Newbie McGM - Why the hell did we let Dem Taqat name the thread?

[Mosher]

So, you want to run a game, huh? Many have tried, many have failed - but many have also succeeded. The Imperium Offtopicum subforum is similar to the Never Ending Story one, though it features a smaller and more tight knit community, and is more focused on geopolitical games - think big, complex games of Risk.


USEFUL LINKS
IOTchat
Organization thread
Development thread

Beginning Stages​

• The first and foremost thing you should do before starting to even think about starting a game - do you have enough time? Will you have enough time 1 week from now? Will you have enough time 1 month from now? Imperium Offtopicum games can last a very varying amount of time - from a couple of days before they shiver and give off their final breath, to nearly a year, in the case of ChristosIOT. You must ensure you have the free time, and will have the free time in the future, to run a game - especially if it is a large, complex, and time consuming one. If you have exams coming up, then wait until after them - if you're going on vacation two days after the game starts, then wait until afterwards. The most important thing to keeping an IOT alive is making sure you are always present and not including large gaps of time where there is no activity.
  
• Look around the subforum. Then think back to the idea you have in your head - is there anything that will make this game stick out? Is your idea unique, but your rules generic and uninteresting? The rules unique, setting uninteresting? There is only going to be so much interest in a game where 1 province = 1 economic point with just a generic "the world dissolved, now new nations have arisen from the ashes" backstory. If you're having troubles, consult some of the people on iotchat - the link is above - and examine some old IOTs to get a good idea of what's been done and what ideas are successful or not.
  
• If you're stumped on how to start rules, again, consult some people and come up with ideas. Examine older IOTs. Don't be afraid to borrow from successful rulesets - that's how IOT has evolved over the years, by building on other rulesets. Just don't copy and paste them over.

Putting the game together​

• Okay, you have an idea put together. You think it'll be original (relatively); the ruleset has some interesting things in it, and you're ready to seriously start writing the rules and balancing them. Before you do this, stop for a moment and think - what niche is this going to occupy? What kind of game should this be? Should it be focused on economics, or warfare? A healthy mixture? Soft power? Client empires, a la the Multipolarity series? Make sure you know what this game is trying to accomplish before you design the rules. Once you've figured that out, make sure to put extra detail and love into the section of the rules most concerned with this - if it's an economic game, make sure to put extra detail into trade, industry, what have you. If not, you're crippling your game right out of the start.
  
• Consult with older and more experienced community members before posting. You don't want to post a game about a topic that you find very interesting only to find, to your dismay, that no one else likes it and no one joins! If you have a ruleset ready, post it in the Organization or Development threads (links above) and receive some criticism and feedback on the rules/setting/map/whatever before you post it. This will also warn people that a new IOT is coming, and you are more likely to get players than if you surprised them with it (if they're not ready for another IOT, they are less likely to join it)
  
• Always, always post your ruleset in the Organizational thread beforehand. Having multiple people looking through your ruleset will be much more effective at finding issues with it than just your eyes.
  
• FORMAT. I cannot stress this enough. When you post your game, make sure that it is formatted in such a way that it is easy to read and find different sections of the rules. Having a well formatted game is the difference between 15-20 players and 5. It makes you look much more professional and will net you a much more positive feeling. Here is a link to a couple of well formatted games - Multipolarity IV, NRIOT, IOTMAD.
  Make ample use of spoilers, bolding, spacing, lists, [ center][/center] tags, etc.
  
• TIMING. If there are 3 big-name IOTs with 20 players in them each, please do not launch your IOT unless you are very confident in how well it will do and how large and audience it will attract. Post them directly after a major IOT dies, or in a slow IOT period, so that they attract the largest audience. IOTs posted in the middle of a large influx of popular, high population games are not going to attract many people - it is wise to wait for the perfect time, when people need a game to play.

Running your game​

• I'm going to go back to one of my first points here. Make sure you have time to run the game. Clear off your schedule, wait until after intense times of stress - like exams, or vacation, or a wedding, or whatever. If your job or school doesn't give you enough time to run a game, then don't. Players want to play a game for a long period of time, not 2 or 3 turns.
  
