A great role-playing game experience depends on many things, not least the attention and skill of the Guide. This skill is learned one way and one way only—through experience. Unlike Sentients, we can’t upload new knowledge directly into our cortices (for now). Experienced gamemasters will already carry with them the general idea of how to run role-playing games, but if this is your first time, never fear.
The Guide is a kind of referee for a conversation, sometimes helping determine its direction, at other times letting the players run free. The Guide may also adjudicate disagreements, deciding in the end what happens in the story.
This chapter is like a toolbox, comprised of various different implements to be used at different times for different purposes. You are welcome to select one and discard another as it fits your game.
Here are some “rules”—so quoted because the first rule is that the rules can be bent or broken—for achieving the best experience.
Rule 0: The goal of the game is to have fun and tell compelling, memorable stories.
The purpose of this book is to provide the raw materials for the Guide and players to construct new stories about self-aware anthroids. To this end, the rules are only a scaffold: they should never suffocate what would otherwise be a fun experience. You are free to determine that a rule can be bent or handwaved for the sake of the story and the players’ entertainment.
Rule 1: At any time, each PC should have at least one known goal.
A player should always have an idea for what to do next, no matter if it’s right or wrong or on- of off-track. It’s not generally fun to have no idea at all what to do next and spend time floundering. Note however that it is perfectly acceptable, even expected, for players to have moments of discussion in order to identify goals and make plans.
Rule 2: The players should face interesting decisions.
Some theories define a game as a series of interesting decisions: which of these many options do I choose? What will the pros and cons be? Which will get me to my goal—or which goal do I strive for? Central to meaningful stories is a dilemma, in which the protagonist must choose between difficult—even seemingly impossible—choices.
A core element of storytelling—perhaps the core element—is the “reversal of fortune.” If a character is doing well in one moment, they should be facing challenges in the next, and vice versa, throughout the story.
Now, being that this is a role-playing game where many situations are resolved with dice throws, nobody is truly in charge of the story in the way a novelist or screenwriter is. Nonetheless, the Guide can use Reversals of Fortune as a basic guide for what to throw at the players next: if they are suffering now, they’ll need a win next, so perhaps make the next challenge easier than you might otherwise have.
Guides should consider running a “Session 0” for each player that tells the story of the PC's Awakening: what happened when the player's Sentient first attained their newfound consciousness? What was going on around them at the time?
This session (or sessions) could be one-on-one with each player, or it could be done as a group so that every player gets to see all the PC’s origin stories.
Stress, Control and Emotion Levels are the cornerstones of the Sentients experience: they represent the turmoil inherent in a Sentient’s newfound emotions.
The Guide must be on the lookout for situations and events that affect any of these Levels. Multiple different things can be affected at once. For example, if a cave entrance collapses, the PCs might gain 1 Stress each and 2 Levels of Emotion each. Recall from Chapter 3 that Emotion Levels can be distributed by the Guide explicitly or for the Player to decide.