side to passersby. Call it window-
  dressing if you like, but this kind of mundane detail creates a 
  powerful illusion in your players’ mind that they are in a sandbox – 
  that the world behaves precisely as they expect it should – not 
  just this tiny village, but the whole realm beyond. As any sandbox, 
  it will invite them within to do as they please – go where they 
  want, and explore every nook and cranny you present to them. 
  45. 
  Allow your players to play, but don’t forget that you’re a 
  player as well. Creating a great story about more than just 
  making a giant sandbox for your players to dig around in. It is also 
  about finding the perfect balance between ushering your players 
  towards the things you want them to find, and letting them find 
  those things on their own. The key here is to learn how to become 
  a subtle mover, always acting to influence the narrative just 
  beneath the surface. Perhaps the most powerful tool of all in a 
  Storyteller’s arsenal is his or her ability to convince the players 
  that they are doing what they WANT to do, when in reality they 
  are doing what you have INFLUENCED them to do. Most players 
  can spot a ‘railroader’ immediately; once they figure out they’re 
  being led around on a conveyor belt, they stop trying to come up 
  with anything on their own, and the world becomes a whole lot 
  less fun. Never railroad your players into an action or decision; 
  instead, constantly and consistently present them with a number 
  of choices and consequences for every event; little by little, you 
  
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  will not only ‘train’ them to pick the best choices, but learn a great 
  deal about their decision making processes at the same time. 
  This will allow you to tailor your narrative in the future to match 
  with their decision making, enabling your players to feel as if they 
  are the ones leading the reins, rather than you. It is all about 
  deception and subterfuge, but done well, it is seamless and a 
  great deal of fun as well. 
  46. 
  Create mystery, but don’t be mysterious. The trick to 
  weaving the illusion of seamlessness and continuity in a world is 
  to imbue your stories with the subtle air of mystery. That strange, 
  mystic uncertainty that lies just at the edge of everything in your 
  world – the invisible current which doesn’t quite explain everything 
  your players seek to learn, always leaving them wanting to know 
  more. Make sure your players know just what they need to know, 
  but nothing more until the story is ready to reveal it to them.  
  Take this mystery to the very edge of reason, and STOP 
  THERE. Never allow mysteries to fog up or entirely obscure your 
  story or your events – nobody likes too many unanswered 
  questions – and it is easy for your players to begin assuming that 
  either you yourself don’t know the answers, or you are simply 
  holding back out of sadism. Just as important as making sure 
  your players don’t know EVERYTHING is ensuring they know 
  ENOUGH to be able to make the correct choices and sacrifices 
  along the way. Nothing kills drama faster than meaningless 
  riddles or inscrutability 
  47. 
  Don’t make Jaws: The Revenge. Now, the great campaign 
  is finally over, and the heroes have defeated the evil villain and 
  saved the lives of their friends and families. They return to their 
  homes as saviors and legends, perhaps retiring from their 
  adventuring days and taking up the reins of power, or returning to 
  the simple life or a farmer, or even buying the old tavern where 
  they first met those many years ago. There is an extremely 
  appealing – even irresistible – temptation to revisit these heroes 
  one day in the near future, dusting off the old character sheets 
  
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  and setting the aging heroes on yet another quest. The problem 
  here lies in the fact that Storytellers too often attempt to recapture 
  the ‘mood’ of the original campaign, only to have the story fall flat. 
  This is the sequel effect, and it is a pretty well-known and 
  documented phenomena in movies. If done hastily, it often feels 
  tired, rehashed, and even a little sad sometimes to see our 
  beloved heroes become little more than nostalgic old relics 
  grasping and reaching for former glories. 
  When approaching a ‘sequel’ type game, the first thing you 
  need to do away with right off the bat is any notion that you will 
  ‘recapture’ the exact mood or feeling of the original game. You 
  can’t, because the original game was just that – original. These 
  are no longer the naïve, plucky adventurers from that first session 
  many months or years back. These are hardened adventurers 
  now, and the players portraying them are probably a little different 
  in their approach to them as well.  
  If you must do a sequel, approach it with fresh ideas that 
  would stand on their own merits if even the game were being 
  played with brand-new characters. The best sequels in movies 
  are usually those capable of standing alone, after all. Fresh ideas 
  create a fresh mood, and rather than attempting the impossible 
  task of recapturing some bit of nostalgia or feeling from the 
  previous game, they allow you to create a whole new mood for 
  the story.  
  Feel free to reintroduce old friends and old rivals as well, but 
  don’t forget to infuse the story with new blood as well – new 
  friends and enemies alike to round out your cast. Always resist 
  the urge to make caricatures of your old NPCs; remember, they 
  evolve and change as well, and there is always the possibility that 
  old friends will become new enemies, and vice versa! 
   
   
  
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  Blackstone Entertainment, Inc. is a Veteran-Owned Small Business located in the heart of 
  the Shenandoah Valley. We express our warmest thanks to you for purchasing this product, 
  and hope you thoroughly enjoy it.  
   
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SOURCE: textdata/thevault/_GM Books/Blackstone Entertainment - 47 Tips and Tricks to Become A Better Game Master or Storyteller.pdf