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Support the Spotlight as a GM
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In roleplaying games, we talk A LOT about the spotlight. “Make sure to spotlight every player,” we tell our fellow game masters. “Share the spotlight,” we advise players. But what IS the spotlight? What does it mean? How do we focus, support, and share the spotlight?
What Is the Spotlight?
I’m sure for players who are old hat, they instantly understand what is meant by the term spotlight. In fact, if you’ve never played an RPG before, you can probably still figure it out based on context clues. Still, I think for the purposes of this blog post, it helps to define it.
The spotlight refers to the story’s focus at any given time, specifically a focus character. In other words, if your game’s story were a staged performance, it’s where the spotlight operator would be pointing the beam of light. In film terms, we might use a close-up metaphor. In an orchestra we might call it a solo. You get the idea. It’s a standout moment or a time to highlight a character in the story.
I’ve often seen spotlight moments referred to as a character’s “time to shine,” but I’m not sure this is entirely correct. The story can focus on a character’s failure or sadness and be just as dramatic and compelling for the player and story as a heroic moment. Spotlight moments should be more than just, “You were awesome at that and we knew you would be.” They should involve the player character being an active participant and driving the story of the scene. For instance, if the characters are caught in a Saw-style deathtrap and the rogue manages to reach her thieves’ tools and tries to disable the device, the spotlight is on them, whether they succeed or fail at disarming the trap. If they win the day, their friends are saved. If they lose, the story continues… and now the rogue feels responsible for the wizard’s missing arm or the cleric’s death.
Focusing the Spotlight
So how do we as GMs focus the spotlight on different players? There are a few ways to do this.
Mechanics
The first and most obvious way to focus the spotlight on someone is through mechanics. The best way to create spotlight moments through mechanics is to write down a list of exclusive attributes for each character. What can they do better than any other character? For a rogue in Dungeons & Dragons, you might write down “sneaky, trap disabler, locksmith.”
Take that list and create situations that play to that character’s strengths. Using our rogue from earlier, you’d want to be sure to include places to hide, traps, and locked doors and chests in a dungeon crawl. If there’s a bard in your party who can charm the pants off anything, include some creatures that don’t immediate shoot first and ask questions later in your dungeon, and be sure to include some that do for your barbarian to smash.
Of course, not every game is a structured, self-contained dungeon crawl. With more open or improvisational games, you should keep each character’s list of exclusive attributes handy, and you’ll be able to highlight situations with challenges unique to each character’s abilities. You could even make a list of generic challenges before a session with each character’s exclusive abilities in mind. Your list of challenges might say, “Trap, fussy bureaucrat, melee battle, mage duel,” and leave the details up to you to fill-in as you go along.
Remember a character doesn’t have to succeed in a spotlight moment when it comes to mechanics. They’re still in the spotlight, even if they fail and mechanical spotlight moments are more dramatic if there’s a chance of failure. Let your player revel in failure as much as they would success.
Story
Story moments can be big spotlights for players. The main villain is your mother? You used to work for the bandit king we’re hunting? The IRS finally caught up to you for all that tax evasion? These all throw a player right into the spotlight.
If you’re the kind of GM that uses backstories, there’s often plenty to pull in those tasty tales, but you can also pull from previous sessions. Remember that goblin Ned the Fighter threw off the top of the tower? Well he’s got a sister and she’s coming for ya, Ned. The merchant the Ralph the Sorcerer helped in passing comes back to ask for more aide, offering even more reward.
The best way to keep track of all these possible moments is to keep some lists handy. The digital age makes that super easy. You can plan for these threads to come into a character’s life or you could simply keep that list handy when GMing and highlight story moments when it feels right.
The best spotlight moments go beyond just giving the character new information or exposing a backstory element to the rest of the player characters. Give characters choices to make. When the spotlight is on them, let them take action. Present the information and allow them to react. When the villain reveals herself to be Nadir the Monk’s mother, it should be at a time where Nadir can choose to fight, join, or let her mother get away. If the IRS comes for superheroine Masked Lady Night, she has to make the choice between going peacefully or running away… from the law she claims to represent!
