Tuning Your Role-Playing Game's Parameters

You may not realize it, but your RPG has a number of parameters, and the difference between expected and actual experience of those parameters is likely the biggest factor the players and/or GM not having a good time.  By managing expectations and getting feedback on these parameters, you can makes sure you and your group has a better game.

The D&D 5e Dungeon Master's Guide's "Know Your Players" section gives GMs a starting point for tuning they game experience for their players, but I think the approach detailed here supplements that guidance, and will lead to a better gaming experience.  Thinking about these options as tune-able parameters will help that -- instead of trying to pigeonhole players into an archetype, figure out what are the parameters that matter most to the individuals and the group, and tune the game towards them.

What are "game parameters"?

Your game has a number of dials or controls.  They are the theme or tone of the game, what rules are firmly adhered to and which can be bent, the amount of humor, the gritty realism, the level of fantasy, and the ceiling for impossible actions.  They can include binary options like whether there is PvP combat, or they can exist as some point in a range between two extremes, like serious vs. silly.  They can cover how the group divides its time between combat or RP-based encounters.  Some are controlled by the players and only loosely defined or steered by the GM, and others the GM exclusively controls.

The game system itself might define some of the parameters, or at least set baselines for them.  Others are set by the players and/or GM.  Some emerge dynamically as a campaigns plays out, and will fluidly change from session to session.  Others will be constant, perhaps for the system, the campaign, or the group.

It would be impossible to list them all, but let's look at some common and/or important ones for a game like D&D 5e (with some other games mentioned for comparison):

Combat vs. role-play

The division between combat encounters and role-playing is probably one of the easier things to tailor to your group, and one that players can feel diversely about.

Combat style

Tactical grid-based combat or theater-of-the-mind?  Or maybe something in-between, like zone-based combat.  Not every encounter needs to be the same, sometimes the encounter can lend itself to one style over another, but it's good to know your players' preferences.

PvP

Whether PvP is allowed (and if so, under what circumstances), or even things like allowing intentional friendly-fire for area-of-effect spells.

Inclusion of sensitive topics (rape, torture, gore, etc.)

Especially important when playing with people who don't know each other well, make sure everyone knows where the line is for sensitive topics, and what is allowed and what is not.

Silliness

A D&D game might hardly be a D&D game without a Monty Python or Adventure Time reference somewhere, but sometimes you need to disallow a familiar being named Dickbutt or a character named Tronald Dump when you know it will only break immersion after the initial chuckle is gone.

My Gamma World games are inherently more silly than my D&D games, and that's part of the appeal for when we run it.  For some parameters, like this, the system can set the baseline in very different spots.

Single character spotlight vs. the group

This might come under splitting the party, or even just players talking about how their characters spend their downtime.  Know what the threshold is for you and the players is for focusing on activities that aren't including the whole group.  Some activities like this can be dealt with between regular sessions with just the individuals in question.

Lethality

Whether you the GM rolls their dice in the open or not, and how hard you play the monsters to take down the characters. I feel, that when I GM, if I'm not rolling dice in the open, there's no point in rolling -- but I'll tweak less visible aspects (like monster HP or tactics) if I've misjudged an encounter's intended difficulty.  My goal is to make the players have fun, but rolling the dice in the open is a way to keep risk in the minds of the players.

Some players are more attached to their characters than others, and will be more upset by character death.  It's a good idea to know how the players feel, as well as to set their expectations of the game you intend to run.

Intra-party conflict

Along the lines of PvP, but you might want to include discussion about non-combat actions, like stealing from the party (I'm looking at you, stereotypical rogue player) or conflicting alignments/goals.

Realism

Is the basis in reality in your game more akin to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Heat? The system will often have its own anchor on the reality scale, but you can always push that up or down.  Some character concepts may hinge on a being able to operate on the envelope of what is allowed, so it is important for players and the GM alike to be in accord.

