Monte Cook on dungeons, gamemastering, and playing TTRPGs
This weekend I had the pleasure of attending Liburnicon, a charming regional SF & fantasy convention. Keynote speaker was Monte Cook, who delivered two talks. There were no OSR games played; perhaps I will offer to run a convention session using Original Edition rules set in Wilderlands of High Fantasy.
So, first talk by Monte Cook was “Into the Depths of the Earth”, which was in essence about dungeons and their importance to the game.
It was nice seeing the original edition referenced. I was a bit surprised that he showcased S1 as classic dungeon, but then again he said “Oh, this picture shouldn't be here.” From dungeon design perspective he was focused on entertaining players and what not, which I expected given his play style and preferences.
He showed a large map from Tim Hartin / Paratime Design as an example of kind of map he likes (alongside few others I did not recognise).
Monte is a good speaker so audience was quite engaged. Q&A, which went for a little bit over an hour was more interesting, especially hearing anecdotes from his TSR days, thoughts on adventure design, publishing, and so on. I asked him about his favourite classic adventure, and he went with D3 Vault of the Drow out of all the modules.
There were some questions about OSR play style as well (which surprised me since this was a small con in a small country in a small town), to which Monte gave a solid answer (it's deadly, it's one way of playing, me and my group didn't play like that back in the day). There was of course bashing of rations and torches.
Second talk he gave was “The Best Players Have the Best Games,” which was about tips for GMs and players.
His tips for gamemasters are:
- Provide meaningful choices, i.e. different options that lead to different consequences.
- Understand players' and player characters' motivations and play to them.
- Create a shared imaginary space by providing brief descriptions and inviting players to ask questions. Give attention to what they inquire into.
- Be mindful of pacing; follow the energy.
- Start with a bang (e.g., something to interact with); end with a mystery (e.g., open question).
- Remember that there is more to game than just combat.
- Evoke emotion whenever possible. For example have an NPC that is genuinely good and not out there to fuck up PCs. Have him serve cookies to PCs. And then get that PC in trouble with bad guys.
- Check in with players on a regular basis.
And his tips for players were:
- Create an appropriate character for the campaign you are joining.
- Be curious and interested; ask many questions about the world.
- Be flexible, and open to conversation.
- Create and add to the world, e.g. through your items, backstory, relationship with other characters, and so on.
- Be okay with failure. Just because you wanted a castle by name level, and failed to achieve so, does not mean you nor your character are a failure.
- Play how you want, but let others play how they want.
- Share the spotlight; pay attention to quiet players and invite them to contribute.
- Get to know the rules and the world. You shouldn't be asking how to do an attack roll three years into the game.
- Be a good guest or host.
He also mentioned that there is more advice for both game masters and players in his book Your Best Game Ever. His talk was good enough to get me to buy; but I yet have to read it.
Q&A portion was shorter this time. I asked him to share more about online sessions, but he gave a very general response (talk with players, have shorter sessions, have breaks, leverage digital tools).
Both talks were recorded; they will be published at the organiser's official YouTube channel when ready.
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