Gamemastering
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Being the Game Master is no easy task, and by taking the mantle – or in some unfortunate circumstances, having it thrusted upon you – you can create an amazing experience for your players in their own country, continent, world, universe, or multiverse. As the Games Master, you function as the eyes, ears, taste, smell and touch of your players, what you say happens in the world is what happens in the world, whether it is actually true or not being up to you to decide.
With that in mind, as the Games Master, as it is your game, you may choose what rules you would like and would not like to use. Metanoia Engine is designed to be modular, and by modifying the system, you can create your own game exactly to your liking. It is good practice to let your players know beforehand in the very first session what rules you will and won’t be using, or if you have any custom rules that you would like to use, to prevent any confusion from occurring in game.
Another important thing as the GM, should there be any disputes; you are the final arbiter of the rules, in terms of your game, your word is law, however, your role is to make the game fun for both sides, as players and GM, you are working with the players, not against them. Players and GM’s should both come to an agreement when it comes to the rules, or atleast a middle ground in cases where a dispute cannot be solved.
Basics of Gamemastering
As a Game Master, your role is to roll all of the outcomes for the players actions in quick succession to keep the game flowing. Most things in Metanoia Engine that require skill or when in an under pressure situation require the Game Master to roll the dice to determine if the action occurs.
Rolling for Actions
Rolling for actions is the GM’s job in Metanoia Engine, all actions are rolled on a d% dice, the higher the number, the better chance the character gets to succeed at the action, while the lower is typically worse.
The GM rolls 2d10 (or 4d10) in most instances, two dice are dictated as the “luck” dice, while the other two are your standard dice rolls. One dice for each is deemed as the units (or, single number dice), and the other is deemed as the tens (or the double digit dice). Two tens on a roll is considered 100%, while a 10 in your tens dice and a 1 in your units dice is considered 1%.
Luck
If luck would impact the roll made, perform another 2d10 roll (or add it among the 2 dice for the original dice), using the character’s Luck modifier, typically anything below 5% is considered a critical failure, while anything above 95% is a critical success.
Luck determines a large amount of actions in the game, and is entirely GM dependent, GM’s are encouraged to roll luck when they have to roll any roll, but if by some instance, even luck would not change the outcome of the action which relies purely on skill, the GM may choose not to roll for such an action.
Critical Success
Critical Success is a great opportunity to combine luck and the characters skill into the gameplay, a character who has no skill and survives purely on such luck mechanics will see themselves getting a lot of critical successes. Critical Successes do not always guarantee success however, and in half of the situations only can boost you along so far to get to your result.
If the character would have succeeded the roll without the critical success, this is deemed as a true critical success, and the character should receive an extra reward with the action, if it was a combat scenario, the character would gain a critical hit and deal damage based on the weapon’s crit modifier.
If the character would have failed the roll without the critical success, this is deemed as a normal success. The character is treated as if they just succeeded the roll with the bare minimum. Give the character the lowest possible reward for the action, if it was a combat scenario, the character would hit the target, not in the specified location of the target, but a more general area.
Critical Failure
Critical Failure’s happen every once in a while and are used as a way to add tension and suspense to a game, a character who has loads of skill can still suffer on a factor that they forgot to account for or something that was completely unplanned. Critical Failures do not always guarantee complete failure, and in half of the situations will just be a minor hindrance.
If the character would have succeeded in the roll without the critical failure, this is deemed as a minor failure (or a hiccup), the character would gain the lowest possible reward for the action, similarly to a normal success. A minor failure, however, is treated ever so slightly differently. In a combat scenario, the character would graze the opponent, dealing the lowest possible damage on the dice of the attack.
If the character would have failed the roll without the critical failure, this is deemed as a true Critical Failure, the character does not succeed the roll, and immediately fails the action. In a combat situation, this would be a miss or a misfire, which leads to a detriment to the person who committed the action.