Creating atmosphere for your game is one of the key components to making your game memorable. Whether it’s the Machiavellian machinations of a vampire court, the sense of impending doom as you stalk through an old library in Cthulhu, or the Dickensian dystopia of the streets in a game of Cyberpunk, atmosphere can make or break a game. The trouble is, despite the best written adventure in the world, it’s really difficult to maintain the atmosphere if two players won’t stop with the Monty Python quotes, one player keeps hitting on you, a baby is crying in the next room and the new puppy just peed on your rule book. Knowing how to bring all that potential chaos under your control is difficult and sometimes impossible, but if you take the right steps you can improve the atmosphere of your game and draw people into the world you are creating.
Identify the Disruptions
I believe one of the first things you need to do it identify potential disruptions before game night. Many issues are plainly obvious, and with a little forward planning you can solve the issues before they happen. The puppy should be locked in the laundry where it’s easy to clean up, or better still, outside where it’s whining might not be heard. Ideally babies need to be with baby sitters, though given that’s not always the best solution, you should prepare the various child care supplies as if you were going out so you can quickly address any issues.
Take the time to think. Sit down and listen to your house and identify anything that might be an issue. Even the ticking of a clock could add or distract from the environment you want to create. Your first responsibility is to immerse yourself into the world you want to create, then weed out anything that is pulling you from it.
Music
In 95% of cases I recommend not using music. I know many GMs that believe music enhances the atmosphere, and it can, but it must be used with extreme care. The first issue is that music, like most art, is highly subjective. Just because a certain piece of music makes you feel a particular way it doesn’t mean others will have the same response. The second issue is that music can create unrelated discussion as people feel compelled to comment on a particular track. Even if it’s just to compliment the song choice, it’s a distraction. Another issue is preparation, because trying to play a particular song at the right time to have it match the action is exceedingly difficult when all games have variable flow, and that’s if the song even plays when you press play.
If you are playing in a more ancient world then music really doesn’t have a place at all. If characters are wandering through some ancient forest then even the sounds of a lute are inappropriate. The only sounds they should be hearing are the sounds of nature. You might use some sort of nature track, but be very careful with your choice.
There are correct times to use music. If the adventuring party enters a nightclub, or a tavern, then appropriate music can help create a more lively atmosphere. If you have a lot of undesirable ambient noise, music can help cover that up, but I would recommend one of the many white noise sound blockers instead. Sub audible sounds can be effective, but again be careful because different people can react differently to them. The use of infrasonic sound to make a place feel haunted is actually more likely to give people a headache or make them feel ill than make them feel frightened.
While I have tried many methods, all to varying degrees of success, I’ve found nothing reliable and many things outright disruptive. If you can lead your group well, then the sound of your voice and the world you weave should be all you need.
Difficult People
Dealing with disruptive people is perhaps the hardest thing to master, not only with atmosphere, but in many aspects of roleplay. For this discussion I’ll stay focused just on the atmospheric component.
One of the biggest reasons I find for people causing disruption is that they are not being engaged by your story. Maybe the netrunner needs to run the matrix, or the thief has scouted ahead, but for some reason not all characters are involved and that means idle players. Ideally you can run action in parallel, alternating between split groups turn by turn or even round by round. If that isn’t possible then either draw that player aside or send the rest of the players out to make coffee. In the case of netrunners, I would often try to get them to make their run before the actual game session, because their run will usually only be seconds in game. This way they either have control of the matrix or they can report failure. If they have control, then you should be able to keep them busy making roles to meet the demands of the rest of the group.
Allowing time for players to settle into a game really helps build atmosphere. If you dive straight into heavy duty roleplaying the moment people arrive then players will be disruptive as they catch up with each other. I allow around an hour for players to discuss their week and start to settle into the game, and their characters, before I even begin to build atmosphere. This means pacing your game so that the most atmospheric parts occur during the middle third of the time allowed for the session. Plan breaks as well, preferably when characters have a break themselves. It does help maintain atmosphere if players and characters can mirror each other in their down time.
I prefer smaller groups over larger groups because it’s easier to maintain control. For me, the ideal number of players for most games is four. Four gives good diversity while being easy to manage. The largest group I’ve gamed in was seventeen players, needless to say, it wasn’t worth the time. Running smaller groups also means I can be selective about who I allow into my group, and I simply don’t accept players who are unwilling or unable to maintain focus on the game. Removing disruptive players is the most efficient way of maintaining a good atmosphere. I don’t choose players based on experience level or perceived skill level, a poor player can be taught to be a good player if put in a good group. I choose players based on how well they can work together and how well they maintain atmosphere. Is it being elitist? I suppose it is, but game time is valuable and you have to respect the time everyone has invested with you.
Pacing
As any good novelist or screen writer will tell you, pacing is vital to good story telling. Pacing really deserves an article to itself so do take the time to do a quick websearch on the subject. Essentially, pacing means knowing where the climax of your story is and building towards that climax in incremental steps, escalating the intensity with each step, but also having the intensity drop off at each step as well. Those drop offs are vital, as it allows the player to take a breath and be more prepared for the next step up. If you constantly escalate the intensity without allowing people a moment to relax they become numb to the entire experience.
