Sharing the Spotlight is Insufficient
I don’t often write advice for running games not because I don’t consider myself especially adroit at the practice but because when I am a referee I enter a flow state that feels most similar to how a spirit would take me over when I would perform theatre or extemporaneous debate. It’s almost out-of-body but it’s more that my internal monologue dissipates entirely and instinct takes over. Some people can teach their acting techniques or debate strategy but not me. “Allow yourself to be taken over by the spirit of performance” is simply not replicable advice.
It is, instead, when I’m playing games, not running them, that I can become conscious of GM techniques, whether they are something I do or not, and, if not, whether I should recommend their adoption to the performance spirit that lurks deep within my soul. I recently went to a local convention with the express purpose of binge-gaming (a delightful binge activity, far superior to -watching or even -drinking!). And more than one GM did something that I recognized “oh I do that too.” I don’t know where I picked up this GM technique as I’ve been doing it long before I plugged into blogs and even before I branched out beyond my first rules system (D&D 3.5). I assume, without any data at my disposal, that this technique must be common, but I think it’s a good one and is worth at least verbalizing so you can plug it into whatever GM technique database you keep lodged in whatever part of your body you lodge such things.
When the player succeeds, shift narrative control. This is simple enough that it makes sense that so many GMs do it. The most basic example, and the one I saw displayed at this convention, is for the GM to say “Okay, how do you kill it?” to whichever player landed the killing blow (not to brag, but in Fabula Ultima, this was me every single time—I was rolling well). But it doesn’t need to be just in combat! If the player character is attempting to lasso another who fell in a cold, rapid river when trying to jump aboard a boat, after making them do whatever the system demands to determine whether they are successful in this endeavor, ask “Okay, describe how you lasso them and pull them up onto the boat.” Simple as.
Be careful that this method doesn’t eliminate the requirement for the player to describe what they want to accomplish and how they go about trying to accomplish that. That is still the first step before letting the dice or whatever other resolution mechanic may be in play decide whether they are successful. All this method does is give the player a momentary control of the “describe the situation” part of the basic procedure of TTRPGs that is traditionally the domain of the referee.
9 times out of 10, the player will describe how they accomplish the action identically to how the referee would have done so. After all, they already told you what they wanted to do and the dice already told everyone that they did it successfully. However, from the player's side it feels way more like a success when you get a brief moment of becoming the narrator of your own character’s success. Sharing the spotlight is insufficient. Try sharing the microphone too.
