When I began running for The Gauntlet, it wasn’t the commitment which scared me. It wasn’t managing shorter campaigns. It wasn’t the threat of having to run for rock star GMs and players. 

It was open table. 

Open table means players can sign up for all, some, or just one session of a series you run. To a GM who has spent decades running multi-year campaigns with a stable roster, this seemed crazy. What about storylines? What about relationship building? What about cumbersome orienting of new players? Initially, I ran just two-shots to compensate; tighter games to minimize problems. But over time I’ve moved to longer games, even mysteries with developing plots. Players have changed, come in late, dropped out, and the games have survived. And thrived. 

WORLD OF CANCELLATIONS
Before The Gauntlet I painfully ran some campaigns online. I’d set up sessions, get commitments, and then the game would flake out at the last minute. I had people not show up and not communicate. I had one player push another out, bring a new one in, and then had both quit because their schedule was too tight. And the next day found out they’d actually dropped to join a podcast, but didn't want to tell me. When campaigns did go we’d often have massive gaps between sessions and reset constantly. It was a wildlands without structure or satisfaction. 

The Gauntlet’s approach–calendar, commitment, and open table–makes online gaming less a wilderness. It begins with our dedicated online event calendar. We previously used public online scheduling tools, but they flaked out, cost too much, or lacked features. So Jason commissioned a dedicated tool; a chunk of the Patreon money goes towards that. GMs post sessions on the calendar and then announce them on our Gauntlet Hangouts G+ Community and our Slack. They post events between two weeks and two months out. For the first week, Patreon members at the $7 level get special access to sign up. After that, anyone can–you don’t have to be a Patreon supporter or even a member of the community. You just have to register at the calendar. Even if a game’s full, it’s worth joining a waitlist. In about half of my games, someone moves up from the waitlist to play. Open table also means you sign up for whichever sessions in a series you want.

OPEN TABLE & THE LONG GAME
Last year on the Gauntlet we had a lot of talk about the challenges surrounding longer open table games. One GM asked if they could require that players sign up for all sessions or commit to reading character creation & rules material ahead of time. But we don’t do that. In my event descriptions, I say players are “encouraged to sign up for all sessions.” Sometimes I’ll even say strongly encouraged. Usually I’ll share character spreadsheets and rules summaries the week before a game. But I come in expecting a changing roster and players who haven’t read the material. It’s a nice bonus when that isn’t true. 

In that conversation about longer campaigns, several said it didn’t work with open table. When folks had said Fate games wouldn’t fly on the Gauntlet, I ran a month of them. So I wanted to prove them wrong about long games. So in 2018 I’ve run three longer open table campaigns, called Gauntlet Quarterly. And I’ve seen others experiment with the form as well. 

When I first considered doing 11-13 sessions, I decided I’d need two things. First, I'd take an episodic approach to sessions. For the most part, each would be a self-contained story. Blades in the Dark does this well—usually a session revolves around a single job. World Wide Wrestling absolutely does this—each game is a wrestling show. You couldn’t split it across sessions without losing momentum. Mutant: Year Zero also leans this way with a fresh threat generated each session and a split between zone-crawl and in-camp sessions, though in my long play, that broke down a little and we had a couple of two-parters that required character juggling. 

Second, I wanted a unifying campaign element. In the case of MYZ, that’s the Ark. Players make decisions about how their home camp evolves and carry out projects to develop it. In Blades, the "crew" has its own playbook and gains experience. In WWW, it's the wrestling promotion itself. WWW: International Incident introduces “tags” and “troubles” to describe the organization. The player with the highest audience at the start of the show rolls a move to affect those. It also has continuity from an ongoing roster past non-player and player wrestlers. If I had enjoyed Star Trek Adventures more, I might have run it with the ship serving as a central feature. Other games I've considered--Scum and Villainy, Cryptomancer, Changeling the Lost, Green Law of Varkith, Sigmata, and Rotted Capes—have rules for ongoing and tracked setting elements that provide continuity.

I came in convinced that a longer game needed that. In my head, I imagined wonky fantasy campaigns where the party changed every week, regardless of where they were—on the road or in the dungeon. I’d played in those campaigns, wracked with highly variable attendance. We had a term for PCs popping in and out, “Blue Flashing.” In practice it made you feel detached from other PCs and heightened the artificiality of the experience. For Gauntlet Quarterly, I wanted a through line for the players to avoid those problems.

