| Revision History | |
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| Revision 1 | 19 September 2005 |
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Added to Library |
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| Revision 2 | 13 October 2005 |
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Changed course proctor to Amanda Noon |
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| Revision 3 | 6 December 2005 |
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Course rewritten by Amanda Noon |
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| Revision 4 | 29 June 2011 |
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Exam revised by David Wonderly |
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Table of Contents
Welcome to the Academy's Gamemaster (GM) course, offered in cooperation with STF's GM Department (GMD). If you've got a story idea and you want to be a GM, this course will help you know what to expect when you get that first GM assignment. If you're a GM with one or one hundred sims under your belt, this course will give you a brief introduction in the ways of GMing within STF. STF is a unique environment, sometimes a veteran GM needs to flex to work within STF's way of doing things. Hopefully this course will show you how to successfully make it through the rough patches that are bound to occur.
In STF you cannot be a GM before being a Gamemaster Trainee (GMT). It doesn't matter if you've mastered live action games and run players through dozens of have-dice-will-travel dungeons, or if you're the best role-player in STF. Everyone wishing to be a GM must participate in the GMT program before being certified as a GM. If you are as good as you think you are, you’ll soon be running people's lives in no time anyway. A couple of months with a mentor looking over your shoulder aren't going to stop that from happening. But by having a screening process we protect our membership from shoddy GMing, at least we hope to weed out the good from the "haven’t got a clue".
The pass rate for the exam at the end of this course is 75%, passing the exam is the first step to becoming a GM. You will need to read the current version of OGRE to find out what the current requirements are to continue. You can find OGRE here: http://www.star-fleet.com/gmd/. This document also lists all the rules you will have to abide by when GMing in STF. It will be your responsibility to check the GM Dept regularly for any changes. These rules are made to protect you and the players, by having rules it is hoped that disputes will be short lived and easily settled.
Homework - Intro: Go read OGRE, better to know what you are signing up to before you sign up. If you don't agree with our rules then now is not the time to become a GM for STF.
The first and most important thing for you to know before you move past this page is that a GM's job is to entertain his assigned crew. Contrary to a very popular belief, being the GM doesn't make you a puppet master nor a god. The crew isn't there to do your bidding; you're there to show the crew a good time. The GM is not there to run the ship, or to hound players for going AWOL; we have Captains and First Officers for that.
"Regardless of skill, a GM needs to have a good rapport with the crew. Whether it’s as an evil mastermind, a benevolent leader, a weenie, he has to be on very good terms with them." (Unknown GM)
Think of the GM as a cruise director, his job is to make sure all the passengers are happy and have things to do. He gives them a choice of activities from which to choose so they're not bored, even if it means everyone is doing something a little bit different. He also makes sure no one throws the deck chairs around. Just one passenger flinging a chaise lounge is liable to ruin the cruise for the others.
"Be honest with the crew. If you make a mistake, admit it. Don't be afraid to be human. If a player posts something that you don't understand (a bit of physics you don't grasp or a hunk of engineering with which you're unfamiliar) ask the player to explain. Not only will you get the information you're lacking, you'll make the player feel good for being so creative." (Unknown GM)
Being a GM requires juggling ego, talent and humility within a ring of common sense. You have to be tolerant without being a pushover; strong without being overbearing; flexible without being unfocused; and most of all, able to put the needs/wants of the crew above your own personal desires.
"Ask questions if you're stuck. If there's a particular piece of technobabble that someone brings up in a sim that confounds you, then ask for advice from someone else; the GM Monitor (if applicable), the CO, someone from the Engineering Department." (Unknown GM)
A GM also needs to accept that when they agree to GM a ship they are taking on a commitment to that crew and CO. He has a responsibility to post often, read all posts and work with the Command Staff to keep the ship a happy place. That means not accepting a GM spot when you know that you are going to have to go LOA for a long term within the next few weeks. Organising with the CO as to how things will continue if you do have to go LOA and setting in place some sort of contingency plan should an emergency arise and you cannot post. We have all been grabbed by the real life monsters at times, be it illness or computer breakdown. There are ways to cope with this.
Likewise, look at the posting speed on a ship. While the posting requirements may say every three to four days, as GM you will probably need to post more often. Be prepared to post as frequently as required to keep the story moving.
Finally a GM needs to be professional. Really that is the crux of everything that has been said above but there is one very good example of this. One of the old GM commandments was "Thou shalt not antagonise thine enemies"; this still stands. It’s bound to happen; you are the GM on a ship with someone you don’t like, being a GM does not give you the authority to make that player’s life hell. Sure it would be great fun to lock up your sworn nemesis with a love struck moose. Yes, assimilation may do wonders for another foe’s personality. The temptation - even the justification - can be strong; do NOT give in to it, doing so only serves to shorten your GM career.
