One of the most important skills you can have as a DM is building anticipation in your players. When your players are excited about the game, they’re going to be more likely to really get into their roles. Not only will the “in character” aspect of your game improve, combat and technical sequences will go quicker, as well, because players will know their stats and abilities inside and out.
How do you do it, though? How do you keep them coming back for more?
The ability to build anticipation in your roleplaying game is what separates a good DM from a great DM. Here are some simple tactics you can use to help build anticipation for your games:
- Be excited. Look, if you’re not excited about playing, your players won’t be either. Chances are pretty good there wouldn’t be a regular game if you weren’t DMing (unless you’re fortunate enough to have a larger pool of players who are also willing to DM).
- Be consistent. One of the best ways to screw a campaign is to interrupt the schedule. No, you probably aren’t going to play on Christmas eve. But if at all possible, you need to have a regular day you can always come back to. On those occasions when the regular gaming day doesn’t work out, have an alternate date already planned.
- Use cliffhangers. End each session at the peak of action. Your players will want to get back to the table as quickly as they can in order to find out what happens next. The same principle applies for “gotcha” session endings, where you end the session by turning the entire plot on its head.
- Use downtime. Some games are more conducive to so-called “downtime” activities in between game sessions than others. Still, downtime can be an excellent way to keep players brimming with anticipation. Even if the party is in the middle of a dungeon, there’s no reason you can’t run a one-on-one session with a player to work out the details of an earlier life experience. At the very least, you can garner a handful of future plot hooks by getting the player to invest some deeper thought into their background.
- Keep communication going. Whether you use Obsidian Portal, set up your own forums, or just have an email thread, make sure you are keeping in touch with players, and that they have a way to interact with you and with one another, as well.
