Unwritten: System Reference Document/The Art of Gamemastering

What a GM Does

If you’re the GM, then your job is a little different from everyone else’s. This chapter is going to give you several tools to make that job easier during play. We already talked a little bit about the GM’s job in The Basics, but let’s take a more detailed look at your unique responsibilities.

Portray the World

It’s your job to decide how everyone and everything else in the world responds to PC’s actions, as well as what the environment is like. If a PC fumbles a roll, you’re the one who gets to decide the consequences. When an NPC attempts to trap a PC’s friend, you decide how they go about it. When the PCs stroll up to a food vendor in a market, you decide what kind of day the vendor is having, what kind of personality he or she has, and what’s on sale that day. You determine the weather when the PCs approach that dark building.

Fortunately, you don’t have to do this in a vacuum—you have a lot of tools to help you decide what would be appropriate. The process we outline in Starting a Game should provide you with a lot of context about the game you’re running, whether that’s in the form of aspects like current and impending issues, specific locations that you might visit, or NPCs with strong agendas that you can use.

The PCs’ aspects also help you decide how to make the world respond to them. The best aspects have a double edge to them; you have a lot of power to exploit that double edge by using event-based compels. That way, you kill two birds with one stone—you add detail and surprise to your game world, but you also keep the PCs at the center of the story you’re telling.

Portray NPCs

When you have NPCs in a scene, you speak for and make decisions for them like the players do for their PCs—you decide when they’re taking an action that requires dice, and you follow the same rules the players do for determining how that turns out. Your NPCs are going to be a little different than the PCs, however, depending on how important they are to the story.

Create Environments and Scenarios

You’re responsible for making all of the stuff that the PCs encounter and react to in the game. That not only includes NPCs with skills and aspects, but it also includes the aspects on scenes, environments, and objects, as well as the dilemmas and challenges that make up a chapter of Unwritten. You provide the prompts that give your group a reason to play this game to begin with—what problems they face, what issues they have to resolve, whom they’re opposing, and what they’ll have to go through in order to win the day.

Arbitrate Rules

It’s also your job to make most of the moment-to-moment decisions about what’s legit and what’s not regarding the rules. Most often, you’re going to decide when something in the game deserves a roll, what type of action that is (Overcome, Discover, etc.) and how difficult that roll is. In challenges and contests, this can get a little more complicated, like determining if a situation aspect should force someone to make an Overcome action, or deciding whether or not a player can justify a particular advantage they’re trying to create.

You also judge the appropriateness of any invocations or compels that come up during play and make sure that everyone at the table is clear on what’s going on. With invocations, this is pretty easy—as long as the player can explain why the aspect is relevant, you’re good to go. With compels, it can get a little more complicated, because you need to articulate precisely what complication the player is agreeing to.

Make Everyone Look Awesome

Get used to the word “interesting”—you see it again and again throughout this book. Fiction is about interesting things happening to interesting people in interesting places. Your job is to keep it coming.

As protagonists, the PCs already live on the fringes of the probable. Exploit that so that cool things happen. Characters should have moments to shine. That not only means doing really cool things, but having challenges to overcome, because beating the odds is inherently cool.

Don’t forget about yourself. Make places fun to explore and be. Secrets that are uncovered need to mean something, and have consequences. Give your antagonists chances to be, well, antagonizing. When your players are interested (there’s that word again) in the world, then you look awesome, too.

Principles of Gamemastering

K.I.S.S.

K.I.S.S. stands for Keep It Simple, Storyteller (of course). There are lots of rules in this book; don’t get caught up in them. They are just a means. If you find yourself spending more time trying to figure out how something fits into the rules than actually playing it out, then you need to stop and rethink.

When you strip it down to its basics, the rules just boil down to roll the dice, add skill level, and subtract opposition. If the player fumbles, it went badly. If they tie, it barely worked. If they succeed, then it worked. If they excel, then they did really well.

That’s it. The rest is icing. Apply it when it makes sense and makes things more interesting.

Drama is Better than Realism

Don’t get too bogged down trying to maintain absolute consistency in the world or adhere to a draconian sense of realism. The game operates by the rules of drama and fiction; use that to your advantage. There should be few moments in the game where the PCs are free of conflicts or problems to deal with, even if it’d be more “realistic” for them to get a long breather.