While we are on the topic of professionalism, the chain of command needs to be discussed. In a perfect world everyone would get along, each day would be filled with sunshine and your work would be applauded by the newest ensign all the way to the most venerated admiral. Unfortunately life isn't like that, STF is no different, chances are pretty good that you’re going to have a problem with one of your GM assignments. Maybe a player keeps writing counteractive posts. Maybe the Captain isn't holding up his end. There may be a personality clash. Whatever the problem, always remember to follow the chain of command, start with the CO. If the problem can't be rectified or the CO is the problem then go to the Fleet Commander. If you still can't get resolution you can approach the GM Director for input. The final step after trying all these avenues is to talk to the President, it's doubtful you'll ever get this far. Ensuring you have a good rapport with the CO should prevent ever needing this advice. Communicate with the CO regularly, ask their advice, they know the crew better than you do. Talk to the players themselves, after all this is a game and we are all supposed to be having fun. You wouldn't run to the School Principal every time someone upset you, don't do it here.
So if you still want to be a GM after reading this, then here is your first assignment, you'll need to hand these homeworks in with the final exam.
Homework - 101: What would your contingency plan be? How important do you feel it is to be in contact with the CO and XO?
When you're a GM the first thing you need is a story, it's hard to run a sim if you have no plot. There is no hard, fast rule on where to get story ideas, inspiration is as unique as each GM, and can be found everywhere. Television, books, movies, magazines, even the news can provide story ideas, look around, your next story could be hidden in the autumn leaves.
As GMs we can find a lot of inspiration from the STF characters, themselves. For instance, if the CO of the ship is a Bajoran, what better antagonist can you find besides a Cardassian? Or maybe another character has lost one spouse to divorce, and another to death. What would happen if that character were forced to marry to save a Federation alliance?
The plot is only limited by your imagination. However, there are a few guidelines to follow to make sure the crew loves the story as much as you do.
Make sure the plot is big enough to keep everyone busy. If it's not, you may have to add a secondary storyline to involve those left out.
Avoid scenarios used to death in STF, as well as plots your ship has seen before. Check with the CO of the ship to which you're assigned, ask him if he has preferences, make sure that the battle sim you have planned isn't going to be the third one in a row the ship's been dealt.
Familiarize yourself with your ship's class. A wonderful sim exploring the exobiology of a newly-discovered planet won't work well on a Trafalgar or Kansas. Just as sending a McCoy into battle is suicide. Determine a ship's capabilities ahead of time, too, so you don't have a ship doing a saucer separation that would normally only be possible if it were blown in two.
Make sure your plot is plausible. Sure, it'd be really cool if the ship crash-landed, but unless the ship is capable of sub-orbital flight, don't expect it to fly again. Likewise you can't do anything that contradicts canon.
Finally, avoid rehashing Trek episodes and overusing Trek characters and ships. STF has its own ships. Rely on them. Keep appearances by Trek characters to cameos.
Now, here are a couple of questions to keep in mind. They should give you a springboard for developing your concept a bit more. What's the style/tone of the story you're trying to establish? That leads into... What's the central conflict?
That's really the crux of the whole thing. What you have to do to have a successful mission is:
Set up a problem for the crew to overcome. Maybe they have to solve a mystery. Maybe they have to blow things up. Maybe they have to rescue someone. The point is, drama occurs only when there's a problem to overcome.
The crew has to be invested in solving it. You can't just, put a Rubik’s Cube into space, and expect the crew to solve it. Something important has to be at stake, something that the characters on the ship will care about and something the PLAYERS will care about.
There has to be some sort of "reward" for when the players finish the sim. I don't mean you should pass out candy at the end of the sim; I'm an English major, so the term I like to use is catharsis. Essentially, it means a satisfactory end to the story -- maybe not a happy one, but one that lets the characters (and players) know they've accomplished something.
Okay, you were out for a bike ride the other day and a great story idea came to you. You've read the guidelines, have studied the ship's specs, and made sure no one has done a story about wheeled aliens. What's next?
Homework - 102: Take a few minutes to come up with a story idea suitable for a sim. Identify how you will involve the various departments. You may need to just point out that a certain department is going to need a side sim.
Type "styles of GMing" into a search engine and you will pull up an amazingly lengthy and complex list of sites and articles. To list all the styles is probably not possible, and would result in much discussion over the names of said styles. Here are just a few examples.
Even in STF some GMs still fall back to what they know best. They plot out their sims and use paper and dice to make decisions and guide the players. There is nothing wrong with this so long as the GM remembers that STF is a text based RPG and turns his plotting into well written posts.