Combination
Truly great spotlight moments are a combination of mechanics unique to the player character and personal story, like Nadir the Monk’s showdown with her villainous mother on the narrow rafters of an ancient castle or Sam the Rogue disarming a trap before it tears his pet pig to pieces. When these truly dramatic story moments happen, remember to utilize the mechanics of the player to whom the story moment pertains. For instance, if Sam the Rogue’s pet pig was stolen by a beholder who just wanted to throw down, that’s not as much of a spotlight on Sam the Rogue as it would be if the pig were in a trap. Now if the fighter’s pet pig got stolen, throwing down with a beholder would be just prime.
Drawing in the Spotlight Shy Player
Some players jump eagerly into the spotlight (looking at you, bard players), while others tend to hang back because they don’t want to jump on someone else’s moment… even when it is the person who is hanging back’s moment! Feel free to draw that player in with head first engagement. “Hey Paul. Nadir is your character. How do you think her villainy should be approached?” If the player still wants to hang back, that’s fine, but it should be a signal to that person and the other players that it is now this person’s time in the spotlight.
Multiple Spotlights!
It can be fun to highlight multiple players at once, especially if they have backstories that are tied together (like siblings or army pals) or they have some crazy plan (the fighter picks up the spikey-armored halfling and hurls him at a dragon). When this happens, take a step back and let the players really drive the story. Only fill in the gaps where you need to, make sure everyone who is in the spotlight at the moment gets equal time to be the focus, and you’ll have a blast!
Coming soon: Support the Spotlight as a Player!
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Table Top Babble 032 – One-Player, One-GM Games
A new episode of Table Top Babble is now available!
James Introcaso sits down with Party of One Podcast host, Jeff Stormer, to discuss one-player, one-GM games.
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Tips To Be A Great D&D Player
The photo above is by Diacritica, via Wikimedia Commons
Just a quick note to let you know that we can meet at Gen Con. Get your FREE tickets to the DSPN Q&A panel to meet Rudy Basso, Celeste Conowitch, Brittany Quintero, Vegas Lancaster, and more of your favorite podcast people. I’m only at Gen Con for one night, so this is the best way to meet my friends and me.
Many of you know me as a game master. It probably won’t surprise you to learn I’m also a player. In fact, two of the regular games I used to run saw me hand the reins over to friends and now I’m a player in those games. I picked up another regular game, so I’m lucky enough to play in THREE regular games. I also do some play-by-post and one shots here and there, so I actually play more than I run these days (or at least equal amounts of each).
I should mention I’m not just playing fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons (run by the amazing Andrew Kane) in these regular games. I’m also playing Star Wars: Edge of the Empire (run by the great Rudy Basso) and Lamentations of the Flame Princess (run by the princely Greg Blair). I am learning a ton from all of these games and their various masters, but that’s another blog post!
Here’s a few tips I’ve picked up as I become a player once again I wanted to share. Also, a quick shout-out to everyone who posted on the World Builder Blog Facebook page. Ya’ll had some great advice I’ve incorporated here.
Be Present
I can’t stress this one enough. Above all, pay attention to the game. Not just when it’s your turn. Not just when the GM speaks. Pay attention like you’re watching Game of Thrones or Lost or whatever your TV jam is. This is courtesy not just to your GM, but to everyone at the table. It keeps the game moving faster by eliminating those, “Wait, what’s happening?” moments and paying attention also increases your own enjoyment of the game and absorbs you into the story. You’ll have a much better idea of what’s happening in your game and remember the story between sessions if you remain an active listener at all times and try to keep off your phone (or other webpages if you play online).
