Basics of Running the Game

As the Game Master, you have the most important and also the most demanding role of all the players. You must prepare the adventure, run it and control all the monsters and minor characters. If you do not yet have experience with creating adventures, use one from the chapter “Examples for Play”.

The First Game

If you do not have much experience with running games and role-playing games, rather start with simpler and smaller events and add more gradually. Agree with the players that you will play in a smaller area around a village. That way everyone gets into the game more easily - running a village of a hundred inhabitants and a reasonably sized surroundings is better than inventing and describing a whole town every game. On the other hand, not too many events can happen in one village and its close surroundings, so after, say, five games the characters will leave their birthplace and set out further into the world (neighboring villages) and in time visit a town as well. After several games, running a game in a larger area should not be a problem for you.

A second option for the start is to set the game in a naturally limited area: an island (with several settlements), a settlement in a distant wasteland (where nobody has come since time immemorial and those who left never returned), or a mountain valley inhabited by dangerous monsters. Only after several games, once you get into the swing of things, can the characters get out of the enclosed place.

Preparing the Game

Style of Play

As the GM, you can prepare the whole game yourself, including the choice of genre and style of play. But you can also agree with the players on what they would like. Let everyone say what they would like and what definitely not, for example:

— lots of fighting vs. little fighting

— lots of conversation and investigation vs. lots of action

— horror story vs. light-hearted play

— small area with fixed relationships vs. free travel around the world

— lots of magic vs. almost no supernatural

— danger and death at every step vs. the heroes always survive

Of course, everyone must agree; not everyone can want something completely different. On these foundations, then prepare the following information:

Heroism of the Game

Do you know how heroic your game should be? Will the characters start, so to speak, “from scratch”, or will they already be “somebody” from the start?

The basic rules for character creation produce a beginning character without experience or great power. You cannot expect to save kingdoms or hunt dragons with such characters; instead you will devote yourselves to “less noble” activities: how to survive in the wilderness, how not to get robbed in town, how to survive an attack by ragged robbers, how to find a lost cow.

But if you are going to play a truly heroic campaign from the very beginning, these beginners will not suffice. You can agree with the players that you will start at a higher “level”:

Advanced Character

The fame of such a character already reaches neighboring villages or a nearby town. Advanced characters have about 50 exp, for which they can increase skills and attributes and gain feats. They will surely also have better equipment and more money.

Heroic Character

If you are fond of true heroes and do not want to go through hard beginnings and defeats, the GM chooses to play experienced heroes right away. They start with 200 exp and have practically no limits on common equipment such as armor or weapons.

The First Meeting

Start with where the first story takes place. The characters may come from the same village, town or castle and know each other. Or a “fateful meeting” brings them together, when they spend the night at an inn or a camp that is attacked by strangers, and the only survivors are the characters.

You can also prepare the first meeting with the players, who come up with what connects them. It may be a saved life, kinship or perhaps a blood oath.

World

To start, you will definitely need to know the answers to the following questions:

What do you know about the surroundings and important persons?

Do you have a rough idea of the world where the adventure takes place?

Do you have the first adventure the characters will encounter prepared?

Will some less significant events happen too? A meeting with a pilgrim who sends chills down everyone's spine, a night ambush, a corpse by the well, ...

Do you have other options in reserve for what to do if the players do not proceed according to your plans?

Creating Characters

Party Composition

Certain races, professions or abilities may not suit your intentions - in your world some races simply do not occur, or some spells do not work there (for example, in a desert world there will be no druids - protectors of the forest). So let your players know before the game starts what restrictions apply to the choice of characters.

When choosing characters, the players should agree on which direction each wants to go - whether they will rather fight or rely on their wits and magical abilities. A party made up only of wizards will not be as interesting as a group made up of different professions - some fight, someone can shoot, another is versed in magic. Your game will then surely be more fun and more varied. Moreover, one-sidedly focused characters have only a small chance of survival - a party of wizards can do nothing against a horde of weak monsters immune to spells, and likewise a horde of warriors will not cope with a ghost immune to their weapons.

Creating a Character's Background

An important part of creating a character is depicting their background. It is of course possible to just roll up a character and start playing, but such a character is just some numbers in a journal. Even its player does not know what the character enjoys, what goals it has, and just fights its way from one battle to the next.

A much more interesting option is to create the character as a living being with family, friends and ideals. You can create it yourself as the GM and hand it to the player, or cooperate with them on its creation.

In the character's background, do not forget the following details:

— The character's appearance

— When and where the character was born.