• Make sure to stay fair and impartial. Give out penalties - whether invisible or visible - to troublemakers if you must, but if a player starts to get antagonistic towards you or another player outside of the realm of the context of the game, then don't be afraid to call a mod in and remove him from your game.
  
• Don't keep yourself to a strict, unforgiving schedule, but also don't make it too loose. If you follow a strict and unbending schedule for updates, then you will eventually tire of it and drop the game - and if you are too loose with it, you'll never get around to updating because you will constantly be figuring "oh, I can do it whenever." It's important to find a middle ground between the two, keeping up a regular schedule while also not making it too stressful.
  
• If a game becomes too much for you, don't be afraid to stop for a while. Give yourself a week or two break, put it on hiatus, get another person to run it - one of the most successful IOTs, Iron and Blood, was originally run by one GM who dropped it a few turns in, and was finished by Kiwitt - many, many turns after. Handing the reins over to someone else is a definite possibility, though it isn't always a change that can be reverted easily. And, if something comes up and you have no time to run a game anymore, there is nothing wrong with stopping it - your life is priority here, not the game.
  
• Don't be afraid to make small tweaks to the rules as the game goes on. If you find (or God/Allah/Buddha/the flying spaghetti monster forbid, a player finds) a rule that can be abused easily, you can change it in the name of fairness and sanity. Just don't turn the entire game on its head changing rules, and don't do it too much - or players are going to get confused and angry.
  
• Good luck! Ask other GMs and players for advice if you need it - we're always willing to give a little bit of advice.

GM NOTES

Lighthearter's tips

Spoiler :

DO:

- Keep your resources organized. Excel spreadsheets are best. A simplistic IOT doesn't require much to track, but most people won't enjoy them compared to the Multipolarity and other series' going on. My own Era IOT series is about as simple as they can get.

- Make sure you know how you're going to calculate everything BEFORE you actually start. Many times I've come up with my setting and rules, but left two or three things undecided, figuring I'll get to them later. THIS IS NOT HEALTHY, as eventually you'll be forced to make something up on the spot when a player needs to know.

- Let players know what they need to know. Don't be all mysterious about how important systems work. If you think they'd need to know it to be effective, let them know.

- If you include random events, make sure that at least two or three different ones hit every turn, and the same power does not get the same event twice running. You might even want to say that a nation cannot get any event two times in a row!

- Advertise it on chat and in the IOT organization and dev threads, but don't go overboard. Many people here will see excessive advertising as a turn-off. Mention it to the people you know, and generally plug it a few times, but don't spam links.

- Play an IOT of the general type you're thinking of hosting before you do. You might get inspiration from there. If that's not possible, try to find an older game - almost everything has been tried, so you can at least see some past attempts.

DO NOT:

- Tell the players anything they don't need to know. The IOTMAD subseries of the Era games comes with a significant minor detail that is currently unrevealed to the players, and I will tell them nothing until circumstances crop up where it is activated. Some surprises can be good in a game!

- Change rules simply because one player makes a comment about them. I've seen plenty of new GMs do this, and I did too back when I was new. If you're confident in your rules, be confident in them! On the other hand . . .

- Be afraid to change rules because players point out a real imbalance. Similarly, don't get so attached to your rules that you won't listen when such an imbalance is brought to your attention. It's your job to be a management figure and keep the game flowing in the right direction - you're not infallible, and if you work with your players that makes everyone happy. Conversely . . . .

- Allow players to believe your rulings are liquid. Your players MUST know that in the end, you are the GM and your say is final. This isn't usually a problem, and hasn't really been one recently, but if you lay down the law, make it very clear that this is the way it is. If someone logically convinces you that you're wrong, by all means change it - but your Law is your Law as the GM, and whatever the players think of it, joining your game is accepting your authority.

- Assume you know better than the GMs already here. We've been around the block a few(dozen) times, both as players and as GMs. Listen to the advice we give. If you ignore it, don't blame us for giving bad advice - but if you follow our advice and it goes wrong, most definitely do blame us.

-L

RobertCan'ts tips

Spoiler :

And for the love of all that is Mechish have a decent combat system that will work.

