Hi Everyone - hope your games all go well

I just finished running Illumination from the DH core rulebook, I'm a totally new GM so I thought it was a good idea to run some anonymous questions, must have gone quite well as I averaged 7/10

I'm looking for some general feedback about what I asked, how I asked it and how to act on anything suggested, as I say I am a total nub so anything helps - thanks for your time!

I asked:

"Good morning Acolytes.

Ordo rules dictate that I must survey you on your experience and views of your missions so far. Personally I think this is the height of heresy but the Lord Inquisitor dictates so...

1) How would you rate your experience so far? (0-10)
2) What have you enjoyed most about the missions so far?
3) What have you disliked the most about the missions so far?
4) What do you think of the balance of investigation / fighting ?
5) Have you got any other feedback you think your Inquisitor could use?
All answers are strictly confidential

+++THE EMPEROR PROTECTS +++"

Few choice comments:

"3) What have you disliked the most about the missions so far?
Not smiting enough evil…"

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"2) balance of player types, overall plot, narrative/pace/npc's have been well controlled by gm, white board.

3) combat overlong (but improving), bobby's spells take way to long, gm sometimes needs to just make stuff up for the sake of allowing the game to flow rather than refering to rules. using xp deductions to penalise players rather than in game consequences:-P

5) looking forward to the inclusion of player specific plot elements. sit down with bobby and one on one work out his spells, how he sees them being used, future development etc so he an quickly relate to you wot he's doing and get the die rolled."

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"2) What have you enjoyed most about the missions so far?
Combat, and the fact that no-one takes it too seriously.

3) What have you disliked the most about the missions so far?
Sometimes it feels like we have stalled in our investigations and could do with a prod in the right direction; we tend to just go around in circles sometimes."

First, my advice to all new GM's. Your priorities should be ordered thusly:

1: Make sure everyone has fun

2: Tell a great story

3: Be fair

4: Follow the rules

This is reflected, I think, in your player's comment that a little more free-form rulings during combat would have been welcomed. Don't forget that you, and not the rulebook, have the final say. I can't say more without knowing you or your gaming group personally.

Secondly, I can't think of any reason to use XP deductions. It can really only cause problems, and is more likely to result in a sulking player than a reformed character. If it's an in-game problem, the character's actions being inappropriate or disruptive to the plot or coherence of the game, it's usually easy to come up with a deterrent that makes sense, the most common ones being reprimands from their superiors and/or law enforcement entanglements. If it is an out-of-game problem, like a player being argumentative or unfocused, I would urge you to talk to the player instead of docking their xp.

The Boy Named Crow said:

Better way to phrase this is probably "Follow your rules." There are always going to be slight variations of how a rule is interpreted. Make some notes, and be consistent. If you are in error, make the correction necessary.

A key rule at my table is that rules will neither be argued or debated during game. If it is felt I am error, tell me, I'll note it and check after game. If I was in error, I will correct myself. However, events of a session hold.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Thanks guys I really appreciate the feedback

The Boy Named Crow said:

Specifically here I was running the last phase of Illumination, my Cleric set his flamer on the demon, but didn't bother to maneuver to a position where he wouldn't set 15 captive townspeople on fire - nobody else in the party killed any innocents therefore they all got a 100XP bonus and he didn't. He still got 200 for running that day, everyone else got 200+100. I have no patience for people bitching but at the same time I'd like to smothe things over during the running of any of the games:)

Tetsugaku-San said:

If the rest of the group went out of their way to avoid killing the Emperor's faithful subjects and the CLERIC mindlessly put them to the torch then I see the XP allocation as completely justified. As this is explained above the player was not penalized any XP for the session, he merely missed out on earning the bonus XP that was earned by the others for purging the impure while also protecting the pure.

One of the things I do at the end of my game sessions is after I allocate mission and GM bonus XP I open up the floor for the players to nominate each-other's characters for bonus XP and the reasons why they think a bonus is deserved. Perhaps the player had a moment of truely inspired RP? Maybe the player made things much harder on their own character by making sub-optimal decisions or even putting themself in harm's way "because that is how the character would handle the situation." Perhaps an action was performed that was just "Beyond Effing Awesome!" If there is general consensus then some minor amount of bonus XP is awarded to the character in question. The key thing here is you can nominate any character except your own! (It should be asumed that you think your character is cool, otherwise why are you playing them?) For obvious reasons this is mostly an award based on good roleplay, sound teamwork or just plain "amazing stuff". Guardsmen and Assassins are supposed to be killing machines, so bonus XP is not generally handed out for "highest body count" or things like that. On the other hand, if the scrawny voidborn Adept hurls themself in front of the Planetary Governor to thwart a sniper's attack then that is probably worth a bonus. This is effectively my "carrot" to reward good roleplay and teamwork as well as a general contribution towards making my game more "awesome and memorable". I find it more effective to hand out cookies than spankings in most cases.

