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Here we are again. This time it’s the we are going to talk about Patience.

One more important trait a game master needs to run a group toward amazing adventures…or terrible failures.

Well, talking about Patience it’s almost like ramming an open door.

Obviously we need patience.

The true question we should ask ourselves is “Patience applied to what?”. That changes this virtue into a useful gamemastering tool.

Patience applied to the “job” of a Game Master is a multi-faceted trait.

Have I to be patient with my players?

Yes, you have.

Be careful however, patient, not tolerant to the extreme!

Patient, not permissive to the extreme!

Be patient with those players who are not getting the plot of your adventure/campaign. It is likely they have not enough experience with the roleplaying as a whole or they are just building a different idea inside their mind about your campaign.

Be patient with those players who “don’t want” to follow your storyline. Consider that they don’t know what is about to happen and many of them act (or react) depending on their perception of what is going on.

Keep in mind that their perception is not yours. You know stuff about your campaign, they don’t!

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Be patient with yourself.

Now you may aske me. How that? Patient with myself?

Yes, be patient with yourself.

I told you. Patience is a multi-faceted tool.

Now, consider this. The contact between your players (and their characters) and your idea of campaign is the informations you deliver to them.

They know what you want them to know and what you don’t tell them is left to their imagination.

In other words players elaborate the informations you give them and from that point on they start to imagine and speculate what to do with that.

Sometimes they guess right, sometimes they guess wrong. Better whining with those players who are totally uncapable of guessing anything worth to be listened.

Despite all they are doing their job. They are guessing at least. If they are not guessing it is possible they are not interested.

I do not like the approach where it’s up to the Game Master to wake up the interest of players. If a players is not interested in an adventure it’s not always fault of the Game Master, this must be clear. We’ll talk about this in another article, so don’t rush…be patients!

So, we were saying something about informations.

I state: Don’t rush when you give informations.

Resist the temptation to amaze your players with “the awesome revelation that you think will make your adventure, The Adventure”.

Timing guys…timing!

Now, before going on with this article, do me a favour and listen to this masterpiece. It deserves out attention. Because you’ll see timing applied to music.

Are you ready? Yes, you are…

Did you feel the true power?

Grieg was a fucking genius and genial is this song.

This is, explained through music, what I mean with patience and timing.

A good technique is to have a side table, related to a specific chapter/phase/moment of your adventure where you noted what the players will get to know in terms of information/clues.

Arthur Conan Doyle, with his creature known as Sherlock Holmes, was a true master in delivering informations to the reader.

Now, think about your own villains

The villains you create for your adventures are and must be really patient guys. Usually a villain has to fight at odds, has to rely on its own strenghts and resources.

He/She carefully builds and plans every step and tries to leave nothing into the hand of luck. A villain is a very patient creature and he unleashes her firepower only when all the pieces on the chessboard are at their right place.

If the villains you create are patients, how is it possible that you are not?

The release of important information should not be left to improvisation.

Do not misunderstand me. I’m not saying that I’m against improvisation, I’m saying that information you give to the players must be carefully planned, especially it they will uncover the plot you want to present to the players.

Patience. Timing. Informations.

Don’t rush and take notes.

Write on a column the chapters of your adventure, and next to that column the clues the players are going to uncover, especially the important ones.

Patience is very important especially when you are running a mid level adventure or campaign. This kind of games can’t and must not end up in an ordinary hack & slash. That would be too easy.

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Next Article…Game Master Traits – Improvisation

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