I think my approach does that, but I’m less sure now I need the crutch. Players come in hungry to find their place. Most play actively, involve themselves, and look to connect their story. I’d steered away from games with tight relationship systems, like Masks: A New Generation. But I think that would actually work, I’d need to develop easy fictional framing (like a larger organization to explain the shifting roster). I’d also want quick & dirty tools to set up relationships—ways for returning players to connect with new ones and pay off connections with PCs who aren’t necessarily coming back. But I don’t need to restrict my game choices for long campaigns. I know now players will work with me to build that narrative. 

OTHER CONTINUUMS
My take on longer games isn’t the only one on the Gauntlet. Other GMs have looked at open table and figured out how to build continuity. Jason’s Mercy Falls series is a great example—a game broken into chunks with different characters and even different time periods. Go listen to those podcasts. You can hear synergies that don’t require deep lore. I came into the second Mercy Falls series with no idea about the first series and it clicked. Another approach has been The Gaunt Marches on Gauntlet. This has multiple GMs running in a shared fantasy setting. Or look at the one-GM shared universe Rich Rogers has done with Gauntlet City Limits and Star Wars Saturdays. Those games exist in their own universes. References across games act as Easter Eggs rather than required information. But there’s an organic, emergent history there. 

Finally, for the last quarter of 2019 I’m trying a modified approach. I’m presenting my Hearts of Wulin sessions as a book or movie trilogy. In the first month, we do movie one. These sessions should comprise a complete story. In month two, we move forward in time and build lightly on ideas and details established in month one. Players can return with characters or introduce new ones. Like with any good trilogy, I hope to make each month connect but also stand on its own. I'm hoping this structure adds depth to play and makes each month feel complete.

What do you think? If you've played with or run for the Gauntlet, what's been your experience—positive or negative—with the structure?

For the full backlog of Age of Ravens posts on Blogger see here. ​​

Star Wars Saturday

Misspent Youth (Session 3 of 5)
Rich Rogers runs for Blaise, Noella H, Paul Edson, and Steven Watkins

Gauntlet Sunday

Urban Shadows (Session 3 of 5)
Lowell Francis runs for Darren Brockes and Joshua Gilbreath
The Fae and the Tainted go to fix everything and nothing goes wrong. Really. Ignore those sirens.

Tragic Tuesday

Cthulhu Dark: Sukakpak
Shane Liebling runs for Greg G., Harry, Robbie Boerth, and Sarah J.

TGI Thursday

Scum & Villainy (Session 3 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Barry, Eduardo L., and Josh DeGagne
The crew extract scientists from a entertainment pavilion past the Guild, but a swerve by the Borniko Syndicate nearly burns out everything.

Gauntlet Quarterly

Gauntlet League Wrestling Season 3 (Session 10)
Lowell Francis runs for Chris Newton, Gerwyn Walters, Joe A., Matt A., Patrick Knowles, and Tyler Lominack
The Kraken returns, backstage politics spill into the ring, a newcomer questionably takes a belt, and an Oedipal tag-team match clears Kent Reid's path.

The Gaunt Marches

Freebooters on the Frontier: Into the Wild (Session 2 of 3)
Horst Wurst runs for Christo Meid, Pawel S., and Sabine V
A false promise of atonement, stealing from the sisters of mercy, the infected hermit, marked by fairies, an ancient bomb, the blood soaked effigy

Funnel World: Den of Iniquity (Session 3 of 3)
Richard Ruane runs for Andrew Hauge, James, Josh, and Tony H
The bear lunges as the demonic forces of the house try to seduce two of the youths to their service. Divided and distraught by the deaths of their friends, they fight to survive the night (with the assistance of a cat).

Gauntlet Hangouts

Undying: Plague Empire (Session 2 of 4)
Mikael Tysvær runs for Asher S., Jim C., and Paul Spraget

3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars: Charlie Sector (Session 2 of 3)
Donogh runs for Ary Ramsey, Brian B., and David Jay
Dropping on Caravaggio, where their scouts have come up blank despite losing some Troopers - no one knows what’s down there...

Dialect: Children of No God
Noella H facilitates for Gene A., Mikael Tysvær, Sabine V, and Tomer Gurantz
We played a community of non-believers surrounded by religion, which ended up being in an ancient Rome type setting. There was a lot of food involved.

