The Ping Pong Heartbeat Part 1

 

The Ping Pong Heartbeat

Many discussions, youtube videos, and blogs write about DM'ing as a fine art. They write about their respective leanings towards play that often repeat time-tested methods. It's always good to have these fundamentals, but it's also reductive in thinking critically in terms of running a good session. Conventional wisdom replaces careful consideration and our hobby becomes echoes of an echo. The first topic I'd like to tackle leads toward pacing.

This Ping Pong Heartbeat is not a new idea except in perhaps its name. It's an idea that doesn't get talked about despite being one of the most critical elements of practical DM'ing and, to a lesser extent, adventure design. In most heartbeat based software protocols in software an incremental request and response is required to consider a heartbeat of a connection to stay alive. In play, there should be a steady flow of information back and forth. This is the heartbeat that tells you that your game is alive. 

Do You Suck At Getting Started?

Let's imagine that you're in a typical 4 hour session as a DM running five players through a basic town and nearby adventure location session. Starting them in a place where they can gather information is the best way to get use out of session time short of just starting them at the dungeon itself. Announcing to the players where they are, why they are there, and what they know is a good and commonly practiced start. Usually the players will be prompted to talk to each other a bit and ask you some qualifying questions. You let them get information from each other, they gather rumors/hooks, and you've responded to their inquiries. Then the session goes silent. You prompt them with a question of how they proceed. A few people mutter and sputter until an hour past the session start time they finally decide to embark on the adventure.

You already fucked up. 

Introductions, getting people situated, and getting through inconsequential in-town play has eaten 1/4th of the session already. You stoked the fire and let it smolder to embers, then you tried to breathe on it until it lit again. Once the players stop ping/ponging information to each other and yourself, this is the time to look for the silence to begin to settle. You could have been offering suggestions to facilitate play. You could be calling on players individually to appeal to their senses. You could have been driving it forward. If characters are rolled up, hooks/rumors are handled, supplies purchased, and hirelings hired - get them to move. They are here to play, so remind them of options to do so.

"I need to know, if you plan on adventuring, what direction you plan on leaving. North east? Okay, so this will take you 1/4 of the day... and no encounters. You estimate another few hours before you reach the Abandoned Monastery, I assume you proceed?"

You may have heard of the 'Orcs attack!' method of motivating players, but this is the 'Yes/No' method. The players might have gotten texted to by their spouse, a dog might have thrown up on the carpet, someone talked over someone else, or maybe while you were giving too long of an exposition they were looking up how Mirror Image works in this edition. Hit them with the suggestive 'Yes/No' and we're back in business.

Now that we're at the adventure site, you describe their scouting information. You know the options they've been presented with, but again they settle into meandering. Unsure of what’s expected of them, unless they have a proactive player who can help carry the game for you, they hope that someone else will drive the game forward. If you have a player that is adept at calling for the group, this will usually be their job to keep things moving forward. Unfortunately, I've seen many games where there is no such suited player. How does a DM spark the fire in their place?

"You can go through the heavily guarded front gates, try to sneak in through that broken part of the wall, or see if that nearby cave entrance provides a way in. Or does the party have a different idea? Which would you like to do?"

 To be continued in part 2 - The Combat Slog