Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the good GM's podcast. I'm E.E. Morris. And today's episode is interview with the GM. And now here's Chuck and James.
Speaker: Hello, and welcome to another amazing, fantastic, stupendous, astounding episode of good GM's. Maybe I oversold it I don't know. What do you think, Chuck?
Speaker: Good. Good. I'm James, and this is Chuck. Hello. Hello, and we are here with another great episode. This episode is about your first time GMing.
Speaker: um Not your first time. We talked about our first times together, Chuck, in our first episode. We talked about our first times. But that was playing. That was first time role playing. Nope. Different. We are on video. This is ah different different first times.
Speaker: This is... I'm going to edit all that out. Welcome to Good GM's After Dark. um which is Which is actually a good title for it, because tonight we're going to be talking a little bit about some of the darker side of roleplaying, the first time UGM, and we have a special guest. um A special guest? Is she a special guest or is she our producer who made us do this episode? I think it's quite possible. we don't talk about that. We don't talk about that.
Speaker: That's right. That's the first rule of... Homer Simpson said it best. when he think Homer Simpson said it best. A little from column a and a little from column B. These are on the what now? Yes. um Ma'am, welcome to the show. Welcome, finally. Boys, my boys. It's lovely to be here. i am Rainey Robertson, the producer of Good GMs. And if you are ever interacting with us online, unless you are specifically...
Speaker: interacting with James or Chuck, you are most likely interacting with me. So be nice. um And I do have my very own membership tier at the Patreon. I would encourage you everyone listening, please subscribe on Apple, on Spotify, on Patreon, anywhere that you find us on YouTube. We would love to monetize on YouTube. That'd be amazing if you could subscribe to YouTube. But you'll Yeah. If you go to our Patreon and you do want to join up as a member for free or for little cash, um keep clicking the arrow button until you get to the last here and you'll see me there. And we'll get little proposal for you and maybe just go check it out and you'll see. we go There's people out there. Yeah. like Tommy Wiseau's The Room, I think the most famous example of something created by this method of financing. And I'm offering it to you. I'm offering that to you, the viewer watching this right now, who's a criminal. So yeah. so or Or just somebody who's looking to dabble in the criminal arts.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it's your first time. It's your first time. It's your first time. ah There's no way to say crime that rhymes with GMing. but We're not going to jail. We're not going to jail.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. no if We're not going to jail. No, i I have always wanted an an opportunity to participate in crime. so go this is really big for me. Yeah.
Speaker: That's good. That's good. So um speaking of ah wanting the opportunity to participate in something, um yeah we brought you on the show because you are a longtime player. you've I've been playing with you. Oh, my gosh.
Speaker: um You played Ribbons, a daughter of Cacophony, who played like oh yeah maybe a handful of games. I can't remember. But you pissed off the prince at the least once in in our in our game of Vampire the Masquerade back in 2000.
Speaker: 90s. The 90s. It was high school. It's been high school. You were in kindergarten back in the I played a full year of games even after that happened because I really enjoyed that character. Of course, named after the Great Sisters of Mercy song, which is how you know that I was a 17-year-old goth when I created that character. There you go. She looked good in ribbons.
Speaker: So you are, you are also a member of the Savage Sessions podcast from time to time, if I'm not mistaken. And a one-time member of the Void Ledger podcast should ever come out. I'm not going to let you not put that out. We keep talking about it on this show and people are going to start wondering what the heck we're talking about if we don't. People should, people should leave comments. I've, requesting that you do that because the void ledger is going to start with an actual play of massive near loth attempt that james has been doing for over a year now that is quite excellent and i that was indeed part of yeah it was indeed part of that for a couple games uh and then chuck has been of course part of it since the beginning so i would really like to see it and i'm sure everybody listening would like to see it so please make sure that you leave a comment telling james to get get get it moving and we'll do this together yeah we'll do this together we'll get him after Yeah, there you go. So let's start with this. I think the big first question is, why did you want run a game?
Speaker: What made you decide to go from the player's seat to to swapping seats with the great, i illustrious, good GM, Chucky T? Charles Taylor. chuck Charles Taylor, or as I think of it, Charlize Theron.
