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How To AIM Log
Sometimes, RP needs people to run AIM logs! Read this guide, and it could be you. Running these things is not nearly as hard as it seems - as a former mod at Super Robot Wars: Unlimited Generation, I have quite a bit of experience in streamlining the process.
Let's learn!
Format
The actual details of log format vary depending on who's running the log, and you're free to change it up too! However, between the two SRW RPs, Anemoi and Imperial Saga, something of a standard format has developed, so I'm going to summarize it here in its simplest form. Using this is optional, but the rules are already written out, so it should be easier to just link people to this than to explain how you want to run it every time.
I'm pretty sure that's it - ask questions in the comments, and I'll address them and update the above, but that's how I run stuff.
Concept
Coming up with a good idea can be the hardest part, but also the most rewarding. This, I can't provide too much help with, as it varies massively based on the game you're logging for. Generally you should start with a setting (sand monster city) and an objective (steal the legendary sand treasure), and work from there to decide what kind of opposition or challenges the players will be facing.
Preparation
This is another matter of personal preference - some GMs like to keep exhaustive notes in advance, and others just make everything up as they go. Personally, I strike a middle ground. My notes usually look something like this:
Sand temple entrance
4x sand monster
Sand puzzle
North: Sand temple
Sand temple
1x sand king, 2x sand monster
North: Sand treasury (secret passage)
And so on. What major areas there are, and what's in each one. For less exploratory, more plot-heavy sort of missions, I'll even leave out the locations, and just have a list of waves of enemies/events. Major dialogue can go in here, too. Again, though, this is up to your personal preference.
Non-combat
Now for actually running the mission! There are three primary sorts of non-combat scenes (if you can think of more major ones, again, say something in the comments): Mingling, plot events, and puzzles. All are the same in that no sort of turn order needs to be established - just let the players act and react at their own pace.
Mingling
Sometimes, often at the start or end of a mission, there's a good time to let the players just bounce off of each other. These scenes are good to have for a number of reasons: They're amusing to watch, they help characters build CR with each other, and you don't have to lift a finger. Just sit back and wait for things to start to slow down before gently pushing the players in the direction of advancing, either by making things start to happen, or just describing relevant things such as dungeon entrances or puzzle objects in greater detail. The players should get the hint.
Plot events
These are big important things, usually involving NPC characters, that are happening specifically because some ongoing plot needs them to. Examples might be a character betraying the party, or the villain showing up to drop everyone into a giant abyss that they'll have to escape from. These can be exciting and fun, but try not to go overboard with them - the downside of plot events is the very limited control the players have over the situation. Use when you need them, keep the control in the hands of the party when you can, do your best to prepare for your players throwing you curveballs.
Puzzle
Puzzles can be tricky, tricky things in an RP situation - since AIM logs rely heavily on textual descriptions, it can be hard to convey a good feeling for what the area is like, and the party might not be able to see the solution to the puzzle you've created. My advice is to start with nice and simple zelda-style puzzles (light the torches, find some objects and put them in object holders, open the door, move on!), then once you and your players start to get more comfortable with them, maybe move on to more complicated stuff. Visual aids can be fun here, even if you keep 'em simple. Some MSPaint sketches can really help convey the shape of a puzzle.
Related to puzzles is obstacles - the party has to outrun a sand avalanche, or make their way through a room filled with spinning blades. The easiest way to handle these is to set up the descriptions, let the players narrate out their badassery, and then generally let them succeed. Remember, this isnt a contest between you and your party. It's a collaborative storytelling adventure.
Full non-combat missions
While a lot of people are going to be in this for the action, there's no reason a mission has to actually have any fighting in it. This is totally fine - you just need some kind of central exciting activity to replace the combat and keep people engaged. This could be just about anything, so long as it doesn't require martial proficiency to succeed. A series of riddles told by a giant floating head, with wrong answers gradually lowering people into a vat of acid. A car chase. A long series of complex puzzles ad obstacle courses. Simple exploration of diverse, interesting locales. A courtroom showdown. It's your plot, so the sky's the limit!