Velvet Glove: Energy Crisis
Philipp Neitzel runs for Asher S., Matt Hayles, Noella H, and Sabine V
During the 1970s Energy crisis a girl gang is trying to enjoy a night of partying by the lake.
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The Mecha Hack: System Malfunction (Session 3 of 4)
Maria Rivera runs for Asher S., Jason Mills, and Leandro Pondoc

Digimon RPG (1%er hack) (Session 2 of 2)
Luiz Ferraz runs for Noella H, Ryan M., and Tyler Lominack

Perdition: A Host of Angels in Perdition (Session 2 of 3)
Fraser Simons runs for Darren Brockes, Luiz Ferraz, and Maria Rivera
The host discovers what became of a forgotten angel--Helel--as they navigate their way to the divine weapons.

Night Witches: Season 2 (Session 4 of 6)
David Rothfeder runs for Bethany H., Bryan, Jim Crocker, and Noella H
In which powerful allies are spurned, planes are recovered, men are monstrously petty, and honorable airwomen die. Content warning: extreme sexism, worry about rape, mention of suicide, corpse desecration, and PC death.

Swords Without Master: Remnants: Year 2, Summer
Pat P. runs for Jeff B. and Larry S.
The rogues set out to investigate rumors of a out-of-place beast. Geddy performs before the storm and shows the meaning of brotherhood while Gaon emotionally wrestles with the parallels of his past.

Monsterhearts 2: Once Again, We Return (It Was Never Going To Be Okay) (Session 2 of 4)
Patrick Knowles runs for Alex, David Rothfeder, Lauren, and Ryan M.
The One With The Gallery Opening - After a little light Deicide, the Gods have an immersive artistic experience to pull off. New enemies are made as old friends return, the past is buried as the dead rise from their graves, and everyone submits to the overwhelming power of larping.

The Woodlands (Session 3 of 4)
Yoshi Creelman runs for Asher S., David Rothfeder, Jesse A., and Noella H
Bluebelle, fully recovered, leads the group to Ginburry, only to find it with a new fence, streets desolate, not what Otis remembers. Kendrick, the new leader, is the son of the former leader, Deacon, but he seems to be relying too heavily on his right hand, Thistle...who happens to be one of the two names on Lee's letters.

Undying: Plague Empire (Session 3 of 4)
Mikael Tysvær runs for Asher S., Jim C., and Tina T.
King Aleric and his Visicots army sack Rome while the undead revel in the opportunities this event presents to move up in the social hierarchy.

Monsterhearts 2: Kingsport 1692 (Session 3 of 4)
Catherine Ramen runs for Agatha, Darold Ross, David Jay, Dylan R., and Seraphina Malizia
Tensions rise as Malachi Goodwin, Verity's foster brother, returns to town after years at sea; Verity finds her affection for Malachi continues to be more than sisterly; Mercy's uncle unfolds a grand vision for their people; Fortune does rituals at the bidding of her dark master; and Chastity accuses John Baxter of being a witch.

Check out all the great videos on The Gauntlet YouTube channel and be sure check out the playlists to catch up on all your favorite Gauntlet Hangouts games. If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the Gauntlet Hangouts Google+ Community where game signups are announced! To support The Gauntlet and Gauntlet Hangouts, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon at https://patreon.com/gauntlet where $7 and up patrons get priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts games. Enjoy, and everyone have a great weekend!

​In August, I ran 24 hours of Gen Con games. Not in a row–though it felt like that once or twice. I’d volunteered to run for Magpie: Last Days of Anglekite & Green Law of Varkith for Dungeon World, Masks: A New Generation, and Urban Shadows. I went in nervous, certain I’d made a mistake and over-committed myself. I’ve burned out at cons before. But Kate Bullock, who managed everything for Magpie, offered support, encouragement, and organization. I’ve never been part of a better and smoother con event. She showed how professionalism and preparation can enhance the experience. 

I came away from those 24 hours energized, not exhausted. 

Some of that came from great players—a father & son team, an Australian who’d heard the podcast, the young woman who showed me her sketchbook of Masks characters. I felt good throughout—like I had a handle on things. Looking back I realize some of my convention style wasn’t part of my repertoire just a few years ago. They’re things I’ve picked up from playing with The Gauntlet, listening to community conversations, and watching others run. 