When you’re trying to decide what happens, and the answer that makes the most sense is also kind of boring, go with something that’s more exciting than sensible! You can always find a way later on to justify something that doesn’t make immediate sense.

“Mentor” is better than “Master”

Approach your position as arbiter of the rules by thinking of yourself as “first among equals” in a committee, rather than as an absolute authority. If there’s a disagreement on the use of the rules, try encouraging a brief discussion and let everyone talk freely, rather than making a unilateral decision. A lot of times, you’ll find that the group is self-policing—if someone tries to throw out a compel that’s a real stretch, it’s just as likely that another player will bring it up before you do.

Don’t be afraid to direct the conversation honestly if you need to. If you see a potential problem with a player’s choice, bring it up earlier rather than later. Do so honestly and openly. Explaining the issue ahead of time is better than springing unexpected consequences later.

Your job is really to have the “last word” on any rules-related subject, rather than to dictate from your chair. Keep that in mind.

Let the players help you

You don’t have to shoulder the whole burden of making up world details yourself. The more collaborative you get, the more emotional investment the players are going to have in the result, because they shared in its creation.

If a character has an aspect that connects them to someone or something in the world, make that player your resident “expert” on whatever the aspect refers to. So if someone has Wrote the Book on Spelunking, poll that player for information whenever exploring caves comes up in conversation. Some players will defer back to you, and that’s fine, but it’s important that you keep making the offer so as to foster a collaborative atmosphere.

A main use of the Advantage action is precisely to give players a way to add details to the world through their characters. Use that when you draw a blank or simply want to delegate more control. One good way to do this during play is to answer the player’s question with a question if they ask for information. Ask “What do you think it is?” and consider running with the answer. Deductions fit nicely into this role as well.

Finally, when a player makes a suggestion (or even an interesting off-hand remark), you may want to roll with it. Instead of saying “yes” or “no”, try saying “yes, but...” or “yes, and....” Then, add your own twist. You can slip in something that you have been wanting to bring forward as part of going along. That makes transitioning plot elements smoother than just springing it on them. Or you can use a twist that gives the player a hard decision by making it one that could have unpleasant results. Make sure you let them know ahead of time, and give them the option to take it or leave it.

Fit the rules to the situation

Unlike most D’ni construction, the rules in Unwritten are not set in stone. You can represent a situation in many different ways using the rules you have; it’s okay to be creative in how you apply them. Base what rules you use off of the needs of the moment, not the other way around.

For example, if a character is trying to deal with an angry crowd, you could represent the situation in several ways:

• Use the crowd as background description.
• Represent the angry crowd with a situation aspect; compel and invoke as appropriate.
• Represent the crowd as a passive opposition for actions (Overcome action to convince them to calm down, for instance).
• Describe the crowd as if they were an NPC: give them a few aspects and maybe a skill or two and attempt actions with them.
• Use a Contest to model the attempt to sway the crowd in one way or another (if someone else is trying to sway the crowd in a different direction, they would be your opposition, or the crowd itself might be).

Any of the above options can work, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. You don’t even have to use the same option for the crowd every time; let the needs of the fiction decide which you use at any given time. Focus on what the situation actually needs, even if that changes how you would normally handle it. As long as everyone at the table agrees, it should be fine.

Be “awesome” the Unwritten way

One of your jobs is to make everyone look awesome, right? Well, in Unwritten, “awesome” has a specific definition. That definition is based off of creativity, cleverness, and discovery.

Avoid force as a focus

Unwritten treats force as interesting. Sure, there are times when you just have to bash down a door, but that isn’t what this game is about. It’s focused on applying your mind to a situation. In a way, every situation is a puzzle to be solved—make that the foundation of how you present the game.

In those cases where force is needed, don’t use a traditional RPG ‘combat scene’. Rather, de-emphasize force and violence by minimizing the attention it gets, both in terms of story and in mechanics. Resolve those situations with a single roll, or even considering just declaring them without dice. Move on quickly.

Situations that require thought should be made the centerpiece of a session. Walk through the details of sneaking into that DRC compound, or the process the characters are using to build the machine they are working on. Ask questions: “How does that work?”, “Why do you do that?” and “What do you think the effects of that will be?” Weave those answers into the game as it goes along.

