I do that too 😅 I'm getting better at avoiding the scary trigger words and getting them to agree with the principles
I'm the guy but instead of a pyramid scheme I'm just trying to get all of my friends to install Linux and switch to fediverse social platforms
Recently came across this post on writing up a redacted document of all of the important info related to the world / story, and un-redacting things as the PCs discover. This lets them know what they don't know, and kind of the shape of what they don't know. https://ttrpg.network/post/20269477
Which reminded me of this well-known write up, Don't Prep Plots, which, while not entirely incompatible, is at least a very different approach.
Got me thinking of the way I do things, and a mix of all of the different things I have read. I try to run a pretty sandbox style game, but still have a lot of stuff going on in the world for the players to follow. In many cases the players will go towards something I haven't prepped or thought much about, and that improvised collaborative story telling lets me as the GM find out new information about the world right alongside the players.
I have started to think of this kind of gm prep as "Mad libs prep"
Mad Libs is a game where there are pre-written sentences, with blanks that need to be filled in by the players. E.g. "We get into our <noun> and <verb> to the beach" - players don't know what the sentence is when picking the words, so you can end up with that becoming "We get into our toaster and sleep to the beach". The idea is to have enough existing structure that things can get where they need to be, but with enough unknowns that can be filled in with whatever the players (who don't know the whole story) throw out there.
For GM prep, this can be knowing that there is an evil wizard who wants to take over the kingdom, and he needs <noun> to do it. The missing noun can be filled in by the players without them knowing.
For example, they become very interested in hunting for ancient magic artifacts? The essential <noun> is a legendary amulet and now the PCs are in a race against the mad mage to decipher its secret location.
Or maybe the PCs become monster hunters for hire, and the <noun> is the scale of a dragon or something similar, and the PCs run into the evil guys and uncover the plot.
Or perhaps the PCs really latch on to a side NPC that doesn't have much background fleshed out and <noun> becomes this person, who has some previously unknown connection to events that is discovered along the way (e.g. Martin Septim in TES IV).
The idea in general is to have enough material to know interesting things will happen, but not getting hung up on having every detail filled in. This also can be holding the things you do have prepared loosly, so maybe you had planned for the BBEG to have a secret lair in the mountains, but the PCs are really into a swampy forest area and end up wanting to spend all of their time there. Rather than "Ok, the BBEG has been up here uncontested the whole time and now the world ends, you all die" - the <location> of evil layer is now deep in the wilderness, which can lead to a lot of changes, creating new lore, creatures, quests, etc.
Maybe all of this stuff is obvious but I am a relatively new GM and have mostly been figuring it out on my own. I'd love to hear other prep methods and tips!
Kind of frustrating that one of the main points against Linux is anti cheat, which basically comes down to Spyware that assumes you are a hacker if you run Linux, so the game publishers ban your account. That isn't a Linux problem, since often these are games that run fine on Linux.
I love this idea. Would have been perfect for my current game, though I have enjoyed the flexibility to adjust things the players don't know yet.
That could still work with this approach but you'd have to be intentional about keeping changes within the same scope / size
I have been playing Genesys, and I LOVE it. I'm not playing in a sci-fi setting, but the whole premise behind Genesys is that is is adaptable to any setting, and from what I have seen of the system, it would be great for something like that. There are tons of rules for vehicle stats, combat, etc. and it has guidelines for how to design and balance your own vehicles.
If you are interested in making and playing in your own setting I would definitely recommend Genesys.
If you are wanting something with an existing setting that matches that vibe, then I'd first check and see if some of the community made settings will fit that, and if not, then maybe look elsewhere.
There are a ton of community made resources for Genesys on DriveThruRPG and also in a dropbox maintained by one of the community members, and that dropbox has some resources for an Expanse setting and other sci-fi stuff that would be a good starting point: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/raqr7usuzwizglm/AACMnwsNyT5DPHyjokWZwQLOa/Community Content?dl=0&lst=&subfolder_nav_tracking=1
I would also say you should definitely get the core rulebook AND the expanded players guide, as that has tons of good resources and better guidelines for creating vehicles, as well as other useful things. It's really a fantastic GM toolkit.
EDIT: Also regarding the dice, which can be kind of hard to get, they have an app that you can use, as well as charts for converting normal polyhedral dice to the Genesys symbols, and what I personally do is just use the Star Wars dice, which are the same (with slightly different look to the symbols) and are more available, at least where I am.
I know this is an old post, but I will give a +1 to Hero Kids for a few reasons:
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There's like 4 stats and all you need is a bunch of D6.
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The character sheets fit on an index card and are easy enough for a 6 year old to grasp everything on it.
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If you want to run their setting, tons of info is provided with quest seeds and pre-made adventures, and it is super easy to adapt to a different setting, or even totally different genre, because of how simple the stats are.
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It has a great monster compendium, with tons of fantasy monsters, with notes on balancing encounters.
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If you want to get creative and make totally custom monsters, the information included on balancing gives you all the tools to do that.
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The PDF bundle on DriveThruRPG is like $20 for the PDFs of most of the adventures, the core book, the monster compendium, and the gazetteer, all of which are great.
I'm running an ongoing campaign with a 6 year old, a 7.5 year old and my 16 year old sister. We had a 3 hour session last time, and the ADHD 6 year old was there for the whole thing (with a couple 5 minute breaks).
If you have any questions about it let me know. I'm not a super experienced GM. I've only run Hero Kids and Genesys, with being a GM in Hero Kids being my intro to TTRPGs.
Love talking all things trrpg. I primarily GM Genesys RPG, sometimes also Star Wars RPG and Hero Kids.
Also into Linux, 3D Printing, software development, and PC gaming