I found three techniques that stand out. These may be obvious for those who’ve played with The Gauntlet or maybe they’re common to your groups. But not everyone knows them. I didn’t know them for 30+ years. Each of these sparked an “OK, wow” reaction at least once at my tables. I could tell they’d be using that for their games. 

The Gauntlet will be launching a Kickstarter campaign for the Codex Volume One Hardcover on October 2nd! Our goal is to produce a beautiful, collectible hardcover book containing the first thirteen issues of the Codex RPG zine. This post contains a breakdown of everything you will find inside. ​

The Gauntlet welcomes ENnie winning blog Age of Ravens to our team. Lowell will be posting on Wednesdays. He's bringing hacks, game ideas, thoughts on his Gauntlet sessions, and his ongoing history lists of rpg genres. We're excited to have him on board. 
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FROM AGE OF RAVENS
For several years I’ve been tracing the publication histories of role-playing games in different genres (post-apocalyptic, superhero, horror, etc.). Starting this month, I’m publishing these lists and other posts from Age of Ravens here at The Gauntlet Blog. I hope to post 1-2 of these lists a month, with a couple of series running in parallel, plus occasional update posts.
 
LICENSE TO ROLL
I chose licensed games because the last couple of years have seen a bonanza of releases in multiple directions. Green Ronin just wrapped a successful Kickstarter for The Expanse, based on the original novels. R Talsorian just released The Witcher RPG which seems drawn from the video game, rather than the books those came from. And then we have Delta Green, one of the big winners at the ENnies. DG first appeared as a supplement to Call of Cthulhu, itself a Lovecraftian license. But then it became a stand-alone game. And now Pelgrane Press has released The Fall of Delta Green, which is an adaptation of an adaptation to a game which is itself a parallel take on an adaptation.
 
The minds boggles.
 
In any case, this lists will focus on products which adapt novels, movies, video games, or comic books. I’ll generally restrict myself to official licenses. My comments offer a mix of context, commentary, description, and review. If you see something I’ve missed from 1977 to 1983 please tell me in the comments. I’ve put links to my earlier lists at the end of this post.

 6. Stormbringer (1981)
Stormbringer stands as the first rpg adaptation of an ongoing fantasy setting–or it's at least tied with Thieves World that same year. It lets players experience first-hand the world of Michael Moorcock’s sulky anti-hero, Elric. ​Stormbringer has a lovely boxed set—with dice, map, character sheets, and a large core book. It uses the old school grognard system for rules, with headings like: "5.7.1.4. Special Demon Abilities"). I love the book’s Frank Brunner illustrations. He provides a set of six full-page black and white images (as well as the box cover). These show weirder, more visceral style than that of later editions.
 
Ken St. Andre and Steve Perrin, two titans of the hobby, wrote Stormbringer, building on a simple version of Basic Role-Playing, Chaosium's house system. The game's based exclusively on the first six books in the Elric series; it came out before Moorcock decided to go back and revisit/milk the character. The authors show an understanding and affection for the material and ideas. Even if some of the systems end up being more than a little clunky, there's a sincere attempt to take the magic and world presented in Elric and make it work within the rpg paradigm of the time.
 
There's an interesting parallel to be drawn between Stormbringer and Call of Cthulhu, both of which have gone through several editions. The former has had to change and retool to match the tastes and approaches of modern rpgs. The latter set the bar high enough to remain unchanged until recently. Later versions of Stormbringer would ditch the wild & random mechanics and build-a-demon summoning of this version. That’s too bad and I can imagine some OSR folks going back to revisit these rules.
 
7. Thieves World (1981)
In the late 70s and early 80s everyone in our gaming group read Thieves World. This shared world fantasy anthology series brought together high profile authors and rising stars. The concept echoed role-playing games—multiple GMs running in an existing world (like Greyhawk or Blackmoor). The series ran through 1989 with multiple short story collections and novels. There would be (of course) a later reboot in novels (and rpgs).
 
Chaosium’s Thieves World boxed set uses just the first three collections. It has multiple setting books, several maps, and a detailed summary and stat breakdown of all the major characters. More importantly Chaosium made the set compatible across many different systems. It includes stats for AD&D, D&D, Runequest, Adventures in Fantasy, Chivalry & Sorcery, Tunnels & Trolls, The Fantasy Trip, Dragon Quest, and even Traveller. In Designers & Dragons, Shannon Appelcline points out Chaosium got permission to legally support D&D because TSR had earlier violated their copyright. TSR had included Cthulhu and Elric characters in the first edition of Deities & Demigods.
 