Reward creativity

The environments found in the Myst games are creative and inventive. Ideally, role-playing in Unwritten should be the same. Challenges the characters encounter should be designed to evoke thought from your players. You want them to approach the entire game as an exercise in problem-solving and thinking outside of the box.

Why? Because creative solutions make better stories. Which game story do you want to tell your friends about: the time you pulled off this amazing off-the-wall plan, or the time when you did that same thing you always do? Characters lead interesting lives, so encourage your players to approach the game with that in mind.

So, roll with those nifty ideas that your players come up with. Give them more time in the spotlight. Especially interesting solutions should end up with lower opposition than mundane ones. If it really wows the table, consider just saying “That’s so cool! It happens!”

The road to awesome is paved with curiosity

Think back to the horror movies you have seen; poking around in dark places is the worst thing you could do. Unwritten is the opposite of that—characters should be poking their noses into everything.

Incentivize exploration. Spend more time on playing out situations centered around inquiry and exploration. Present more opportunities to the characters when they overcome obstacles on the way to uncharted territory.

Sometimes a character might act risky, maybe even unwise, in that pursuit. Do not penalize characters for it. That doesn’t mean that players should get away with anything. Rather, actions rooted in a desire to know more should always lead to interesting situations. Curiosity shouldn’t kill the cat, but give it an even bigger challenge that it can step up to.

Keep adding questions to be answered

There is an old adage in games that when things get boring, you maintain the tension by bringing in someone who starts shooting.

Unwritten’s version of this is to bring in a new mystery. If you have had something waiting in the wings, bring it into play. Describe something strange happening: a flickering light across the cavern, a strange book in a language no one can read, whatever. This is also a great time to look through the Age Library you created when starting the game and drop a Linking Book into play.

New experiences are new opportunities for a character; encourage that theme. When you have a reasonable choice between going back to an old situation or place and a new one, choose the new one. If you go back to an old one, put a new twist on it; make it new and different.

Building Mysteries

When you put an unknown in front of the characters, it is a good idea to plan the details ahead of time. As players dig into those details, they need to remain consistent and need to provide opportunities for the characters to move forward. A mystery consists of an answer to a question (what you want your characters to discover) and a set of clues that represent that answer. The clues are what the characters will find first and are the pieces that they will have to use to put together the answer.

Players will start off with scattered information and will be driving toward the truth. When preparing for them, start at the other end. Decide what the truth is (the answer that you want the characters to discover). From there, you decide what clues lead to your truth.

Crafting Clues

Think about Evidence

The mystery has ramifications that express themselves through the clues available. When trying to determine what clues you should put in a scene, ask yourself “what effects would the mystery have had?”

If an important event happened somewhere, you can walk through the event and come up with ideas of how that affected what was left behind. If someone has passed through an area, there would be traces of their passing. If someone was nearby, they may have heard something. For more abstract mysteries, the evidence may be occurrences that point to a pattern or are notable.

Tailor Clues to the Characters

The clues are there for the characters to find, so make sure that it make senses for them to be discovered and understood. Look at characters’ aspects, stunts, and resources to guide you when deciding which clues to use. If none of the characters have experience with medicine, then a clue that requires medical knowledge would not make sense.

If you are going to use clues that lie outside of your characters’ area of knowledge, make sure that you have other options for the characters, such as expert NPCs or devices that can get them the information they need. Options like this should be obvious; reveal them in previous scenes. An NPC may make a point of telling the characters that they have the right skills in a previous scene. Maybe a previous investigation already revealed the capabilities of the D’ni device the character found.

Use Clues to Show, Not Tell

A good clue doesn’t come right out and reveal its meaning. What piques the character’s interest and entices them to dig deeper.

A clue should be descriptive. It implies things. The act of investigation is figuring out how that description fits into the larger context of the scene and the story. When designing a clue, there should always be one mental step from the clue to the meaning. You don’t need a huge leap of deduction for every clue; but there should always be at least a moment of thought required.

If there doesn’t seem to be a good way to create that moment of thought, then the clue may not be an interesting device to use. Just tell the players the information. Or you may consider folding the information into a different clue.

