How to run a session
Texto
A game session is a chunk of time dedicated to playing a roleplaying game, and as the GM, you have a great deal of influence over what the players do with this time. While they likely have their own ideas about what they want to do, you are their window to the world of Rokugan, so the things you choose to present to them help to direct their activities.
Preparations
Running a session often requires some preparation. A few weeks, days, or hours ahead of time, the GM prepares the needed components, including the adventure (see more on Creating Scenarios on page 288) and the settings and NPCs within it. This can take a few minutes to hours or even days of work, and depends entirely on the complexity of the scenario and whether the GM prefers to make things up as they go along, or run sessions with a lot of advance planning. New GMs should err on the side of planning more until they figure out how comfortable they are with improvisation.
Getting Things Moving
Once people begin arriving, players usually want to spend some time chatting, catching up on each other’s lives, and socializing. Between this and the time it takes for everyone to settle in, GMs should plan on a thirty-minute buffer between the time they ask people to arrive and when they begin play. Once everyone is ready, the GM can politely draw their friends’ attention away from socializing and to the game at hand.
This cue also heralds the next part of the session, which is the recap. The GM catches players up to speed on what happened the last time they played, reminding them of unfinished business or unanswered questions. Alternatively, the GM can engage the group by asking players to recap what they remember. This also gives the GM a chance to see what the players are focusing on; if they emphasize interactions with a particular NPC, for example, the GM can give that NPC a more prominent role in future sessions.
If the GM likes, they can wrap up the recap with a dramatic question about the players’ intentions. “Will your characters be quick enough to save the daimyō?” or “Have you discovered enough to know the magistrate’s real intentions?” can raise the tension and help the group dive back into the adventure.
Running a Scene
A scene is, at its core, a period of conflict at a particular time and place. The GM describes the setting where the scene transpires, serving as the characters’ eyes, ears, and other senses. The GM also takes on the role of any NPCs included in the scene, narrating their actions and speaking their dialogue (which usually entails making up lines on the fly!).
Besides the basics like “who,” “what,” “when,” where,” and “why,” three key ingredients are needed to create the conflict in a scene: a goal or a desire, one or more obstacles to the goal, and stakes for success or failure. Without a concrete goal, players may flail or drift. Without real obstacles, there is no conflict— meaning no dramatic tension—and the players may become bored. Without stakes for success or failure, both the goal and the obstacle have no meaning.
The GM’s job is to zero in on scenes with all three ingredients and use the various rules of the game to adjudicate whether the characters overcome their obstacles. This, fundamentally, is what pacing is about: slowing down and zooming in on the action—that is to say, on the conflicts—and speeding up or summarizing moments in game-world time when there isn’t anything dramatic happening. For an intense moment of inner conflict, however, it makes sense to play through the moment as if it were happening in real time.
There is one major exception to this in the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game, which is the “slice of life” or characterization scene. These scenes could include conversations between PCs and NPCs, cultural events, or simple moments of experiencing some part of existence like a morning routine or a yearly festival. Though these scenes seem mundane, they can serve to build the world, characterize its inhabitants, and emphasize unique elements of Rokugani culture that may be novel or interesting to your players. These scenes also help your players get immersed in the setting. After all, playing a character who is a part of the imaginary world around them, rather than a spectator, is what roleplaying games are all about.
Ending a Session
How do you decide when to end a session? Sometimes a good stopping point is when a major question just got answered or a challenge was overcome, so the players can leave on a note of satisfaction. At other times, it’s important to stop because the next scene is likely to be complicated, and it will be best if everyone is fresh to play through it together another day. It can also be fun to leave off on a cliffhanger (such as when the players are about to do battle or discover the identity of a dreaded foe). This leaves players looking forward to the next session. Be sure to award experience points (see page 299) and answer questions that arose during play.
To reinforce the idea of choice and consequence, it’s very helpful to write down key events and the decisions that the PCs made as each session winds down. This way, the GM can incorporate natural ramifications to the PCs’ actions into the story, which further helps reinforce player immersion in the setting. The Campaign Sheet (found at www.FantasyFlightGames.com) provides spaces for recording key information about each PC.
