Hi, I'm Braendig and I have a problem...

I tend to narrate my actions, give a rough idea of what I'm trying to do, ask for a skill check, roll, and then have a result.

This leads to very streamlined encounters and rapid conclusion of plots. For example, I recently infiltrated a compound and it went something like this:

I want to sneak into the facility: There are X defenses, so that'd be a Hard Stealth check: 1 success, 4 advantage

I want to sneak into the control room: Y guards, so Hard Stealth check: 2 success, 1 advantage

I want to hack into the computer system: ....

It took me something on the order of 15 minutes play time and 7 rolls to get into the facility, find what I came for, steal it, and get out.

This expands outward to searching for information, negotiating prices, looking for goods.... Basically anything that can be resolved with a die roll, I set the goals, ask for the difficulty, roll, and narrate the results...

It's becoming more mechanical than I'd like and I'm trying to figure out a way to make things more interesting and fun while at the same time slowing down the resolution and extending the session.

The reason I'm bringing this up in the GM board and not the main board is I'd like to run a campaign and I'm trying to preemptively correct for a failing I know I have as a player and would like to avoid as GM if possible.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to make the game more interesting and challenging than coming up with a plan, determining the difficulty of executing said plan, rolling the dice and... profit?

Thanks in advance.

Social and Combat encounters are typically what add time to a session. Most other skill checks aren't going to be big time burners. Combat takes time obviously since there are so many checks and dice rolling. Social encounter are just that, so engage them in conversation just like someone would.

PCs should engage in banter over courses of action as well. Don't lead them with things like "ok you need to sneak into faciltiy X past security and recover Item Z" Tell them they need to get Item X from facility Z and then let them formulate a plan, obtain gear and resources, recon the target, etc.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to make the game more interesting and challenging than coming up with a plan, determining the difficulty of executing said plan, rolling the dice and... profit?

So, I assume that in all those dice rolls, there was no despairs or threats? At all?

"I want to sneak into the facility"

You sneak into the facility, but as you do, you notice an imperial shuttle touching down on the landing pad.

"I want to sneak into the control room:"

You are about to sneak into the control room, but the ISB agent and his pet Inquisitor are there making a snap inspection - and who knows how long that could take. You'll need to get the MacGuffin.EXE from another security station. . .. but you didn't bother to secure the plans for those levels. So now what?

I want to hack into the computer system: ....

After stealing uniforms, finding a code cylinder that grants you access, sneaking past those patrols, finding the secondary security center and dealing with the guards, you hack the computer. . . . only to find that instead of MacGuffin.EXE, the file has been replaced with ha-ha.GIF that says "Dear base commander. If you want your file back. . . ." - oh, and your hacker thinks he may have set off the base alarm.

Seriously, complications and failed rolls are your friend. Use them, love them, embrace them.

PCs should engage in banter over courses of action as well. Don't lead them with things like "ok you need to sneak into faciltiy X past security and recover Item Z" Tell them they need to get Item X from facility Z and then let them formulate a plan, obtain gear and resources, recon the target, etc.

Winner winner, chicken dinner! Many a time, my game consists of coming up with a MacGuffin, putting it in a secure facility and designing the floor plans to said facility. Then, I go to the players and say "Here, this is your target" (holds up a blurry graphic, all they can see from their brief flyover) "Now, how are you going to get in there?"

Hell, sometimes I go "I have no idea how they are going to pull this off". Fortunately there are way more players than me, so more brains to tackle the problem.

Also, steal a page from James Bond or Indy. Don't be afraid to have a curtain puller first act. They sneak into a temple, find an idol, nearly get crushed by a boulder and then have to run away from natives - and aside from setting up Belloc, this has nothing to do with* the finding the Ark story that's about to come.

*Aside from setting up the tone of the universe and establishing Indy as a badass character. But that's all world building and not actually plot advancing. That's not something you will have to do in your game.

I don't want to sound snarky but where is the roleplaying? Where's the narrative?

You manage to hack the access panel and the door slides open. There are no alarms sounding so far. The control room is down the hall somewhere but you hear boots clicking on the polished floor ahead. What do you do?

The game is about sooooo much more than tasks.

you could devide the actions.

PC: "I want to sneak into the facility with X Guards"

SL: "Ok first problem is the fence and the 10m meters of coverless terrain before that... Sneak check and infiltration or mechanics chek.... you did bringt some tools for that,didn´t you? next will be crossing the yard with the 2 patrols"

PC: "I want to sneak into the control room"

SL: "Ok sneak check get past the guards... and then you notice the door is closed with a high security codelock... do you have an impereal officers ID with you? no? you may try to hack the lock... while having no cover and standing 3 meter behind the guards... did you bring your computertube? a Datapad? anythink that allows you to hack this thing? Oh is that a thread on the roll... remember those guards three meters behind you? it seems they just turned around... and they are staring at this little freak that is working on the computerlock..."

