DURING PLAY

During each session, adhere to the following principles:

• Portray a wondrous world. Give your NPCs unique quirks and add memorable touches to every location, but don't get bogged down by details. Keep the descriptions short and then let everyone ask questions.
• Manage information. A big part of your job during each session has to do with information — you will be asked plenty of questions, from the shape of a room to a person's behavior. You decide whether the characters know such information (based on simple observation or on who they are) or if a Check is required — the dice will determine how much the character knows about someone or something, or if they at least know where they could find that information.
• Seek input from others. If something is relevant to a character's role in the story (especially their Classes and Identities), you should ask for the Player's input — let them establish facts about the shared game world.
• React to the heroes' choices. Be ready to adapt to the heroes' actions and goals; leave them free to adopt whatever strategy they choose, but apply the consequences of those strategies and don't pull your punches.
• Enforce transparency. Make sure everyone at the table knows what's at stake when they perform Checks or choose a specific course of action.
• Keep the pressure high. Whatever the Player Characters want to achieve, someone or something will block their path. Heroes should never have enough time to do everything — put them in front of hard choices. Use Clocks to show impending threats and make sure Villains play an active role in the story.
• Think cinematically. Describe situations and actions as if they were cutscenes from a videogame — keep things moving and make sure everything feels vivid and dynamic. This is especially important during conflict scenes, when the strategic aspect of the game is at its peak: mechanics and descriptions go hand in hand.
• Start and end scenes. When you feel like a scene has been resolved, propose to end it. If anyone still wants to do something, they should tell you — otherwise, move on with the story.
• Design interesting battles. Avoid "filler battles" and focus on intense and dramatic confrontations with powerful antagonists. See page 292 for more.

Philip Forlenza (Order #)