Being a GM is a lot like putting down railroad tracks while the train is already moving behind you. You have to work hard, move fast, and be ready to improvise. Making rulings is a core skill of GMs that set RPGs apart from computers and board games. GMs can interpret and with player input act to move the story forward. Here are three ways to make rulings on the fly to keep the players engaged and the game moving.
What Are Rulings?
Rulings include the GM filling in the blanks for situations that rules don’t cover. However, rulings are bigger than that. The entire game a GM runs is a series of rulings, one after the other. Leaning on rules from rulebooks can help with the fairness of rulings, but the rules of the RPG are not the actual game or campaign. The game is the players making decisions based on GM description and the GM making rulings on how to determine the results of those decisions based on the shared situation. Rules inform this process, but the GM guides the process and makes the final judgment.
Fun
The PCs strive to achieve goals and no one knows if they will succeed or not. Will this ruling make the game more enjoyable for everyone? This principle is trickier than it sounds. A PC missing an attack may not sound fun. Or a PC or entire party getting killed may not sound fun. So what is fun?
Running and playing RPGs takes effort to achieve positive results. Without that effort, the game is not fun. In normal games, the effort is a contest between two players or teams. In an RPG, that effort is a struggle by the PCs to achieve their goals in an indifferent and sometimes hostile world. What is fun is the PCs striving to achieve goals and no one knowing if they will succeed or not. Rulings should take this principle into account.
The opposite is true as well. If every one of your players hates puzzles, pull all puzzles out of your game. If using a rule would never be fun, avoid the situation that calls for that particular rule.
Factual
The game world has its own reality. Each RPG has a unique take on the world the game takes place in. In early editions of D&D combat is deadly and achieving goals requires planning, guile, and the right gear. Later editions of D&D involve a lot more combat with rewards focused on defeating monsters. A ruling needs to reflect the reality of the game world itself. As a default, use an understanding our own Earth to make a ruling. Modify to take into account the world of the PCs.
I recently ran Amazing Adventures and a PC was shot by a rifle. Getting shot nearly killed the PC. However, AA is pulp and PCs have Fate Points as they are destined for greater things. I reminded the player of their character being destined by Fate for great things and the player chose to spend a Fate Point and the shot he thought was taking him down actually passed through his sleeve without harming him. In a gritty game, the PC would have been down and likely bleeding out instead. The game would have still moved forward, but in a different direction.
Fair
When the outcome matters and is uncertain, let the dice decide. Don’t roll dice unless you need to. If I was GMing for a player of a ranger tracking a deer in a forest, I would never make the player roll to succeed. Track orcs across rocky ground with a three day head start? Then the dice come out. How do you know if the dice are needed? The first two principles should help you decide. If in doubt, ask the player what he thinks and take that into account as well.
Once you determine the PC wants to do something that may or may not succeed and the results matter, you need to make a ruling. First, ask the player exactly what his character is attempting to do. The rules can guide you and may have a ready-made solution.
If not, involve the player and ask him what abilities his character might be able to use. If the player can’t come up with something but you think it should be possible, you can always use the 50% rule. It happens 50% of the time. You can mix this up a bit and have the player roll and try to get evens or call out three numbers on a die six and the player tries to roll that number to succeed.
If you involve the player and the player understands the stakes, the ruling will be fair whether it succeeds, fails, or falls somewhere in between and regardless of the final roll. However, the roll itself will add interesting tension and the player will be invested in the result.
Future Results
If a player wants their character to do something and the GM makes a ruling that is fun, factual, and fair that group is well on its way to participating in a balanced games with rulings the players will appreciate. If the GM involves the players in determining how to make rulings, that GM will be both making both his job easier and helping the players shape the action and the possible outcomes of the campaign which is exactly what a GM wants. A player learning to be part of rulings may even decide to become a GM one day.
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