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Core Rulebook · Chapter 7: The Game Master › The Role of the GM › How to run a session · p. 282 p. 283
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A game session is a chunk of time dedicated to playing a roleplaying game, and as the GM, you have a great deal of influence over what the players do with this time. While they likely have their own ideas about what they want to do, you are their window to the world of Rokugan, so the things you choose to present to them help to direct their activities.
Preparations
Running a session often requires some preparation. A few weeks, days, or hours ahead of time, the GM prepares the needed components, including the adventure (see more on Creating Scenarios on page 288) and the settings and NPCs within it. This can take a few minutes to hours or even days of work, and depends entirely on the complexity of the scenario and whether the GM prefers to make things up as they go along, or run sessions with a lot of advance planning. New GMs should err on the side of planning more until they figure out how comfortable they are with improvisation.
Getting Things Moving
Once people begin arriving, players usually want to spend some time chatting, catching up on each other’s lives, and socializing. Between this and the time it takes for everyone to settle in, GMs should plan on a thirty-minute buffer between the time they ask people to arrive and when they begin play. Once everyone is ready, the GM can politely draw their friends’ attention away from socializing and to the game at hand.
This cue also heralds the next part of the session, which is the recap. The GM catches players up to speed on what happened the last time they played, reminding them of unfinished business or unanswered questions. Alternatively, the GM can engage the group by asking players to recap what they remember. This also gives the GM a chance to see what the players are focusing on; if they emphasize interactions with a particular NPC, for example, the GM can give that NPC a more prominent role in future sessions.
If the GM likes, they can wrap up the recap with a dramatic question about the players’ intentions. “Will your characters be quick enough to save the daimyō?” or “Have you discovered enough to know the magistrate’s real intentions?” can raise the tension and help the group dive back into the adventure.
Running a Scene
A scene is, at its core, a period of conflict at a particular time and place. The GM describes the setting where the scene transpires, serving as the characters’ eyes, ears, and other senses. The GM also takes on the role of any NPCs included in the scene, narrating their actions and speaking their dialogue (which usually entails making up lines on the fly!).
Besides the basics like “who,” “what,” “when,” where,” and “why,” three key ingredients are needed to create the conflict in a scene: a goal or a desire, one or more obstacles to the goal, and stakes for success or failure. Without a concrete goal, players may flail or drift. Without real obstacles, there is no conflict— meaning no dramatic tension—and the players may become bored. Without stakes for success or failure, both the goal and the obstacle have no meaning.
The GM’s job is to zero in on scenes with all three ingredients and use the various rules of the game to adjudicate whether the characters overcome their obstacles. This, fundamentally, is what pacing is about: slowing down and zooming in on the action—that is to say, on the conflicts—and speeding up or summarizing moments in game-world time when there isn’t anything dramatic happening. For an intense moment of inner conflict, however, it makes sense to play through the moment as if it were happening in real time.
There is one major exception to this in the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game, which is the “slice of life” or characterization scene. These scenes could include conversations between PCs and NPCs, cultural events, or simple moments of experiencing some part of existence like a morning routine or a yearly festival. Though these scenes seem mundane, they can serve to build the world, characterize its inhabitants, and emphasize unique elements of Rokugani culture that may be novel or interesting to your players. These scenes also help your players get immersed in the setting. After all, playing a character who is a part of the imaginary world around them, rather than a spectator, is what roleplaying games are all about.
Ending a Session
How do you decide when to end a session? Sometimes a good stopping point is when a major question just got answered or a challenge was overcome, so the players can leave on a note of satisfaction. At other times, it’s important to stop because the next scene is likely to be complicated, and it will be best if everyone is fresh to play through it together another day. It can also be fun to leave off on a cliffhanger (such as when the players are about to do battle or discover the identity of a dreaded foe). This leaves players looking forward to the next session. Be sure to award experience points (see page 299) and answer questions that arose during play.
To reinforce the idea of choice and consequence, it’s very helpful to write down key events and the decisions that the PCs made as each session winds down. This way, the GM can incorporate natural ramifications to the PCs’ actions into the story, which further helps reinforce player immersion in the setting. The Campaign Sheet (found at www.FantasyFlightGames.com) provides spaces for recording key information about each PC.