What is the point of GM's notes?

[pemerton]

My notes generally fall within two categories:

• I'll have some bullet points of things I have prepared. The general structure. Places, events or challenges they will most likely encounter. Ex: last session they were on their way to meet a crimelord. In most cases, he'll offer them a mission. This will most likely lead them to this town. Obviously, sometimes things don't go that way.
• I tend to write a few keywords for descriptions of places and locations. A few words, things they can see, hear, smell or touch. It's generally half a dozen keywords so I don't forget stuff.
• I tend to have the names of my NPCs, a few words of descriptions and one word that describes their attitude or personality for when I roleplay them: snarky, nervous, bored, insulting, helpful. This is especially true when my players are in or will be in a city with a ton of NPCs.
• Lore and exposition. If I know that I'll have go give some important exposition or lore, I write down the information I want to give. For example, in one of my Starfinder sessions, my party was on the verge of making their way into a criminal's room in an hotel. I knew that they would find: proof of his association with a terrorist organization. I also knew what information they needed to get from that to be able to move further in the plot. I didn't know how they would get it. But some of it could be shared through simple Recall Knowledge rolls depending on where the PCs were from, what their backgrounds are, etc.
• Sometimes I'll write down quick reminders of some rules I don't use often but might come handy. For example, the skills in Starfinder have pretty precise cases of use. You don't just guess the DC. A specific distance to jump will lead to a specific DC. That's something I might scribble.
• Generic content. I always have at least one combat encounters, one interesting NPC and one interesting event that can be plugged anywhere. A traveling merchant that can show up anytime, a thief that steals their purse as he passes them, etc. These can be used to fill some voids and are especially useful if the session goes in a very random direction.

That sounds like the main function of your notes is to enable you to tell the players what the outcomes of their action declarations are.

In the case of your first dot point, it also seems that you use your notes to tell the players what their PC goals are, which shapes what their action declarations will be.

Have I understood that properly?

 

[John Dallman]

Are you able to say how the players figuring out how to accomplish things relates to your notes?

Your example makes it seem like your notes establish the possible solution-space for figuring these things out. Is that right?

Thinking about the forthcoming situation, I noticed the problem, and a bit more thought revealed a reasonable solution, as well as a poor one that I didn't write down. So I had established that the problem did have solutions. I was not limiting the PCs to ones I'd thought of.

I have, on occasion, set PCs problems I didn't have a solution for, when they emerged from the ongoing story. So far, they've always found solutions.

 

[pemerton]

Thinking about the forthcoming situation, I noticed the problem, and a bit more thought revealed a reasonable solution, as well as a poor one that I didn't write down. So I had established that the problem did have solutions. I was not limiting the PCs to ones I'd thought of.

I have, on occasion, set PCs problems I didn't have a solution for, when they emerged from the ongoing story. So far, they've always found solutions.

Sure. But am I right in thinking that your notes establish the solution-space?

For instance, suppose the players invent a solution that involves access to 10 kg of copper wire of 5mm or less thickness. Are your notes the basis for resolving the action declaration We obtain for ourselves 10 kg of copper wire of 5 mm or less thickness?

 

[tetrasodium]

Sure. But am I right in thinking that your notes establish the solution-space?

For instance, suppose the players invent a solution that involves access to 10 kg of copper wire of 5mm or less thickness. Are your notes the basis for resolving the action declaration We obtain for ourselves 10 kg of copper wire of 5 mm or less thickness?

that's obviously a solution likely outside the rules, but this would help offer guidance to me for leveraging other stuff as a gm

Spoiler: fate core golden & silver rule

In a way it's an extended rule zero

 

[pemerton]

that's obviously a solution likely outside the rules

Well in the game @John Dallman was describing it seemed like some of the problems are technical ones (eg managing the joint travel of two spaceships with different acceleration and fuel capacities). So I think it is possible that there are going to be some problems where the solution will be materials like the copper wire I conjectured. I can imagine this sort of thing coming up in my Classic Traveller game. It's not outside the rules.

 

[tetrasodium]

Well in the game @John Dallman was describing it seemed like some of the problems are technical ones (eg managing the joint travel of two spaceships with different acceleration and fuel capacities). So I think it is possible that there are going to be some problems where the solution will be materials like the copper wire I conjectured. I can imagine this sort of thing coming up in my Classic Traveller game. It's not outside the rules.

