So Dungeons and Dragons is (hopefully) making a come back   into the gaming arena. But whether you’re playing D&D, Shadowrun, GURPS or any other system the Game master and his versatility in the craft will always make or break a game.

The rules of a particular RPG system are usually just a way to facilitate the imagination of a game master. Truth be told I’ve never run into a system that can completely crimple a game. Now some games may leave for a sense of imbalance but these imperfections can typically be balanced out with a little math and more monsters.

But I’m not going to focus on the rules of a game system, I want to talk about the one thing any DM can do to make their game, characters and world feel so much more real than a conventional run of the mill game. That thing my friends, is motivation.

So many DM’s set out with this blueprint of how the game is going to flow, who’s going to do what, who has the answer to what. But the problem always comes up when the one jackass in the group goes off the beaten path. At the point a poor unprepared DM will scramble and throw up roadblocks to get the heroes back onto the path he has laid out for you. How many times have you had conversations similar to this?

Player 1: “You know. I think I’m gonna head back to the bar and see what the bartender thinks about this. He knows the area”

DM: “Ok. You arrive at the bar and the bartender isn’t there”

Player 1: “Hmm.. Ok. I guess I’ll check his house. He told us where he lives.”

DM: “The waitress tells you that he isn’t home. He had to leave town for a bit and doesn’t want to be disturbed.”

This is a pretty dramatic yet still realistic sample of some conversations that go on at gaming table. But this is what I say on the subject.

Every good game has characters. The NPCs can really make or break a role-playing session. You can have memorable characters or you can have cannon fodder that nobody really connects with. The key to making a character believable is to flesh him out and give him motivation. What’s he after? What is he trying to accomplish? Just outlining these minor details will give you an opportunity to realistically react to particular questions and or situations. And guess what, you make these motivations tie in with the storyline! This way people can be creative in what their trying to do and you can still guide them back to the path without it being so obvious.

Confused yet? Probably. We’re going to have to take this topic in installments. It’s the only good way to handle it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 16th, 2006 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Roleplaying. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.