One thing that makes Joss Whedon such as exceptional story teller is his mastery of pacing. Watch any episode of Firefly and you will see how he uses humour as a way of releasing the pressure valve on the intensity of the story. The crew of Serenity start with a simple mission, things go wrong, and the intensity builds as one thing leads to another. Eventually the viewer is on the point of tears (or past it) as the characters discover more about themselves. Suddenly someone makes some little quip and you smile through your tears as you appreciate that bittersweet moment in time. In the final act the story drops an entire plateau, leaving the viewer on a high but not on the edge of their seat.
Your gaming sessions should aim for the same flow, even if the game session is a hack and slash dungeon crawl. Start with something simple like goblins to warm up the party, then give them a moment to rest. Then they encounter better organised goblins, but when they win through they encounter some friendly NPC and have a moment of respite. Then comes the hobgoblins who are tougher again, but they find some cool loot at the end and take time to celebrate. Finally they encounter the goblin king. The fight is going well but at the last moment the goblin king releases the ogres! The intensity is at the climax but the players win through. Finally they can return victorious to the town and the barbarian in the party can afford the attentions of his favourite ‘barmaid’ and much fun is had.
Good pacing creates good atmosphere, so try to let it happen. Some players are naturally good at helping pacing by making quips in game at stressful moments. Let them, they are not trying to ruin your atmosphere, they are actually enhancing it by letting off steam from the pressure cooker you are creating at the moments they feel they need to. As a GM it can sometimes be difficult to remember how much pressure the players are under.
Narrative
You have to be willing to tell a story. If you game is nothing but a series of encounters then building atmosphere will be difficult. Once scene should build into the next scene with a smooth flow. I remember back in my early days doing dungeon crawling, each room was simply a different scene. When I began to think of the dungeon not as a series of rooms, but as an ecology, the quality of my story telling jumped up a level. Suddenly it mattered how the gate guards were killed, and bad guys would dare to do such radical things as escape the battle to warn their friends. It added a whole new intensity to the game and I’ve never looked back, even when running classic D&D modules.
Paint the scenes with your narrative. Don’t just give the dimensions of the room, use all the senses. How does a room smell? Is there a funny taste in the air? What sounds are echoing through the darkness? Is the floor slimy underfoot? By engaging all the senses you engage the players. With time, your players will start to ask you for those other details as they place themselves into your world and look for hints on what might be around the next corner.
This section also ties in with the old writing adage of ‘show don’t tell’. Don’t tell players how an NPC feels. Instead, you have to provide details that indicate how they might feel. The same applies to all aspects of the game world. Rather than saying “The door is large and made of wood bound with iron”, it’s better to say “The door looks to be made for someone taller and wider than Broof (the party strongman). It is crafted of a grey wood that has stood the test of time, being neither splintered or chipped from use. The same can not be said of the iron bindings which show signs of regular polish and care, but are still pitted with rust around the rivets.” The second description takes longer to say, but it provides a wealth of information for the sharp eyed and thinking player. Why is it so large? Who polishes it? It also answers many questions.
Bring NPCs to Life
This brings me to one of the most important senses of all; emotion. Once you have players emotionally invested in characters or aspects of your world then you will have players for life, or at least until they move out of town or have children :-(. How do you create emotion? By giving the NPCs personality. People connect to environments most strongly through other people. You might play a terrible MMO for years just because of the people there. So it is in a tabletop RPG, where players will stay committed to a world because of the people within it.
If the ruling queen does nothing but bestow perfunctory thanks on the party each time they save her kingdom then why should the players care when she is kidnapped? Oh, they’ll rescue her because it’s what the adventure for the night is, but they won’t care. Now, make her human, give her strengths and weaknesses, and animate her, now they might care. People fall in love with the most simple things, so the more complex and well defined you can make a personality the more hooks you will create to hold a players attention. Rather than just public thanks for their aid the Queen invites the party to dinner. There the Queen drinks a little too much and hints ever so slightly that there might be some impropriety between the maid and the butler. What have the players learnt? That the Queen likes her drink but cannot handle it, and that she cares about and watches her subjects, or at least those within her court. If she let slip that the barman in the roughest bar in town is a nasty man, it might indicate she sneaks out at night in disguise and might not be as harmless and out of touch as she projects. Show, don’t tell.
Never overdo it, just leave little breadcrumbs and take note of what you left. You will have potentially hundreds of personalities in your world, so take notes and be careful not to reuse certain traits over much. Steal little traits from characters you like in books and tv, but only use snippets from those traits spread throughout your world, don’t try to just copy a character and say “Yeah, she’s just like Luke Skywalker, but with tits.” Copying and inspiration are two different concepts and copies are usually just really lame, second rate, and usually viewed first as being parody.
Final Word
Atmosphere can make or break your game, and invariably a good GM is one that can create and maintain an atmosphere. There are countless little things I haven’t covered here, but a little imagination and experience will teach you how to deal with those pitfalls as they arise. Most important of all to understand is that atmosphere has very real value, and it’s worth the time to develop.
Things will go awry, you cannot plan for everything. I was once playing in a group when a pant-less toddler wandered into the middle, stood with legs apart and proceeded to start defecating. There is no recovery of atmosphere from something like that. When the unexpected happens just acknowledge it, deal with it, and move on. Often failure to just address an issue and find resolution leads to more time lost then trying to put it aside.
One last consideration. Atmosphere does not take precedence over fun. Ruling with a tyrannical fist will not create a positive gaming environment so keep it light. If the game sucked it wasn’t because the players didn’t let you build the right ambience, it’s because you and/or the players failed to enjoy the game.