This is info I gathered on another forum some time ago. I believe Piratecat was one of the posters. I apologize to other posters I can't recall.
How the characters are described
- The more the players have to do, the easier the DM's job. If I give the players a metaphorical sports car, I won't have to pull them everywhere on a creaky cart. And I'm lazy as a DM, so I prefer to spend a lot more time designing the characters than I do the plot.
This means that writing down the character descriptions and interactions (with the other PCs) is the first, and most important, step. For most games it's far more important than perfectly optimized combat stats. When planning your convention game, put the plot aside for a moment and think about how the PCs should interact. Create interconnections between each of them, so each hero has a connection of some sort (hate, unrequited love, jealousy, loyalty) with at least two other heroes -- and mix them around evenly. I usually position six circles on a sheet of paper, label each one with a hero name, and then draw "relationship" arrows with notes next to them towards the other circles.
Conflict is good. You certainly don't want a free-for-all, but seething tension (either love or hate) is your friend. A party that gets along perfectly is a boring party.
I'd say it takes me maybe an hour to do an average character; that's about 40 minutes to write character personality and motivations and interactions, and 20 minutes to note down stats. It always takes me longer to do PCs than to write the actual plot. People who write a con game and leave the characters 'til last because "they're easy" sometimes get surprised.
- History is not personality. Some people accidentally confuse the two, and write three paragraphs under the personality section describing what the hero has done, where he has been, and what he knows. This should generally be tossed out the window (to be summarized briefly in game, since usually it doesn't matter) and replaced with two paragraphs on how he goes about life, what he thinks of people, and what interesting quirks or habits he has.
- "And I described it... with adjectives." Arrgh, you say, I have no time to do that! Never fear. I'd rather have 6 adjectives describing a PC than anything else. give me six adjectives, and I can play a PC with no problem. The best thing is, writing down that the wizard is "heroic, foolhardy, generous, lovestruck, wealthy and vain" takes maybe three minutes and paints a very clear picture of their personality. If you're strapped for time, do this same thing for each PC interaction, only using three adjectives.
- Stuff and pictures. Googling a photo or illustration of each character is cool, but not essential; it's pretty easy for a Modern game, though. I prefer to tell a story through a hero's gear. One of the heroes in one of my GenCon games had a small bag full of her opponent's teeth that she'd kicked out over the years; another had love letters from seven different girls. with stuff like that in your inventory, a canny player can gain hints that don't need to be spelled out in the personality section.
- "Wait, what am I supposed to be like?" Make sure a hero's personality matches what the other heroes think of him. Nothin sucks more than if you find out everyone else thinks you're a cheapskate that mumbles, but your own character sheet never mentions it.
Plots
- Less is more. I plan 3 notable encounters max, so long as I have a PCs that encourage roleplaying between them and a couple of interesting NPCs for me to to roleplay as well. I also plan one of those encounters to be a "throwaway" encounter that I can ditch if I'm running out of time. Con games invariably start late, so it's a good idea to control timing a bit and still let the players get to the adventure's climax.
- Don't write, outline. This is my personal preference when no one but me will be running the game. I never write exhaustively what happens; instead, I work off of a single page of outlined notes that flowcharts the adventure. i will rough out stats for major combat encounters, though, to save time.
- Challenge the players. Make them make tough decisions. Make them roleplay with NPCs to find out the good information. Make them think through tactics or strategies, and remember not to become attached to your clever NPCs and plots! They're only there to challenge the heroes anyways, so reward clever planning instead of punishing it.
- Not all NPCs are antagonists. Make sure you add nice, friendly NPCs into your game, too. your less paranoid players will thank you for it.
- Loot is irrelevant. It's a 4 hour game. Forget all cash, loot and xp unless it is essential to the game's plot. No one wants to spend time splitting up treasure that will never get used.
Design narrow-wide=narrow. I write my games to be linear at the beginning, moderately linear at the end (in that they usually lead to an anticipated big climax), and totally open to different strategies in the middle. It seems to work pretty well; it allows free choice for most of the game, and still delivers a cool finish.
- Cinematic endings. When I plan a game, I think of a cool possible ending first then plan backwards from there. Go for the showy and flashy set pieces, and those fights become a lot more fun and memorable.
DMing tricks
- Avoid boredom and rules. Take care of any tedious character tasks (spell selection, gearing up) BEFORE the game -- just let the player change things they don't want. Likewise, looking up rules during the game can stop a dramatic encounter dead in its tracks. If you can't find a rule in 60 seconds, make something up and stay consistent for the rest of the game.
- Spread around your attention. Every con table has at least one quiet player. Make sure you pay them equal attention. Ask them what they're doing, involve them in conversations, have NPCs talk to them, and so on; quiet shouldn't mean ignored.
Don't encourage the disruptive player. If someone's play style is antithetical to your own or they're disrupting the table, don't feel bad about taking them aside for a private conference and ask them if they could stop that for the rest of the game. Most times it solves the problem, and everyone has more fun as a result.
In the same vein, don't devote more attention than normal to players who are needy and attention-grabbing. Pay only a little bit of attention to them when they're being disruptive, pay lots of attention to them when they relent, and you'll soon have the problem solved as they figure out that NOT being disruptive gets them attention.
- Playtest. Playtest, playtest, playrtest - even once. I love to reuse adventures at different game days and cons, because they keep getting better! I think I've run the MnM game 11 times now since last December, and I originally conceived of it for use here at GenCon. Ask Maverick Weirdo; the first time I ran it, it was pretty shaky. Playtesting answers pacing questions and shakes out iffy plotting.
- Pacing. Don't hesitate to sacrifice encounters just so you can get to the good stuff. I'd much rather skip a minor combat encounter if it means I get to the end of the adventure! Talking about pulp gangster novels, Raymond Chandler wrote, "When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand." It's great advice; before things get boring, introduce time pressure or some sort of conflict. that way the session never drags.
- Painting images. Use scent, and sound, and color when describing what people see. It really helps immerse people in the game.
- Reward creativity. Let clever plans succeed. If they out-think you, they damn well deserve an advantage! I think I might run games just to see how players will surprise me, and it's a constant delight. That's actually my favorite moment in gaming: when a player pulls something unique that I never saw coming, and it changes the whole course of the adventure in a direction I didn't expect. Don't try to railroad or redirect PCs before this happens.
Props, have a ringer player, have more than one GM
