We’ve discussed in earlier articles how the sandbox, organic style of my world and my own game-mastering arose. I would maintain that style happily for decades. I would tweak things and add aspects that I felt made the game richer, but overall it was a stable, perky little approach that I loved to play with others. Alas, then came the advice from kind friends that I should share both the GM style and the world of Karandrin with everyone. These dim-witted fools suggested I start streaming play sessions. A great idea that would soon challenge my some of my long-held practices as a game-master.
First, we learned that rolling treasure had to change. My trusty charts could stay, but a streaming audience has busy lives and a thousand things to watch. They don’t have the patience of three friends sitting in your living room drinking all of your beer (I’m looking at you Quinn.). So, rolling treasure had to be handled off screen but still be sandbox. Now, I have several treasures of various sizes rolled up ahead of time. Ideally, the treasures will account for most of what a streaming player will encounter, and when the treasure is too small, I simply combine several.
Second, I was fine winging the layout of a ruin as GM on the couch. I could make sketches as we go, particularly when the player/s are debating a tough decision. Now, with an audience looking on, I owe them every effort to avoid unnecessary pauses in the game. The sketch-as-I-go had to go. So, now I work on several layouts of possible sites at once. With the player completely in control of where the character goes, I just needed to keep track (or ask directly) what they were leaning toward and pay more attention to that one. It hasn’t been perfectly successful, but it still keeps us from really long pauses while I sort things out.
Third, organization has been more key. I use a database called FileMaker Pro (Yes, it’s really expensive, but I’m awfully fond of it.) and have entries ready to receive any new monster, NPC, or magic item that may arise. I have all these entries also connected by what player has encountered them. If we take Brise as an example, I can search the database for every magic item she owns, so that if her player (Max) has a question, the answers are at my fingertips and the audience isn’t kept waiting.
Finally, and this technique has helped both in-person play and streaming, I have a few post-its tracking the active NPCs most relevant to a player’s tale. If you’ve watched much of Brise’s tale, then you can imagine it’s up to quite a few (around nine, actually). The lists included each NPC’s next action, future success (or partial success) at it, and any scheduled encounters/meetings they have with the player’s character.
While this list system sounds complex, I’m really surprised at how simple it has been. It takes me about ten minutes to roll the NPC tracker after a given session. Keep in mind, that I only need to reroll if the NPC has learned something new or rolled a success on a goal and therefore needs to move on to the next part of their decision. Let’s again use Brise as an example. If she has a meeting with Lady Miagrall, a Goblin noblewoman in Brise’s Tale, then I will in the course of play have discovered what Miagrall has learned and in what direction (if any) she has been swayed. After the stream, I will consider these factors and more and then roll how these factors affect Miagrall’s plan. The story stays organic and logically consistent given the goals and personalities of the characters involved, and no one has to sit on YouTube or Twitch waiting for me to make the world move.
I hope this little behind-the-scenes look at my thoughts and practices has been interesting to all and even helpful to you other GMs out there. I’ve loved streaming so far, and I hope the work we put into it shows…even when it doesn’t show at all.
© 2022 by Kevin Manus-Pennings
Karandrin 