Combat
Here's where things get exciting! Combat can be confusing for new players and new GMs alike, but it's not nearly as hard as it looks if you do it right.
Getting started
Once the enemies have made it onto the scene, you need to make the conditions of the battle clear. The best way to do this is to explicitly outline the present enemies and then the player turn order:
The sand king snarls, and orders his minions to charge!
(Enemies: Sand King, 4x Sand Monster)
(Initiative: Ichigo, Rukia, Slenderman, Shia LaBeouf)
(Ichigo!)
The flow
That (Ichigo!) is indicating it's Ichigo's turn, so he'll make an attack against one of the enemies now. Don't worry too much about relative power levels when deciding what does or doesn't work - factors on what does or doesn't destroy an enemy include whether the enemy is a boss type or a mook, how cool the attack was, how long you want the scene to last, and so on. So, if Ichigo uses Getsuga Tenshou on a Sand Monster, it will probably go down in one hit. However, if he just charges the sand king right away, then he'll probably get swatted aside for his efforts - it's too early in the fight for the boss to be defeated, after all!
End of the turn
Once you get to the end of the initiative list, it's a good time for other things to happen - plot events changing the layout of the battle, for example, or the enemy forces retaliating. This is a good place for big boss attacks that everyone has to react to at once. Then, start back from the top of the list and keep going.
Handling bosses
Boss enemies can be tough to handle - players will get frustrated if the enemy is shrugging off everything they do and laughing about it. I've found a good way to handle bosses is to have them start off fights by deflecting or evading anything the players throw at them, and hitting back hard. Then, as the fight goes on and the players start pulling out the big guns, make their defensive actions more strained and inconsistent, occasionally letting attacks get through and hurt the boss - but also have his own attacks get more dangerous and dramatic. Decreasing the boss's defense while inreasing its offense makes the fight gradually build towards being more exciting. Then, at the end of the fight, finish things off on a high note - throw out the biggest attacks the boss has, then leave him vulnerable to a big group attack from the whole team. Or something else equally exciting.
Keeping track of everything
Wait, where is everyone? How far is Ichigo from the sand king? What does Getsuga Tenshou do, exactly? What's the range on it? Can it hurt sand?
Dont sweat the small stuff! The important thing to do here is to trust the players. Never worry about how far or near someone is unless it's really important. Let them assume they're at the right distance to make the attacks they want to make. If they're doing a big powerful attack and there's no specific defensive abilities at work that would obviously hamper it, go ahead and let it work. You are the conductor, but the players are the musicians here. The main role of non-boss enemies in partiular is to let the players show off their badassery.
Good guy casualties
This is very much a matter of player group preference. However, if you're running a group and don't know how they feel about this, a quick easy method is to ask the players before the mission starts who's okay with their characters getting injured, or worse. Keep note of that, and dish out the punishment when appropriate. In most situations, character death or serious injury should only be inflicted after talking the player about it outside of the chat.
Improvisation
Of course, nothing will quite go how you expect it to. That's why you need to be able to think on your feet (although if your players know you're nervous, they should hopefully be nice enough to follow the rails).
The best trick here is to know that your players haven't seen your notes. Party running off to some area you didn't plan for? Move the contents of one of your planned areas into where they're going. Did a player bail out on you at the last second? Quietly cut out the parts of the mission plot relevant to him. This is really much more art than science, and comes with a lot of practice.
That's all I've got for now! Got more advice, or questions? The comments await ye.
Let's learn!
Format
The actual details of log format vary depending on who's running the log, and you're free to change it up too! However, between the two SRW RPs, Anemoi and Imperial Saga, something of a standard format has developed, so I'm going to summarize it here in its simplest form. Using this is optional, but the rules are already written out, so it should be easier to just link people to this than to explain how you want to run it every time.
