Session Master’s Assistant

“Welcome to the thunderdome.”

Welcome to the RPGStuck Session Master’s Assistant! We hope you have fun as a Session Master (SM) in the RPGStuck system, and we hope that together with your players you are able to tell exciting stories and embark on great adventures! This book assumes that you know the basics on how to use the RPGStuck rule system.

There are several chapters to this document, each going over a different aspect of how to effectively SM.

• Chapter 1: The Players
  • First and foremost, you are creating a world for your players. But you need to first understand what your players are like.
• Chapter 2: Worldbuilding
  • You then need to go about actually creating this world and filling it.
• Chapter 3: Adventure Design
  • You have a world, and you have players for it. In practice, just letting them loose often leads to aimless wandering and a sense of being lost. Therefore, you’ll need to know how to go about directing their adventure.
• Chapter 4: Skills and Gambits
  • Your players want to perform an action, using the skills their character has. When should you ask them to roll, and what exactly is a skill anyway?
• Chapter 5: Classpects and God Tiers
  • Your players need mythological roles. How do you even go about that anyway?
• Chapter 6: Prototypings and Modifications
  • Your players prototyped some inane items, or you want to spice things up. How does that work?
• Chapter 7: Alchemy
  • Your players want to alchemize stuff. What do they make?

Being an SM

Are You Sure?

Being a Session Master (alternate names such as Sburb Master or Skaian Maestro is equally acceptable) is both a blessing and a curse, endowed with great creative power but also great responsibility. You are the creative force behind the game, writing and directing the story, as well as your players’ parts in it.

RPGStuck is also played by play by post (PbP) for the most part, which means it takes place over a text medium than in person or in a voice call. For those that have SMed more traditional tabletops before, expect about the same amount of effort, just more spread out.

Being an SM is a significant commitment over a long period of time, and should not be taken lightly. Past experience shows a session takes on rough average, a year and half to complete, with not enough completed sessions to be more precise. Since PbP is more frequently involved (a good rule of thumb is that players and SMs share at least one exchange per day), the risk of burnout for you as the SM is higher.

Therefore, we would recommend that you pace yourself, and you remain aware of the risk of burnout. These sessions take place over long stretches of time, so you are better served by taking your time and going more slowly, or taking time off, if need be. The session relies on you to SM it, which means your mental health is of the utmost priority. The point of games is to have fun. If you as the SM aren’t having fun, then neither will the players.

Principles and Practices

There’s some guiding principles to keep in mind as you go ahead with your SMing.

• Be a fan of your players. Sburb isn’t the easiest game to play, so your players will have enough stacked against them as is. Be interested in who they are and excited for their deeds.
• Foster trust between yourself and your players. This is not the sort of game where an SM vs players mentality works out, not to mention, would you want to SM players that are against you? Or play under an SM that’s against you? Be supportive of the players, but have integrity in how you do things.
• Avoid saying no. Players don’t enjoy being told they can’t do something. Instead, explain why they can’t do something, and offer alternatives, or ask them what they were planning. This helps keep the game going by spurring the players to further planning, or action.
  • That said, be firm with yourself. Try to set a schedule for how often you update (or doot as we say here) your players, and stick to it. Consistency is key.
• Make sure your players know each other! RPGStuck, like other tabletops, is a social game. Each session in canon knew each other, and so should your players.
• Never be afraid to ask for help. If you’re reading this, odds are you’re part of the RPGStuck community. It’s full of other SMs who’d love to give you advice from their own experiences with the system! If you feel like you don’t understand something, ask someone!