Advice On Being A Game Master
[Years ago, I got an email from a game master who was judging a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. He asked my advice on how to deal with a troublesome player and, more broadly, how to be a good dungeon master. Below is my reponse. It has some good bits of DMing advice].
First of all, how long has your group been together? And how old are they? It sounds like they are in the early stages of their gaming career. Many times, when players are young or are just starting out, they focus too much on killing and acquiring treasure. Combat and treasure are good and have their place, but you're right... the game is MUCH more fun when the players develop real personalities and motivations and work toward long range goals.
By the way, I have to pause here and say a few words about that ranger. What the hell is up with her? First of all, rangers are supposed to be GOOD. At least that's the way the class was originally conceived. They were the protectors of the forest, brave woodsmen, and all that. And elves are generally good too. Elven rangers are almost NEVER evil. It's ridiculous that this guy is playing her that way. If he wants to kill and pillage and sleep around, then he should be playing an orcish barbarian. Not an female elven ranger. He is playing her completely wrong. And tell him I said so.
There is only one exception to that. I would allow a thoroughly evil female elven ranger in the group IF and ONLY IF he created a good background story for the character that explains WHY she is so evil. (And he is definitely running her as evil. If she "kills anything she sess, attacks people as well as her companions", then she is the very essence of evil.) If he wrote up a brief but creative story that explains her life and gave reasons why she kills everything she sees, then that would be ok. But it would have to be a pretty darn good story.
I give my players a lot of freedom in choosing class and race (I've been known to allow the most bizarre creatures to be run as player characters). I also give players a lot of freedom with how they run characters. But there always has to be a reason.
Forgive me, but I'm going to get long-winded in this email. I can tell... There are always consequences to every action. As a DM, remember that. Here's an example. Let's say that the evil elven ranger kills a gnome tavern keeper in a city because the gnome tavern keeper was trying to break up a bar fight. If she kills him, fine. But let's say that that gnome barkeeper also is a brewer. He brews his own special ale in that tavern (in the back). It's a popular ale around town. It's so good in fact, that it's the favorite drink of the reigning champion pit fighter from the capital city. Every now and then, he makes a special trip out to this town to have some of this ale. Next time he's in town, he finds out that some elven ranger bitch has killed the brew master. Now he's pissed and he may very well HUNT HER DOWN. And when he finds her, he rips her to shreds. And he can, cause he's one of the best warriors around.
Of course, it doesn't have to be that elaborate. Say she kills an ordinary average orc. Turns out that orc was the son of an orcish chieftain. An orcish chieftain who just a month earlier lost his other son. Mad with grief, he calls upon the war drums to sound to gather the orcish clans to ride down into the valley and wipe out the human or elvish infestation.
Elven ranger kills a wolf? Guess what. It was the pet of a witch that lives in the swamp to the south.
Elven ranger chops down a beautiful tree because she didn't like the look of it? Guess what. It was a magical tree that a local wizard has spent the last 6 years working on through magical genetic engineering. Six years of work ruined. He's pissed.
Attacks one of her OWN companions. Well, gee, why are the others putting up with that? Why don't they just gang up on her and kill her?
Attacks one of her own companions (Bob) when the two of them are alone. Guess what? Bob isn't really Bob. Bob has been replaced by some kind of doppleganger/shapeshifter and is MUCH tougher than she anticipated. The real Bob is in a dungeon and the party has been walking around with this shapeshifter (in Bob form) for two weeks. The doppleganger kicks her butt, robs her, and leaves her half dead, naked and tied to a tree.
Any of these events could be an interesting start to a much larger storyline.
Anyway, I'm in a kill-the-bad-player mood. There are lots of ways to nudge players back on track and away from bad gaming habits. Some of them subtle, some not so subtle. The point is that as DM, you have complete and utter control of the entire universe. In the blink of an eye, you can create/destroy/alter whole people, villages, histories, timelines. Every place, person, plant, animal, object, rock, blade of grass in your world has a history. And has connections to everything else. It's a wonderful intricate web that players often don't think about.
These were just quick examples off the top of my head. If you sit down between sessions and really think about it, you can come up with great stuff.