- Present tense, third-person prose for action. (Ichigo faceplants on the cold sand.)
- Name: "Line" for dialogue. (Ichigo: "I hate sand!")
- When combat starts, the GM provides a list of all the player characters involved, in the order they're going to act in. ((Ichigo, Rukia, Slenderman, Shia LaBeouf))
- When it's time for someone to act, the GM says the character's name in parentheses. ((Ichigo))
- When a player is describing an action for a character, they put a + at the end of the action. This is so that if an action spans multiple lines of IM chatter, the GM knows for sure when it's done. (Ichigo runs up and cuts the sand monster in half! +)
- When the player acts, the GM then dictates the results, and possible calls for a reaction if needed. (The sand monster is unfazed, and shoots a sand laser at Ichigo. (Ichigo react))
- If a character wants to act out of turn, for instance, to rescue someone from danger or to attack along with an ally, the player says # in the chat. The GM then calls for a support action. ((Slenderman Support))
I'm pretty sure that's it - ask questions in the comments, and I'll address them and update the above, but that's how I run stuff.
Concept
Coming up with a good idea can be the hardest part, but also the most rewarding. This, I can't provide too much help with, as it varies massively based on the game you're logging for. Generally you should start with a setting (sand monster city) and an objective (steal the legendary sand treasure), and work from there to decide what kind of opposition or challenges the players will be facing.
Preparation
This is another matter of personal preference - some GMs like to keep exhaustive notes in advance, and others just make everything up as they go. Personally, I strike a middle ground. My notes usually look something like this:
Sand temple entrance
4x sand monster
Sand puzzle
North: Sand temple
Sand temple
1x sand king, 2x sand monster
North: Sand treasury (secret passage)
And so on. What major areas there are, and what's in each one. For less exploratory, more plot-heavy sort of missions, I'll even leave out the locations, and just have a list of waves of enemies/events. Major dialogue can go in here, too. Again, though, this is up to your personal preference.
Non-combat
Now for actually running the mission! There are three primary sorts of non-combat scenes (if you can think of more major ones, again, say something in the comments): Mingling, plot events, and puzzles. All are the same in that no sort of turn order needs to be established - just let the players act and react at their own pace.
Mingling
Sometimes, often at the start or end of a mission, there's a good time to let the players just bounce off of each other. These scenes are good to have for a number of reasons: They're amusing to watch, they help characters build CR with each other, and you don't have to lift a finger. Just sit back and wait for things to start to slow down before gently pushing the players in the direction of advancing, either by making things start to happen, or just describing relevant things such as dungeon entrances or puzzle objects in greater detail. The players should get the hint.
Plot events
These are big important things, usually involving NPC characters, that are happening specifically because some ongoing plot needs them to. Examples might be a character betraying the party, or the villain showing up to drop everyone into a giant abyss that they'll have to escape from. These can be exciting and fun, but try not to go overboard with them - the downside of plot events is the very limited control the players have over the situation. Use when you need them, keep the control in the hands of the party when you can, do your best to prepare for your players throwing you curveballs.
Puzzle
Puzzles can be tricky, tricky things in an RP situation - since AIM logs rely heavily on textual descriptions, it can be hard to convey a good feeling for what the area is like, and the party might not be able to see the solution to the puzzle you've created. My advice is to start with nice and simple zelda-style puzzles (light the torches, find some objects and put them in object holders, open the door, move on!), then once you and your players start to get more comfortable with them, maybe move on to more complicated stuff. Visual aids can be fun here, even if you keep 'em simple. Some MSPaint sketches can really help convey the shape of a puzzle.
Related to puzzles is obstacles - the party has to outrun a sand avalanche, or make their way through a room filled with spinning blades. The easiest way to handle these is to set up the descriptions, let the players narrate out their badassery, and then generally let them succeed. Remember, this isnt a contest between you and your party. It's a collaborative storytelling adventure.
