The cool thing about GMing a roleplaying game in an open world is that you get to ask some interesting questions before each session. These questions respond to the situation that changed due to player character actions. Put another way, you get to consider the consequences that play out in your game world.

For example, from Fellmyr:

Brennan, the son of Sir Roderick Stone, has been killed while on an expedition beneath St Gregory’s Church. In fact, the entire adventuring party (whom Brennan was accompanying, along with some men-at-arms) was wiped out. Nobody in Stone Harrow knows what happened. Brennan and his compatriots are missing.

What happens next? How will Sir Roderick react? Will he hire someone to go look for his now missing son, or will he gear up himself? When we add that Father Andrew’s assistant, Deacon Gareth, was with the group… it gets even more interesting. Not to mention that one of the apprentices of Pelladon (the Mage) was also there. Will he gear up, or just move on?

These are some of the questions that arise. There is joy in finding out the answers. Sometimes I have the NPCs do what makes the most logical sense, sometimes I call for a Reaction Roll. For some things, I will see what the players want to pursue and let their new characters influence some of the answers.

This is one of the greatest pleasures in GMing, if you ask me. The place where the player’s agency and the GM’s judgement meet, tempered by the fair adjudication of the rules, is a place I truly enjoy exploring.

Game on!