After reading over Mark’s Patterns, article I started thinking about the various things that I do as a GM that have become patterns. Those things that when I pull them out of my hat the players look at me and say: “Ah yes! The Old blood painted on the walls trick.”



I think every GM has some predictable aspects to the games they run. Be it a favored setting, NPC, speech patterns, type of game, what have you. We all have patterns. It’s fun to try something different on occasion, and breaking a pattern is one of the ways to keep your players off guard.



Keeping your players off guard isn’t done to be mean or cruel, but rather because it’s fun to be challenged and surprised. If we usually have the bad guys wear black hats, or if you overuse a horror tool (such as a rotting body), it won’t take long for the players to key in on that pattern. Even if they don’t intend to they will often end up exploiting it, or they’ll no longer be affected by it as they should be.



Here’s a list of things in my games that I’ve discovered to be patterns which I’ve tried to change occasinally. Some are harder for me to break out of than others.



-Dark settings (Vampire, Wraith, Delta Green… gotta get chipper one of these days…)

-Dead babies

-Bad guys are very physically distinctive (very tall, strange eyes, unique/exotic weapon etc)

-Bad guys and important NPCs are rich and dress in only the finest clothing

-Friends and family will, more often than not, die tragically

-PCs won’t get killed unless it’s dramatic and done with player consent (working on this one – very tough pattern for me to break as I don’t like killing PCs even when I should)

-Combat between PCs is stopped

-Clues written in blood

-“Ritual Sacrifice” killings

-PCs rarely fail



I’m sure I can come up with others if I think on it a bit more. The point isn’t that GM patterns are bad, but that once we recognize them we can find ways to break out of them. This adds some fun and spice to the game. It can also help us correct “bad” behavior.



“Holly cow! I really do kill off at least 5 PCs a night in my Star Frontiers game… that’s not good…”



Same thing works on the other side of the screen as well. As players we have our patterns that we should identify and try to break out of occasionally. Some of mine are:



-Fantasy PCs are almost always a Ranger type

-PCs have the same interests and likes that I have

-Chaotic Good alignment

-Martial arts aptitude for PCs

-Do “the right thing” even if it’s out of character

-PC prefers to drink wine

-PC dwarves have a Scottish accent

-I will have my PC “try it out” just to see what happens (e.g. Pick up item, open door, touch evil altar, etc) even if it’s out of character

-Won’t willfully attack another PC

-Will try to lead the other PCs even if that’s out of character



They say that admitting something is the first step to correcting it. While patterns in our playing or GMing aren’t necessarily in need of correcting – Change is good. Find a pattern you have and break it. Apart from the fun such a challenge can bring, it’s always a good time to throw your GM or other players off guard.