I wish to add to this that a random approach is not always necessary, for the original Spirit of Man I adopted a system by which I looked at each side's RP and their respective strengths and then decided the outcome of the battle. I know many IOTers would say that that is a bad method but at the time it was better than the messed up combat system I had. And in some cases can be better representative of the combat.
__________________

Sonereal's tips

Spoiler :

1.) Everything should be able to calculate in a spreadsheet if given time.

2.) If you run into something that isn't as easy as just typing in a number or text in a cell, know that might be the more time consuming part of the update.

3.) Do not run a game that is more or less another game with slightly different rules. It splits the playerbase, and with there being 7-9 active IOTs, it is easy to get burn out and the first games to fall are usually the smaller of the same ruleset. For this reason, don't worry about hiatus.

4.) Clear your inbox often.

5.) If you do a team-based IOT, it must be set up so that deadweight players that don't get in orders, or don't perform well, can have their negative impact on a team lessened. If the game is about resources, and a fourth of one time off the bat doesn't send in orders, it gives the other team a boring and unfair advantage.

6.) If you're a new GM, the pressure on you is higher than older GMs. The old GMs will get players no matter what. New GMs, especially those new to the IOT community in general, shouldn't be disheartened if their games don't reach the numbers of the games of more established members. Just run your game and, most importantly, have fun with it.

7.) Figure out the point of your ruleset. My rulesets are notoriously prone to feature creep, so having a solid idea of what you want your game to be about helps. If your game is focused heavily on trade and diplomacy, feel free to let the military mechanics slack a bit. If you try to go complex in every direction, you should have a decent understanding of Excel or Access.

8.) When in doubt, steal Lighthearter's rulesets.

Does anyone still use this thread? Oh well, anyway.

Most IOTs have NPCs. Everybody has a different take to how NPCs should act in IOTs. Figured I'd throw in how I do it here.

1. NPCs are survivalists, but not perfect. An NPC, if forced between a rock and a hard place, will pick the decision that it feels it can live with. I usually guestimate and vary my responses to player diplomacy and in peace negotiations, but the guiding theory behind it all is, "Well, where am I in five years?"

A NPC can still reject a peace deal and the consequence of that can still end in their destruction however. That's usually a case of me woefully underestimating the power of the PC. Which brings me to my next point.

2. NPCs are loyal to you reach a point. When you reach this point however, they are perfectly fine with jumping ship if the ship is sinking. Most players are ok with NPCs being chronic backstabbers in Crusader Kings, but not in IOT, so I usually make it so the NPCs are willing to put their neck out on the line for a friend, even if the odds aren't entirely in your favor.

The point, however, is when you're asking them to put their head on the chopping block with the executioner at the ready. At that point they'll jump ship.

3. NPCs are idiots at military strategy. Well, not idiots. A player can come up with a detailed military plan, but a GM can't. My NPCs can typically do one or two things at once, and sometimes very well, but have problems attacking and defending at once. See the start of the War of 1823 in RIOT for example.

The reason for NPCs not being geniuses during war is because I know everything. I read everybody's war plans and orders and if I had to write a dozen or so orders for NPCs before order processing, updates would take three times as long.

So yeah, it all boils down to NPCs being self-serving, somewhat loyal, and dim bulbs at war. There aren't any flashy ideologically driven NPCs that will never surrender. The only time a NPC won't surrender is when the demands demanded outweigh the benefit of keeping the war going for another few years.

Going back to being survivors, I think my NPCs might be a tad too willing to jump in bed with a big fish to keep another big fish away.

Tani's Stuff

Spoiler :

My general rule with NPCs is that some are designated as having some sort of actual agenda beyond being simple mathematical equations, but they tend to be few and far between. This is especially if the game is very lacking and doesn't have much conflict. Usually I keep one or two token major NPCs simply to keep things lively.

My biggest tip with NPCs would be to have them each set to specific percentages of money into... whatever you have to sink money into. It means you can copy/paste their orders more or less each turn, making adjustments to percentages where prudent (an NPC at war will change its percentages to more spending in military fields until the war is over, for example).