In this style the GM has set up a series of clues which will one by one lead the crew to the solution of the puzzle set. The GM is very clear about his beginning, middle and end and the path the players should take to get there. Sometimes a GM can get too fixated on their path and a sim can stall completely. The crew completely stuck unable to figure out the way forward and the GM is playing stubborn and not helping out. The GM playing stubborn and not helping out. It is the responsibility of the GM to ensure that this does not happen. Nudges may have to be given in the right direction, extra hints and clues dropped. The GM is there to make the game fun, and when you get completely stuck games cease to be fun. Why else is there a roaring trade in the selling of cheats for computer and console games.
Free form GMing is not easy, although it certainly appears that way at first. To free form successfully you have to be able to sense and understand the ebbs and flows of a ship’s players, to see possibilities in every post they write and possess a willingness to not have total control.
In a nutshell if you free form GM, you begin a sim with a minimal plot. You may or may not have an idea of how it's going to end. From that point, you let the crew guide the story to its next phase.
Freeform is often sold as the best way to GM. But it is worth bearing in mind that even some of the best GMs have found it very difficult.
This example comes from an actual sim run by Deanne Ashton. This example clearly shows how nimble you have to be on your GM feet when dealing with a smart and savvy crew. It is told in her own words.
Example 1. GM Nimbleness
"The mission was fairly straightforward. In the days of Bajor’s Cardassian occupation, a man and a few Bajoran families fled in a homebuilt spaceship to find a new home. These people were assumed lost until the man contacts Bajor. A colony has been established on New Bajor and they want to re-establish contact with their home world. A Vulcan science ship in the area did a scan and discovered the gas giant around which the colonial moon orbited was on the verge of collapse. The colonists needed to be whisked from their home before it was destroyed. A Bajoran Starfleet captain and his crew was given the relocation assignment.
I knew from the beginning that the gas giant’s implosion would not destroy New Bajor, because the prophets were creating a new wormhole in its place. So I had the Kai of New Bajor refuse to leave the planet. That was the main obstacle for the players, plus a rebellious band of Cardassians who thought the colonists would make wonderful slaves.
I figured the crew would have a bit of fun with the shipboard side of the sim, defeat the Cardassians and revel in the birth of a new Celestial Temple. I was dead wrong. First off, the crew DID have a lot of fun with the side sim to the point of ignoring what the Cardassians were doing. As a result they ignored situations that put the ship in grave danger. With the agreement of the CO and FComm, the ship ended up being destroyed.
Again, I expected a fairly simple chain of events. Ship is destroyed, crew finds another, saves New Bajor from the Cardassian rebels. What I hadn't expected was a relatively new science officer to create a torpedo that could actually rip a hole in the space/time continuum. He had studied the ship's class and discovered a secret weapon that enabled him to do this. Suddenly my sim got very complicated. Before we knew it, the Cardassian ship (which had abducted all the Bajoran colonists) was knocked into the Gamma Quadrant. Trust me, my original thoughts never took us beyond the New Bajor system, let alone into another quadrant. Additionally, the CO used this opportunity to switch ship classes from a Trafalgar Warship to a Darwin science vessel. Now, the ship's capabilities changed and the flavour of the sim with it.
Ultimately the sim concluded with the one thing I required, the birth of the new wormhole. But getting there took more turns and a lot more time than I ever imagined."
When starting out GMing, you probably do not want to leap straight into freeform GMing. You may never choose this style. It is helpful to have some idea where your plot is going, and what you might pass on the way. Using dice may help you to keep your resolutions fair and interesting. Laying out the order and type of clues you want to use will help you stay focussed and keep the sim moving. But no GM can deny that flexibility is also a key factor in a successful sim. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow and follow the crew. Many GMs have found the crew writing a better sim than they could ever have planned. Be prepared to accept that the end you thought was coming is dead and gone. Sit down and rewrite your ending, at the end of the day you want the crew to feel good about what they have achieved. GMs aren't known for stomping in at the end of the sim and announcing "You've got it all wrong." After all GMs have a responsibility to keep up the appearance of all powerful, all knowing and evil, therefore remember, you planned it that way all along.
Homework - 103A: Using the sim idea from 102 explain the series of clues you might use to get the crew from the beginning to the end of the sim. Point out places where you feel the crew might branch off from your plan.
Now that you have your idea, know more or less how your idea will play out in a sim, it's time to review the methods you can use to present your sim. GMs have a few methods of giving information to the players and moving the sim along. They include Narrative posts, Interactive posts, and what I call Elsewhere Posts.
This is probably the most common GM style in STF, or anywhere. Simply put, the GM knows all and shares the information with the players when needed: usually in the form of Starfleet orders, a diagnostic outcome and sensor information. Any characters the GM introduces to the story can be used to impart information in this way.
