Well, Gray is definitely in the top six, if that helps.

Sigh. At least you already know your downfall, Call. Kitties. Lots of 'em.

Meanwhile the rest of us are still floundering around in a big dark abyss of "What will Jig do to us?"

If Jonas the drunk key stealer isn't on the very tippy top of that list, I'd be very surprised.

There are only six of us, and it's so nerve-wracking to sit and think about who might be on Jig's list, and in what order...
...especially since it's so very, very possible, that one Kimberley Judd, sitting all, all alone in the library of the manor...
...completely unattended to, by any living soul, with her face buried in some books, would be ever, ever so distracted, and simultaneously ever, ever so unaware...
...of anyone, simply anyone, who choose to silently enter the room.
And behead poor little miss Judd, leaving only the books as their witness.

That, and I swear, I feel Lynn is on that list, very high, too.

There are only six of us, and it's so nerve-wracking to sit and think about who might be on Jig's list, and in what order...
...especially since it's so very, very possible, that one Kimberley Judd, sitting all, all alone in the library of the manor...
...completely unattended to, by any living soul, with her face buried in some books, would be ever, ever so distracted, and simultaneously ever, ever so unaware...
...of anyone, simply anyone, who choose to silently enter the room.
And behead poor little miss Judd, leaving only the books as their witness.

That, and I swear, I feel Lynn is on that list, very high, too.

Well now I'm horrified.

Don't worry! Kim's got all those books to throw, she'll be totally a-okay. She's got the most ammo out of all of us.

Now that I think of it, the library is probably one of the places I'd like to be in the event of getting caught up in some Jiggy-trouble. But Marci isn't that quick on her feet, so most likely she'll be high on that list, too.

So @Jig, as someone who's got an idea for an RP in the slow cooker, I'd like to know, do you have any sage wisdom on being an awesome GM?

Encourage all the schmoozing you can from your players. :3

1) Know your players. Small groups containing precisely zero dickheads are pretty easy to manage.
2) Keep secrets. You can always fix inconsistencies later if nobody knows they're there... ^^
3) Make sure that everybody is engaged in at least one strand of plot at most times
4) Allow players to approach the game from whatever angle they want to come at it from

I think that's basically what I'm doing in Wolf that's working well.

Edit:

+5) Active OoC participation. The reason that I think this game is working is because you guys like it (hopefully :3), and if that's right, it's because I'm paying attention to the OoC and directly asking people what they want from this - whether they want to slow down or boom ahead.

*scribbles notes* Ah, yes I see. Thank you. <3

Tbh, there's also a butt-tonne of luck. With this game, if anybody had had permanent IRL stuff to deal with and had to drop out permanently, we'd probably manage to recover, but the dynamic would be totally different. If I hadn't previously played with any one of you, there would be a complete wild-card in the group, which in larger games which can more easily accept a drop-out is fine, but in this wouldn't be. Essentially, a GM is only as good as their players allow them to be - and vice versa.

Something to think about is whether you as the GM want to participate in the plot personally. In this, 'my' characters are very much plot devices/NPC's, in the sense that, while one or more of them may or may not play a directly antagonistic role, they also facilitate whatever personal exposition you guys want to achieve.

I also recommend, when asking players what they want, especially if you don't know them well personally, is to primarily give them two or three options and invite suggestions as an extra. It stops players from being cowed by having to take responsibility for a bad idea, because all they have to do is lend support to their preference.

What've you got in mind, anyway?

Oh, my idea is pretty cliche, but cliches can be fun. I was thinking a group of kids/preteens in a rural town forming an anti paranormal league/club type deal. Y'know, sneaking around school at night trying to find proof that their teacher REALLY is a vampire, that sort of thing. Like I said, just an idea. It kinda came from my childhood, where I'd go on field trips and speculate with my friends on whether or not theater we went to was actually haunted, or if the gargoyles on the church roof actually were real. Most of my ideas fizzle out and never see the light of day.

The biggest, hugest, most nearly gosh darn impossible hurdle to jump there would be the writing as kids issue. Most people aren't willing to or just can't write as anyone under 18 years old.

Mona the Vampire-styley?

And yeah, I'm afraid I'm in the 'has a limited range' category. There's a really useful guide on writing as kids in the guide section, though, which might be worth referring to if your idea hits the light of day and also maybe even linking to.

Yeah, I recently read that guide. Good stuff. I've never seen/read/whatever Mona the Vampire, so I dunno.

I was thinking, like IT but with more variety, way more upbeat and lighthearted, and with 100% less child sex, because ew wtf why would you write that ever.

So, not really like IT at all, then.

Plus, when I write in general, not just RP, I have a difficult time writing plot. Story, atmosphere, backstory, characters, I do sort of okay on these, but plot? Nu-uh. I have scenes in my head that I imagine happening, but connecting them is hard for me, for some reason.

Mona the vampire was a Canadian kids tv show featuring three normal kids who would basically decide whenever they saw something weird or somebody was mean to them or the universe wasn't bending to their kiddy wills, that it was secretly a monster of some kind in disguise as a human. They all had like monster-battling personae, Vampire (featuring weird braids and vampire teeth), Princess Giant (had high heels and a mop wig) and Zapman (a sort of... superhero alien with antennae), and each episode would kind of have artshifts (depending on the typical genre of the monster of the week) to indicate when it was being seen from their perspective, and when it was normal shit as viewed by a less imaginative person.

So, like, an ordinary episode would feature, say, a new weird kid comes to school and Mona decides that because they're not friendly, they're actually a demon goblin goldfish (legit kind of Mona the Vampire monster, not me being ridiculous) and whenever they were chastised for dressing up and pretending to shoot lightning bolts at them (yes, vampires shoot lightning bolts according to Mona) it was because all the adults were under the demon goblin goldfish's spell.

Have a joint and dig an episode out on Youtube. I bet it'd be great.

It's totally on Youtube.

@Jig That sounds kind of amazing and how did you know I wanted to watch something after warming up my vaporizer when I got home what the hell you mind reader

When was it made?

Well it's that or the little fears route which is not light hearted in the slightest.

K misses playing Little Fears.

That sounds kind of amazing and how did you know I wanted to watch something after warming up my vaporizer when I got home what the hell you mind reader

It's very much a kids' tv show tbh, standard two-shorts format. Would only recommend as research (and it seems bang-on the money for what you're going for tbh) or with the addition of chemical fun-upgraders of one variety or other. I just watched an episode and, apart from now being able to just about distinguish a Canadian accent (as opposed to generic American-sounding) and a bit of nostalgia, I didn't get much from it.

When was it made?

'90s I guess.

@Kirah *looks up Little Fears really quickly* That also sounds super awesome. I'd play the hell outta that. My real life game playing friends are really only interested in beer and pretzel type games, not roleplaying.

My idea is more or less ripped from an episode of the One Shot podcasts (one shot tabletop rpgs played by improvisers, I'd link it but I'm phone posting) where they played a game called All Things Truly Wicked. They played three 10 year olds trying to defend their suburban town against faries. It seemed pretty cool, and the settung and tone really stuck with me.

@Jig Aww, I was hoping it would be more aimed towards teens or something. Curses. I was thinking of watching Sliders tonight though, since I've never seen it.