Game Mastery

Dramatic Resolution

The core of the game is dramatic and entertaining situations. And this can happen without rolling dice or engaging the rules of the game at all. But player characters will inevitably find themselves in precarious scenarios, and discovering the story through dice rolls is a major part of the fun. When you ask a player to roll the dice, it should advance the narrative in an exciting and appropriate way, no matter the result. This is called dramatic resolution, and is core to the game experience.

Here is an example of playing without practicing dramatic resolution:

GM: You find yourself in a small office with a frosted glass window and a musty smell in the air. There’s a desk against one wall, and a bed against the other.

Player: Are there any interesting papers on the desk?

GM: Make an Awareness roll.

Player (rolls): Bad roll, 2.

GM: You find nothing interesting.

Notice how this interaction leaves the player with nothing to do; nothing to interact with. It brings the game to a dead halt. Not only that, but it lacks verisimilitude. If the player character is literate, they should be able to shuffle through all the papers on the desk in short order to determine whether there is anything interesting.

Having the player make a roll here breaks the fiction, because it necessitates the possibility of failure. And if the PC fails, then the other PCs might want to step in to search the desk themselves. This practice bogs the game down with tedious rolling. And if the desk truly had nothing interesting on it, then the entire situation was a waste of everyone’s time.

This is not a situation with dramatic potential. Rather than calling for a roll, the GM should have simply told the player what they wanted to know. This keeps the game moving forward.

If, on the other hand, the player character was on the run from the local militia, and they only had a few seconds to scrub the room for important papers before the soldiers arrived, then a roll might be dramatically interesting. But excepting such scenarios, rolling to perform a tedious task is not advised.

Here’s another example of misusing dramatic resolution, this time by not calling for a roll:

GM: You enter the manor house of Sir Stochlan Blakeley, and the butler ushers you into a waiting room. It’s well-furnished with tasteful decorations. A moment later, Sir Blakeley himself appears, and reaches for a handshake as he introduces himself.

Player: Is he wearing jewelry?

GM: Yes, he’s wearing a signet ring and a royal medallion.

Player: As I shake his hand, I try to steal the signet ring from his finger.

GM: Um. Okay, so he looks at you strangely as you shake his hand weirdly. Then he notices the ring is gone and calls for the guards.

While it’s quite likely that Sir Blakeley would notice a ring being slipped off his finger, simply narrating the outcome without calling for a roll is likely to make the player feel frustrated.

This is a situation with dramatic potential, so there ought to be a roll. A failure means that Sir Blakeley recognizes the PC as a thief. A success means the PC has access to a significant item that may be important later. Or they could always pawn it off for cash.

You might call for a Finesse roll against Sir Blakely's Awareness, and might give the roll -3 Edge for being obvious robbery. Once the player understands the difficulty involved, they might back off. If not, they're at least going into the roll with managed expectations.

If the player somehow manages to succeed, you can't backtrack their success. You should work with the player to come up with a feasible reason in the fiction for the theft to go unnoticed. Perhaps the PC feigned a sneeze to mask the robbery, or perhaps they applied a dab of oil to the finger so the ring could slip away without resistance.

And nothing prevents you from having Sir Blakely notice the ring's disappearance later on, preferably in a later scene so as not to rain on the parade of the player's success immediately. Learning how to apply dramatic resolution takes practice. Don’t feel discouraged if it doesn’t come easily at first.

It should also be noted here that if a player makes a habit of robbing every NPC they come across, this might cause tension between them and the other players due to making the game all about them. If this or a similar habit becomes a problem for the general fun at the table, it may be necessary to take the problem player aside and gently ask them to play along with the group instead of only serving their own story.

Adjudicating Rolls

As the GM, you are the final decision-maker when it comes to interpreting the results of rolls. Especially when it comes to rolls that aren't called for as a result of specific rules and abilities, it's up to you to determine what a "success" or "failure" means in the narrative, and what consequences ensue. Further, it's on your shoulders to decide how to use Banes to throw a wrench into your players' plans, and to provide ideas for Boon uses that lie outside of pre-built options.

While you are the ultimate arbiter of these things, you should also feel free to consult your players for ideas when you're not certain. Remember, you're cooperating with the players to tell an interesting story, and allowing them to contribute can help them feel more attached to the story.

Difficulty

Guidelines on setting the difficulty of a roll are provided in the Gameplay chapter. A roll's difficulty is represented by a Result Die, which ranges anywhere from a d4 to a d12. Because the player's roll is compared against a difficulty roll, both success and failure are always possible. However, a player with a d4 Result Die is unlikely to succeed when rolling against a difficulty Result Die of d12.

Usually, the player making a roll should be made aware of the opposing roll's result. This allows them to use their resources—such as Luck—with confidence.