Be Engaged
Listening is great. Being part of the story is even better. Certain storytelling techniques only work if the entire group of players has buy-in. For instance, if you’re playing a horror game, the scares only come if you let yourself be scared, instead of claiming everything the GM does is cliché or corny. You’re there to play a roleplaying game, so play a role and have a blast. Throw yourself into the character and the story. Be heroic when the story calls for it, and be silly, cowardly, sad, etc. when the story calls for it. Go beyond listening and feel for the other characters, NPCs, and monsters on their turns and you’ll be cheering victories harder and welcoming plot twists, even when they’re not great for your character. In other words, the more engaged you get in your game, the more fun you’ll get out of it.
Embrace Hooks
When the GM presents you with a hook, take it! Odds are your session will be a lot more fun if you follow one of the prepared threads your GM has ready rather than rebelling against them to find adventure somewhere else. A hook may seem lame, but remember that what may seem like a simple escort mission almost always turns into something greater. Give your GM the opportunity to start the story and then drive it as a player.
Embrace Failure
When you fail or die, don’t let it get you down. Remember you’re telling a story. There has to be some dramatic tension to make it a good story and that means risk of death and failure. When that 1 is rolled twice in a row for a death save or when you trigger that trap instead of disabling it, embrace the failure with gusto. Take the chance to do something dramatic and narrate it as if you’d just scored a critical hit. Master this skill and no dice rolls are bad. They’re all just separate paths in a choose your own adventure story.
Do What’s Asked
If your GM asks you to send a character backstory, level up between sessions, or send a quick email about which plot thread you’d like to pursue in your next session, take a little time to honor those requests. If you can’t, give your GM notice that you don’t have the time. Your GM does a lot prep between sessions and doing the few things that are asked of you really help them prepare and keep the game moving.
Help Out Your GM
There are times when a GM might ask someone to take story notes, track initiative, or map a dungeon. Volunteer for this stuff! Your GM has enough to do, but it also benefits you. Tracking the story of your game in these ways keeps you attentive and engaged, which helps you get more out of the gaming experience.
Learn the Game
If you’re playing a new game, learn its basic rules. Learn what your character can do. This is another courtesy to everyone at the table that speeds up play, but again, it also helps you out. When you know what your character can do, you’re always prepared, adaptable, and optimized as a storyteller AND as a gamer.
Be Flexible
Characters in an adventuring party sometimes disagree about a specific course of action to take. That’s ok! There will be times your ideas win out and their will be times everyone dies because Bob’s idea was terrible. Succeeding is fun, but the latter is a story you’ll tell forever. Stay flexible when working with a group and remember that tabletop RPGs are a team effort. Be a team player first, and a main character second.
If you like what you’re reading please follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, check out my podcasts, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!
Table Top Babble 031 – Real Issues at the Table
A new episode of Table Top Babble is now available!
James Introcaso is joined by Sage Stafford, Rohit Sodhia, and Phil Collins to discuss how and when to use weighty issues of the real world at the table.
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If you like what you’re reading please follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, check out my podcasts, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!
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Shadow of the Demon Lord Initiative for 5e Take Two
Just a quick note to let you know that we can meet at Gen Con. Get your FREE tickets to the DSPN Q&A panel to meet Rudy Basso, Celeste Conowitch, Brittany Quintero, Vegas Lancaster, and more of your favorite podcast people. I’m only at Gen Con for one night, so this is the best way to meet my friends and me.
I owe you all many thanks. Last week I showed off an idea for a new Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition initiative system inspired by a new Unearthed Arcana article put out by Mike Mearls on Greyhawk Initiative and Rob Schwalb’s incredible game Shadow of the Demon Lord. Many of you provided excellent feedback. Among the top criticisms of this system were….
- Giving bonus actions weight in the system unfairly gives monsters an edge, since they rarely have bonus action options.
- There needs to be more clarification on how things like legendary actions, traps, and spells that end “at the end of your next turn” work.
- I should provide a few more options to keep initiative variable for those who want it.