These types of posts are generally used to accomplish two types of tasks. The first task is to set a chain of events in motion.
Example 2. Omniscient/Narrative Post
Suddenly, the rundown freighter the USS Anyname had been escorting exploded in a blinding flash of light, sending debris in all directions.
The second way the Narrative post can be used is to convey information as a result of a player's action. Think of this as sensor readouts, diagnostic results, or data from the ships library computer. These posts come in handy when players try to gather more information in the sim.
Example 3. Another Narrative Post
A player posts: Lt. Anyone activated the sensors and began to scan the debris. He desperately searched for any survivors from the explosion.
A GM's response could be: Sensors showed several life signs in the largest section of debris.
As you can see this type of post is used to give players feedback on the results of the actions they take.
This style is growing in popularity as more strong role-players find their way to the GM ranks. As with Omniscient/Narrative, the GM knows all, but his way of telling is different. Here, the GM creates characters whose interaction with the crew reveals the needed information.
The Interactive Post can often be the most fun to write. These posts are usually in response to the sim characters the GM has created. A GM can use sim characters to convey all types of information, ranging from explaining why the villain of the sim is trying to destroy a planet, or what background information the Intelligence Agent has on certain smugglers.
Interactive posts are dependent on the GM creating his own characters. Sometimes these will be very basic characters, the interaction will be limited. Other times the sim may revolve around a GM character. These type of characters need to be as real and as deep as the characters that you play on other ships. Write a biography for them, no some basic stuff about them, background, loves. This will enrich your story and get the role-players to invest themselves in your characters.
Example 4. Interactive Post
A player may post: So did you notice anything unusual before you heard the explosion, "Lt Anywho asked as he interviewed the survivor.
A GM's response would be: The injured man, an elderly Bajoran, nodded to the question, "I heard weapons fire. Lots of it... I stuck my head out of the cargo hold to see what I could and that's when I saw a Cardassian running my direction!"
Here the GM has used a character he developed to convey information that the crew can now dig deeper into. The one thing about the Interactive post is that it is not an all-knowing character. The character should only know and be able to convey information that the character would reasonably have. So in this example, the Bajoran wouldn't know if the Cardassians were from a group of radicals out to resurrect the Bajoran occupation or someone like Garak who is on the good side. Now the player can ask questions of this character and try to glean some more information.
The more creative the characters are, the more fun the GM and the crew will have role-playing it out.
Example 5. Interactive Post - Fleshed out GM Character
A message arrives for the captain. He takes it in his ready room. The image on his viewer flickers, going from a blank screen to the Federation logo and finally to the face of a grey-haired human man bearing admiralty pips.
"Captain Example, Admiral Magee here. Sorry to shorten your shore leave, but we need your help. We've lost contact with our terra-formers on Maya Nine. Intelligence has alerted us to increased activity within the Neutral Zone. As you know Maya Nine is not far from the Neutral Zone. We fear the worse."
The first thing you should notice is the admiral has a name. This creates a sense of familiarity that makes it easier to interact with this character. Additionally, the admiral doesn't even mention the supporting data he'll eventually send to the ship. His conversation stops in such a way that he's inviting interaction from the captain. More than likely, the captain's response would involve asking questions to establish what his ship is getting into. Then the GM would provide the data he's prepared.
This type of post should really be used sparingly. Often times I have seen it used in moderation in the start and end of a sim. Basically, this is a post where one or more of the GMs sim characters are interacting with each other, or with themselves.
Example 6. Elsewhere Post
The Cardassian Commander shook his head as he saw the latest sensor readings. The Starfleet vessel had found survivors. This was not good. He slowly swivelled in his chair and turned to the helmsman. "Set an intercept course," he ordered, "Maximum warp."
As you can see this GM post takes place in an area where there cannot possibly be any of the role-players. Therefore, no players can respond or play off this post, since none of their characters would be aware of this. The benefit of using this post is to create suspense or a deeper understanding for the players of what this sim is about. In the example, it now tells the player someone else is out there and could possibly come after the Starfleet crew. It creates anticipation, suspense, or can be used to close up a thread, or even a sim. Use this sparingly only because the sim is meant to get role-players involved. Just using Elsewhere posts basically means you are playing your sim to yourself. That is no fun for anyone!
So how do you decide which style to use? There's no clear-cut way. If you're a strong role-player you may find the Interactive style of posts more enjoyable than the Narrative. If you're more of a storyteller, then the reverse may be true.
A strong GM has mastered all these types of posts and is able to pull them together in perfect harmony to tell his sim and entertain the players. When starting out you should try to use a combination of these type of posts. It's probably wise to avoid the elsewhere style for now. Take great care when developing characters to interact with the crew, keep a note of any key points so they don't trip you up.