However, some situations might warrant a hidden outcome. For example, if a player character is attempting to deceive a mysterious NPC, they might not be aware of how keen their perceptions are. In these cases, you can make the roll Veiled, which means you make the opposing roll secretly, without telling the player whether they succeeded or failed. You can handle these scenarios as you wish, but try to avoid allowing the players to "waste" their Luck by not spending enough to attain a success without their knowledge. This can be very discouraging to players.

Edge

Edge is a useful tool for modifying the likelihood of a roll's success, but in a way that doesn't guarantee one result or the other. In general, these are meant to represent external factors that affect roll. For example, attempting to perceive a threat in pitch darkness might cause the roll to be made with -2 Edge, since the character has to rely only on their other senses.

The higher the net positive Edge modifier on a roll, the higher the extra Result Die is used. A roll made with +1 Edge only adds a d4, with the roller using the higher of their two Result Dice after rolling. This can be helpful for reducing the likelihood of rolling a 1, but a d4 isn't capable of generating results higher than the other Result Die. 

As a rule of thumb, use +/-1 Edge for moderate factors affecting the roll, and +/-2 Edge for major factors. +/- 3 Edge is generally the highest single Edge modifier that can be applied to a roll, and should be done sparingly.

Gaining Edge for combining skills. When a player makes a roll using one of the ten core skills (physical or mental categories), but one of their culture or trade skills also has a strong correlation to the task they're attempting, you can grant them Edge based on their proficiency in the culture or trade skill. For example, a player is about to roll Manipulation to try and deceive an NPC that they are a visiting noble from Ashabelannar. This player character actually has the city of Ashabelannar as a culture skill at expert (d10). In this case, you might even allow the player to roll with +3 Edge, since a skill requires a total of 3 boosts to reach that level of proficiency. This is also a rare case where, if the proficiency was master (d12), you might grant a whopping +4 Edge to the roll.

Luck

Your role as Game Master means you control all aspects of the fictional game world outside of the player character actions. Unlike the players, you don't have a character sheet to refer to. Instead, you have NPC sheets, your notes, and Luck.

Players spend Luck to turn failures into successes by improving roll results at a 1:1 rate.

The GM spends Luck not to turn player successes into failures, but to add negative consequences and activate NPC abilities. When a player makes a roll, you can spend 1 Luck to add a Bane to the outcome. Or, if the roll had already generated a Bane due to a low roll on the Event Die, you can spend 1 Luck to turn that Bane into a Severe Bane. 

You can also spend Luck to introduce new complications in the narrative. For example, you might spend 2 Luck to decide that a guard notices the party sneaking into the treasure vault, and slams and locks the door on them so they can't escape.

Banes & Severe Banes

Banes are negative consequences that can be added onto a roll without changing its success/failure status. It is typically the GM's responsibility to determine the effects of Banes, though some NPCs or other game elements might provide specific Bane options.

Improvising these consequences requires a fair amount of improvisation and creativity on your part. Here are some examples of how you might use Banes and Severe Banes during play depending on the roll that is made:

A player character succeeds on a Manipulation roll to convince a guard that they are expected at the ball, but have misplaced their invitation.

• Bane: The guard allows the PC to enter, but sends a messenger to confirm the invitation from the house steward. There's a ticking clock on how long the PC will be allowed to remain.

• Severe Bane: The guard allows the PC to enter, but the host of the event quickly spots the newcomer and engages the PC in conversation to find out who they are, perhaps believing them to be someone they're not.

An NPC successfully hits a PC with a Crossbow attack.

• Bane: The Crossbow malfunctions slightly, causing Attacks made with it to suffer -1 Edge until the malfunction is repaired using a maneuver.

• Severe Bane: The NPC accidentally spills out their entire quiver of remaining crossbow bolts onto the floor.

A PC fails on a Focus roll against a wolf's intimidating howl.

• Bane: The PC takes -1 Edge on any roll targeting the wolf for one round.

• Severe Bane: The PC drops a held item from the shock and fright of the howl.

The key to Banes and Severe Banes is to tie them back into the narrative positioning of the scene, as well as the established fiction. If an NPC has been established as clumsy, lean into that aspect when they make a roll with a Bane. If a battle is taking place in a boggy swamp, allow the environment to dictate what happens with certain Banes, such as characters slipping into sinkholes or being stung by bugs.

Player Characters

During and after Session Zero, work with your players to help them develop their characters to fit within the framework that the group has collectively established for the game.

Character Creation

Encourage the players to work together to determine what role everyone will occupy within the group. It's acceptable for some PCs to have skills and abilities in common, but there should be at least some variety.

Characters can come from any race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc. The world of SOJOURNER is an infinite array of diverse worlds and peoples, so most any character concept should be acceptable.

An excellent tip for making the experience valuable for the players is to make copies of their character sheets. At the very least, make note of each PC's top skills. You can use this information to provide challenges that will engage in the skills the players were excited about.