PC: "I want to hack the computer!"

SL: "Ok, you got the Tools and find three folders with the same name as the data you want to take MacGuffin1, MacGuffin2 and MacGuffin3, they are quit big... will take a while to download them. oh there is a noise in front of the door... you didn´t cover up your attemp to break the lock back then, did you? You hide? sneak check? Well your in hidding good work... but you let you datapad open on the computerconsole you just tried to hack and it is still transfering the data, as everybody can see on the display."

And so on, there are plenty of ways to make even an easy looking job an hell for a player especially when they get to overconfident thanks to former easy wins ^^

Never tell the PCs what they need to do, let them figure it out. Let them tell the story. However, be more specific.

Don't just break into the facility with one check, let each check tell part of it.

I don't want to sound snarky but where is the roleplaying? Where's the narrative?

You manage to hack the access panel and the door slides open. There are no alarms sounding so far. The control room is down the hall somewhere but you hear boots clicking on the polished floor ahead. What do you do?

The game is about sooooo much more than tasks.

That's the problem I'm having. I think task by task as a player, make the roll, interpret my side (which is usually successful without threats or despairs) and move on to the next task. I am very good at planing and, with a narrative system, I don't have to be more than vague about -how- I bypass the security system. That's what the narrative does.

I recognize that this is an issue and I'm asking for help and ways of mitigating my propensity for shortcutting things as a GM.

Hmm... In previous games I have been both praised and playfully kidded about presenting too much in the way of non essential information. Perhaps where I sometimes go overboard you can benefit!

When running the game I am only partially concentrating on the mechanics of what is happening or even the plans that I have for the scene. More than anything I am imagining the scene in my head, as a movie if you will, and it is from this vision that my descriptions are generated. If I see it, I tend to describe it, important or not. If anything I can bog a scene down in minutiae while the players wait for something that actually affects them to surface.

But to your point, slow down and think about what the players are seeing, feeling, sensing. Think about not only what they are doing but how it is done. You don't have to be super detailed but a little detail goes a long way.

If a player hacks into a door security lock don't just say "ok, you succeed." instead dramatize it a bit.

"The panel come off easily with a twist of your handy multitool but the configuration inside stymies you for a second. Its one of the new P-2 models and you've only seen it a few times. After a few seconds though it starts to makes sense and you cross wire the mini processor. The panel beeps once then stutters a second... but then clicks and lights up. The door swishes open!"

It really is all about painting a scene, giving the players the feeling that they are there in the action, not sitting at a table and rolling dice. I am certainly not criticizing you or any gamer for how they play but when you focus on the tasks and rules at hand only, the game loses something... loses a lot actually. Or so I believe.

A little, or in my case A LOT, of this improv not only stretches scenes out but sets the events in the heads of the players as a living story and not just a series of die rolls.

Always successful? Are you throwing them enough blacks and reds? And the reds never come up with despair?

You need to make sure your players don't have loaded dice.

I'm describing me as a player, and what I worry I'll be like as a GM.

I usually exceed the difficulty pool by 2 or 3 dice when rolling as a player (I know the stats and how to optimize). Therefore, I'm usually successful and advantageous against all but the hardest of checks.

I usually exceed the difficulty pool by 2 or 3 dice when rolling as a player (I know the stats and how to optimize). Therefore, I'm usually successful and advantageous against all but the hardest of checks.

Then the GM needs to challenge you outside your comfort zone. I try to have at least one or two situations per session where there are not enough specialized people for the tasks that need to be done...the thug needs to charm a kid; the hacker needs to take down that last stormtrooper before he hits the detonator; or...

"Leadership? Did you say Leadership? I have a Presence of 2 and no ranks!"

"Well, somebody better try to keep the mob under control, because your 'face' is deep in negotiations with the chief, and the mob is starting to get aggravated..."

Hmmm. Well, if they can match your die rolls, hit them where they ain't. Throw your marauder into social situations. Make your politico pick up a gun. Have your pilot ride a ronto in a chase.

If they have good die codes everywhere, then hit them in the talent trees. "Well, if you had gearhead, you'd only be facing 2 blacks because the ship is on fire, spinning out of control, crashing into a planet while the Stormtroopers shoot at you. But as it is, you'll be facing six."

Upgrade them every chance you get. Doesn't matter if you are Usain Bolt on enough amphetamines and cocaine to kill an elephant and can easily best your hardest athletics check. That red still shines as brightly if they succeed as if they fail.

