Movies can make us better game masters. GMs need to know the elements that make stories exciting. Don’t worry—I’m not adding anything else to your plate. You’re probably already watching movies. The key is to be an active viewer, not a passive one. Here’s what I mean.
We can watch movies and simply consume the story passively. This will not help us become better GMs. To learn story elements and improve our GMing, we need to actively watch a movie. To do this, we need to ask ourselves questions about the movie we just watched. By asking these questions, we force ourselves to think about the story and why it was entertaining. Here are some sample questions:
- Why was that situation exciting?
- How was tension built?
- Was there a theme or message?
- How was the exposition handled?
- How was the setting explained?
- Who was the villain?
- What were the villain’s goals?
- Were there interesting locations?
Once we start asking ourselves questions like these, we become active viewers rather than passive ones. These questions get our minds thinking about what makes great stories. Remember, we’re not writing things down. We’re not taking up tons of time. We’re simply thinking about a movie we just watched. These questions, and others like them, help us become better game masters by teaching us how stories work.
Notice, I didn’t mention the protagonist. GMs are not the sole authors of sessions and campaigns—players are storytellers as well. A good story needs an active and goal-driven protagonist, and that’s what the players need to bring to the campaign. What the game master brings to the session are interesting NPCs, dramatic tension, and exciting situations. The questions above help GMs do that.
Movies can help us become better GMs. Begin the habit of asking questions about what you just watched, then take some of those elements and put them into your campaigns.
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