Beginner GM org tips for running games in FG

[HywelPhillips]

I've run hundreds of sessions in FGU since starting to use it a year ago.

This is the organisation/workflow that works for me. I thought it might be useful if you're getting started.

1) For the first few games, make life as easy as possible for yourself. The first online games I ran were overwhelming with so many new things to master, not least of which was audio/video chat. Don't try to do it all at once. Pick a really solid starter scenario for a game system you know pretty well: you can't go far wrong with Lost Mine of Phandelver or Icespire Peak. Use pregen characters and maybe run it for a smaller group than normal - I found managing four players was a LOT for the first couple of sessions, but working up six is now fine. Buy the starter scenario from the FG store AND a copy on PDF or paper if you don't already have it. This is your learning template for how experienced GM's structure things efficiently in FG so it worth paying the extra money so it is all done for you in a comprehensive way. All the maps will have line of sight, you just haver to make sure it is turned on, for example.

2) For these first few games, just concentrate on keeping things moving. Yes, there are a million things FG can automate for you. Yes, there are many extensions which look awesome which you could install. Don't. Just concentrate on delivering an enjoyable play session and don't get bogged down. Very likely you will be rolling stuff for your players sometimes as everyone gets used to it - especially stuff like applying effects.

3) Once you've got a feel for the fundamentals using pregens and the bare minimum of automation, figure out which things you'd most like to automate. Very likely FG can do it for you. Read up on how to do it in the wiki, and google it/search the forums. Figure out which you're going to give to the players and which ones to keep for yourself, as this will be different for different tables. As the group learns together they players will take care of triggering more and more of the automated stuff for you - like making their attacks, doing damage, casting spells, selecting enemies, etc.. The game will speed up.

4) Take a look at how you access the information in the commercial scenario. Are you primarily accessing room descriptions from the map pins? Or are you primarily popping up the map from the story entries? I found I was consistently accessing everything from the map. So what follows assume you do likewise. You can translate all of this if you prefer to do everything via story. There are extensions if you find you want to organise everything via encounters instead (and have the maps and stories cross-linked from those).

5) Now that you know your preferred primary organisational tool, start laying them out the same way for every map. So for me I have the story containing the room description pinned in the centre of the room. Just to one side of it on the same level horizontally I have any encounters which the room contains (or which live at that point on the overland map). Below that I have multi-media links - any image links for pictures of the location or of NPCs, so I don't have to click down through encounter -> NPC sheet -> Other tab -> image link to show them what's meant to be the first thing they notice - the huge big bad in the centre of the room.

I also have two Syrinscape mood links, which I put in the lower right corner of each room. The Syrinscape sound links and chat triggers is an extension you might find very useful if you like to deliver nice sound to your players; your mileage may vary. I've developed the convention that the left-most one is the "quiet" version of the room for when they first enter and/or after any battle. The second one is the "battle" version of the room.

Then if there is loot to be had in the room I link to the parcel, to the right of the encounter. I organise things that way because I read left-to-right so the story is before the encounter is before the loot, which makes sense to me. A different organisation may make sense to you, so do that

If there are ways into and out of this mapped area, I drop pins at the map borders (so if north leads to the ice caverns, I'll pin the link to the top of the map).

At the bottom of the map, just off the mapped area, I drop any supplemental story links or links to other stuff which might be relevant - background details, NPC notes, etc.

6) Use the quick bar at the bottom of the screen to pin your starting map for the current session. For one of my campaigns which is all based around one town, I have the town map, the surrounding area map permanently pinned and pins on that leading to the sub-maps. Another campaign is more of a travelogue, so I have the world map and the "adventure of the week" maps pinned.