Look at the gold & silver rules there, it's about deciding on the thing your trying to accomplish & then leveraging the existing rules to fit the goal by bending them as needed. It sounds like that is extremely specific wire needed & I'm not super familiar with traveler but it might be reasonable to break down one thing (ie sensors, life support, etc) to recover the wire needed & shift the problem from a dead end ~"we can't move together" kind of thing to some other interesting problem most or all of the group can participate in handling/suffering from in their own ways

 

[Arilyn]

If you have preplanned a NPC, or a place, or an event, what is the process, or the trigger for describing that NPC or place or event to the players?



Similar to my questions above in this post, are you able to say a bit more about what the relationship is between these things that the GM imagines prior to play and what actually takes place among the participants during the course of play?

And similar again: are you able to explain how these notes actually get used during play?

From a purely mechanical perspective I have stat blocks on hand for conflicts. As mentioned, notes help ground things in my head, so I know who is likely to be in area, or the name of the shopkeeper or that homeless man who is actually a faery, etc. Writing helps me think.

Other than stat blocks, I don't actually consult my notes, even though they're sitting there. By the end of the session, the adventure often has very little resemblance to what I wrote down. So, I use them during play as a very rough sketch of places, people and potential problems, but at the table play becomes much more collaborative. Things happen, or players do things or have ideas that we run with, destroying my prepped plans completely and utterly. That's why, even if I'm using an AP, it becomes pretty unrecognizable pretty quickly.

I've learned not to do extensive planning, but still do some notes. So using them as a psychological prop would be their main purpose.

I guess, I'd have to say when I prep for games, it's for my peace of mind. Once I start GMing, notes fall to the wayside.

In terms of preplanned encounters I know I want to have occur, I have those in my head cause I already wrote them down. I don't look during play, except maybe for name. These characters and encounters may morph organically depending on what's happening. A change might feel better.

 

[John Dallman]

Sure. But am I right in thinking that your notes establish the solution-space?

For instance, suppose the players invent a solution that involves access to 10 kg of copper wire of 5mm or less thickness. Are your notes the basis for resolving the action declaration We obtain for ourselves 10 kg of copper wire of 5 mm or less thickness?

If that was a solution I thought of in preparations, yes. If not, not. The purpose of notes, for me, is getting things started, not controlling the content of the session.

 

[jmartkdr2]

If you have preplanned a NPC, or a place, or an event, what is the process, or the trigger for describing that NPC or place or event to the players?

When the pc's encounter them?

 

[uzirath]

Suppose that a player suggests a different gambling game. Suppose s/he even knows (or claims to know) more about the cultures you're drawing on then you do! Would your notes set a limit on the players implicit action declaration (No, you can't find a game of X. The only game they're playing here is Y.)? Or would you adapt or even depart from your notes?

In the context of this sort of scenario, my notes rarely "set a limit on the players implicit action declaration." I would absolutely include games that they suggest. I think my players are fairly traditional in the sense that they like to explore a fictional world where I generate most of the scenery and NPCs. I present situations with potential conflicts, but the PCs often come up with their own conflicts or subvert/invert my ideas. I do sometimes have notes that might limit player actions if they delve into a dungeon or something like that. I have not (yet) experimented with styles of play that might allow players to, for example, suggest what might be behind a given door in a dungeon. In town, on the other hand, everyone at the table knows that I don't have every building mapped and keyed, so we often collaborate on describing locations, NPCs, etc.

Do you use these NPCs simply to frame scenes? Or can they also be used to provide the content of action declarations? Do players get to know about them in advance and make them the objects of action declarations or other contributions to the fiction (eg I want to meet up with so-and-so? or Given that we've just come back from the Hills of the Moon, wouldn't so-and-so be wanting to looks us up to see what we learned?)?

If I'm understanding these distinctions correctly, I think the players are welcome to make the NPCs the objects of action declarations. They definitely say things like, "I want to meet up with so-and-so" regularly. Part of the tension of the episode with Orm (Ylsa's father) was that the party became aware that he was in town and they thought he knew that they were there too, but no official communication had occurred. There was much debate about whether they should initiate contact, or wait to be contacted, or skip town (i.e., avoiding contact). I was happy to run with any possibility.