Thieves World’s one of the best and most useful early city supplements. It conveyed the setting while offering tools and ideas for any GM. Oddly, Chaosium didn’t support the line, except for a Companion book released five years later. But FASA also got the license to the setting and released several modules, including Traitor, in which a random PC gets secretly assigned as the betrayer of the group.

8. Middle-Earth Role Playing (1982)
Technically Middle Earth Role Playing (MERP) came out a couple of years later, but by that point Iron Crown Enterprises had released several ME sourcebooks. Several date to 1982, when Rolemaster still came in individual books for adaptation to other games rather than standing on their own. So ICE released these before they actually had a dedicated Middle Earth rpg. That would be Rolemaster-lite in many ways.
 
In that gap ICE published seven regional books: Angmar: Land of the Witch King, The Court of Ardor, Isengard, Mirkwood (North and South), Moria and Umbar (plus some adventure modules). Of those seven, Isengard and the two Mirkwood volumes deal with areas significantly referenced in Tolkien's works. Moria does as well, but offers just a collection of random floors and section. Angmar, Ardor and Umbar go further off the map–areas hinted at.
 
This gives the authors the great leeway you see in The Court of Ardor, one of the wildest of these volumes. Umbar tries for some faithfulness to Middle Earth but also tries to serve the master...of Rolemaster. You really have to read those two modules. It’s like someone dropped their Epic Level D&D campaign just off the edge of Tolkien’s map. Umbar’s a little crazy; look at the NPCs’ stats and levels. But Ardor’s on a completely different level of crazy—a mash up of Deities & Demigods, Roger Zelazny’s Amber series, and bad Tolkien fan-fiction.
 
ICE would eventually lose the license, but that’s a story we’ll come back to later on these lists.
 
9. Enterprise: Role Play Game in Star Trek (1983)
A Japanese rpg released by Tsukuda Hobby. Enterprise had a gorgeous boxed set with a 20 page rulebook, 13 page adventure book, dice, and 15 double-sided full color character cards. These laminated cards worked with erasable markers and had a photo one side and character stats on the others. Tsukuda Hobby mostly sold wargames and had other Star Trek and Star Wars licenses. The company released no other products in the line. You can see more about this at RPGGeek’s entry on it.

Depending on the logistical circumstances of your game, there are two ways you can approach the creation of Establishing Questions. The first is to create a set of general Establishing Questions that can be posed to a variety of character types; this is especially helpful when you are doing character creation the same day you are beginning play. The second way is to create Establishing Questions that are tailored to individual characters. This method is best when you know the details of the player characters prior to sitting down to the table, or when you will have some time between character creation and the beginning of play.

General Establishing Questions
When creating a set of Establishing Questions that are generally applicable, keep the following two points in mind: 1) the questions should help define or explore an existing aspect of your scenario and/or 2) the questions should take into account the broad character types your players are likely to bring to the table. Let’s take a look at an example of some Establishing Questions I wrote for my Song of the Milk-White Putrescence Dungeon World scenario. For context, the scenario was about a remote town, Frostdale, and the heretical monk who was hiding among its people. The characters were there to ferret out the heretical monk and kill him.

Establishing Questions

• Someone close to you moved to Frostdale years ago and you haven’t heard from them since. Who are they?
• The mayor of Frostdale is a veteran of a recent war. They say he has an extremely valuable memento from that war. What is it? Why do you want it?
• There is an ancient temple complex, abandoned and partially in ruins, higher up on the mountain. Why do you want to get into to that temple?
• You have heard rumors about a new saint who is ministering in these lands. What is he or she a saint of? Why do you want to have a meeting with this individual?

You can see how these questions adhere to the principles I’ve discussed above. For starters, none of these is so specific that they couldn’t be posed to literally any type of character. And yet, you can see how some of them might be better suited to certain character types. When I wrote these, I knew I would probably have a wizard or a cleric, and the third and fourth questions, while suitable for any character, are particularly good for a wizard or cleric-type character. The second question, while certainly of interest to most adventuring-types, is particularly good for a thief-type character (thieves usually being motivated by heists and treasure). And in all cases, the questions help explore certain pre-existing aspects of the scenario: the residents of Frostdale, the temple higher up on the mountain, and the idea of new–possibly blasphemous–religious movements.