7) Decide how to organize GM-only info vs. Player info. I know long-term GMs regard this as a bit of a heresy, but I've found using stories for GM only information and notes for information that may get shared to the players works for me. If I have info in a story which I want to hand out, instead of sharing the story entry to players, I copy-and-paste it to a note. That way I can freely annotate stories without worrying that I might give away info I wasn't meaning to - useful in a long-term investigation campaign for example. This may not work if your players make extensive use of notes themselves. Mine do not, they all keep notes on paper or on Google Docs so it's accessible outside sessions anyway.

8) If you are using maps as your central organising tool, you may well want to mark a lot of stuff on there for players. You can do this with lots of layers and careful use of the visibility control, but I prefer to do it with tokens. When the players discover something new, I'll drop a token on the map to mark it for them. The big benefit is that tokens can be labelled - type something like "Troll Mine" in the chat window, then drag and drop it onto the token on the map. Bingo- now that name pops up when they hover their pointer over the map. (You may need to set hover as your preference in options). FG doesn't currently give you labels/text on layers. Turn token lock on for the map so the players can't mess it up by accident.

9) Pin a story entry called "To Do" to your quick bar. Use this to jot down notes for stuff you need to remember for next session. I find it easier to keep track of it here than on scrappy bits of paper, and it has the benefit that you can drag in links to stuff like NPCs and maps. Link other stuff you use a lot here - random monster tables, weather tables, descriptions of the main NPCs in town, master lists of sounds or images of NPCs, etc.

10) Once you've got into the routine, the game almost organises itself. I can "parse" a map I prepared for play at a glance, whether for one of my regular 5E campaigns, or an Orphans vs. Pirates one-shot, or a new Deadlands campaign, or organising myself to run Aliens for the first time. It helps deal with the "hundred open windows" nightmare - I don't feel shy about closing the story window or the loot parcel because I can go to it instantly again from the "muscle memory" of where the pin for the relevant entry lives on all my maps. So my prep for running a commercial campaign is just to take the battlemap and drag the links I know I'm going to use to the "right" position - then I'm all set up with stories, encounters, NPCs, loot, handouts, sounds, etc..

11) Especially if you are using a lot of modules or commercial stuff, keep this organised so you can find it I have a "0 Hywel" group which I put my homebrew stuff in while running commercial campaigns, for example, so it always appears at the top of the list. If I've added stuff to the scenario I can lay hands on it quickly.

12) I find it useful to type up my GM notes immediately after the session. It's fresh in my mind, and I can remember what they ACTUALLY did, rather than hazily recall some stuff they talked about or that I'd planned and they didn't quite get to. I do this as an in character recap and make it available both as a note and post it to the game's Discord channel, so everyone can see it while FG isn't running. If I have private GM stuff to recall I make that as a story.


What I end up with is something like this:

pirates.jpg

deadlands.jpg

castlewood.jpg

deathinthay.jpg

Where each of those maps is set up for at least an hour or so of play with every link right at my fingertips.


I hope that's of some use... and I've love to know how other GM's organise themselves!

Cheers, Hywel

[JohnD]

Point 5 sounds like it would quickly fill your map with multiple pins per room and look very cluttered. Either that or I've read it wrong.

Personally I start with any descriptive text in a bubble to share into chat, then the balance of the information in a location. I intersperse encounter links into this where it seems appropriate - near the top of the Story entry if it is something that would happen immediately - lower down if it's something that happens after a search for example. I put all treasure parcels together near the bottom of everything. I include links to maps or pictures or handouts as close as possible to the text that refrences them.

But... to each their own - every DM will have to figure out what works best for them and this absolutely will change over time. I look back at some modules I made back in 2013 and chuckle with minor embarrasment at how I had certain things set up - but I can still use the content today if I want to.

[Zacchaeus]

I agree point 5 sounds like a nightmare. One pin to the story entry for each room and then pin anything else to that story entry.

Otherwise good information. Point 1 is the most important. Learn how to use FG as it is without cluttering it up with extensions. I see too many new people ask how to do something and the answer is often go get this huge extension which fundamentally changes how FG works. You then have a whole bunch of additional problems to contend with. Learn FG and then if you feel the need have a look at one or two extensions that do something you really want to have in your game. Don't get a bunch of extensions just because they sound cool.

