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Greetings all,

First off, thanks for your thoughtful and useful responses. I am primarily a wargame designer but have wanted to branch off a bit into something different. To that end, I have been dabbling around with a Space Mecha Theatre game, think Gundam, Robotech, Lancer, Mekton, etc. Sure, there are big, stompy, space robots but character first!

Anyway, I have been working on the GM (or Comptroller) section of the rules and decided to add the following tips. For context, the GM in this game has wide latitude to set the difficulty, timing, and modifiers for the game, so it leans more towards GM fiat than GM Economy based games. Both the GM and the Players use the same universal system of determining outcomes.

These are the tips I have put in:

The Most Important Rule!
• The Comptroller is there to facilitate fun for all players at the table!

Then, I put in these General Rules of Thumb:

1. Never ask for a dice roll from a player, unless something interesting could happen if they fail. If failure is less interesting, do not create the risk of failure.

2. Control the flow and pace of the game

3. The Player Characters are the stars. Let situations break their way.

4. No plan survives contact with Player Characters. Be like water and flow where the characters take the story.

5. Always ask yourself, “What would make this more interesting?” and do that

6. Move the Spotlight around

7. Describe with all the senses; sight, touch, hearing, taste, and smell. It helps them feel they are there.

8. Whenever possible, let the player’s tell you, narrate their experience, and then reel them back in when they go off the rails.

9. Character death is ever-present, but it should never be an accident.

10. Rules are for players, and not Comptrollers


So, what do you think? Did I miss some key ideas? If you were brand new to this, would these guidelines be helpful? Is there a key idea I am missing? Is there one that you feel should be removed?

If you want, I can elaborate on any particular General Rule of Thumb. Thanks for your insights, since many of you have been doing this GM thing much longer or better than I have. Thanks for your feedback.

I guess the important thing is how each of the headings is expanded on.

GM sections in books should be advice/examples on how to deal with potential sticking points, not ambiguous statements.

For instance point 1 is fairly clear on guiding the GM on when rolls are to be made, and presumably expanded on in the rules for making the rolls in the first place.
But "Control the flow and pace of the game" - in isolation is no help to a GM at all. If they are reading this section of a book it's because they want advice on how to do these things.

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"No plan survives contact with Player Characters. Be like water and flow where the characters take the story."
Some DMs are good at improv, some are not and need more solid guidelines on game preparation.

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Always ask yourself, “What would make this more interesting?” and do that.
I mean it depends on your audience but this is how you end up with a player wearing batmans' skin as am improvised spacesuit.
'Interesting' and tangential are often one and the same - especially for the kind of GMs would would actually be reading a 'how to GM the game' section.

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"Move the Spotlight around"
Covers several bits of advice in my experience - making sure that the game doesn't sideline or invalidate players due to their choices, ways to deal with players who have overspecialised or are at vastly different power levels, and handling different types of players as not everyone wants to be in the spotlight.

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"Rules are for players, and not Comptrollers"
Depends on the game and the players. Better IMHO to give the GM the rules to run the game and then tell them _why_ they can ignore them than to just say up front 'screw the rules, make it up as you go along'.

A number of reasons including the previous 'not all GMs being good at improv'. The rules are the 'physics' of a games system and if the GM keeps moving the goalposts on a whim then the game world is going to have all the consistancy of Dragon Ball power scaling.
GM: "the ki blast causes a rock collapse, pinning you helpless to the ground"
PLAYER: "wasn't my character able to bench press a planet in the last episode?"

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The tips aren't bad, just too vague.

Lancer (as you mentioned it in your post) has a section on this - page 256 onwards covers a lot of the things you mention along with some additional advice such as eliciting responses from the players to engage them and keeping things narrative rather than referring to rules where they aren't needed.

It also covers aspects such as failing forwards (aka dealing with players when they break the plot), communicating stakes. pacing the game, and so on. May give you a few ideas.

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Finally - 'comptroller'. Gut reaction is that it's an odd choice of term for a GM, makes me think of suits, CRT monitors, and calculators the size of a bricks.
But that's just me.

Is there in-game lore behind it not just being the regular GM / DM / storyteller?

1.... I'm honestly not sure on. I think I get the intent, but I don't think new GMs will.

2 is completely at odds with 3 & 4.
And sometimes 5, depending on how 'interesting for who?' is answered.

7. Meh. Vague and a lot of reaching. Most of the time watching someone struggle just to find something to assign to taste/smell/touch because the guidelines say so is just painful. Just get on with the scene, if there is something plot relevant, sure, go for it, but generally there isn't any reason to waste time on the full suite of sense.

8. This is contradicting itself. Where the line should reasonably be is very unclear, and what's appropriate to 'reel them back in?' Also goes back to the problems with 2 / 3&4. If the focus is on the players, and they're chasing some element or roloeplay, why jerk them back?


9. Different people are going to have different desires for this. Its weird to hard code it as 'never a risk, unless...' where the 'unless' is either (melo)drama or the GM being a jerk.

10. Nope. Completely lost interest here. If the GM is by definition not bound by anything and can do whatever, we aren't playing a game. We're guests, witnesses or victims in someone's pet narrative, depending on how much of a jerk they feel like being. Hard pass.


'Comptroller' is an utterly bizarre choice
"comptroller, in the United States, is a high-level executive that oversees the accounting tasks and financial reporting procedures of organizations. The comptroller oversees all accounting including accounts receivable, payroll, and loan transactions"

'Boring accountant' as a GM title is not a selling point

Thanks guys.

As you point out, these are the headlines and beneath it expands on each point and provides examples.

However, that is a whole chapter and a bit much for a thread.