Hourglass

This post is a little rambly. It covers some ideas about GM storytelling and control.

Every week, I GM a group of 3-6 players using my system Age of Swords.

This system is a fantasy role-playing game set in the Wildworld. My dream is to publish it this year, but who knows if that will happen. Regardless, a story is a story and what I am talking about applies to any RPG.

When planning out a session, I tend to write 1 major plot point per hour. It is incredible that it can take this long to get a single plot point done, but it is what it is. I will also have a couple of go-to encounters in case I need to adjust events for timing.

Lastly, I try to make the last plot point of the evening a bit of a cliffhanger. In this way, we come back on some tension. This device is a tried and true method of all writers.

It might sound like this sort of planning is to Railroad the players.

Most GMs do not want this much planning because they are afraid they will Railroad. Planning out story is not Railroading. The Angry DM has a great article about Railroading that I believe should be read. Also, there is the concept of a Fox Hunt.

I use what I call the Hourglass style.

The Hourglass is a mixture of both a Sandbox and a Fox Hunt/Railroading. It is an open story that has choke point that must happen. I give the Heroes a lot of leeways to do what they want, but at the same time, I am steering them to my story points.

When I say steering, I am not forcing. Carrots are better than sticks. Session 0 is essential in aligning the Heroes motivations with the story you are telling. It is for this reason, I believe placing limitations on a campaign during Hero creation is so important. I plan to talk more about Limitations on Hero creation in great detail soon.

In my current running, the Heroes are seeking revenge on a powerful Mage who stole gold and years of their lives from them.

He did this by betraying them and then wiping their recent memories. Then three years later, one of the Heroes “wakes” up and remembers what happened. He then goes and finds all the other players and helps them get their memories back. They are all now poor nobodies, who remember have a fortune of treasure stolen from them. They are pissed and seeking revenge.

Therefore, the players are 100% guiding themselves as they try to locate and kill this Mage. While doing so, they have discovered the Mage is seeking to build an item that will increase his power by controlling the Nagas that secretly live in the region.

The story I want to tell is about the rise of a Naga Queen, the eventually Queen’s attempt to take over the region, and the fate of the Nagas as a people. I hope that the Heroes will get on board to stop the Queen when the attack happens. But I am not forcing them to do so. Right now, they are trying to track down this Mage they hate and kill him solely for revenge.

However, the Mage is all up in the Naga’s business. So each time they deal with NPCs about the Mage, they are learning more about the Nagas. In this way, I do not need to Railroad anything. They want revenge, and I can happily sit back and let them Sandbox their way to the Mage. In the meantime, there are some key story points involving the Naga that they need to discover.

Last week, they just started to interact with some of the Rogue Nagas that are working against the Queen. How did this happen? Because many of the avenues of investigation keep bring up the Nagas until they decided to go looking into it. They came to the conclusion that the Rogue Nagas might be allies in their war against the Mage. They now have a crucial partner in the Naga story, and I hope to get them more involve with the Naga as they continue to seek revenge.

One of the tricks to Railroad players without them knowing is what I call “All roads lead to Rome.”

As GM, imagine you need the players to go to Rome. Whatever you do, do not tell them this information. Just try to figure out what they want to do, and then present a road to Rome.

• The players just killed a dragon and wish to use the dragon scales to make magical armor. Well, they learn the best smith for this job is in Rome.
• They are getting on a boat to go to Athens, it gets attacked. The ship is shipwrecked. They have a great adventure on the island. When they finally get rescued, it is by a boat going to Rome.
• They are seeking revenge against a noble, the noble flees to get protection in the city of Rome.
• They want to learn more about the dungeon before going into it. There is a Sage who has this information in Rome.

Once the Heroes have a road to Rome, you have to stop making all roads lead there. Otherwise, it is total Railroading. But you can leave a few events to come up from now and then that need to go to Rome.

The Angry GM talked about Railroading as a battle for control. And I agree with him.

The best tools the GM can use in this battle is patience.

The Heroes don’t want to go to Rome and do your fantastic adventure, then relax! Find out what they want to do and do that for a while. Then work behind the scenes to find a reason they will want to go to Rome.

Perhaps you want them to go to Rome at level 2 but they get there at level 5. Well, add a few more monsters to the adventure and press forward.

In the end, patience is your best tool as a GM.

• The Story