Homework - 103B: Using the sim idea you came up with in the last lesson, write out the sim’s first post using the Narrative style.
Now write a post introducing a GM character for your sim idea to the crew, using the Interactive style. Leave spaces for replies... do not play the other character.
Another way GMs can change the way they present a story is through the use of different mission types. Until you have reached full Gamemaster status in STF the only mission type you are allowed to use is the normal mission. But there is no reason you shouldn't be aware of possibilities in the future, when you do decide to move onto something different, be sure to check with the GMD first about rules and such.
This is a mission in which a single Gamemaster, who is NOT the CO of the ship, serves on a single ship for a single mission. Once qualified a Gamemaster may serve on multiple ships in different, unrelated missions simultaneously. Check OGRE for current rules and regulations.
Then we have the Special Circumstances missions...
This is a mission in which one or more Gamemasters run a mission that takes place simultaneously over multiple ships. This may require some help from the Internet Department in setting up shared topics and such. Again check OGRE for current rules and regulations.
In this mission the CO of the ship also serves as the GM of the ship. This can be quite difficult and requires the CO to be both a strong Role player and experienced GM. OGRE will list current rules and regulations concerning this type of mission.
This is when two or more Gamemasters serve on the same ship at the same time. Again there are regulations and rules in OGRE about this type of mission. But there are also some other points to bear in mind. This can be a fun way to GM but really only works well if the two GMs get along and work as a team. It is not designed to allow two GMs to sim on a ship because they don’t have the time to GM one ship alone. Planning is essential, and good communication at all times is vital.
There is one other type of mission type that you may see but will never GM and that is the Self-RPG mission. On a ship that is Self-RPG there is no Gamemaster, the crew all have equal control over the storyline.
Homework - 103C: Imagine you are running a multi-Gamemaster mission, list ten things that could go wrong, then choose five and explain how you might try to six them.
STF has many resources available to you. Here are the ones that have not been mentioned already in the course.
Gamemaster Department - This is your home department, there are a few resources to be found here. You can also ask questions and will receive advice from other GMs. First up the FAQ page or frequently asked questions. Check here first to see if it’s already been asked.
The Reference Manual is a home grown encyclopedia for STF, it has entries on planets, people etc. GMs are allowed to write entries for this Manual, but you'll need to check the GM Dept for the latest submission requirements. This is a useful place to find information for a sim.
GM wanted lists will be the place to look for a ship, here you can see which ships might be looking for a GM.
Mission Records form the new GM Archive. The GM Dept building up a record of all sims and there are two good reasons for this. One, it helps our GMs keep track of where they have GMed and how many sims they have run. Two, it provides a useful database for GMs planning sims. Eventually the archive will be the place to go and see if the ship you are about to GM has been doing back to back battle sims. Or check that they haven’t done a sim very similar to the one you’re planning.
The Administrative Menu - When you are given GM access to the WeBB suddenly a new button will appear on the ship MOTD. This is the Admin button. Before you go anywhere near this button it’s a good idea to find out what happens on the other side. The best place to find all this out is The Administrative Menu Course - look in the Academy.
A CO may grant a GM access to the ship's MOTD and/or access to add GM-controlled characters at his discretion. (OGRE 1.7) If you have been granted this privilege use it. Keep the crew updated on what's happening. You can also use it to foreshadow events and provide other minutiae, such as names, places, what-have-you. The ship's CO provides this place for you as a courtesy. Don't abuse it. Be sure to update your section as often as necessary. Don't make your section so long it makes up more than half the MOTD's contents. Also, don't change the way the section is coded. If the CO has it set up as a paragraph with blue text, don't make it a bulleted list in pink. If you're unfamiliar with HTML code take extra precaution that you don't rip the MOTD to shreds by accident. It's best to be at least somewhat familiar with the basic codes before you go about changing anything. If in doubt ask the CO for help, if he has slaved over a cool MOTD, he would rather help you than have you wreck his masterpiece.
The Player's Handbook - In the academy you can find a link to The Player's Handbook. You need to be familiar with this document.
Personnel Dept - The Personnel Dept is the place to go to find out about the ships in STF. Their ship profile page contains lots of information and is a good starting point. You could also ask the Personnel staff for information that they may have regarding ships. This is all good research and a great starting point but don't forget to actually go read possible ships and see if you like the feel of it. Chat with the Command staff, find out what they expect of the GM and see if it matches with your ideas. A good match now will make for a much easier sim be it a training one or later on when you’ve got some experience.
Homework - 103D: Go to the academy and read the Admin menu course. Then refresh your memory, by reading The Player's Handbook.
So why plan? Role-playing is a collaborative effort, and the crew is going to have a lot of ideas that surprise you, which is going to pull the sim in directions you not only didn't intend, but couldn't even foresee. Think of your plan as an itinerary or a road map for a road trip. You're going to want to have places to stay for the night. You're going to want to have directions, so you don't get lost.