- This system should definitely be faster than re-rolling initiative each round.
- People seem very concerned about how the Alertness feat would work. This isn’t covered in my updated core system, since feats are optional, but I do cover it with some variants.
So with those thoughts in mind, I present the 2.0 version….
Shadow of the Demon Lord Initiative in D&D 2.0
I’ve proposed a super simple version of Shadow of the Demon Lord for 5e initiative in a previous blog post and a fuller version in another. Here’s a revised, fuller version:
At the start of each round of combat, each creature declares if taking a fast or slow turn. Creatures do not declare what, specifically, it is going to do during that turn. The following describes each type of turn:
- Fast Turn. You can take only a an action or move your speed. No matter what you choose to do, you can take a bonus action in addition.
- Slow Turn. You can take a bonus action, action, and move your speed.
The round of combat then proceeds as follows:
- Fast turn phase
- Player characters taking a fast turn act.
- Monsters taking a fast turn act.
- Slow turn phase
- Player characters taking a slow turn act.
- Monsters taking a slow turn act.
Player characters and monsters in each turn phase decide among themselves the order in which they act. If player characters cannot determine an order, the DM determines it. This could also be determined by allowing an opposed Dexterity check.
Creatures that are surprised take no actions during the first round of combat as normal.
Looking At Specific Cases in Initiative
The following specific cases are handled in these specific ways:
- Events that occur on initiative count 20, such as a legendary creature’s lair actions, happen before the fast turn phase. Events that occur on initiative count 19 – 6 happen between the fast turn phase and slow turn phase. Events that occur on initiative count 5 – 0 happen after the slow turn phase.
- Legendary actions can occur after any creature other than the legendary creature takes its turn and recharge at the start of a round, instead of at the start of the legendary creature’s turn.
- Saving throws, spells, and effects that take place or end “at the start of” or “at the end of” a creature’s next turn instead take place or end at the start of or the end of the turn phase of the same type in the next round. For example, if a wizard casts chill touch against a goblin during the slow turn phase, that goblin cannot heal until the start of the next round’s slow turn phase. If a creature is frightened by a dragon’s Frightful Presence during the fast turn phase, the frightened creature can repeat its saving throw at the end of each fast turn phase.
Variants: Changing Monster Order
Allowing players to always go first means monsters die quicker, which also speeds up play, but for some groups, this isn’t dangerous or variable enough. Two variants below adjust combat to keep it even more random for you.
Variant: Start Old School
At the start of combat, roll for initiative. Each creature in each turn phase acts in the order of its initiative. For example, at the start of combat Bob the wizard rolls a 5, Jill the cleric rolls a 10, Amy the ranger rolls a 15, Sam the paladin rolls an 16, the bugbear rolls a 12, and the goblin rolls a 7. Jill, Amy, and the bugbear all take a fast turn, meaning they act first in this order: Amy (15), bugbear (12), and Jill (10). Then the slow turn phase proceeds as follows: Sam (16), goblin (7), and Bob (5).
Variant: Side Initiative
You can roll for side initiative at the start of each round (this is discussed in the Dungeon Master’s Guide). If the players win, they go first in each turn category. If the monsters win, they go first in each category.
Still Looking for Feedback…
Let me know what you think in the comments below!
If you like what you’re reading please follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, check out my podcasts, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!
Table Top Babble 029 – Writing for and Organizing Cons
A new episode of Table Top Babble is now available!
James Introcaso chats with Paige Leitman and Ben Heisler about writing adventures and organizing conventions.
Get free tickets to the DSPN Gen Con Panel!
D&D Adventurers League Georgia
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If you like what you’re reading please follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, check out my podcasts, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!
Shadow of the Demon Lord Initiative for 5e
Just a quick note to let you know that we can meet at Gen Con. Get your FREE tickets to the DSPN Q&A panel to meet Rudy Basso, Celeste Conowitch, Brittany Quintero, Vegas Lancaster, and more of your favorite podcast people. I’m only at Gen Con for one night, so this is the best way to meet my friends and me.