Speaker: The other Charlie T. The big Charlie T. just call him Mr. T. Damn right. Yeah. I call him Chuckles when I want to mess with him. Charles and Xavier. yeah yeah and just charlie Yeah. remember Charlie was the movie version of Flowers for Algernon where ah a deeply stupid man got an injection and became really smart for a while and then the injection wore off.
Speaker: yeah a sad one That was a sad It was. it Chuck's the crown the across the world cried. so the same we we shot We do have an episode. what does Let us talk. Oh my goodness. our introductions here. Come on.
Speaker: wow see yeah wide out So the reason I wanted to be the GM is actually kind of what you're what you're hearing right there from James, which is that I traditionally go into these games and just sort of offer myself up and say, whatever, you know, use me however you can. Let's have a good time. I'm a keep my former comedian, and I like to play these games a little bit silly and sort of not always super, which is why Call of Cazooloo wasn't a great fit for me, because if you play that too silly, it's kind of hard to maintain the Cosmocore vibe, which I get.
Speaker: But I wondered, I was like, is it more fun to have control? Because I'm not a big control person. I'm kind of the opposite. um But whenever you guys are in charge of your games, you're very, you know, alpha, you're very plugged in, you're very locked in, you're kind of very confident. and I thought it would be be interesting to see what that's like. And also I thought it would be interesting to see what it's like to to sort of Have you guys argue with me and say, I would like to do that. And here's why I think you should let me, you know, stuff like that. I thought it might make me a better role player. So, so I chose vampire. um i know you didn't ask, but I'm going to tell you because I want to, but I chose vampire because this makes our job easy. Yeah.
Speaker: Well, like the reason, the reason I chose vampire because it was a game that I genuinely really like. And that that shouldn't have perhaps chosen it because the rules are quite a lot. There's a lot happening when you're running a game of Vampire and it maybe wasn't a great choice. Definitely going to be doing an episode on how to play Vampire the Masquerade yeah because we' had some we've had some fans on YouTube asking to to get some help with that. Yeah.
Speaker: Shout out Delta Dawn. I hope you're named after that awesome song by Loretta Lynn, which would be absolutely great if you are. um Yeah, but I i remember playing it from high school. I remember enjoying it. the the The thing I liked about Vampire and the thing that has always kept me from GMing till now, Vampire specifically talks about the storyteller like system, their approach, right? There's two ways you can play the game. there's ah You're kind of more of a storyteller. It's more of a narratively driven game with roles or They say right in the first edition of the first, you know, you can play it in a more kind of back and forth theater of the mind sort of narrative style, right, without as much reliance.
Speaker: And I was like, that really appeals to me because one of the things like about the Savage Sessions games is that it's kind of like listening to a novel in a way, right? Like it's kind of like you're listening to an audio book for a bit and then you get to jump in and sort of be in one of the chapters, you know, and then hop back out. and I like that.
Speaker: And I thought if I was left my own devices... If you want to go this way, turn to page 200. Is that what you mean? That's our part in the Savage Sessions? yeah No! like I just mean like... If you haven't listened to Savage Sessions, we'll put a link in this. I'll do it. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. Chuck does a lot of table settings. So you definitely, it's easy to get in the mood. Sometimes I find if you come to a game, you haven't played in a week, maybe a couple weeks, maybe you've been away, your brain isn't necessarily in that place immediately. You know, you warm up during the session, right? So I like that he kind of gives us, gets us in like a, in a theater kid mindset before we start, start playing on the big black boxes, right? But the great thing about vampire for that was I thought in a worst case scenario, I've never seen a vampire game where if someone got caught or stuck or didn't know what they were doing, that you couldn't resolve it with a clever narrative device. And I thought those I've got.
Speaker: Right. So if I get really. Yeah. Yeah. And you did. did. ah Now, my my question was, because because you're right, because vampire is dense. Yeah. There's there there is a lot.