Tailored Establishing Questions
If you are already familiar with the player characters when prepping your session, you can go even further by tailoring the Establishing Questions to specific characters, which helps create an even deeper level of player investment in your scenario. I recently ran the original Ravenloft module in World of Dungeons. I asked the players to create their characters a few days beforehand, which presented an opportunity to make the Establishing Questions really special. In this example, I have also included the players' answers so you can see how powerful the Establishing Questions technique can be.

Establishing Questions

• Question for Goro, a loner and outcast from a religious order: Someone important to you went missing in the land of Barovia. Who was it? Why have you so far refused to investigate their disappearance?
  • Player’s answer: Goro’s mother, who was an outcast from their religious community before he was. He refused to go find her because he was scared that he, too, would be shunned by the community. Now that he is an outcast himself, he is determined to find her.

• Question for Pali, a thief who was raised by a powerful witch in the woods around Barovia, and from whom he is now on the run: The old witch used to speak of an object in Castle Ravenloft, possibly magical, but definitely very valuable. What is it? Why do you want it?
  • Player’s answer: A doll or puppet that Pali believes contains all the memories from the witch’s childhood. He wants it so he can gain power over her.

• Question for Stosh, a religious warrior dedicated to a sun cult: A foundational myth of the sun cult you belong to has its origin in Castle Ravenloft. What is it? In what ways does this inform why you might be interested in exploring the castle?
  • Player’s answer: Creation story - the planet rose up from the primordial darkness. In the early days, the physical manifestation of the sun, an avatar, would walk the earth, clearing out remnants of this primordial dark with her lance of pure light. A few generations back, some distant cousin returned from Barovia saying he’d heard rumors that a demon in Castle Ravenloft had the lance.

Incorporating the answers into your game
If you are familiar with the old Ravenloft module, you know that the answers given in my example above do not conform to the events of the module in any way–these are entirely new ideas that will need to be worked in somehow. Fortunately, this is much easier than you might imagine. In the specific case of Ravenloft, the dungeon has many rooms that are essentially empty. There is no reason why you can’t populate some of these empty rooms with the elements suggested by the answers to the establishing questions. Incorporating answers into your prep is even easier when you are running a scenario of your own design. Simply leave some empty space in your scenario, whether that be physical locations on a map or NPCs that aren’t quite fully fleshed out, or adapt some of the central story elements of your scenario to be about these items the players have provided.

The trickier question: when do you do this incorporation? Well, if you’re running multiple sessions, you can spend time between sessions figuring out how to work these new elements into the scenario. When I’m running a short series, I usually have enough events planned for the first session that I can keep the players busy and don’t need to worry about incorporating their answers to the Establishing Questions until the second session (more on this later). For a one-shot, you have to be a little more improvisational, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it. Learning to work with Establishing Questions in a one-shot is an extremely valuable GM skill to cultivate, since injecting that high level of player engagement makes the single session you have with the players much more impactful. You can also plan ahead for a one-shot and pose the questions to the players before the session starts. 

Presenting Establishing Questions to the players
I’m going to wrap-up by backtracking in the process a little bit: how and when do you actually present the Establishing Questions to the players? I imagine there are lots of ways to go about it, but this is what I do:

• I begin the session with an in medias res situation–a fight, an intense negotiation with an NPC, a daring escape, or similar. I do this so the players can stretch their legs a little bit and get acquainted (or re-acquainted) with their characters.
• Then, I present an overview of what the the adventure or scenario is about. In my first example above, this is where I would tell the players about Frostdale and their mission to find the heretical monk.
• At this point, I assign the Establishing Questions to each player and then take a lengthy break, around 10-15 minutes, so the players have time to think about their answers.
• When we get back from the break, I might ask for all their answers at once, or I might give them the opportunity to reveal their answers in play (depending on the immediate needs of the scenario and/or whether we’re playing a one-shot).

Another effective method, if you have the time, is to ask the players the Establishing Questions before the session begins, but a note of caution here: given this extra time to consider their answers, some players go a little overboard or, worse, become paralyzed with indecision. The way I do it, by asking them on the spot and then giving them a short break to think about it, encourages the players to be succinct and to go for the most obvious answer, which is often the best answer. That said, as with my note about one-shots above, sometimes a little extra time to work with the Establishing Questions can be helpful. 

​