Some advice to people new to Apocalypse World games.
The GM: Goals, Principles, & Actions section of the rules isn’t some “How to GM” fluff piece. It isn’t sage advice from an old time runner. It is actually the rules that you follow as the GM. I’m going to go over them quick because they are important. The GM is not some crazy mastermind with shrouded secrets, you are just another player at the table, with different responsibilities.
GM GOALS
Play to find out what happens. AS GM play with an open heart and at most a rough sketch of a plan. You are here to discover the world as much as the players are. Character generation is enough prep for your first session. Your previous session is enough prep for every session after that. Advance clocks face up on the table and if you don’t know what something means, ask another player.
Bring Duskwall to Life. Your job is to paint the backdrops and provide the sticky reality of the world. Set your table with skulls and dice that look like jewels. Lay thick context everywhere.
Convey the fictional world honestly Don’t be stingy with information. It isn’t you against them, it is you collaborating with the other players to tell the story of THEIR characters in YOUR SHARED fiction.
I’m going to go through the GM Principles and Actions in further posts, but for now, I’m gonna go spill some whisky at the local whisky spilling establishment.
Also the cat is sitting on my copy of the Quick Start so it seems a good time to depart, friends.
Nice summary. Thanks!
I think its worth noting that John is an advocate of adult-adult relationships between players in his games, rather than the more traditional parent-child relationships that most ‘traditional’ rpgs implicitly espouse.
Every player at the table is responsible for the tone and application of the rules during the game, not just the GM. Its not so much about establishing narrative control as sharing the responsibility of mechanical control.
There are no ‘bennies’ or ‘story points’ or somesuch in Blades. The players may all add to the fiction via Devil’s Bargains and their heist / action / effect / vice / project choices, and how they choose to approach any presented obstacle is a conversation between adults.