Rewards

Rewards are tied into gameplay incentives, and different rewards incentivise different behaviors. This can help keep the players engaged with various aspects of the game. The guidelines provided here are generally good advice for how and when to reward the PCs.

Experience Rewards

Experience is best used as a reward for completing group objectives. When the party overcomes a major obstacle, or when they fulfill a mission goal, it's customary to award every PC with an equal amount of Experience.

This Experience is then spent on character advancements to make the characters more powerful and versatile.

You can also reward individual PCs for completing personal objectives, but this runs the risk of making some players feel more included than others. Best practice is to make sure each PC receives the same amount of experience, and at the same time as each other. A good exception to this is if you have a rotating cast of players and characters week to week.

Luck Rewards

Luck is a fluid kind of reward. The players do have tools to generate it on their own (notably the Unwind activity), but you can also award Luck to any PC whenever you feel like it, if that's your preferred GMing style. This allows you to incentivize whatever behavior you find works best at your tables.

Groups interested in drama and tension might be rewarded with Luck when they express their characters' vices and complex backstories. Groups interested in humor and levity might be rewarded with Luck when they crack a really great joke or pun. You might even grant every PC 1 or more Luck at the start of every session!

However, note that rewarding player characters with Luck is a purely optional practice, and should not be expected by the players.

Money Rewards

Money is an in-game reward; less of an abstraction than Experience and Luck. Its exact denominations are abstracted, but its value is less so.

In general, characters are rewarded with Money when they perform tasks for clients with the funds to pay, or when they claim it from defeated foes or hapless victims. That said, you as the GM get to decide how much Money the PCs might find in treasure hoards, and how much their clients are willing to pay.

Money is useful for acquiring new and upgraded equipment, better accommodations, travel arrangements, hired help, bribes, and even frivolous expenditures. Refer to the Marketplace chapter for more information.

Many Downtime activities reward PCs with Money, such as Gamble, Steal, and Work.

Narrative Rewards

This last form of reward is not quantifiable, but it's still of great importance.

Narrative rewards are those that tie into a character's personal backstory and objectives. For instance, if a PC begins the game exiled from their homeland, it would likely be satisfying to the player if they were to receive closure on that plotline.

These rewards ought to feel earned more than any other. You can't just dish out resolution to every character's traumatic backstories in a single session. Gradual steps over time with an eventual payoff will be more effective.

Character Advancement

Improving a character is a very rewarding aspect of the game for most players. That's why it's important to grant Experience rewards to players regularly, at least once every session or two.

Retraining

Sometimes, a player can become dissatisfied with an ability or skill advancement they have chosen. In general, you should allow players to change up their advancements a bit, but not allow players to continually use this to their advantage. A good way to do this is by requiring the player character to spend Downtime activities to remove skills and abilities and replace them with alternative advancement choices they could have made.

If a player wants to dramatically change their character, it might be easier to simply create a new character sheet from scratch. It's up to you how you want to handle such situations.

Designing NPCs

In the course of the GM’s preparation for a session or campaign, they may discover that they have need of unique NPCs that are not presented in the Friends and Foes section. This is perfectly acceptable, and GMs are encouraged to come up with their own creatures to make the world their own.

First, decide what creature type the NPC would fall under. For instance, if you wanted to make a gelatinous ooze monster, what is your vision of how it works? Is it a creature of instinct and hunger? If so, it might fall under the Beast category. Is it more of an eldritch slime from non-Euclidean space? Then it might be a Horror instead. Or, you could always make it have both traits.

Second, decide how many variations you want to make. If all you need is a single creature, then you can get by with a single stat sheet. But if you expect the party to fight many of these oozes, then you might benefit from creating Pawn, Rook, and Sovereign versions at the very least.

Third, design the NPC’s stat sheet. Be mindful of how high its physical and mental skills are, as these are the main indicators of its power. And be careful not to allow it too many Actions or attacks per turn, unless it’s a Sovereign and meant to be a great challenge on its own. Refer to other NPC stat sheets for comparison.

Also try to include a few defining effects such as special actions, maneuvers, instants, or Boons. These should be thematic to the creature's abilities and behavior.

Finally, decide how the NPC operates. What is its primary motivator? What tactics does it employ in combat? Is it a solo creature, or does it travel in groups? What equipment does it use? The answers to these questions will help you determine how the creature acts in and out of combat.

Character Creation as NPCs

You may be tempted to create unique NPCs using the steps provided in the Character chapter, to make a fully fleshed out NPC with a full suite of abilities. This can certainly work, but it should be done with caution, and sparingly. NPC stat sheets are kept intentionally simple, because the GM must often juggle many different characters at once. Attempting to do this with several fully-realized character sheets could be a difficult task.