My biggest rule of course, is that major NPCs can't use espionage on another major power. This prevents subconscious GM abuse since otherwise the NPC, being part of your brain, will know the perfect amount to invest towards an action. This handicap not only gives the player an edge by allowing them to ensure NPCs stay on the defensive with covert operations, but also makes sure there's no unfair advantage for the NPC.

The easiest way to make sure there's no possible NPC abuse is to not read player orders until the end of the turn. If a player has a question, they should send it in a separate PM labeled as such.

Terrance Blurbs

Spoiler :

The trick is to make them (updates) consistent. Whether small constant updates, large updates once a month (and which you block off an entire weekend for), or whatever in between. Make it a part of your lifecycle, and you'd be more likely to succeed.

 

[Mosher]

Reserve post just in case

 

[NedimNapoleon]

Great thread, should be stickied.

 

[Lighthearter]

DO:

- Keep your resources organized. Excel spreadsheets are best. A simplistic IOT doesn't require much to track, but most people won't enjoy them compared to the Multipolarity and other series' going on. My own Era IOT series is about as simple as they can get.

- Make sure you know how you're going to calculate everything BEFORE you actually start. Many times I've come up with my setting and rules, but left two or three things undecided, figuring I'll get to them later. THIS IS NOT HEALTHY, as eventually you'll be forced to make something up on the spot when a player needs to know.

- Let players know what they need to know. Don't be all mysterious about how important systems work. If you think they'd need to know it to be effective, let them know.

- If you include random events, make sure that at least two or three different ones hit every turn, and the same power does not get the same event twice running. You might even want to say that a nation cannot get any event two times in a row!

- Advertise it on chat and in the IOT organization and dev threads, but don't go overboard. Many people here will see excessive advertising as a turn-off. Mention it to the people you know, and generally plug it a few times, but don't spam links.

- Play an IOT of the general type you're thinking of hosting before you do. You might get inspiration from there. If that's not possible, try to find an older game - almost everything has been tried, so you can at least see some past attempts.

DO NOT:

- Tell the players anything they don't need to know. The IOTMAD subseries of the Era games comes with a significant minor detail that is currently unrevealed to the players, and I will tell them nothing until circumstances crop up where it is activated. Some surprises can be good in a game!

- Change rules simply because one player makes a comment about them. I've seen plenty of new GMs do this, and I did too back when I was new. If you're confident in your rules, be confident in them! On the other hand . . .

- Be afraid to change rules because players point out a real imbalance. Similarly, don't get so attached to your rules that you won't listen when such an imbalance is brought to your attention. It's your job to be a management figure and keep the game flowing in the right direction - you're not infallible, and if you work with your players that makes everyone happy. Conversely . . . .

- Allow players to believe your rulings are liquid. Your players MUST know that in the end, you are the GM and your say is final. This isn't usually a problem, and hasn't really been one recently, but if you lay down the law, make it very clear that this is the way it is. If someone logically convinces you that you're wrong, by all means change it - but your Law is your Law as the GM, and whatever the players think of it, joining your game is accepting your authority.

- Assume you know better than the GMs already here. We've been around the block a few(dozen) times, both as players and as GMs. Listen to the advice we give. If you ignore it, don't blame us for giving bad advice - but if you follow our advice and it goes wrong, most definitely do blame us.

-L

 

[Robert Can't]

And for the love of all that is Mechish have a decent combat system that will work.

I wish to add to this that a random approach is not always necessary, for the original Spirit of Man I adopted a system by which I looked at each side's RP and their respective strengths and then decided the outcome of the battle. I know many IOTers would say that that is a bad method but at the time it was better than the messed up combat system I had. And in some cases can be better representative of the combat.

 

[SamSniped]

Nice thread name

 

[christos200]

A great thread. As Mosher and LH said, do not be afraid to change the rules. I changed the Attack and Defense of my Units 3 times in ChristosIOT. Also the format of rules is very, very importand. An IOT whose rules have a good format (bold titles for sections, no grammar mistakes, spoilers) will attract more people.

 

[Robert Can't]

Oh and another thing, make sure that you choose a setting that people can understand/relate to.
It should be interesting and inspire people to make interesting nations (a la IOTXII) or be historical with clearly laid out themes (Iron and Blood) or be based on a story people know (for example the C&CIOTs and SpoM).

