How do you prepare an "episode?"

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Grey Ghost Games' Gamemastering Secrets

How is this, btw? I saw it around when it first came out but never picked it up. Some big names on it.

[LUGTrekGM]

Well, without going into a full review, if you are new to GMing, "Gamemastering Secrets" is written in the style of a series of essays on gamemastering, setting up campaigns, handling players, how to do maps, etc etc from knowledgeable DMs, and that is interlaced throughout with Dork Tower cartoons.

It's like a nice how-to, especially if you are a beginner.

As a long-time GM, I didn't find anything really new or breathtaking, but the essays were written in an informative, useful style, rather than the somewhat arrogant from on high style that I saw in Gygax's "Insidae." (which Gygax edited, but didn't write.)

I truly disagreed with a lot that "Insidae" had to say, but kept it notheless as a GM's Reference work, and the charts and tables were really useful. I would not recommend Insidae, though, again because I disagree with a lot of it.

At 34.99, Gamemastering Secrets is somewhat steep, considering that it's no rules, and mostly opinion. If you could find it on eBay, I'd say it's worth 20 - 25 USD.

That being said, I paid full price when it came out, and bought a spare off of eBay recently as a birthday present for a GM I've known for 10 years, since he kept borrowing my copy.

Hope that helps.

[Balok]

I, too, have found that for more combat oriented games it's easier to "wing it." That's not to say that such games lack more sophisticated plots - that's up to the GM. But a show like Trek is more about themes, arcs, character development, moral conundrums, and other things that tend to require the GM to have a pretty good idea how things will unfold.

It's like writing a book. It's clear from reading them that some authors start writing before they know how the book will end, while others have a structure mapped out ahead of time. Each method works well for certain situations.

[LUGTrekGM]

For me, the overall story arc is the most useful tool to have been invented / brought in from cinema in gaming.

Star Wars d6 radically changed my games for the better when West End Games really detailed out how to present a scenario in terms of scenes.

I enjoyed dungeons, but it always somehow felt like I was not conveying the flow of the action, especiallly when "Dungeon Crawl" Techniques were used. After the main battle, I didn't want to say "you clean out the rest of the place...you spring 6 traps, and here's the rest of the loot" expressly because I had taken so much time in drawing the places out.

Once I laid it out in scenes, story artc, and character development, it became much more like a film / TV Show episode, which is what I always deeply wanted.

Now I am much more satisfied, since I still need a diagram, but it is a plot diagram, rather than a dungeon. All of the side rooms in a dungeon led the stories to being flat, or without a general theme.

And Star Trek is sort of fuzzy, so it is more forgiving, say, than Traveller.

I enjoy both, but my Traveller campaign hardly ever gets any air time, because it was expressly designed for the ref to focus on the little details, and also generally has smaller ships which are very mission specific.

Given the chance, I am more than happy to take weeks to generate all the scientific details of even one world. Fun, and creatively challenging, but very time consuming.

[UFC465537]

I usually start with a broad plot and start to narrow it down to a series of encounters/scenes. It's almost like writing a program in BASIC, sometimes, because it boils down to "if this, then that, or else, this...".

A lot of times the players create their own ideas for adventures- use them! For example:

"My character has a hot girlfriend" reads, "<scribble> character is romatically involved with a romulan spy...."

"I like to carouse in underground gambling dens" equals "character frequently gets into trouble with local governments and undcovers a plot to overthrow the planetary magistrate...."

You get the idea.

And I recommend avoiding the "There it is" set up of adventuring.

GM: Sensors detect a protostar forming in the adjacent sector...
Player: Comm, inform Starfleet to send a proper science vessel to investigate...(turns to you) what else you got?

It's like the difference between 'proactive' and 'reactive' approach to gaming. I prefer 'reactive' or the 'anvil drop' approach.

GM: Sensor detect a protostar forming all around the ship and collapsing quickly.
Player: Get us out of here!
GM: The ship doesn't respond.
Player: SH*T!


And high stakes- always think big! I always put the Federation at risk, and if the players flub the adventure, it just opens a whole series of new adventures to make!

Well, that's just my 2 cents....

[LUGTrekGM]

I'm not so much a fan of high stakes as much as personal stakes.

I would use your protostar nebula as "Background scene art."

Since they are scanning it, it is happening, it doesn't require a decision, thus it is usually going to be an event, not an ancounter, unless there is an "Inciting Incident."

But as you say, it forms around you.. requires action....exactly. I totally agree.

Or

A strange radio signal emanates from the nebula, on an unusual frequency.
It forces the CO to make the call, and "Ask for the science team", or "Ignore it and move on."

A command decision.

If by ignoring it, the CO just passed up an alien distress call, then some other power or faction helps those aliens, and it shifts the balance of power in the region, or the CO gets a reprimand, or a court martial scenario.. which leads to nothing, or.. something bad, with the crew as reluctant witnesses.

Or

Witnessing the protostar nebula forming, suddenly the system disappears, with the resulting subspace shockwave, or whatever. Turns out, after checking the charts, a lot of mapped systems have disappeared.

Or

A non-Federation ship is sportted, moving toward the Protostar system. If the captain lets this other power get the jump on some new scientific advance, there's hell to pay, not next week, not 3 months, but 6 months of campaign time down the road, as a trail of evidence leads back to this incident as the key to why something critical is all messed up for the Federation, especially the sector that the crew's ship patrols.

That being said, if A CO player turned to me as Starfleet, and said "What else you got?" I'd just move on, and have one of the above things happen, because really, to me a protostar or solar flare or anything like that, is just chrome and shininess on the campaign, as background filler.

But, IF they had some kind of silly smirk going on to boot, I mean, it's a challenge to me as storyteller. I'd have the Admiral call up the ship, and have the Comms officer say, "Captain, Admiral Morrison is on the line from Starfleet Command, with new Secret, Sealed orders for your eyes only."

And in a private communication in the ready room, 5 minutes later, the Admiral says, in a quiet voice, very flat, disinterested tone, "What do I got? A take-charge, agressive Commander currently commanding a Destroyer that is going to get your chair in a week, if you don't figure out why you were sent out there in the first place. Consider yourself reprimanded, and get back on task. Report your findings in 2 solar days. Morrison out."

And I've had players smile and walk out on the "Bridge, and say, "Ah, we have been ordered to scan the protostar. Priority Mission, many things I can't reveal at this time depend on our mission success...Sciences, I want you to prepare an Astrophysical Team..." and we game on.

I've also had players quit. And I let them go. and we game on. The regular players know I play seriously, for the most part. Some might do that, because they want to portray a role that way. And we do that dance. Maybe one day, a Captain like that recovers, and takes the Admiral's own job, earning his respect in a very lnog-term story arc.

But I don't need some smart-alek player as a Captain.

I, and the rest of the crew work too hard writing and playing scenarios, doing maps, and all the rest, to have BS like that going on, with players trying to "Crack the Scenario" or "Shortcut to the Chase" and the rest of that kind of crap.