How (or who) makes decisions for the group

This is one dynamic that the GM doesn't really control, but would be wise to pay attention to.  Does the group vote on decisions, to work until they have consensus?  Does a single player (or character) dominate the decision making, or is there anyone that routinely is excluded from getting what they want?  Some players may not care so much, but make sure the ones that do are getting what they want.

Creative contributions

Can the players freely contribute their additions to the world's history, events, places, and people?  Or, as the GM, do your prefer to keep narrative control to yourself?  You'll have to weigh your comfort with being able to assimilate new ideas with the players' desire to collaborate in world-building.  Games like Dungeon World rely on player contribution, but not all players want that responsibility.

Rule flexibility

Are you playing strict rules-as-written?  Following guidelines like Adventure League when it comes to supplements?  What homebrew and houserules do you have?  Are you including Unearthed Arcana or DM's Guild material?  Extra rules options can tax the GM, but give the players more options. How flexible are you with "the rule of cool" and letting the characters pull off stunts beyond what the rules allow?

Rewards and pacing

How much treasure and how many magical items do you reward the party with?  Do you follow by-the-book XP rewards, or use milestones, or something in-between?  The feeling of character progression in terms of gear and level is important.  Does the system have a "sweet-spot" where you want to slow progression a bit to spend more time there?  Does the player have a specific item in mind that is part of their character concept and goal?

Puzzles and problem solving

Some players thrive on solving puzzles or coming up with creative solutions, while others will be easily frustrated and quickly become disinterested when they feel "stuck" for any length of time.

Repercussions

Will characters get away with breaking laws or violating customs?  Sometime the players just want to play murder-hobos, but sometimes they want a world that reacts to their transgressions.

Remember, this is by no means an exhaustive list.  Not all of these parameters will matter to your group or game, and you will certainly find ones that aren't on this list that matter to your group.  But you should figure out what the important ones are.  And here is why:

Expectation, importance, and experience

Most of the time that there is unhappiness or dissatisfaction at the table, it likely stems from someone's expectation of one of these parameters not meeting what they are experiencing.  Certainly, people can be pleasantly surprised when the is a disconnect between expectation and experience, but it can also lead to disappointment. If the person has attached importance to that expectation, that disappointment will mean a greater level of dissatisfaction.

Ideally, for each parameter you, you should ask each player what their desired level is and how important that parameter is to them.  In an ongoing game (or in retrospective), you should also ask what they perceive the value to be or ask if it needs to be dialled up or down, relatively.

Not everyone in the group will have identical desires for every parameter, but hopefully your group's range of desires falls within a close range of values.  Depending on what it is, though, it can be okay for there to be wildly different values.

Group vs. individual parameters

Even if your players have some wildly inconsistent expectations, that is not always a problem.  Some parameters are easy to fine-tune or have different settings for that player.  For example, if only one player gets a lot of enjoyment out of creative contributions, then don't force prompts for that on the other players.  If one player wants extra solo spotlight time or to be able to do stuff on their own, then see if you can handle that between regular sessions.

Values change

It is important to remember that any of these parameter can change.  Players may evolve different tastes, and the focus of a campaign my drift over many months.  Game systems that lend themselves to one play-style in the beginning may be more rewarding played differently at higher levels.

After each session, evaluate where the game hit the mark and where it missed, and make yourself a note of what to adjust for the next session.  It's not hard to fine-tune towards your marks this way.

Periodic re-calibration is a good idea.  Give your game a tune-up by checking in with the players every now and again to see where things stand.

For game masters

The first step is to find out what is important to your players, and to yourself. Explore and set expectations at the beginning of a campaign for yourself, and find out what the players are expecting and wanting.

Set the dials for the game, and tailor to individual players where possible.  Think ahead if any parameters are expected to adjust during certain portions of the campaign.

Recheck periodically, and make sure you are checking the right things.  You can do it more formally with something like a survey, or just check-in with players pre/post or between sessions.

For players

Make sure you are clear about your expectations, as your GM can't fix/adjust what they don't know. If there is a gap between your expectations and experience, bring it up sooner rather than later.  Keep in mind that other players have their own expectations, and GM may be trying to find a happy medium.  Contribute to that effort.