Speaker: There's a lot there that is very dense. So I, for me, cause I got to sit as a player. So for me, it was, it was, it was fun. It was nice. It was okay. um Yeah. Yeah. And I've learned that and that's a good way for me to decompress too. It's just, I don't have to do all of it. I can just relax and just do my little bits. Yeah. um But ah yeah I have to say, one, you did an excellent job because you you didn't you didn't overthink anything. Like, okay, here we go. This is what we got. You know, ah you you know ah the the story that you that you that you were running for us was um deceptively simple.
Speaker: Because it was like, okay, here you go. It's a really simple concept, you know, incredibly small town here. I mean, incredibly small town, like a spot where stories normally wouldn't take place.
Speaker: po just like yeah Right. Like, no, this is, this is weird. Okay. And, but yeah I, you know, myself and, you know, Greg and Everett, uh,
Speaker: yeah fell in love with it quickly you know and a way it well it wasn't just because like oh this is our backyard but it's because it's and all you know you know it was the characters it was it it was a different time of setting it wasn't like okay where you at we're on the big metropolis go on kids and run around at night bury your fangs and have a good time um So, yeah. So but I guess my question was, was that something that, uh, was that pre-written or was that something that you just dropped out?
Speaker: So I'm really glad you asked that and I'm going to make a confession. Um, and this is a bad GM confession. So I, uh, you know, I think other GMT talks, you may have similar confessions. Maybe we can collect them at some point, but here's my bad. Yeah. Don't worry. Don't worry. I've already got my finger on the editing. Yeah.
Speaker: Go ahead. We're listening, child. What we're really talking about here when you go from being a player to being a GM is power exchange. And I thought in the more traditional meaning of that phrase, ah it's not so much about a strict script or sticking to a particular method. It's more about creating space for interactions to happen and then like creating, you know, pumping oxygen into the room where that happens so that if they're good interactions, they can, you know, get really good.
Speaker: Some of the most fun games I've ever played, someone made an offhand comment and it happened to trigger the GM in such a way that something, you know I Right. And that they did something. And then now we have an inside joke that all of us will talk about for years. You know there's jokes that 10 years later I'll still make, you know what i mean? And I love those moments a lot. And I was like, I will consider myself a successful first time experience. If ah there's at least one moment that's genuinely unplanned and unprompted that happens organically that everyone enjoys, that to me would be success right in the game. Cause there's no way I was going to learn. And that's also too, just quick note fifth edition. So the version of vampire that I learned is very different. Like there's been a lot of changes. Oh yeah. It was real different.
Speaker: Yeah. And stuff that I, yeah, James is holding up. That's the version that I learned on the ministry with sympathy version. and Yeah. And the current one, which I have a copy of right here. I also, i also have third, and second and third. That's the only two I have.
Speaker: Yeah. And this is the current one here, yeah which yeah I believe is fifth and yeah, fifth edition. a storytelling game of personal and political horror. And look at that. That's sick. That's huge.
Speaker: yeah So ah in the game, what I did originally was I wanted to do a story. My whole idea originally, my whole pitch was Vampire the Masquerade set during Roseanne, the sitcom Roseanne, which you younger folks know as the Connors, right? And it was like, what if Dan and Roseanne's neighbor was a vampire and he worked at the factory and he ate at the land for, you know i mean? It's just a regular land for guy. Like everybody else just happened to also be a vampire. Town's really small, not a lot of drifters. What's that guy's life like?
Speaker: What's his deal? What's his story? And I just was fascinated by this idea. So I was like, i want to pitch like blue collar, rust belt vampire. The idea was basically like, let me send it in a town that even if they aren't from it, they'll recognize it. So like for me, the equivalent would be a game that was set like a small town in Ontario. Even if I'd never been there, have a pretty good idea of what it's like and what they'd have and what they wouldn't have you know what I mean? Just it's comfy. Yes. We don't to waste a bunch of time world building. So it was just like a one shot. We just did four sessions. Right. So that's fine. And we looked it up and there is no Prince, obviously, of a town that size. But we looked into like Detroit and, you know, sort of other Grand i think its grand Rapids was the other one that we found. And we were like, ah, screw all this. So the setting was just basically that there was a Prince came to the town. and summoned our players and basically told them that they had to solve a mystery for him in 48 hours or else they were going to get a blood hunt called on them and they'd be blamed for the crime because the goal was just to have basically someone to blame for this and not so much the right person. And they got to run around and figure out who who did the murder. And at that point, I knew who did the murder and I knew...
