I keep reading over various internets communities, how being a GM is hard, how player are ungrateful spoiled kids, and how much GM struggles.
So which games have tools/mechanics to ease the GM job, and which are these.
For this discussion I would focus on the game itself, rather than on method used by groups.
Even though I feel like I know some answers, judging how active the community is at the moment, I try to open that thread and may-be a few others to keep the /c/ alive
Fate has a part when you start the game to make sure the players already know each other. Nip that “I’m a loner why am I even with you guys?” session 2 problem right in the bud. Fate does this with the “Crossing Paths” part of the chargen
CofD has players write aspirations for their character. These are things the players want to see happen. That is not always things the character wants to happen. It could be something like “Get in a high speed car chase.” When players actually engage with this, it gives you a direct channel for specific stuff the players want to do. Players gain XP when they hit their aspirations. Of course, in my experience, a lot of players put approximately zero effort into these. I’ll say “Write your aspirations and share them during the week so we can think about how to work them in” and I get nothing. I had one player in a game that was really good at this, and every week would show up with fun and executable aspirations. Eventually one of the other players was like “Why is so much of the game about his stuff?” and I was like “Because he’s giving me stuff to work with. You haven’t given me much, and when I tried to set up the scene for yours last week you didn’t engage.”
I might be a deeply bitter old man, on further reflection.
CofD?
Chronicles of Darkness. Close relative to World of Darkness. Vampire: The Requiem, Mage: The Awakening, and other games about playing a supernatural being in secret in the modern day. I’m a big fan, and slightly salty that the other versions of the games are more supported.
I thought those were WoD. So only the Masquerade and their ilk are WoD?
They split. It’s confusing. I don’t know the details.
In the 90s there was Masquerade. That was the world of darkness.
In the early 2000s they did a reboot. That was Vampire: the requiem. That was called nwod (new world of darkness)
Then I don’t know what happened. The old games got new editions or something, but so did the new games. So there’s a vampire: the requiem 2nd edition. That’s called Chronicles of Darkness. CofD. But there’s also new vampire the masquerade games.
It’s confusing. I should probably just look it up. I’m slightly salty about it because I liked the reboot stuff better.