Exceptions do exist though. One rather long and productive session recently I had a player show up having not slept in several days and promptly slept through almost the entire game (we tend to run 15+ hour sessions!) while everyone else worked their butts off and got all sorts of things done. In this case the sleeper's character earned a MUCH lower XP award for the session since they were effectively an NPC for most of it.

Thanks again for the feedback - it's a really trcicky ballance to get right!

I think your idea of player lead recomendations for "RPGer of the match" is great, might start using that in the future as well to see how people take it

While I agree with almost everything ZillaPrime said, there's something that kinda poked me in the eye.

ZillaPrime said:

This has always been a bit of a conundrum for me. In a group, every character has its role, be it killing the bad buys by the hundreds or fixing the broken toilet, but whatever it may be, it's their role in the team. Not awarding them for doing their damnedest at what they do best might be disencouraging for them. An example: a Storm Trooper kills a huge horde of heretics to protect his team while they retreat and not get a bonus XP for it, while the Interrogator gets a huge XP bonus for finding the right clues with a few good rolls. Players might find this unfair and it could discourage their characters from doing what they ought to be doing. Of course, the above example is a bit exaggerated as a lot of actions depend on the context they are made in, but I hope you see what I'm trying to say here.

In our Dark Heresy game, I play a Tech-Priest (guess the name ) and since I have more free time than the other players, I tend to play more often, which got me in the lead XP and thus character development wise. And this simply discouraged the other players, making them feel insignificant (no idea why) and it put them into a rather odd position. They started considering character paths that were totally alien to what they have been playing up until that point or didn't feel like playing at all. It distorted their view of what they ought to be doing and what was needed of them, simply because to them, I seemed to be getting ahead due to what the character was doing and not because I had no real life and played more often. Anyway, we are currently in the process of solving this, but I thought I'd share, even though it might not exactly be relevant to the topic.

As for voting for the "best" player of the game, I've never used it, mostly because it rarely comes out right and it might cause some inner strife. Depends on the group's mentality, of course, but I've seen lots of "Why did HE get bonus XP?" cases and I can tell you, they ain't pretty, especially in the long run, where a pattern might rear up its ugly head. Why? Because there are certain players who are better than the other players and thus get voted for bonus XP more often, which disheartens the rest. Mind you, the exact same happens when the GM is handing out bonus XP, so it's hardly avoidable, but when the "GM is always right" ability is active, it gives the decision a buffer. (I know I got disheartened on several occasions during a DnD3.5 campaign, I was giving my best shot at roleplaying, yet the GM didn't give me any bonus, while the best friend of the GM was ahead of us by miles, even though his character only had one rollplaying skill: a D20.)

What I mean to say is, giving bonus XP is okay as long as you do it correctly and every character receives it more or less equally, which keeps the players from pointing accusing fingers at each other. In such an environment, you can also do the voting bit, but be prepared to intervene, after all, the GM has the final say in a lot of things. The true challenge lies in making sure the campaign (or a batch of missions) requires all the characters to do what they do best, so they can feel useful and really appreciate the incentive XP.

Now for some on-topic "wisdom": surveys are good, but remember to take every suggestion and criticism with a pinch of salt. Asking players makes them feel more important, so it's a good way to get some feedback, plus it also makes them feel they are involved a more "intimate" level, that they have some influence over things their characters don't. That's why you can listen to advice and criticism, but you ought to make sure that they fit into the game that you're running. Just because one of the players asks for more Daemons doesn't mean you ought to fill the next story with them.

Docking XP is simply bad, in-game penalties tend to be much better, because the player then can mend his fault in character, which could - if done well - promt some bonus XP. Getting out of trouble is good, but getting out of trouble and be rewarded for it? Incentive!

I think that's about it for now.

*nab*

This is so going to my players' inboxes.

In game actions should always carry in game consequences, good or bad.

Xp deductions are a bad idea as you could rather fill that role by negative in-game consequences. As a GM you're not some authority figure to punish or reward your players for serving you well, think of yourself as the computer running a very elaborate computer game and they are the players playing it. Your job is to hold the world together and animate things.

I will however give bonus XP for particularly surprising smart ideas I didn't see coming, even if it utterly screws up my plans as a GM. In fact, as a GM you SHOULD never have plans that can be 'screwed up' by players, but that's a rant for another day.

I also offer straight up rewards of XP called 'cool points' for doing something cinematic. E.G. The assassin drops onto an unsuspecting NPC from above who I just described as walking along smoking a loh-stick. The assassin kills the NPC in one swift strike and then asks if he can make an agility test to catch the loh-stick as it falls from the NPC's lips before it reaches the ground, which he does and then takes a quiet drag.

This nets him a 20-50xp as 'cool points' just for doing something cinematic that made the game cooler. Simply because there is no in-game method of rewarding something like that.