Now, once you've started on the road trip, you can -- and should -- be ready to take road detours; to stop at places you didn't know about but can see from the highway, like, say, a roadside diner. But when you start off, you need to know where you're starting, where you're going, and at least a general idea of how you plan on getting there.
This accomplishes a few things:
It helps you evaluate where you are. This way, you can track your progress, and see what parts of the crew need more attention than others -- or perhaps some nudging to keep them from holding back the rest of the crew.
It tides you over while you're at a loss for ideas. If you have a bad day, or just can't come up with anything, instead of dreading posting, and possibly skipping it, you have a plan to fall back on for inspiration.
It keeps you sane. Having a plan helps keep you pointed in the right general direction. Having a weak plan you might be able to still entertain the crew, but it probably won't make you feel any less stressed.
It lets you identify weak spots before you start. If you map out a rough outline in advance, you can see things like -- oh, the science department has nothing to do the entire mission. This way, you can come up with something for science to do before they get bored, not afterward.
You might try to divide things up into acts, sometimes three, sometimes four, sometimes five. What this does is it gives you a few milestones along the way. That way, you can reassess where you are at each act break. If there are crew members or staff sections that are running behind the rest around the time of an act break, you should give them a push in the right direction. It gives you points where you can clearly figure out how closely you are to the plan, and take some time to re-evaluate the plan. Remember, there's anywhere from 12-20 crew members on the ship; there's only one of you. The only tool in your box you have to deal with that -- other than brute force -- is the ability to plan ahead. (Crews do NOT enjoy the brute force approach.) You want to be at least two steps ahead of the crew.
And most importantly, it gives you a sense of accomplishment somewhere in the middle of the sim, a little bit of good feeling that will hopefully be able to tide you over for a while.
In the Academy sims tend to last about three months on regular ships most average five to six months, that doesn't mean you should let your sim meander along for years. Presenting a journey too long and arduous can make the players bored and/or frustrated long before they reach the end. Those obstacles mentioned earlier, the ones you throw in the path of your crew to keep things interesting: Make sure they're surmountable. Learn from experienced GMs
"I remember a sim on a ship I commanded that resulted in the entire senior staff being locked in the holodeck. The engineers who remained free tried all kinds of things to break into the holodeck, but the GM never let them succeed. Rather than keep trying, the players went AWOL after two weeks of trying to solve the puzzle." (Unknown GM)
"Never try to outline every movement that will take place within a sim. It is extremely important to allow the players to have some flexibility within the sim; people will undoubtedly come up with ideas that the GM would never think of, and it's important to keep that in mind as much as possible. By the same token, though, it's equally important to not let the players run away with the sim by grandstanding, et al. If one person tries to run away with the sim on his own by doing something that's next to impossible, then the GM needs to put the skids to that so that solving a sim can be a team effort." (Unknown GM)
"It was my first official sim. I planned the whole thing out, from beginning to end. I had every event worked out. I was very inflexible as the sim progressed, not having experience with running a sim. The result: The crew lost interest, and I had to narrate the end just to get the darn thing over with! That was my bad GM experience."
"A new GM was supposed to take over [after my sim was finished]. When that person AWOLed, I was put in the GM spot again. This time, I had nothing planned - I hadn't expected to be GMing! As it turned out, this was a good thing. My next sim was very spontaneous, and I had no trouble compensating for crew interest and keeping all departments active. The crew posted almost 100% daily by the end. It went great. Overall, I would advise new GMs to be flexible. Don't hold to your perfect mental image of what should happen - make sure the crew's having fun. Don't plan everything, just have a couple of good ideas." (Unknown GM)
Homework - 104: Using your sim idea from 102 write a plan, for this plan show where you might break it down into acts. Explain what key points you would want to be achieved by the end of each act.
Three GMMs got together and brainstormed a list of things that can go wrong, the aim was to list things that go wrong for trainees, but they quickly realised that no matter how much experience you have the same things go wrong for all GMs. You just get better at figuring out how to get out of difficulty.
If you attend a creative writing course there is a lot of discussion about pace. Short stories require a fast pace, Novels require different levels of pace depending on the action or where you are in the book. The same is true of a sim. Probably the most common problem trainees have is that the sim just won't start. Trainees are on a deadline, they need to get started and show what they can do so that they can shake off the GMM. Sometimes the crew just won't play along, how do you fix this?
Then there is the other problem with pace, the sim seems to grind to a halt, Houston we have no pace. Things were sailing along nicely and then it all goes pear shaped. Causes of this can be as simple as people are getting confused to key crew members going AWOL or LOA. Maybe the command staff aren't providing good leadership in character. As GM it's your job to keep the momentum going, but how?