Full non-combat missions
While a lot of people are going to be in this for the action, there's no reason a mission has to actually have any fighting in it. This is totally fine - you just need some kind of central exciting activity to replace the combat and keep people engaged. This could be just about anything, so long as it doesn't require martial proficiency to succeed. A series of riddles told by a giant floating head, with wrong answers gradually lowering people into a vat of acid. A car chase. A long series of complex puzzles ad obstacle courses. Simple exploration of diverse, interesting locales. A courtroom showdown. It's your plot, so the sky's the limit!
Combat
Here's where things get exciting! Combat can be confusing for new players and new GMs alike, but it's not nearly as hard as it looks if you do it right.
Getting started
Once the enemies have made it onto the scene, you need to make the conditions of the battle clear. The best way to do this is to explicitly outline the present enemies and then the player turn order:
The sand king snarls, and orders his minions to charge!
(Enemies: Sand King, 4x Sand Monster)
(Initiative: Ichigo, Rukia, Slenderman, Shia LaBeouf)
(Ichigo!)
The flow
That (Ichigo!) is indicating it's Ichigo's turn, so he'll make an attack against one of the enemies now. Don't worry too much about relative power levels when deciding what does or doesn't work - factors on what does or doesn't destroy an enemy include whether the enemy is a boss type or a mook, how cool the attack was, how long you want the scene to last, and so on. So, if Ichigo uses Getsuga Tenshou on a Sand Monster, it will probably go down in one hit. However, if he just charges the sand king right away, then he'll probably get swatted aside for his efforts - it's too early in the fight for the boss to be defeated, after all!
End of the turn
Once you get to the end of the initiative list, it's a good time for other things to happen - plot events changing the layout of the battle, for example, or the enemy forces retaliating. This is a good place for big boss attacks that everyone has to react to at once. Then, start back from the top of the list and keep going.
Handling bosses
Boss enemies can be tough to handle - players will get frustrated if the enemy is shrugging off everything they do and laughing about it. I've found a good way to handle bosses is to have them start off fights by deflecting or evading anything the players throw at them, and hitting back hard. Then, as the fight goes on and the players start pulling out the big guns, make their defensive actions more strained and inconsistent, occasionally letting attacks get through and hurt the boss - but also have his own attacks get more dangerous and dramatic. Decreasing the boss's defense while inreasing its offense makes the fight gradually build towards being more exciting. Then, at the end of the fight, finish things off on a high note - throw out the biggest attacks the boss has, then leave him vulnerable to a big group attack from the whole team. Or something else equally exciting.
Keeping track of everything
Wait, where is everyone? How far is Ichigo from the sand king? What does Getsuga Tenshou do, exactly? What's the range on it? Can it hurt sand?
Dont sweat the small stuff! The important thing to do here is to trust the players. Never worry about how far or near someone is unless it's really important. Let them assume they're at the right distance to make the attacks they want to make. If they're doing a big powerful attack and there's no specific defensive abilities at work that would obviously hamper it, go ahead and let it work. You are the conductor, but the players are the musicians here. The main role of non-boss enemies in partiular is to let the players show off their badassery.
Good guy casualties
This is very much a matter of player group preference. However, if you're running a group and don't know how they feel about this, a quick easy method is to ask the players before the mission starts who's okay with their characters getting injured, or worse. Keep note of that, and dish out the punishment when appropriate. In most situations, character death or serious injury should only be inflicted after talking the player about it outside of the chat.
Improvisation
Of course, nothing will quite go how you expect it to. That's why you need to be able to think on your feet (although if your players know you're nervous, they should hopefully be nice enough to follow the rails).
The best trick here is to know that your players haven't seen your notes. Party running off to some area you didn't plan for? Move the contents of one of your planned areas into where they're going. Did a player bail out on you at the last second? Quietly cut out the parts of the mission plot relevant to him. This is really much more art than science, and comes with a lot of practice.
That's all I've got for now! Got more advice, or questions? The comments await ye.