Speaker: why the murder happened and I knew who like they would run into and that was it. So the whole rest of the game was improv on the spot. And there's times when I listened to the recordings later where I could tell because I could hear myself start saying one thing and then by the end of the sentence I was saying something different.
Speaker: um But other times I couldn't. Yeah. But other times I couldn't. So I was like, okay, I don't know if they could tell, but yeah, the idea was basically like view the plot. And then it was like, let's just run you around. Cause I didn't want to ever make you feel like, Oh, we have to deal with this person or we have to have this specific experience you didn't there were enough clues everywhere that you could have you know like anything you did basically would have given you enough info to figure it out and props to you james actually that was james's idea um i remember speaking to him beforehand i was like i'm nervous because i don't want it to feel like i'm hand here here is a clue take this it is all that is left of fantasia like i didn't want to do that but i also didn't want it to be like too hard so there was a chance that they'd run around for three sessions and not
Speaker: click on it for whatever reason, right? Because that happens. I've been in games where the GM clearly needed us to accomplish a task before we could move on to the story. Oh, yeah. And then that's a real thing. Yes. No, you did good. yeah You did good. Honestly, you no, really, you you did good. And I like the fact that you hit on, like, you you already know the you already knew the core part.
Speaker: No, i wanted well I wanted to go back to that thing you said, which if I could, which is that that I was able to give you some advice. But i wanted like what I really wanted to ask, it like because this is a GM advice show, is what I want to know is what were your steps in preparation?
Speaker: What were the things you did to get ready for this game? And what were the things you sort of looked at like that we maybe we discussed that you said, OK, I'm going to throw that away. I'm going to throw that away. I'm going to focus on this and this. Because the truth is, as a first-time GM and you're listening to this episode,
Speaker: I I'm loving the story, but mostly I want to know what, what do what, what can I learn from you and what, what can I learn from you? So, so what was your prep work is what I want to, So the prep, I actually have been planning this game for a year by the time I did it, just in the sense of wanting to run one. So I went and got, I decided which edition to play. So I went to third edition, which was the one that I knew the best.
Speaker: And by the end of it, I was like, nah, that's okay. Like, you know I mean? It'll be, it's almost weirder at this point. Let's just play the modern one. So I got the but the new book yeah and I read it. And that was actually a huge amount of prep because this book is dense and it's thick.
Speaker: And even if you get rid of all the stories and sort of the flavor and all that, a lot of things had changed. So it was different from just like reading it from scratch and getting a sense of it. It was like, oh no, I got to remember that's different now, right? Or like that doesn't work that way anymore. I have to unlearn other information. So that was definitely a challenge for me.
Speaker: Um, my main thing that I did to prep other than reading stuff and going through, creating, um, the characters, because I wanted you guys to create, we did a zero session where you guys created your own characters. So I didn't have to do that.
Speaker: But what I did after that session was go through and, uh, and I'm, I'm a bit of a I'm sort of older. i admit I'm not a a super young person. Um, I took all the skills that they had and put them in a Google docs. So it was like, okay, these are Greg skills. These are Charlie, these are Chuck's. So whenever you guys smart do anything. Yeah. So I didn't have to be flipping around. See, that's smart. That's good. price That's very good. Wow. Nice. And it's the kind of thing where if yeah, it's the kind of thing. Write that down, Chuck. Cause I got to remember that one too. Hell yeah. No, I'm impressed. I'm really impressed. but When the GM has to ask, does anybody have noticed? Does there anybody out there have, you know, like it's like, yeah you know,
Speaker: Yeah, that was that was the thinking. Right. And I also figured, too, because it was like there was like I don't want to I guess it doesn't matter. Right. It's not like it's like some weird torture. I'll put the game up if people want to hear it. I'll put it up on Patreon as a member extra and they can hear it. But one thing that um that I didn't want to happen was for you guys to be in a position where nobody had a skill that would get you out of it. Yes. You know what i mean? Like, which is such a bad place to be. And so before you guys did anything, I was just really quickly like, yes, you, you, okay, you two can, you can't. I just kind of make sure that one of you stays conscious to the end of the scene and we're fine. So yeah, definitely. definitely help Well, and that's, and that's, and that's a GM, that's a GM tip that I think you and I talked about and and we've talked about on the show was don't hide your clues behind a dice roll if they're important.
