I am looking to run US for the first time shortly. I have some familiarity with PbtA games, but the one thing we haven’t seen much of yet for US is the material on being the GM. So, I wanted to go over the list of things that I plan to do as GM to help get things rolling. Any thoughts, additions or modifications appreciated.
Before the session
I was going to make a list of the following things from the playbooks:
– implied NPCs like the Fae’s lord.
– implied places like the Werewolf’s territory.
– intimacy and corruption moves.
This gives me a bare bones of player related cast and locations, as well as some hot buttons to push.
During the Session
1. Use a relationship map on a blank sheet of paper showing NPCs are they are created and record their relationships, debts and factions.
2. A record of each PC’s faction scores in the open. This will help provide a quick shot view of the faction focus for the session. It will also help other players know who to go to when they want help with certain factions.
3. I plan to use a city map to record locations generated in play, both specific and general (i.e. faction strong suburbs).
4. In addition to starting moves, I was going to ask a lot of questions. I intend to direct a lot of these toward the city map and the relationship map to help establish the setting. For example, “Why do you fear entering this suburb?”, “Which piece of territory in another faction’s influence would you like to be in control of.”
5. I will also create 3-4 ideas for large scale threats (Fronts) and choose 1-2 that seem appropriate based on what playbooks are chosen and the other player generated stuff above.
In terms of the Debt questions, are these intended to be used only for other PCs, or can NPCs be included?
One thing that seems key is driving the PCs toward each other, which I think the Debts and large scale threats will help with. Has anyone other thoughts here?
This stuff all looks great, Luke. I don’t think it’s all strictly necessary, but it never hurts to be prepared! 😀
The Debt questions should be mostly focused on PCs, but you can use them for NPCs too. Driving the PCs toward each other is really crucial, so you’re also going to want to make good use of the start of session move to grab them all with some player-generated threats.
Yeah, what Mark said. =D
You’ve got a ton of prep ready, which is awesome. I really recommend the city map, I think that will be one of your best aids during the first session especially! Enjoy, have a blast with it!
Thanks guys. I am conscious this will be just a one session demo, so I need to process the player generated info and turn it around pretty quick.
Luke Walker – My rule of thumb in those situations is to ask the players two questions each when they introduce their characters. Something about their personal history and something about their relationship to the city. I find that gets us pretty deep, pretty fast.