Sometimes you'll find a crew totally ignoring part of the mission, or the crew won't participate in the sim. They may be more subtle, and head off at a tangent on a side sim ignoring your sim. This is when you need to sit back and evaluate your own posting, your sim idea. When this course looked at planning a sim the following was said "Something important has to be at stake, something that the characters on the ship will care about and something the PLAYERS will care about." Can you fix your sim? Maybe this is one of those times where being flexible and following the players will pay off.
Then there are the days where you just want to beat your head against the nearest brick wall. The crew won't pick up on a seemingly obvious clue. Worse still, you find yourself up against the crew that seems to wait for the GM for every tiny little detail, although some crews will tell you it’s just as bad to be facing the GM who does the same. This is where flexibility comes in, but also patience and a bit of ingenuity help. Failing that a private email to one of the crew giving them a big tip off is not frowned upon. Just don’t use this method too often; if you find this happening then maybe you should check you aren’t the GM that the crew were moaning about.
Crew is given a scenario that should be able milk for side plots but they ignore or side plots are offered to "spare" departments and they ignore them and continue moaning they have nothing to do. First rule, just take another look at those options you've been offering are you really giving them something reasonable to do. If you are and they still continue to moan and obstruct then ask the Captain and First Officer to have a word. Sometimes it just takes one person saying uh see the sick people? Heal the sick people. Much better if this comes from the CO or XO, it’s their job, and they may be able to help you figure out why your brilliant ideas are being ignored.
At first you may think, why would this be a problem, if the crew want to make life harder who am I to object. But when the moment comes in a sim, you'll understand. Maybe the crew has decided that all GMs and therefore all GM characters are evil and will not believe anything a GM character tells them. You may have set up a very helpful character to act as a voice for you in the sim. You have given this character excellent references, down to being a relation to Mother Therese no less. Yet still the crew treat every word that she says as suspicious. Is there a solution to this? How can you make the crew believe you? You may need to engineer some emergency where this character saves the crew, something to gain their trust. Chances are you won’t be able to, and will have to instead change tack and find a new way to communicate.
Then there is the time the crew decides to do something that will take months but won't actually solve anything or move the plot forward. Maybe they think it is helpful to the main plot but you know it isn't. This is where a GM has to really take control, but in such a way that the crew possibly don't realise they've been shunted down a different track. You may need to up the stakes a little more, sometimes a little damage to the ship, or a crew member can refocus a crew. Try to make the path they are choosing so difficult someone realises that there has to be another way. Final resort might be to email a member of the crew and tip them off. Grovelling and begging for mercy, while a possibility, is not good for the reputation of all GMs.
Overly complex responses to a situation that are unreasonable, but you can't cut someone off mid-post... sometimes you might just have to do that. But how you do it is the key to keeping everyone happy.
Player tries to be too smart and just sit in his office and use gravity plating to solve all problems, even though gravity plating can't do that and certainly not for an Ensign. Sometimes the best option with this type of player is to talk to the CO and XO. Then if you still have a problem you might have to start voiding posts, better still get more imaginative and come up with something to shake them out of it.
This, leads nicely to some of the golden rules of GMing that you will run up against...
There are paragraphs of rules about this in OGRE, and you can void away as long as you keep within those rules. However void too often, or void without thinking and you may upset not only the player but the whole crew. When voiding a post sometimes you have to weigh the pros and cons, talk to the CO, try talking to the player. A good GM can often write their way out of having to void a post, and fix the situation. Golden rule, don’t void unless you absolutely have to and then make sure you follow the rules to the letter.
A player may have driven you mad beyond belief but you cannot kill his character off, nor can you put him in a situation where there is no way out. While this is a genuine possibility in the real world, in STF respect for other people’s creations is given, thus we do not kill another person’s character. Of course like all rules there are exceptions to this, you can use death warnings, to find out more read up on this in OGRE.
So it's fun to blow up a ship, all GMs understand this, but to save on the paperwork and so forth STF has rules about this. Many GMs delight in hull breaches, failed shields, and sparking bridge consoles. Before you lose matter/antimatter containment on that warp core, however, make sure you have the blessing of both the captain and fleet commander. You'll find the up to date rules in OGRE go see. It is probably in the exam.
In STF we have a set list of references that are considered canon. You can find them in Engineering: References. Honor Star Trek canon and keep it holy. Always anchor your storyline with plausibility. It's true that the universe in which we play is one of science fiction, but that's no excuse to create things that don't mesh with Trek physics. If you're not sure about the plausibility of a plot point, research it. Here, ignorance is not bliss. By the same token, do not rewrite that which has been written. You cannot rewrite Trek history.