NOTE: THIS INITIATIVE SYSTEM HAS EVOLVED.
Initiative is the word this week thanks to a new Unearthed Arcana article put out by Mike Mearls on Greyhawk Initiative. Mike’s new system for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons is exploding with possibility and randomness. It breaks initiative out of its normal cycle and changes up the order of characters each round based on their actions and a roll of the dice. I would very much love to try it! It’s reminiscent of the old speed factor initiative found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
While the system looks great, I’m not sure it’s right for my group. First, it requires the players discuss a plan before each round of combat. My own group could do this for hours and turn our RPG into a tactical war game, making a 10-minute battle last 100. I like to cover a little more story than that if I can in our limited sessions.
The system is also a bit restrictive in that when your turn comes up, you can’t decide to take an action not covered by your initiative roll (so if the cleric decided to attack, but the fighter was just critically hit by an ogre, the cleric can’t get cast a spell to heal the fighter until the following round, since the cleric already declared he would attack when the initiative was rolled). I understand the appeal of this restriction and it makes sense mechanically, but I don’t think my regular group would enjoy that restriction. We won’t know until we try though!
This got me thinking about the initiative system I enjoy in another game, Shadow of the Demon Lord, and how I can apply its initiative system to fifth edition D&D. Take a look at the idea below and let me know what you think!
Shadow of the Demon Lord Initiative in D&D
I’ve proposed a super simple version of Shadow of the Demon Lord for 5e initiative in a previous blog post. Here’s a fuller version:
At the start of each round of combat, each creature declares if taking a fast, medium, or slow turn. The following describes each turn category:
- Fast Turn. You take only a bonus action, action, or move your speed.
- Medium Turn. You take any combination of two of the following: bonus action, action, or move your speed.
- Slow Turn. You take a bonus action, action, and move your speed.
The round of combat then proceeds as follows:
- Player characters taking a fast turn.
- Monsters taking a fast turn.
- Player characters taking a medium turn.
- Monsters taking a medium turn.
- Player characters taking a slow turn.
- Monsters taking a slow turn.
Player characters and monsters in each turn category decide among themselves the order in which they act. If player characters cannot determine an order, the DM determines it. This could also be determined by allowing the character with the higher Dexterity score to go first or an opposed Dexterity check.
If a creature decides to change the type of turn it wants to take during a round, they can change to a categories at anytime, provided the creature has not already acted that round and the turn category has not already been completed for the round.
Creatures that are surprised take no actions during the first round of combat as normal.
Variant: Side Initiative
Allowing players to always go first means monsters die quicker, which also speeds up play, but for some groups, this isn’t dangerous enough. If you want to change up the player/monster dynamic, you can roll for side initiative at the start of each round (this is discussed in the Dungeon Master’s Guide). If the players win, they go first in each turn category. If the monsters win, they go first in each category.
Analysis
This method encourages characters and monsters to take simpler turns for the sake of getting to hit first which also speeds up play at the table. If also breaks out of the cyclical nature of normal D&D initiative, though is not as varied as what Mike Mearls proposed. I’m interested to hear what people think. Sound off in the comments below!
If you like what you’re reading please follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, check out my podcasts, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!
Table Top Babble 028 – The OSR
A new episode of Table Top Babble is now available!
James Introcaso sits down with Greg Blair of Owlbear Hugs and Humza Kazmi of the Hydra Cooperative to discuss the OSR. What does it stand for? What is it?
Hydra Cooperative on DriveThruRPG
Mapping the OSR with Patrick Stuart
Visual Artists of the OSR from Patrick Stuart
ars ludi: Grand Experiments: West Marches
Quick Primer for Old School Gaming
If you like what you’re reading please follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, check out my podcasts, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!
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