As many good Game Masters know, pacing is essential to creating an engaging game that excites and enthralls. You want the ups and downs, the tension and release. If your game has no tension, it’s boring. If you leave the dial at 11, it gets fatiguing. The typical tension cycle involves a slow ramp up as the players make their way to the bottom of the dungeon where their efforts culminate in a boss fight or deadly trap, and just when their nerves are at their highest, the boss falls and treasure sprays out of its body, raining down like a golden…fountain. The graph on the following page shows exactly how effective this tension cycle is in Star Wars:

Source: https//www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132423/beyond_pacing_games_arent_.php

However, this isn’t a movie and these buildup and release cycles are often reliant on the player actions. You can try to shoehorn them in, but if the players diddle in town a little too long or chase fight after fight without resting when you plan for them to have a release then you might not be able to fit those cycles in. One of the more subtle tools you can use to adjust the dial on tension is through the knowledge of the PCs and the NPCs that the players interact with.

The reasoning is simple. The players love having a leg up on the NPCs in the world, whether mechanically through combat or when they can wave something in their face and go “Neener neener! I know where the MacGuffin is!”. On the flip side, mystery breeds stress, and the less your players know (or know they don’t know) the more they will seek answers and feel like the game world holds some position of privilege over them.

There are a few ways I’ve found effective in showing the players that they possess some knowledge that an NPC doesn’t. The first though second-hand sources. If the players stop in town and start gathering rumors, have the locals gossip about how [Important NPC] is talking about [X] and [Y] when the players know [Z] to be true and be sure to confirm that the players are secure in their knowledge of [Z]. Another way is to have an NPC ask pointed questions that would prompt the players to divulge the information, allow you to play up the shock and surprise at the revelations put before them. Do this, and watch the goofy little grins spread across your players’ faces as they inwardly congratulate themselves on being so smart. Another way to ratchet down tension without involving an NPC is through knowledge that the players either gain or already have that will allow them to bypass a challenge. Perhaps the players come upon a door to which they know the secret password or a puzzle that they gain a major clue for through one of the players’ backstories.

There are dozens upon dozens of ways to show the players that they lack knowledge. One of my favorites is the half-success skill check. The players want to know something about a monster or city they have encountered, and they roll really well. You give them a few tidbits of information, but follow it up with something to the effect of “But this monster/NPC/magic item/etc is so bizarre that your wealth of knowledge can divulge no further clues to its nature.” If you prefer a more direct approach, simply have an NPC taunt the players with the fact that they know the location of the MacGuffin/secret password/Baron’s true identity. For more on this, research how to run a horror game and use those techniques to withhold information from your players.

Reading the room can be difficult, and making sure your players’ hackles are up when you want them to be up is yet more difficult. Hopefully this has given you some ideas with regards to how to guide your players into the emotional states you want them in with a more gentle hand. If you have a story about how you were able to manipulate the game world’s knowledge to great effect in pacing, share it below.

Thank you for your time and good luck with your Game Mastering.

Chris Sampson

The Game Dr.