Maybe I'm not explaining myself correctly. I'm familiar with the refrains of how to make things more difficult and how to add complications as the result of threats, failures, despairs and the like.

What I'm really looking for is a reliable way to change: To bypass that door requires a hard (3 purple) computers or mechanics check. <roll> Okay, you succeeded, but the two threat you rolled mean that you shorted a wire and a low level security alert has been triggered. You'll have a setback to your next roll.

into something more engaging and interesting, as well as more time consuming.

When I've (as a player) infiltrated bases or gone on "missions," I've seen the game fall into "describe situation, decide appropriate skill and difficulty to influence situation, roll, describe result" which allows the ability to reduce the process of running a mission or resolving a situation to nothing more than a dozen skill checks for various members of the party. Even adding in complications such as reinforcements, unexpected setbacks, etc, seem - to me - to do nothing to the game other than modify the subsequent rolls.

I'm trying to figure out how to add "feeling" to the game. To instill a sense of scope, tension or emotion into the game rather than calculating odds in my head and seeing what the result of rolling the dice is.

How do you get players engaged in the story? How can you lace emotion into the game? How can you get people to -care- about the result of a roll (or, I guess what I'm saying is how can I get myself to do that, too)?

An interesting story. It doesn't sound like it's a rules thing, you simply need to put the effort into the story. My sessions are episodic and we wrap things up as a matter of course each session.

There is an over arching story on the back side involving machinations between various Hutt, the Empire, and Black Sun on Nar Shaddaa. I've added NPC personalities as I've gone. The PCs are vested and interested in what is going on with Nar Shaddaa, it in turn is dragging them into the rebellion, albeit more as privateer/mercenary types, that in turn has caused them to run afoul of the Inquisition as well, since one of them is FS. Once you get PCs interested in the setting and what is going on, they start filling in the details in their own in their heads.

You don't even need to fill in all the details, or even know them yourself. They still don't know who sponsored them at the Granee Noopa modular encounter from the Hutt book. Thing is, neither do I, but the mystery of it all intrigues them without me having to do a blessed thing.

As 2P51 said, if it is the Story that lacks something put your effort in it.

like what are the consequences of this facilitybreak? Don´t let it be just a job, insteed let them (by accident or purpose) find out that the stolen daten just now were for a new superweapon (we all have on in our backhands ^^) or some corupting data on the employer, or plans for an old forgotten village of force sensitives.

now they have to decide where they will take the story: Instead of bringing the weaponplans to the gansterboss they could decide to bring them to a rebellion agent, therefore they would get a new friendly faction in the game but the gangsterboss will be angry and set a Bounty to theire heads and also the impereal patrols will be looking everywhere for them so they need to disapeer, nice idea if the ship wasn´t under surveilance. Or they could try to use the corupting data on the employer to get in contact with one of his mighty foes to build up a connection for better paid jobs... while having a mighty foe on the other hand.

Of course they can just do the job and bring the data to the employer just to find out that this guy actually wants to build the superweapon on his own, or is now able to buy up half the town to plant his new superfun park MacGuffin-Land, while destroying hundreds ofs lifes and ignoring any constructionslaws now that he can´t be compromised.

Then also give the galaxy a little color of its own. let the group always get information about the rebellion or achievments of some big shoot factions (the hutts, tyber zahns-consortium, the black sun, about a farmer boy becoming the galaxys new hope, a bounty hunter bringing in way to much bountys and so on) in other words fill it with life so it won´t feel like somekind of a "head out to mission from the main menu"-computergame.

During the missions do everything you can to give the enviorment more color, describe the places with more than just: "There is the building you want to go in and there are three guards and a securitycam"

make it like: "You arrive at your destination, while sneaking towards the fence you can see the old durabetonbuilding in shape of an pyramide, the whole ground in the yard in front of it is dry as dust and only some very stubborn greens are growing on the crackled ground. You can spot three guards next to the entrance, grimm looking gorillas, each with a meanlooking blast in the holster and somekind of Black nerfleather armour. as you are closing further in you notice the symbol of the tyber-zahn-consotium on the guard shelves and right over theire heads you get a short glimps on the redspot of the surveillance camera. Those gorrilla-like guards seem to be very observive and you are shure they will shoot first before asking why you are trespassing.

You reach the fence, right now you are in good cover. The surrounding is deadsilent as if nature it self holds its breath in fear. only the steps of the guards and theire mourning can be heard... what will you do?"

Or maybe the job itself really was the easiest part of the mission; the consequences of the mission however; actually getting the mcguffin back to the drop point is the hard part.