Writing Every Day 07: All the World's a Stage

In RPG's, all the world is a stage, but it only has one spotlight.

There are tons of Game Mastering books out there that talk about the spotlight, or the amount of attention that is paid to a single player's character during a session. Ideally, as the Game Master we move the spotlight around, giving different characters equal attention as they come to the forefront. Combat encounters seem to do this naturally, since every character in the combat has their own turn in the initiative order when the spotlight falls on them. Outside of combat, though, the spotlight can linger on one or two characters longer than the rest.

Sometimes this is just fine. If the evening's game centers on a story involving a character's backstory, or it involves some personal goal of that character, it's natural for the Game Master to spend more time on the character's turns. A recent example from a game I participated in was in The Hoard of the Dragon Queen. One of the PCs had chosen a background that involved locating a missing childhood friend that was entangled in the activities of the adventure's villainous cult. When that missing friend arrived on the scene, the PC moved into the forefront for a while.

That's a perfect reason to shine the spotlight on someone. It moves the story forward, pays off a portion of a character's background, and informs the players about the adventure's world. Best of all, it was something the Game Master could expect and prepare for. Our Game Master spent more time with the rest of the PCs prior to the reveal of the friend and balanced the overall time spent among all of the characters. It was a great example of balancing focus on multiple players who all want to play the game and feel like important heroes doing cool stuff.

There are other things that can cause the spotlight to linger on a particular PC though, which can complicate the Game Master's job. Off the top of my head, the shopping scene is one nasty offender. In a shopping scene, a player walks into a shop to purchase some item. The player wants to talk to the shop's owner, bantering back and forth before finally making a purchase. Depending on the player, this kind of thing can take a few minutes or more. While it's immersive for the player participating in the conversation, anyone else who isn't there can rapidly lose interest in what's going on. Others will strike out for their own diversions, compounding the issue and delaying the game.

Is this kind of thing bad? I don't know. Not necessarily. A Game Master can use moments like that to advance the group's understanding of the present situation, backfill information about the world, and drop plot hooks for further adventures. However, care must be taken so the other players who aren't participating in the scene have something of equal value—that commands an equal portion of your attention—to do. For that reason, unless a large number of characters decide to head out together for these undertakings, I prefer to have that activity take place at the beginning of a session before the story gets rolling, or let the players perform it between sessions if the story permits.

I'm guilty of letting single players hold the spotlight for large portions of a session. Duels are notorious for keeping focus on a single player for far too long. So do scenes where a hacker tries to crack security of some computer network. They tend to involve more complex rules and narration and by their nature are performed by single characters. I've seen authors handle these scenes well in the past; check out the duel between Logen Ninefingers and Fenris the Feared in Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy for an example of how other characters can have spotlight moments during a tense and prolonged duel. He sets up a series of challenges, some on the dueling ground and others off it, that give his ensemble of characters their own things to do over the course of the fight. Even characters standing in a circle around the dueling pair manage to contribute meaningfully to the outcome.

I don't know if I have a perfect solution to these moments, other than to suggest breaking up the duel, hacking effort, or other similar attention-holding moment, by presenting the group with other goals that must be achieved in concert. Find dramatic moments to break away from the "primary" action and swap focus to another character. Let their efforts build to the greater success of the group. Remember that everyone at the table is there because they want to be the star of the show and keep the spotlight moving.