Speaker: No, if you need them to have the clue, don't make them roll for it. Yeah, you give them the clue, and then if there is a skill role involved, then give them something extra. That's well they interpret it. Yeah, interpret it or give some extra that may, it may not pay off now, but it might pay off in a scene or two later.
Speaker: Right, so yeah. Yeah, but no, no, if it's a clue, it's right there, and they're already there, and they're already looking for something's it, boom, there it is. Give it to them. Because otherwise, no, you did it right, Rainey. It's like, there you go. Here here are the skills.
Speaker: Here we go. no I like that. That's good. Yeah, it was it was pretty good. It's the kind of thing, too, where if we'd done one more session, by the end of the third session, I didn't even really need it anymore because you know like it's just repetition. It's how you learn. And I think if you were trying to learn something new in your game or yeah, if there was like a a revision of rules or something, that might be a good strategy just in general to sort of learn something, you know, hard. Oh, nice. Quickly, right? Yeah. Just because you're you're looking at it all the So yeah, definitely useful.
Speaker: The only other piece of prep that I did beyond um coming up with the story idea, right? Which was just like, I wanted to do something that was fun, but it wasn't necessarily goofy. So I would actually talk about this for a sec because this is tough. Please do.
Speaker: Yeah. um I have a hard time as a player, and Chuck can attest to this as probably the person that's GMed me the most in the last couple years. I have a tendency as a player to, if i lose track of what's happening in the game, for whatever reason, I go to the bathroom, I'm on my phone, someone else has the attention for a long time. ADHD. ADHD, which I have.
Speaker: Shout out to my neurodivergent gents. Yeah. But what I tend to do is I tend to recover with a joke. And I feel like if I can recover big with a joke and like it's it's good and it makes everybody happy and Chuck laughs, I'm like, okay, that's all right. I'm forgiven. I'm still bringing entertainment value.
Speaker: ah to the table, right? Like, i you're happy I'm here, even though whatever. Like, your college kid that did the cocaine all the time. That was, that was yeah. Yeah, my drunken, yeah, or like the, I'm a big fan of ah how dumb Shiloh is. Like, that's my fallback for everything.
Speaker: I play an angel in an ETU game that Chuck runs named Shiloh and um the because she's so freaking powerful, especially compared to else, the internal logic I did was that she's dumb as hell. She's a bit as intelligent as a cat and she's so much fun to play.
Speaker: It's like Anya from Buffy, right? It's just a super powerful creature. She's but has this different perspective. yeah Yeah. Yeah. And she's really fun to play. So like that kind of works out. But I wanted for this game to set the tone right, because I was like, I don't want them because they play with me to think this is not an SNL sketch. Like, i I mean, we could have played it that way, but I didn't think it would be fun for four episodes. You know, that it would get old and I didn't want it to be super hardcore serious. Now, Vampire suffers from...
Speaker: Unfortunately, what's the suffers from? Well, we all suffer. It's beautiful suffering. But um it has, it's very goth. Like, you know, Mark, my favorite thing vampires, yeah, my favorite thing about vampires has always been that Mark Ryan Hagen, the guy that invented it, insists on having his name stylized with a a dot between the Ryan and the Hagen instead of a dash. And if he...
Speaker: If you look at me all the time, right? So you have to use ASCII to spell his name. And I've always been like, that's, that's a cool guy. That's a God that guys, it doesn't care about society's rules. Like, I think he's awesome. I'm really glad he did that.
Speaker: Um, And I wanted to set a tone that was like, I want that vampire tone of like, these are, this is life and dust. Like these people are damned and like all that stuff's happening. Yeah, exactly. There's classic image. I think the first thing comes to your mind. Torredor.