Creative roleplayers often have little side sims going in addition to their participation in the main sim. If you see a way to incorporate their story into yours, be sure to ask them before you take over. Often a little word in the ear or email of another player can go a long way to making your sim so much better. Don't underestimate the value of outside input.
Homework - 105: For each of the following explain how you would try to solve these problems:
Slow pace
Crew ignoring Sim
Side Plots being ignored
You're now armed with all the GM theory you're going to need to get started as a GM, or improve upon your GMing skills. That doesn't mean there isn't anymore to learn. Even the most experienced GM is still learning. Like life, GMing always changes.
If you've paid attention to what was said in this course; if you thought about the advice the other GMs provided; you're building on a solid foundation. Enjoy the journey. Now go take the exam. The sooner you take it, the sooner you'll be GMing. Good luck!
As current Course Proctor I do not feel that I have written this new version of the course on my own. Instead I have drawn from previous versions, and therefore feel I share authorship with all the people who helped on previous courses as well as those who gave me advice as I wrote this version.
All listed here have helped in some way to write this course. Some made a huge impact like Deanne, others supplied only a quote or two but just as vital. This course will continue to change over the years but these names should go forward with it.
Deanne Ashton, Chris Ashley, Steve Ashton, Mike Bourdaa, Stuart Coll, Jeremy Friedman, Larry Garfield, Brian Moss, Owen Townes, Moe Younis, Colin Wyers, Sarah Hemenway, Alex Verdusco and Amanda Noon.
Here is the exam for the course, you will need to score 75% to be accepted onto the GM Training Program. Please read it through completely before writing any answers down. The aim of this exam is to check you have absorbed all the information, to emphasise important information and to evaluate a candidate’s ability to communicate using the written word.
Submission Instructions
Write out your answers to the questions below.
E-mail them to the course proctor: (gamemaster-tutor@star-fleet.com)
Be sure to include your full name at the top of the e-mail!
Do not use "HTML-enriched" e-mail. It makes it harder to grade.
Cut and paste Homework 101: What would your contingency plan be? How important do you feel it is to be in contact with the CO and XO?3 points
Cut and paste Homework 105: For each of the following explain how you would try to solve these problems:3 points
Slow pace
Crew ignoring Sim
Side Plots being ignored
Who is responsible for completing mission records for the GM Archive?1 point
When should they be completed? 1 point
Why do we keep these records? 1 point
Show the chain of command for a GM in STF. 1 point
When can you kill a player’s character? 1 point
When is it permissible to completely destroy a ship? 1 point
Who can void posts and why? 1 point
How would you void a post whilst minimising any disruption to the ship? 1 point
Who can issue a death notice?3 points
What criteria need to be met?
Explain how you might try to avoid issuing a death notice.
How can you use multiple timelines to your advantage? 1 point
Explain what is considered canon in STF. 3 points
When should you use canon material?
When should you use non-canon material?
Total 22 marks for Section A
Cut and paste homework 102: Take a few minutes to come up with a story idea suitable for a sim. Identify how you will involve the various departments. You may need to just point out that a certain department is going to need a side sim. (Include at least one swing position in your planning.)
Cut and paste homework 103A: Using the sim idea from 102 explain the series of clues you might use to get the crew from the beginning to the end of the sim. Point out places where you feel the crew might branch off from your plan.
Cut and paste homework 103B: Using the sim idea you came up with in the last lesson, write out the sim’s first post using the Narrative style.
Cut and paste homework 104: Using your sim idea from 102 write a plan, for this plan show where you might break it down into acts. Explain what key points you would want to be achieved by the end of each act.
Where did you get the inspiration for your story idea?
Why will your story idea make a good sim?
Suppose you are a GM on the USS Master and there is a player named Sally Cheatum. Sally continually disrupts your sim by constantly contradicting you. Sally usually does this with an OOC note stating that your recent post regarding the warp engine nearly breaching could not possibly happen because she is a theoretical physicist and there is no way a warp engine could ever do that! Brainstorm possible ways you might address this issue.
A GM has to be able to invent new worlds, new characters and new technology. Show that you can do this by describing one of each. Each answer should be at least two paragraphs. At least one should be related to your sim idea.
A New World
A New Character
A New Technology
Looking over the ship profiles, write an email to the Captain of the ship you think your sim would most suit and explain why. Sell your sim to the Captain. Pssst…don’t actually email it, put it here.
Sometimes a GM is called on to help out a ship. Whatever the reason, this means that sometimes you find yourself having to come up with a sim idea on the spot. Pick one of the following ships and come up with a basic sim outline.
Starbase 202
USS Lexington
USS Ogawa
USS Genesis
USS Rogue
N.B. There are 8 marks floating for good spelling and good English.
Section B is 10 pass or fail marks
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