trust

What does this look like at the table? How do we achieve this to a level that makes for great story telling? Can this be accomplished even among strangers? Merriam-Webster defines trust as an “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.” Used as a verb, it is defined as “to place confidence in or rely on.” Placing trust in your GM should be returned by the GM trusting their players as well.

When trust is established at the table it results in collaborative story telling. This is no longer the story that the GM designed, and true “railroading” does not receive the frustration that it normally would. Why? Because the GM updates the narration based on player input and the players know the railroad is going to be story development to open up more opportunities for their contribution to the story.

The achievement of trust is much like respect, you must give it to get it. Yes, it can be broken, then it becomes work and a conscious decision to rebuild it, but it is not earned. That mindset will rarely garner any trust as it is not a reward to be given. So, start with trust, default to the belief that your GM has your character’s best interest in mind. GMs start with the belief that your players are not out to tell you about all the broken rules or inconsistencies. Allow your players to come up with cool ideas and work with them to make it happen. Let them take over the story and pick it up when they start to falter. 

This can be done at a table with strangers! I run games for conventions and I believe we have trust at the table. They trust me to provide an interesting scenario and I trust them to explore the situation through wits and action. If they want to try something that will “break” the game, I will generally allow it. This does require me to improvise additional scenarios or add in other characters to keep the story flowing, but that’s my role.

If there seems to be a power struggle, think about trust. Ask yourself some questions. Do I trust my player to run their character logically in the world I created? Does my player trust me enough to work with them on what they want to accomplish? If the answer to either of those questions is “No,” then there is a discussion that needs to be made between you and the player. Make a commitment to rebuild trust and work out those issues.