Speaker: Yes. And the Tim Bradstreet art. And like, just, I wanted that. And I was actually going to set. Yeah. ma erara and Nail polish. and Yeah. Fet fishnet sleeves. And, oh, miss it. Oh my gosh.
Speaker: um I originally was going to set the game in the 90s just so that also we didn't have to deal with cell phones because it was a murder mystery on a time limit. And I was like, Google would have really you know, been useful to them, you know, like Instagram would have been useful to them in their search and stuff. And I was like, I don't really want to get into those mechanics, so nothing wrong with them. They just aren't fun. You know, like i don't feel like right now. So I wanted the tone to be serious, but it's very clear. And that the thing I liked about this, have you seen Cobra Kai, the the Netflix Karate Kid sequel show?
Speaker: Okay, Cobra Kai is perfect where the tone of the show is serious, like it's not played like a comedy per se, but the stakes of the show are so low. It's like couple teenage kids gym memberships, you know, it's like the most that's ever at stake in like the whole series. There's that great bit where Daniel-san runs into, what's his face, the evil Cobra Kai guy, and their wives are like, oh, yeah, our husbands have little karate rivalries. They think it's adorable. You know what I'm saying? It's just like... Roseanne the Masquerade is a bit goofy, but it's... Basically.
Speaker: but it's serious too. Like, I mean, real shit happened on Roseanne. Like, you know, like they definitely dealt with real stuff. And was like, can we hit that? Can we can we nail that tone where everybody feels empowered to play it a little silly? So it's not like, oh, I look out of the water and I see that the raven carries my soul. Like, okay, yeah. but But not like totally goofy over the top. Like it's not even fun. Like the center has to hold, Yeah.
Speaker: And that was my biggest challenge was trying to do that. And I hope I nailed it. um oh yeah Oh, God. No. Again, it because it breaks it so much because, again, it's not the metropolis, they not the big city. But also because I think myself, Greg and everyone, I think we walked into it with a um what we do in shadows vibe.
Speaker: where it's like, okay, like, cause I, I, right. Doing my dark bidding on the internet. Yeah. Well, cause I, I specifically have creepy paper for the party. Exactly. I, I specifically made my character to be the straight,
Speaker: Yeah. And he's like, yeah yeah, he's like, here, here you go. Here's the, he's the serious one that gave Everett and Greg opportunities to have like the characters. yeah And so that the perfect springboards and no. So yes, it was, cause it was, it was like, no, you're going to die.
Speaker: You're going to die if you guys don't figure this out. And we're like, wait, what? And so it's like, here you got these. Yeah. You got these three, these three idiots. Cause they are. And that's the other thing. They're like the worst vampires ever made.
Speaker: They really are. They're like, they're just, they're just, no, my God, how are you guys even still existing? And the fact that as the story went on, It got ah like the implications of what, like when you really started breaking down, it's like, holy, oh, this is dark. This is really dark. So yeah, no, I, I, I enjoyed it. I, I really, i had, i had a good time with it. You handled the system well.
Speaker: You, you didn't get bogged down in hard mechanics because that's something wanted to ask you was when, when, it when it comes to, okay, yeah, you got your story. And you, you did it for me. You hit the sweet spots. like, got story, but there's also mechanics.
Speaker: Cause if it's just story, we're just doing improv. That's it kids. yeah If it's all dice, we're, then there's no role play. So you, and you did a good job. you You hit that sweet spot for me. was like almost 50, 50. So I really appreciate that. So when it came to the story and when it came to, know, like a situation where you had the rules and then you had the rule of cool.
Speaker: And, you know, ah can you remember in any, any parts of that story where you were looking at it and go, well, rules is written. i should do this, but,
Speaker: That would be cool. I would say ah yes. um And i'll it's a reveal. Again, I don't want to give i want to give away the story for anybody who wants to watch it later. But um I had dug myself into a pretty deep hole at one point in the third session because I let something happen in the first session and I forgot about it.