— Basic information about the character's family (parents, siblings, whether they are alive or not).

— Information about friends, enemies and acquaintances from childhood.

— What made the character set out for adventure?

— Important events in the character's life (first opponent killed, loss of a friend or relative, start and end of training and the like).

Adjusting the Character

Since numbers are not everything and no procedure is perfect, you can adjust a player's new character so that its stats match its background and the needs of the story. It may be a small bonus to a skill, but also gaining some ability that will find use later or will even be essential to your plans.

You can also agree on a certain “exchange” with the player, reducing some abilities and increasing others.

Balance of Characters

An important factor of the game is the balance of the characters. All party members should be roughly equally capable, so that strong characters do not solve all the problems while weak ones just watch idly:

If the characters are not balanced, the GM has these options:

— The player may “roll up” the character again so that it matches the others in the group.

— You can increase, decrease or swap some of the character's attributes and so bring it in line with the others (see also Adjusting the Character).

— A weak character in a strong party may start with better equipment or more spells and so match the stronger members.

— Sometimes it is enough to give the character a bonus to just one skill, with no need to change its basic attributes. A thief with low charisma may have a bonus to bargaining, a weak wizard may get a bonus to magic or a mental skill, and so on.

Evil Characters

Especially with beginning players, avoid playing evil characters and save this for later. There are generally two reasons: firstly, an evil character will hardly join good characters (and they would not accept it either; they have different interests and an evil character will probably not go around helping others), and secondly, it will not have enough room.

When an evil character does harm and kills, the others will probably not just let it go, but will most likely hang it themselves (or turn it in to the local lawman). If it wants to act as an evil character pulling the strings in the background, you must adapt the whole story to it and give the player enough room.

Playing Multiple Characters

We definitely do not recommend one player playing multiple characters. If you want to solve a situation where there is a lack of characters or abilities, you can add an NPC whom you will control.

Game Objective

In the Character Rules we mentioned the difference between the goal of the game and the goal of the character. Here we will look at this problem once more.

The goal of Heroes of Fantasy, of role-playing games and of games in general is fun. Players enjoy playing their character, whom they try to lead toward its goal.

Characters' goals often differ - they may be, for example, wealth, power, helping others, fun, excitement, destruction and much more.

If a player tries to play as themselves regardless of the character, they do not understand the essence of the game. If there are such players in your group (and it happens often), try to explain this difference to them.

Keeping It Fun

Everyone Has Fun

Everyone must have fun. Do not let just one active player play; try to get all the players involved in the action. “Pass” less active players an adventure they would have to lead themselves, or agree with the more prominent ones to let the others assert themselves.

Pace of the Game

If something is constantly happening and the players have to react, all is well - the game has pace. But if the characters just wander aimlessly and the plot drags, everyone will start to get bored.

A fun adventure is easily spoiled by a GM who has nothing prepared or often searches the rules or their notes. So prepare the necessary data in advance (weapons tables, list of monsters, maps of locations and the like) so that you do not have to look anything up during the game. If the game starts to get tense, rather do not use the rules and follow your own judgment.

Unpredictability

Neither the plot nor the monsters should repeat. As long as something new and unpredictable is happening, the players are on their guard and have to think. If they just fight one group of goblins or giants after another, they may start to get bored.

Likewise, the basic outline should not repeat - constantly rescuing kidnapped girls or expeditions to hunt robbers quickly get old.

Do Not Split the Party

Do not let the party split up! If the players cannot agree, explain to them that they simply cannot split up and make them cooperate. No GM can handle playing two groups at once without someone getting bored.

If a split does happen, you can play the game with each group separately so the others do not get bored, or try to reunite the two groups as quickly as possible.

Talk Only About the Game

Do not let the conversation drift to topics other than the game itself. New books, films, games or other things can be discussed some other time!

Risk and Difficulty of the Task

Make the game dangerous and difficult for the characters. If they get through an adventure without a single scratch, something is wrong. On the other hand, the characters must have a chance of success - if most of the characters die, the GM should reflect on themselves.

Choose the difficulty of the task to match the characters' abilities. Beginners will be satisfied with solving the problem of who is stealing cows from the pasture or where a girl from the village went missing. More advanced ones will dare to face more dangerous monsters - giants, the undead, ferocious beasts or strong NPCs. Only very advanced characters can save kingdoms or whole worlds from destruction or subjugation (and only in exceptional cases).

There is no manual for how to create a meaningful adventure. Try to imagine how the given situation would look in reality and whether it is possible at all.

