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Having performed the prescribed steps of the strategic gamemastering methodology, the strategist GM now has obtained the requisite THACOSG.

Accordingly, this THACOSG provides the GM with :

• an overview of all objects (Themes, Locations, NPCs & Items) which are common to your players' respective creative agendas ;
• a list of all the links that the GM has created in order to increase the number and interdependencies of objects across the player-characters.

A question remains : how to switch from a strategic level of gamemastering to a tactical level ? Which concepts should be converted into scenes ? How to create these scenes ?

This post aims at answering these questions.

Suite à la convention Octogones 2017 qui s'est tenue les 7 et 8 octobre 2017 au Double Mixte à Villeurbanne, voici les supports de chacun des ateliers spécialisés "Mener des parties de jeu de rôle" qui y ont été présentés.

Support de la conférence interactive "Maîtrise Stratégique" - Octogones 2017 (pdf en français)

Support de l'atelier "Devenir Meneur de Jeu" - Octogones 2017 (pdf en français)

Toutes questions et remarques sont bien évidemment les bienvenues en commentaires ou par courrier électronique.

Readers have brought my attention to several articles on flag framing. Basically, "flags"are all data objects on the character sheet.

If you haven't done so yet, I urge you to go read these insightful articles by experienced gamemasters.

This article aims at clarifying the relationship between flags and systematic strategic exploitation through the THACOSG, and the manner in wich the strategic gamemastering method can be used to design plot hooks for preexisting scenarios.

GNS and Big Model theories have limits. They describe the players, the relationships between player stances, and the social contract between the players. They help expose the incoherences and/or game design flaws of role-playing games. They help understand the psychological mechanics & dynamics of a RPG gaming table. They help understand that differing expectations will end up with incoherence, zilch play, or even agenda clash. In that, they are useful awareness-raising tools for the GM and the players alike.

However, they also show their limits in that they are theoretical tools, from which GM & player best practices have to be deducted, and depend on the effort of the GM, on his understanding, and on the willingness and/or ability of each player to understand her own creative agenda, her own needs and expectations, know her own stance and the nature of the game, and fulfill her part of the gaming table "social contract".

But what of the time-deprived gamemaster? What of the player who is unwilling or unable to clearly state or even understand his own expectations?

Moreover, what of the case of an impromptu gaming table, or a gaming convention demo? How can a GM apply his understanding of the Big Model or the GNS model to the gaming session at hand without engaging in interviews on the preferred creative agendas and expectations of the players?

I believe that these limits can be broken through by any GM, by adopting a common, game-independant, player-independant, creative-agenda-independant methodical gamemastering approach.