It is highly inadvisable to create an IOT with a setting that is just plain weird. MIOT: Marmots vs Ferrets never really took off despite having met all the other criteria (Formatting, Organization, at the right time)

 

[NinjaCow64]

Subbed, as I wish to make an IOT at some point in the distant future.

 

[Sonereal]

1.) Everything should be able to calculate in a spreadsheet if given time.

2.) If you run into something that isn't as easy as just typing in a number or text in a cell, know that might be the more time consuming part of the update.

3.) Do not run a game that is more or less another game with slightly different rules. It splits the playerbase, and with there being 7-9 active IOTs, it is easy to get burn out and the first games to fall are usually the smaller of the same ruleset. For this reason, don't worry about hiatus.

4.) Clear your inbox often.

5.) If you do a team-based IOT, it must be set up so that deadweight players that don't get in orders, or don't perform well, can have their negative impact on a team lessened. If the game is about resources, and a fourth of one time off the bat doesn't send in orders, it gives the other team a boring and unfair advantage.

6.) If you're a new GM, the pressure on you is higher than older GMs. The old GMs will get players no matter what. New GMs, especially those new to the IOT community in general, shouldn't be disheartened if their games don't reach the numbers of the games of more established members. Just run your game and, most importantly, have fun with it.

7.) Figure out the point of your ruleset. My rulesets are notoriously prone to feature creep, so having a solid idea of what you want your game to be about helps. If your game is focused heavily on trade and diplomacy, feel free to let the military mechanics slack a bit. If you try to go complex in every direction, you should have a decent understanding of Excel or Access.

8.) When in doubt, steal Lighthearter's rulesets.

 

[Terran Empress]

as a new GM i think ill sub to this

 

[Lighthearter]

8.) When in doubt, steal Lighthearter's rulesets.

Lighthearter's rulesets are generally boring, vague, unspecific and generic. If you want creative rulesets, go rob Tani(SonicTH) or Sone himself. LH just puts together simplistic stuff on the side for his own evil kicks.

-L

 

[AlexRomaniaGrig]

Oh, and don't rob AlexRomanigrig's rulesets. Too complex, complete and unique. And definitely too not-mainstream to be of any interest for you.

 

[Robert Can't]

Speaking of complicated elements of rule sets - it can be a good idea to gloss over some of the mechanics or put them in laymans terms. For example don't talk about how an action affects the standard deviation of the number generated for trade. Say instead how the range of random numbers will increase.

When writing your rule set its always a good idea to make sure not to be overly technical but at the same time not to lie.

 

[NedimNapoleon]

Help from Nedim:

-Maps are the most important aspect of a game. Without a good map nothing can succeed.

 

[Red_Spy]

Rules, not map, are the most important. A map helps, but rules are what make the game.

 

[NedimNapoleon]

I beg to differ, the first thing I look at is the map, I refuse to join no matter how good the ruleset is if the map isn't good.

 

[Sonereal]

I beg to differ, the first thing I look at is the map, I refuse to join no matter how good the ruleset is if the map isn't good.

Except you're clearly the minority given the number of games that use rather basic maps and are still successful. Given that most games use pretty much the same handful of maps, I would argue strongly that the map is rather superflous to mechanics.

If your mechanics are weak, the game will die. Simple as that. That's why people can play Paradox games despite the clear map problems present in every game.

 

[Robert Can't]

But still, I'm generally put off by games using the IOTV map because its not that handsome.
I think that a good map is definitely an important point - especially if, like me, you think about the game from a RP perspective rather than a gameplay one.

Also since a handful of maps has survived doesn't it show that those maps are the ones that people like?

 

[Sonereal]

But still, I'm generally put off by games using the IOTV map because its not that handsome.
I think that a good map is definitely an important point - especially if, like me, you think about the game from a RP perspective rather than a gameplay one.

Also since a handful of maps has survived doesn't it show that those maps are the ones that people like?

No, it shows the maps the GMs like, which is the more important consideration. People like the Vicky2 maps, yet most GMs don't use it and for good reasons.