Players' Freedom

Every GM must work out how they themselves will influence the game and how much freedom they will leave to the players. If the players are active enough and want to take part in creating the story, you should give them the opportunity and reward their effort appropriately. The players can even choose adventures themselves and put forward ideas, and you just fill in the story for them, determine random factors and control the monsters.

Playing with such players makes the GM's work much easier and contributes to creating a quality adventure. But if the players are not capable of actively creating the story, they must be content with what the GM prepares. In any case, as the GM try to make sure the plots entertain the players and the problems have more than one solution.

Involving the Players

From the very beginning, you could cooperate with the players on devising the style of play, the background, and the connections between characters. You can continue to cooperate on creating the whole story; after all, a whole chapter in the Character Rules is devoted to it.

Encourage players to come up with ideas and develop the game. Let them think out loud. Listen to what they would like. This will save you a lot of effort inventing plots and stories, since the players can do much of it for you, and you will just steer the game, adding your secret ingredients the players know nothing about.

Ending an Adventure

If an adventure becomes boring or too dangerous, the players may give it up and start another one. The players should not be penalized for this in any way - it is their game, and if their characters do not mind, nothing prevents them from giving up the adventure.

Describing the Situation

There are many ways you can describe a situation and the whole environment. Every Game Master has (or will develop) their own style. Some prepare everything in advance and write it down on paper, some improvise. Better storytellers and players can bring the game to life with direct speech and colorful narration.

Sight - Hearing - Smell

If you do not know where to start, describe to the players what their characters see - hear - smell, in order of importance. Also try to keep the players informed about what the situation around the characters looks like and whether and how it has changed.

The whole description can be simplified if you give the players an overview of the whole and the main differences / points of interest that make the described whole interesting.

Danger Level of the Situation

Estimating the danger of a situation, that is, choosing the strength and number of monsters and the complexity and achievability of tasks, is one of the basic building blocks of running the game. Most tasks should be achievable for the characters - if the characters got into a situation right at the start where everyone dies, the players would be disappointed. The situation is a bit different if they know about the danger - someone warns them or they figure it out themselves. If they throw themselves into such a situation, it is only their own fault.

At other times, to increase tension, you can put the characters in a difficult situation from which they will have to flee - for example, they find out that their opponent is immortal. In such a case, however, they must have a chance to survive.

Use situations with a low danger level rarely - the players quickly tire of them, and if they can solve things without effort, they will not enjoy it.

Strength of the Characters

By the term “hero” we mean a character in the main role of the story in which the players lead their characters — it by no means has to be someone invincible or good. Your players may want to play “real” heroes, with the highest possible stats and all sorts of advantages. This, too, is one possible way of running the game. It is up to you whether your heroes develop from beginners into powerful characters or start out powerful right away.

Strength of Monsters

Choosing the strength of monsters is crucial. If you overdo their strength, everyone may die without a chance of success.

Every monster has a listed danger level, where 1 is the lowest, and these monsters should be defeatable by beginning characters. Monsters with danger level 2 can be defeated by a cooperating party of beginning characters (and of course by advanced characters).

Death of a Character

If a character is killed, their story in the world ends and the player can no longer play them (unless they are resurrected).

Playing a New Character

A player whose character was killed can choose a new hero and join the party. Give them part of the experience they gained in previous play, which they can then use for the new character.

If the character died through the player's mistake, let them keep 60 to 80% of the experience. If it was killed by mere chance or by the scheming of other players, you can let them keep all of the experience.

Raising a Slain Character

In some worlds death need not be eternal. You can choose how difficult raising the dead will be in your world and whether it is possible at all. If you allow raising the dead, these options are available:

Resurrection

For a simple resurrection, the character's original body, into which its spirit returns, must be preserved. Success depends on the type of spell or prayer used. The body must be perfectly preserved, otherwise something may go wrong ...

Reincarnation

The character's soul returns to a different body. The character keeps its memories and abilities, but its physical attributes merge with the attributes of the new body.

Rebirth

Rebirth restores the destroyed body of the slain character.

Awakening

A petrified or otherwise cursed character can be revived by someone with a suitable spell. It will be in poor condition (on the brink of death) and heals four times slower than usual.

Ending the Whole Game

The game as such does not have to end. For a character it usually ends with its death, but otherwise it has no limit.

Even when a character reaches its goal, it can set itself another one and try to achieve it. There is always something that no one has accomplished yet. The highest goals of characters include their own kingdom or acceptance among the gods (but these are very distant goals indeed).

If the players feel that the lives of their characters have been fulfilled, they can end the game themselves and start with new characters.