Trusting Your Players: The Line Between Too Much and Too Little

Wolfsbane706

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Is actually quite a blurry line, isn't it?

How much is too much and how much is too little? More often than not, you'll find yourself erring one way or the other. That's not the point, though. The point is, while yeah, it's easy to make a mistake, it shouldn't be all that difficult to mitigate those mistakes. The answer lies in the players. No, seriously. The players you get determines just how much information and what-all you need to give them. If you're doing a small group RP of say, four people and they're all fairly well-trusted, you don't need a whole lot of information and you can trust them to fill in the blanks on their own. Who knows, what they come up with may probably be better than what you could've cranked out. However, there's also the other side of the coin. If you're doing a large group RP with maybe a dozen people? You're more likely to end up with people who, if you give them an inch, will take a mile.

I'm one of those loophole abusers, but that's besides the point.

Let's start off with information. How much information should you give your players? For the trusted crowd, you'll probably feel safe with just a set of rough guidelines as the bare minimum, but you should probably do a little bit more than that. A concise set of rules, some short-phrased explanations, and a well-thought-out character skeleton will probably do. Feel free to add a little more or a little less depending on how well you know the players and how much you trust them.

For those larger groups, you may find yourself wanting to be as detailed as possible, locking down every conceivable loophole. Seems smart, doesn't it? Sure, but it's not wise. An excessively controlling RP is no fun for anyone, so you'll have to relax a bit. Not too much, though, or you'll find that if any loophole abusers have joined up, they'll have a field day exploiting your oversights. You want strict and detailed rules, a detailed but readable explanation on the world mechanics, and a detailed character skeleton with built-in rules. That should lock down most easily abused loopholes/oversights while still allowing for creative freedom.

Oh, and finding a way to mark the extremely important stuff is also helpful.

Lastly, player count. To be frank, there's no such thing as too few players unless required by your RP. You need at least two to begin with, anyway: yourself and one other. There is, however, such a thing as too many players. You should never recruit more players than you and any co-gms can handle. This can be avoided by setting hard caps on the number of recruitable players. Yeah, it turns your RP into a first-come-first-serve festivale of glory, but if you know how many players you can handle, that's the number you should shoot for. Too many players, and things start going nuts unless there's a gm handy to calm things down. On rare occasions, though, you get groups that are more than capable of managing themselves, though these are generally headed by trusted veteran players who joined your RP, but didn't necessarily want a co-gm spot.

So, there you have it. My attempt at guiding you through the blur that is too much vs. too little. I hope it helps you in your future endeavors!