Think Outside the Scene

Understanding a clue might require information that is not in the scene at hand. Research may be required. Or maybe the characters will need to consult with an expert.

Hopefully this leads to an interesting scene for the players. If it looks like it might not, you have several options.

• If one of the players has an aspect that would justify them knowing the information, then they know it.
• The activity can be done during an interlude as an off-stage event.
• A character can go off-stage while the other characters continue on stage.
• If characters have KIs or other similar communications, they can contact others to do the research for them.

Any of the above can use an action if you think it would add to the drama of the situation.

Keep Lists and Use Index Cards

Keeping list of clues can be incredibly useful. You can tie them to places, people, or scenes. Or you can have a pool of clues that you can draw on and insert into scenes as you need. You don’t have to use all the clues you come up with; your list can be mainly as inspiration.

Index cards are a powerful tool as well. When a clue comes up, write it on an index card and put it in the middle of the table so everyone can see it. That way, clues stay in the players’ minds as they play out the scene.

If you have a number of clues that might show up any time, you can put them on index cards and draw one at random when you need to add a little extra spice to a scene.

Using Puzzles

Throughout the Myst franchise, puzzles are the primary obstacle that game players face—you have to solve the puzzle in order to move on. Often, these are explicit puzzles that may or may not have any direct connection to the story or environment.

The place of puzzles in your Unwritten game depends heavily on everyone involved. You as a gamemaster may be good at making puzzles and a particular group of players (such as veteran Myst fans) may like sitting down and solving logic puzzles, or decrypting scrambled clues. If that works, then that’s great.

On the other hand, that may not be the case. You may have players who just aren’t good at puzzles. Some players may prefer that their puzzles stay in the video games or on sudoku page in the paper and their role-playing to be focused on other things. There are a lot of possibilities.

If you will have puzzles in your game, the following discusses how to fit them in.

Puzzles are Story

Unwritten always comes back to ‘fiction first’ and that includes puzzles. The best puzzles are those that are both interesting to solve and support the game in some way.

Your puzzle can say something about the setting, the narrative, or the characters. For example, the D’ni had an underlying fascination with puzzles and intellectual pursuits, so using a puzzle-based lock in place of something more secure says a lot about the D’ni.

The right puzzle can encourage the sort of play you want to see in the game. If you want players to think on their feet, add time pressure to the puzzles. If you want to emphasize teamwork, everyone has to have a part in the solution.

Puzzles can also support the themes of the game. Yeesha’s Journeys required players to explore and in doing so, encounter evidence of the D’ni’s folly. Guild training Ages were explicitly tests, so they can emphasize a character pursuing expertise as a personal goal.

You are on the Players’ Side

Like compels, puzzles should lead to interesting avenues of action. If a puzzle becomes a dead end or a source of frustration, that’s not awesome. You should rethink how you are using it.

You want players to enjoy the challenge, so be aware of your players and how they are reacting to the puzzle. If they are struggling, remind them of the tools that Unwritten gives them. You can offer discover actions to the players so they have questions to use to get information they might not otherwise. Point out that excelling on a Discover action will give them a hint. If they don’t use it, then great, they get a fate point.

Also, keep an eye out for situations where a few players are enjoying the puzzles while other players are bored or frustrated whenever they come up. Watching other people have fun when you aren’t is definitely not awesome. Make sure everyone has a type of puzzle that they or their character can participate in, or alternate puzzles with other activities that players find entertaining.

If players are just at a complete loss, you can turn the scene around and make it a deduction. (“Okay everyone, this D’ni vault you are stuck in is really tricky. Let’s deduce how this works!”) That gives them the power in the scene.

Or, you introduce a new element into the situation that may change the puzzle to something that your players can more easily handle. That might be as minor as declaring a puzzle is mechanical in nature so someone can bring their high Engineering to bear on it. Or it could change the situation entirely, such as adding in someone who has key information for getting past the puzzle. Then it becomes an issue of tracking down the person and getting the information from them.

No Puzzle Survives Contact with the Players

Players will surprise you on a regular basis. Be ready to accept creative player solutions; Unwritten rewards ingenuity. Don’t hold on too firmly to your puzzles or specific solutions. A player may come up with a creative idea that completely bypasses your puzzle. That’s fine — just roll with it.