[damned]

Nah. I use multiple pins for each room.
Oh for coloured pins...

[JohnD]

My approach looks something like this (a very rudimentary example);

Capture.JPG

[HywelPhillips]

It's all about finding the organisation that works for you. The "one story per room contains the links to everything" is OK of course and seems to be pretty popular.

For me unless those links are always placed in a standard order in the story, I'll end up running my eye up and down walls of text trying to find the encounter or the treasure, especially with commercial stuff written by different authors with different styles.

When I write stuff myself, I always put a link to the map, then encounter, then loot right at the start of the story, so I can always get to my primary organisational tool quickly. Basically I replicate the matrix of pins at the head of the story so I can find things "by knowing where it lives spatially". (My bookcase organisation baffles people, because I remember physically where each book sits on the shelves. Just the way my brain works).

As Damned says, I use multiple pins for each room and would love coloured pins and/or different symbols.

But for me the spatial organisation is the quickest, so I always know the pins form an orderly matrix. It's ALWAYS:

Row 1, centre of room: Story | Encounter (if present) | Parcel (if present)
Row 2: just below: Image1 (if present) | Image2 (if present) | Image3 (if present)
Row 3: bottom right: Quiet sound | Battle sound | Supplementary sounds (if present)


That way I personally never get confused and always click right on the thing I need without hunting around.

Doubtless it looks like a nightmare to people whose brains favour a different style of organisation!

My session prep for a commercial scenario then goes really fast - I scan through the story links for each room, drag out the necessary links to the "standard" place for the pin in my system, audition a few Syrinscape moods and pin the appropriate ones in place. It takes a minute or so per room, but saves me fumbling around doing it during play.

I don't think it matters what org style you use, the point is to figure out a streamlined way that you can get your hands on the info fast in a way that makes sense for you.

Cheers, Hywel

[LordEntrails]

Nice write up. I'll add it to the GM Advice thread.

It's all about finding the organisation that works for you. The "one story per room contains the links to everything" is OK of course and seems to be pretty popular.

For me unless those links are always placed in a standard order in the story, I'll end up running my eye up and down walls of text trying to find the encounter or the treasure, especially with commercial stuff written by different authors with different styles.

I do exactly this. And when I'm doing lots of story entries (i.e. Undermountain) I actually create all my stories by using a story template. It then sets up the format for each story to be the same.

[Mytherus]

I am very particular how i do everything for my games. I have a specific layout of my windows in fgu, i have a 8 page pdf file for my rules for conduct (yes im THAT dm..i state rules like respect of every one at the table matters more than the character you play, we go by the honor system so please dont cheat etc.) I create two story groups...session notes and campaign notes. Session notes is just what it sounds like i summarize what i prep in a story entry i will link any relevant encounters, maps as well. Campaign notes are built around things i need to remember but want quick access to. Example a homebrew rule im using, or like on my RotF game i have entries explaining the various hazards, my house rules, links to custom maps i made etc. I very rarely use a lot of pins and i almost never share a pin. My systemworks for me , my screen is organized clean and uncluttered. I use the action bar for sure. Effects modifers, pronunciation guide , story entry that is just a collection of maps, encounters and tables, plus current and last sessions are among the things on my action bar.

My discord also disseminates info. I have a rules, info, npc rumors, among other channels. Rules are posted for players to see at all times, info is essentially based on what the players uncover/learn from the last session. I post the info in that channel. Npc rumors works the same way i just organize rhe info. Npcs is about npc info the reg info channel is general info. Finally while i dm during the session i have a legal pad and a pen next to me. I take notes as i go, these notes make it into the session story entry in fg. To me my way is straightforward and based on common sense...it nay sound complicated but i could show you my system in about 10 minutes.