For audience

These days, with Critical Role and Acquisitions Incorporated, Twitch and YouTube, simply watching RPGs is a lot more common than it used to be.  It is important to remember, that as audience or viewer, you may have different expectations and desires than the players and the GMs of the games you watch.  Moreover, viewers are less likely to be privy to discussion about the parameters.  Before you get upset about how someone else is playing their game differently, remember that even in the most rigid of rule sets, there will be variation in how different groups play.

Summary

By thinking of the game system and sessions as something that has qualities you can tweak and adjust, it's easier to identify what the GM and the players want out of the game, and whether the sessions are hitting or missing those targets.

The targets can (and will) change over time, so it is important to continually adjust with them.  The good news is that all of this is easy, and doing so will make for a more fun game for everyone.

Taking risks

"Sometimes you gotta drive your character like they're a stolen car" - Adam Koebel

One constraint on players' play is the fear of a sub-optimal move. While often the defining characteristic of the power-gamer archetype, this trait can just as easily show up with players who have a more role-playing focused play-style. I can only speak for my group, but coming from years of more tactically-heavy D&D 3.5 games, as well as computer and board games where the main goal (winning the game) relies on making optimal choices, it is often hard for some (myself included) to let go of that mindset.

5e tried to fix this a bit with the inspiration mechanic - sure, you are making a sub-optimal choice, but if it's in-character and/or meshes with your flaws/bonds you get a mechanical reward in the form of inspiration.  That carrot goes away if you already have inspiration, or your flaw/bonds don't really fit the situation, or the GM isn't on the ball all the time about rewarding it (something I am certainly guilty of). Without consistency, it's not a good incentive, and by making it a mechanical reward, you are just pushing the optimization decision to be trying to calculate if the value of the reward outweighs the cost of the tactical choice.

As a GM, one (previously huge) peeve of mine is the player that starts making a move or action during their turn, and then wants to re-choose their actions because they started moving and then saw something around the corner, or realized they couldn't move as far as they wanted, or were going to make it within a ranged they needed.  I used to make them stick to their original action (unless the choice was clearly from some ambiguous or incorrect information on my part), but really I don't bother forcing the issue any more:  They are just going to get miffed about being made to have sub-optimal turn.  If that's how they derive their fun from the session, I'm not inclined to put the brakes on it unless it's infringing on someone else's fun.

Some players just get that they, like their characters, are going to have imperfect information and will make bad choices because of it.  Other players aren't going to be satisfied unless they achieve as much as mechanically possible each turn.  I'd say my current group is a pretty even three-way split, with some players at opposite ends of the spectrum, and some that have a hybrid approach that puts them in the middle. Switching away from grided combat seems to help to some degree, but the tactical crunch of D&D combat is a pretty big factor in the game's appeal for many players, so even that is a trade-off.

Eventually, the decision about how to play is going to have to come from the individual player - the biggest risk you can take with your character is not making the "best" choice, but picking something else because it is fun, or it is just what the character would do, or it's just going to make the story more awesome.  As a GM, the best incentive you can provide is making the results of those choices as fun as possible.  If the players start to see that their risky choices can lead to more fun by picking something other than mechanical optimization, then risky becomes the best choice.

If we be adventurers, let us adventure

How do you make sure your group is actually a group of adventurers?

I had been thinking about this topic for a while, and then yesterday I had a co-worker tell me the story of how the edgy/loner wizard in his Dungeon World game was essentially ruining the game for him (as another player), I listened to episode 4 of Table Top Babble (while not totally on the topic, bumped up against it a few times), and I watched Taking20's latest video.

I'll preface this all with the disclaimer that if you are running an evil campaign, or have a specific story hook (like the party is all from the same family, or are the survivors from the same village, or whatever) then most of this may not apply any you can go merrily on your way.  But if you are running a more usual party-of-adventurers style campaign, then this stuff can be pretty important.

