Tuesday 16 June 2015

Implementing the Draconic Method: Part 1

Recently I read and reviewed ‘How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss’ by Venger Satanis. I enjoyed reading the book and decided that I’d try to make a deliberate effort to implement at least some of the Draconic Method and possibly get a little bit closer to game mastering like a fucking boss. This is the record of my efforts.


The Draconic Method consists of a lot of moving parts so to start with I've picked five tips that I think will go a long way towards improving my game.  I'm not going to stop with this five though, adapting and improving my game mastery style will be an ongoing, and probably lifelong, process.

Who cares about Atlantean glyphs (p.14) – This piece of advice is all about getting the players to pay attention to exposition that doesn't necessarily have an immediate bearing on their characters but that will be important in the future by having it directly affect their characters now.  If you want to incorporate foreshadowing into your game you need your players to pay attention to this stuff.
I had an issue where I wanted the party to realise that they needed an item called the Axiom, which had been created in times long past by a guy named Euz, in order to successfully deal with a demon invasion. I started dropping Euz’s name into the game long before they needed to find the Axiom in an attempt to establish him as an important historical figure, and someone whom researching might lead to solutions to their problems. Unfortunately, the one player whom I could depend upon to pick up on and remember this stuff kept missing the sessions where I was doing most of this history building. 
In order to solve this issue I've given one of the characters a weird stone from Limbo that acts as a power source for the Axiom along with a persistent urge that is pulling them towards an encounter that will hopefully nudge the party in the right direction.

Building encounters (p.15) – When creating an encounter I think it is quite common for a game master to have a strong mental image of the situation but then fail to adequately convey it to the players. The Draconic method recommends breaking the encounter down into at least three elements and giving each element three descriptive aspects. If a given aspect is important it can be given three further characteristics.
This tip has prompted me to add more description to encounters and to think a bit more about why the encounter is happening and what should be achieved by it.
As an example, I knew that in the upcoming session of my game that the players would almost certainly encounter a pair of demons on the shore of a lake. I also have to introduce a new PC to the party. So for this encounter I have the elements of the demons, a ritual and the lakeside. The demons have a physical description (borrowed from the Bestiary), an activity (crazy dancing around their sacrifice), and a sound (a caterwauling cacophony). The ritual has a purpose (breaking the protective magic of a nearby tomb), a method (sacrifice the new character) and physical manifestation (the sacrifice stretched over a slab of stone surrounded by burning driftwood). The lakeside has the water (freezing cold, lapping gently against the shore, and dark and foreboding), the shore (a stony beach, bordered by light woods and a light mist hampering long distance vision).
Creating an encounter this way takes a little more thought and a little more time, but I think it will pay off in the playing.

The illusion of a lot going on (p.18) – Venger Satanis suggests giving a moderately large number of things a brief mention rather than dwelling in great detail on one or two items. I think this works in a couple of ways.  Firstly, as Venger suggests, it makes the world seem full, secondly, if as the game master you’re mentioning lots of things, the players will have to pay that much more attention if they’re to realise which ones are important.
I've prepared a description of a trek through the woods bordering the previously mentioned that mentions game trails, bird song (or lack thereof), the occasional croft and a remarkable lack of humanoid inhabitants. Hopefully it will give the players a mental image of their environment that is a bit closer to my own.

The saving grace of 33% (p.30) – When situation arises that requires a decision, and where there could be a sensible, logical outcome but where you have an idea for something a bit left field.  Roll a d6 (or percentile) and if the chosen 33% comes up, go with the odd.
I don’t have a particular situation prepared for this one, but I want to keep the concept in mind for when the players have a weird idea. I won't want to run with their idea all the time but I reckon that 33% will help to keep them all entertained and engaged.

Attack descriptions (p.34) – This tip suggests aiming for three attack descriptions per combat; I try to provide attack descriptions during combat, particularly for critical hits and killing blows. However, I do sometimes feel like I'm the only one at the table making any effort at this. It's not unusual for a player to say ‘I attack him’ and I then have to ask what kind of attack they are making just to understand if I need to apply any special rules such as those for cover or concealment.
I'm going to ask my players to try to provide three descriptive attacks per combat and see how it goes.  Hopefully it will add a little spice to a process that can devolve into just taking turns to roll the dice.

If I can get these five pieces of the Draconic Method to stick I think my game will be improved and I can confidently move on to adopting other components of the system. My next game is this coming Friday so I’ll follow up next week with how I think things went.

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