If you do decide to create an NPC in this way, follow the character creation steps as normal. Unadjusted, the NPC will be considered a Sovereign. Subtract 2 from its Vitality and Stamina values to make a Rook NPC, or set each of them to 1 to make them a Pawn instead.

Story Structure

Even though you're not the game's primary storyteller, you can still provide pacing and rhythm to the fiction. One excellent tool to help with this is the "Beginning, Middle, End" structure, also known as the three-act structure. You can use this structure to loosely plot out basic story beats for a mission, a sidequest, or even an entire campaign!

A good rule of thumb is to award Experience to the player characters at the end of each of these stages, with the largest chunk of Experience coming at the end.

Beginning

At the beginning of an adventure or story arc, you'll want to establish the important characters, locations, and events with the players and their characters. This is also a good time to drop some subtle hints about secrets that may be revealed later. Don't be too subtle with these hints, though. While twists and reveals can be interesting, they're often less interesting than scenarios where the players have at least a decent idea of what's going on, and what to do next.

By the end of the beginning, the players should have a clear idea of what they're trying to accomplish. It's best if they're able to figure this out for themselves, rather than you telling them what they should be doing. The players' decision might not be what you expect, and that's all right. Figure out how to reward the story they want to tell.

Middle

The middle of the story is where the characters try to accomplish their objective in spite of obstacles and setbacks. Make sure to remind the players what their end-goal is throughout the middle part. You want to avoid the "Why are we doing this again?" question from being asked in the middle of an adventure.

By the end of the middle, the twist (if any) should be revealed, and the final confrontation should be understood. This is the best time to use Luck you've stockpiled and throw everything you've got at the players to evoke the "darkest hour" trope of storytelling.

End

The end of the story should feel like the drop of a rollercoaster, with everything crashing toward a thrilling finale. For better or worse, the conclusion of this story should be decided by the end.

After the final confrontation, it's good to have a short epilogue and wrap-up to resolve any loose ends. The players can now reap the rewards of their efforts, and/or mourn their losses.

Remember that the players are the drivers of the story. NPCs can also propel events on their own (and often will), but your structure should conform to the players' decided objectives.

Addressing Issues

Everyone's heard of RPG horror stories. The GM or one of the players (or multiple players) start behaving in a way that ruins the fun for someone else at the table.

This can sometimes be difficult to avoid in tabletop roleplaying, but having a comprehensive Session Zero is the first (and best) defense against it. If expectations for the gameplay style, tone of the story, and player behaviors in advance of actual sessions, there's less likely to be misalignment for any of these.

But even with a fantastic Session Zero, issues can still arise. That's just the nature of group interactions, especially when they're crossed with social gaming.

When a player demonstrates offensive, uncooperative, or otherwise disruptive behavior, you should first politely yet firmly inform them about the issue. Explain how their actions make you and the other players feel (don't speak for other players unless they express desire for you to do so).

If the problem worsens or persists, the best decision is usually to un-invite the offending player from future sessions. If this would result in the campaign falling apart, then that's still preferable to perpetuating a negative experience.

Player Check-ins

It's important to communicate with your players before, during, and after sessions, as well as in between sessions. Check in with them regularly to see how they feel about the group, the campaign, and their character's role in the story. Try to provide every player equal opportunities to engage with the story in ways that suit their characters' personalities and backstories.

Most importantly, never use your GM authority to spite any of the players.

The Narrative

You are not the writer of this story. You facilitate storytelling. It is by this mantra that you should run the game.

That said, your role may involve some amount of writing. You might write specific character and location descriptions in advance, for instance. But you simply cannot prepare for every twist and turn the players can—and will—throw at you.

What is "Railroading?"

"Railroading" is one of those terms that gets used a lot in the hobby, often without a full understanding of what does and does not constitute railroading. In essence, "railroading" is a criticized method of GMing in which the GM has a particular path in mind for the PCs, and they don't allow the players to stray from that path.

Railroading can make players feel as though they don't have any control over their own characters; that they are forced into participating a story they might not be interested in.

However, just because the GM has prepared some content for the players, it's not necessarily railroading. In fact, strategically placing these pieces of content in the existing path of the players is a well-understood GMing tip, so long as the players don't catch on.

What is "Sandboxing?"

Another oft-used term in gaming is the idea of a "sandbox," in which the players can choose to go anywhere and do anything, and the GM is meant to accommodate a meandering story.

This style of gameplay is often lauded for the freedom it grants to the players, but it can be more demanding for the GM, who has to come up with new and interesting content to keep up with the players. This style of play can be difficult to pull off, as it carries a greater risk of GM burnout and player disengagement due to a seemingly aimless story.

One great way to effectively use sandboxing is to allow the players to explore the world at their leisure until they latch onto one of the story hooks you've left for them to find. That story hook can then transition the game into a more structured set of objectives that the GM can more easily plan for.