Speaker: Okay. and i was actually eight This leads into my question, which is what would you do differently? So let's hear this. I like this. Yes. And you might remember, everybody yeah, I called you and said, I, and you were like, just roll with it. Like you're, you're like, they don't get you know, just, yeah. You're like, just roll with it. They don't know that you screwed up. Like it's fine. I think that's true. Right. From the outside, you know, that they don't know. Right. So, So here's what happened. So I had a long story short, it was the original ending of the thing was said that there had been an actual murderer and that you guys were meant to find him and realize that's who he was.
Speaker: And I killed him off by mistake at the end of the first episode because I was just like a little nervous and I wasn't paying attention. I wasn't thinking. And then was like, oh, yeah, right. He's dead. Oh, no, that's not good. And so what I did was, and what I do differently is not do that. So here's my actual tip. Good GM tip. Don't kill off your main antagonist in the first in the first section of the story.
Speaker: That's amazing. At the end of every session, what I wish I had done was quickly, before I forgot, written down in bullet points, What happened? I don't mean like every we went here and then we did this. No, I mean, like, we met so and so so this person died, the tavern waitress did this.
Speaker: We're right here right now. That's where we ended. And we still need to do this. You didn't and note to self, you didn't do this. Because sometimes as you're like, okay, we're going to go in the scene, right? And then like, A is going to lead to B and then we'll land at C. So the fact that A, which is the scene started, you look at it later, you might assume B was implicit. Yeah, there you go. These are the clues I need to give out from my other game. And I'm like, okay, we did this one. We did this one. Got to remember to give this one, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, if I just leave it like this, I'm going to assume I did that because why wouldn't I? If I walk in the door, why wouldn't I turn on the light? Well, I didn't. So I need to make a note of that. So that's one thing I really wish I'd done because I wouldn't have made that mistake. But will say...
Speaker: When I realized I'd made that mistake was when you guys discovered ah that you were like, oh, I want it. Chucky, I honestly felt like you knew that I'd done that because at one point you said to me at one point you were like, in character, you were like, well, if this was and then what it ended up being, that would be insane because it would mean that thing that's true. And I went, well, that's what's happening. And I immediately was like, oh,
Speaker: That was my biggest advice to you when doing a murder mystery is let them tell you who the killer was. When it's appropriate and when they have enough evidence to make it make sense, they're the right ones. Because there's no point in just you know the killer and they can't seem to figure it out and nope, it's not that, nope, it's not that, nope, it's not that. What you want to do is, no, but that does lead you to the next clue and then eventually you're like, foiled What is that thing?
Speaker: um I think James talks about that too when he's on our show. He talks about the idea of letting the letting the players think that it's a lot harder than it actually is. yeah um Yeah. And so, and and i and i think I think that's like one one one other thing that i I would like to add to it, which is that I think that one of the things that that is a good piece of advice for our listeners is something that we've sort of mentioned a couple times, which is when you needed help, you called me.
Speaker: Yes. Right? and And having a good GM buddy, whether it's Chuck and I on our Discord or whether it's somebody you know, Don't hesitate it take to reach out and bounce an idea off somebody who's like an outside party who's who's able to say, oh, yeah, well, why don't you just make it the butler then?
Speaker: like Yeah. Genius. Called 1-900-GOOD-GMS. It's $4.99 a minute to get... ah Yeah. There's 25 hours behind your your local, friendly local gaming store. Good God. Well, that's one of the reasons why um why why i even started recording back a couple years ago was so that I didn't have to, while I was playing the game, take notes. and Unless it was absolutely important, which...
Speaker: Because of that right there, what you just did, I can't tell you how many countless times I've done that thing. Oh, oh, I effed Okay. I love Zencaster's transcript.
Speaker: Yes. yeah Yes. Yeah. Google Meets has has that little has that little thing that like I can send now. That little Gemini thing. i Because I love reading It breaks it down. And it also is fun to read when it screws up.
Speaker: It's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, that's so that's another another great GM tip is like, yeah, if you um if you have a paid Google account, which for storage for a lot of us do, if you're going to run a lot of games, I would recommend it just because having the storage alone just to like host rule books and source books you can share with your players, just it's really good. But it gives you a paid Google Meet account, which not only gets you over the limit, lets record it, but it lets you do a transcript. And so and Chuck's totally right. Not only do you get a word for word transcript, it also generates a summary. And the summary was incredibly useful to me yeah when I was editing because it wasn't even just so much like, um it was like, oh yeah Okay. So this chunk has that bit in it.
