Advice for how to be narrative

By ikomajedi, in Game Masters

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I was giving this advice to my players and they mentioned it may be useful to others because they seemed to like it. Real world examples and movies are great for using the narrative edge that we crave for this game. Here it goes!

1) Luke and Leia were escaping the Storm Troopers on the Death Star and ran up into a passageway. In a rush, Luke decides to shoot the control panel to seal the blast door behind them. The GM then tells Luke to roll his Agility plus Ranged Light and he gets a net result of 2 successes and 3 threat. Luke's player realizes he succeeded in locking the door but then decides that the threat will be used to determine that the bridge controls were also shot out. The GM agrees and secretly decides that the 3 threat also means that a small patrol will show up and start firing on them from across the bridge.
2) Han, Chewie, and Leia land on Cloud City where Lando comes out to greet them. Han's player looks at Chewy's player and says, "Keep an eye out huh?" Han's player announces that he is leery of Lando and expecting something devious. After short pleasantries and a brisk walk through Cloud City Han's player wants to roll his Perception plus Cunning to determine if Lando has any hidden agendas. He rolls and gets a net result of 1 failure, 1 advantage and 1 despair. The player seems stumped and he surmises that he thinks Lando is telling the truth. The GM simply smiles and says, "I got this." The GM takes the narrative and determines that the failure means Han doesn't know he is walking into a trap, the despair means that instead of Bobba Fett waiting for him it is Darth Vader, but the advantage means Han will get a free short action to do whatever he wishes. Han's player decides that HAN ALWAYS SHOOTS FIRST, and blasts Vader in a show of defiance.
I hope this gives you guys some ideas on how to interpret dice rolls!
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The obvious one - Han sneaking up on a trooper fails his sneaking roll, but gets a triumph AND despair. The trooper not only hears Han step on a twig, but suddenly the plot goes all higgldy-piggldy as the players have to chase down all these fleeing biker scouts. And then the triumph kicks in, because there's game changing allies at the end of the bike chase.

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First let me just say that I appreciate everyone's kind words in the PM's! Dess, I think you make an excellent point as well!

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Great examples! It does look like that I either will be sole GM or finding another group to play with, extra examples are always welcome and appreciated to keep sharp.

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You know, something like this, posted in small blurbs (like one roll per) would make an excellent blog/whatchamacallit. Take a scene from the movies, and describe the rolls. Surely people would find that useful. These are some great examples, and I'm sure there are many, many more.

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Do you typically, as GM, take over describing what the Threat and Advantage effects are, or do your players provide that?

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Do you typically, as GM, take over describing what the Threat and Advantage effects are, or do your players provide that?

As per Jay Little's comments in the Order 66 podcast, I have been going with

  • players decide and interpret the advantage and triumphs on their rolls
  • GM decides and interprets the threat and despair results on their rolls

GM has to have his fun somehow. :)

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My group does a little of both. In the middle of combat they mostly take over. If there is a plot device going on that I need to happen, or if something else would guide them to the rest of the story then I will take over. If the players feel like they can jump in, then I say it's a good thing! Some players are more eventful than others, so sometimes I will jump in for those players that have great imaginations but have trouble expressing themselves.