If a campaign is going to go on for any length of time, having the characters debate "why should we go there?" or "why should we do that?" with every adventure path will get really tiresome and risk grinding the game to a halt.  The characters need to have a built-in reason to do stuff.  Most newer RPGs include some of this baked into character creation, but I don't think most go quite far enough.  D&D 5e has personality traits and bonds and ideals as part of the backgrounds, but I find that they are not always enough.

Characters need to have their own motivation to be part of the party and to seek adventure.  That's it.  But how do we make sure that happens?  And, since I am (and most players are) pretty lazy, how do we do this as easily as possible?

You could just tell the players that, and leave it there.  But let's see if we can come up with some tools to help them get to that goal in a way that is going to stick with their character through the game.

While you can require players to come up with pages upon pages of backstory, not all players find that enjoyable, and it does little to guarantee that the character will have a reason to explore the world and to find how the story of their character is the part of the story of the other characters.

Currently, this is what I'm thinking is a "minimum requirement" for a character questionnaire -- we want this to be as small as possible, but still force the players to think about their character in a way that will make the game better for everyone.  Also included are some questions that go less towards character motivation and more towards mine-able material for the GM.  If your campaign is less sandbox and more modules, you may not need to have extra story seeds, so feel free to ignore.

Background

1. What key event(s) shaped/changed/influenced/defined you? 

Personality

2a. Why do you seek adventure?
2b. What people/places/things/ideas are important to you?
2c. How would someone (who knows well) describe you? 

Goals

3. What do you want to accomplish?

That's it, five questions.  Some of them are going to have the same (or related) answers, and that's fine.  As a GM, when looking over the answers (or when explaining to the players why answering them is important), here is what I would focus on:

What key event(s) shaped/changed/influenced/defined you?

This is the "cornerstone memory", to borrow from Westworld.  Some players are going to have some key backstory events in mind before they start to flesh out their character, but not all will.  You can easily come back and think of some key events if you would rather start with things like personality or more mechanical things like race and class.  For now we just want the player think about the event(s), and we'll work on making the events mesh with the personality traits and such as we go on.

A character could have several key events, but I think they should have at least one.  It might be the time they first saw a magic spell, or when orcs raided their village, or they stood up to a bully, or they stole something to survive.  The player doesn't need to decide every last detail of each event, but they should have enough specifics that it makes sense as something that clearly shows how and why it has shaped their current personality and and goals.  It should be a turning-point for a character, something that they can point back to and say "that is the reason I am x", for whatever x most clearly defines them.

If the event(s) don't tie into the personality and goals, the GM and the player need to work together to come up with something that does tie them together.

Why do you seek adventure?

This is the one that makes sure the characters have motivation to go out and do stuff.  I don't see any reason to beat around the bush with this one, I think it's best to just ask it straight out.  We not going to ask if they seek adventure, but why.  If the character isn't going to have a reason to delve into dungeons or fight monsters or save the town, then you are setting the group up to have a dysfunctional party.  If you've got a non-traditional campaign in mind, you may not need this, but for the stereotypical band of adventurers, this is the most important question to answer.

This is not to say that parties should be a hive-mind of homogeneous do-gooders, in fact different values and approaches are what is going to lead to interesting role-play, but having a reason to adventure is a pretty essential part of making an adventurer.   Reluctant adventurers are fine, as long as the reason for them overcoming their reluctance isn't something that is going to be resolved too early on.

If a player can't answer this, they either need to work with the GM to find something that would motivate their character (and perhaps the GM can incorporate such motivation into some of the campaign's initial events), or go back to the drawing-board with their character concept.

This is where you root out the lone wolf, spotlight hog, moody edge-lord, evil necromancer/warlock/rogue, classic chaotic-neutral asshole, PvPer, and such.  If you and the players want that type of game, that's fine, but set that expectation up front and make sure everyone is on-board.

What people/places/things/ideas are important to you?

This questions has three goals.  The first is to reinforce the previous questions, as the things listed here should probably tie into the key events or the reason to seek adventure.