Speaker: If I'm looking for that bit, you know what like just even just that. So yeah, of all the, of all the tools you could pay for, I have found that just a paid Google workspace account has been extremely. This episode is brought to you by Google.
Speaker: Please sponsor us. You bastard. Well, yeah, well, because, well, because before I would go through and, you know, just take the time and actually you have to listen to it again and then take my notes. But yeah, no, Ramey,
Speaker: Again, you did a good job. and you Yeah, that's awesome. yeah i've i've heard it from I've heard it from Everett. I've heard it now from Chuck. I haven't talked to Greg about it. but Greg doesn't talk to people. and so We do that for a reason.
Speaker: yeah We don't let him out. He's in containment. He's in his cage until game time. Yeah, he is. That's also true. Yeah. He's high. He doesn't come out. No, but good job, by the way. this yeah weird and And that's and that's that's something to be proud of. Right. You did it. You did it. You finally did it. Now you are a good GM.
Speaker: I had an awesome time. I really enjoyed it. It wasn't anywhere near as stressful as I thought it would be. The one recommendation I definitely have is that I was playing with the Savage Sessions group that I've been playing with for three years now. So we have you we're comfortable. Yeah. We know each other. We know how each other goes. I know what I can, if I throw something to, you know, to Everett, I know pretty good guests how we might, you know, how we might grab it, you know, so that's good to have. So definitely, yeah, for your first game, I would recommend doing it in front of your friends that love you. Don't do it with strangers. But yeah, between asking you... For your first time, do with someone you care about. That's really what it's all about. Someone you can trust. You don't want your first time to be someone. With some strangers and some... Yeah.
Speaker: not go to be game shop be It won't be tender. When did that rule come in? Yeah, and all this 25... I did it wrong. This 25 bucks behind the game shop thing. You guys getting paid? Because I... All right. So that's your one last piece of advice is do it with your friends. Because A, if you make a mistake, they're going to forgive you.
Speaker: They're not paying for it. Don't do it at a con, which we discussed in our episode. you know definitely Definitely don't get paid for it your first time. That definitely seems like like a really really traumatic experience. And also pick it my other piece of my pick a game you actually like like. There's games that I'm more familiar with. I've played Savage Worlds a lot more than i've played Vampire, just ah just at a functional level. I understand it better.
Speaker: But I like Vampire enough that it was you know what i mean i was interested to do the research was interested to, you know, so that's okay. Right. Like that I think a lot of people might say, Oh, that game looks like it would be fun to play.
Speaker: I don't know if that would be the one I would pick. I would, you know, play something that you know is fun to play that you have played before. That would be it's a good idea. yeah Great idea. Great idea. And there's a lot of systems out there. So there's, you know, you find one you like, find one that works for your style of GMing, but more importantly, just fricking do it.
Speaker: Just do it. Just do it. wait Do it. Until we play the theme music. Just do it. That's right. right thanks for getting in Thank you for the industrial theme music for me, your industrial producer. I really appreciate it. and I don't know if it's going be the theme when we play the episode. but i just Oh, it's going to happen to be is's going to have to be. And you have to send that to me. We'll put it up on the Patreon.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, that's awesome. go So let's wrap it up, kids. Thank you very much. Absolutely. That's why she's our producer, kids. That's right. That's right. So thanks for joining us. And thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Thanks for participating.
Speaker: And thanks for being good. Don't forget, always good. Be good, kids.
Speaker: Thank you for watching. If you like or dislike what you heard, let us know. If you want to suggest an idea for an episode, ask the host a question, or just tell Chuck and James what you really think of them, join our communities at patreon.com forward slash good GM's podcast, or find us on the usual social media platforms.
Speaker: For now, I'm E.E. Morris, and you're all good GMs.
Speaker: We are so grateful to all of our Patreon supporters. At the gooder level, Weird Candy.
Speaker: Yes, E.E. Morris. I put my own money to back our projects because we're all good GMs.
