Robin Laws’ Revisited: Part 6, Being Spontaneous!

This post is part of a series where I discuss Robin D Laws’ seminal work on GMing: Robin Laws’ of Good Game Mastering, written at the end of the 90’s . I compare it to my personal experience and opinions and I check how well the guide has ‘aged’.

The other posts of this series can be found here. If you liked them, I encourage you to purchase Robin’s book.  Oh incidentally, he knows that I write these and he told me he didn’t mind… I can sleep soundly without fearing his army of lawyers from Toronto!

Many GMs wish they were more spontaneous in regards to their games, especially when faced with unplanned player requests.

In chapter 6 of his book, Robin Laws tackles spontaneity by covering 3 areas:

Giving instant NPCs Names

GMs should have a list of names readied in advance in their notes to be picked up whenever the PCs ask about a NPC you had not planned to flesh out.  That’s a great tip because when hard pressed to produce a name for a NPC I often find myself groping gracelessly and opting for some monosyllabic name.

Player: Hey Phil, is there a Magician that sells Scrolls here?

Chatty: Huh… Sure, he lives in a shabby tower by the town’s edge.

Player: Cool, what’s his name?

Chatty:  …Jim… Darkmagick? (With apologies to Gabe)

NPC personalities

Then, Robin says that you should have a list of personality traits, one word each, that you can just cross out whenever your players actually interact with that NPC they forced you to create.

Player: Greeting Master Darkmagick, I am Galdar the Arcanist and I seek to purchase some of your Arcane rituals

Chatty (Crossing off “Dark” from his list):  Jim glares at you… Darkly!

Player: (Sigh)

Yeah, make sure you make a list that’s actually inspires you to act out NPCs more vividly.  You don’t need to add many traits.  Its usually easier to play one trait fully, even exaggerating it, than try to go for a complex deep character.  This is a RPG , not Shakespearean camp!

I’ll add that it does not have to be just personality traits, it can be any other defining characteristic that you feel confident you can play at the drop of a hat.  Maybe the NPC has black flies all around him, or maybe she’s a cross-dresser that yells all the time.

Dialogue and other items:

As for achieving convincing, yet spontaneous spoken dialogue for storyline NPC (i.e. ones that you have created for your adventure), Laws suggests that you prime each of them with one or two sentences that represents the NPC’s standard speech pattern.

I’m doing that with my Kobold Love adventure and it works great!

Deformed Majordomo of Local Vampire Lord: My Mashter will shee you now! Pleashe come with meeeeee!

Halfling Rogue: I didn’t steal it, it fell in my pocket honest!

Space Marine: Let’s Frag those bug eyed Mofos and be done with it, I will NOT miss the Game tonight!

Laws then concludes this very short chapter by saying that you can apply such tricks to other things like regions, objects and rooms.

Want more? Here’s a few things I thought up while writing this:

Secrets & Rumors

Make a list of secrets and rumors that are not directly linked to your game.  When players start interacting with NPCs, try to weave in one secret or one rumor in the conversation.   Maybe the Blacksmith’s daughter is a cultist and performs dark rites at night, or maybe that soft-spoken herbalist is keeping a Red Dragon egg in her wood stove.

This is particularly useful for groups who prefer Sandbox type games and/or are more prone to appreciate Storytelling.  Discovering such secrets can lead to whole new quests and stories.

Relationships

If your campaign uses organizations and factions, its useful to decide if a new NPC you are prompted to create is related to one of them.  Is Jim Darkmagick a fellow of the Darkmagick school of New England?  Is the Blacksmith’s daughter part of the Order of the Toiling Bell?

While I don’t suggest that you write this up (I mean this is about spontaneity, not anal retentive overplanning) you should feel free to make the snap decision of linking a NPC that your players take an interest in to one of the existing elements of your campaign world.

Ask your players!

You don’t have to share the burden of spontaneity alone.  When you have to create a NPC on the spot, you can prompt your players to fill in some of the ‘fields’ that make a new NPC.  This is especially true if the NPC was created at their request.

Feel free to ask how that NPC could tie into the story and listen carefully, maybe the players will be crafting future plot hooks for you!

Dare to be silly

Lastly, in order for you to be more spontaneous, you have to slowly shed away any insecurity you have toward your skills as a GM (as discussed here).  You have to dare doing things impulsively.  Make voices, give your NPCs silly names and act out exagerated personality traits.

Spontaneity is an acquired skill, push your boundaries and it will become easier.

Up next (and not in 6 months, I promise): Setting mood and keeping focus.