The second purpose is to give a tie-in to the party, be it its member or its goals.  This is where the bonds and relationships that cement the party together need to be defined.  Again, this isn't a suggestion that every character is a life-long best friend of every other character, as there's a lot more fun role-playing space with characters that aren't always seeing eye-to-eye or know everything about each other.  There should be enough of a web connecting characters that there's some overlap and that a single character isn't the linchpin of the group's cohesion.

The third goal is optional, and that's to give the GM seeds for NPCs and events and locations for the campaign that will have a built-in reason for the the character to care about them.  It can be part of the world-building, and give you a lot of material to work with, from individual encounters to story arcs that span the entire campaign.

And again, you want to make sure that there aren't too few things here that if some of them are resolved there's no motivation left.

How would someone (who knows well) describe you?
This is meant to get the player thinking about the character's personality.  Again, it should tie into the previous questions.  If the personality traits aren't evident from those answers, the player should go back and figure out what they need to add to make it so.  There should be a reason a character is studious, foolhardy, brash, abrasive, curious, sarcastic, or whatever -- and if it is their defining trait, what is the event or story behind it?

What do you want to accomplish?
This is the final check to make sure everything is roughly aligned.  Not all party members need to (or should) have the same goal(s), but as a GM this is going to give you a good idea of the theme or possible arcs of your campaign.  For the players, they can consider if their character's only goal is adventure, or if they have other goals that influence or may be at odds with that purpose.  Again, goals here should have a reason for being here, if they don't go back and come up with an event or important people/places/things/ideas that gives them a reason, or change the goal to align with an event or important people/places/things/ideas.



That's it.  Five questions, several of which you probably have at least partial answers just from doing the regular character generation.  As a GM, they'd give me the framework to make sure the characters are all member of an adventuring group.

Character Backgrounds

Character backgrounds usually serve up to three purposes:

1. Source for mechanical effects
2. Roleplaying source for player
3. Mine-able material for the GM

 D&D 5e's backgrounds give characters skills and such, as well as ideals/flaws/bonds which can be used for generating inspiration.  Any further backstory is usually up to the player.  Some like writing out long and detailed tales, others will just do the minimum the GM requires.  Depending on the style of campaign the that is being run, the GM may use the background to seed NPCs, events, and whole arcs or stories that the party will encounter and interact with.

The 2nd point is the one I want to focus on.  Players will often use their backstory as a foundation that defines or shapes their character's outlook or personality.  If the player finds their character in unfamiliar emotional territory, they can go back to the backstory as reference if it includes some sort of roughly analogous  event or situation.  This help give the player a consistency for how they portray their character.

Sometimes the character has a secret that may or may not be revealed during the course of play. Those usually tie into the 3rd point, where the secret and its reveal can become part of the story, though sometimes no GM intervention is needed.

However, I rarely see it used as a source for exposition where it isn't some secret, but rather just some event from the character's past.  Not to say it doesn't happen, but (at least in the games I've played), character background exposition for its own sake is kind of rare.

Now, look at films like Jaws with Quint's story about the USS Indianapolis, or Saving Private Ryan and Ryan's story about his brothers before they shipped out (or Miller's reveal that he is a teacher, though the way that is set up gets a little into secret/surprise territory), or Gangs of New York and The Butcher's story about cutting out his own eye.  These all give the audience a flood of details about the character in question.  And why is that?

If you conduct a lot of job interviews (and I have), you learn not to ask questions like "How well do you do..." as the answer gives you no useful information other than what the person wants to tell you.  A much better question is "Tell me about a time you recently did something that showed..." followed by whatever quality or skill your are interested in hearing more about.  Things people have done in their past speak volumes about how they will act in the future.  The movie examples do just that, by telling a story of how they acted in the past, you learn what to expect from them in the future.

How does this help RPGs?  Especially when introducing a new character to a group, until the opportunity arises for you to show you are a cold-blooded killer or a nervous bookworm or whatever traits your character has, there's not much you can do to effectively convey your character.  But if you take a cue from the movies, you can easily tell a story about yourself that tells others what type of character you are.

As a player, I think it's just too good a thing not to do. As a GM, I want to incentivize it.  More thoughts on that later.