1. Announcements

GM Onboarding

How to get Started

First of all, thank you for showing interest in GM'ing for Blackrock. We would love to have you. Here's what you need to know.

There are certain channels on Discord and functionalities on Kanka, that non-GMs do not have access to. If you wish to GM for Blackrock, please contact the Loremaster on Discord, whether that be through Blackrock Channels on the KuL Discord, or via direct messages. He will ensure you receive all required links and roles.

https://discord.kul-verein.ch/

You will also be required to make an account on both Discord - if you don't already - and Kanka, as they are our coordination platforms.

The GMs Responsibilities

To make things easier on you, we have intentionally designed Blackrock to allow GMs to focus on their own sessions, and let other matters be the concern of the Loremaster and other admins on the Kanka and Discord.

Your responsibilities will be as follows:

  • Scheduling your Own Sessions - let us know when you can run
  • Session Prep & Running the Session
  • Post-Session Reports - brief

That is it. You are not expected to contribute any lore, if you do not wish to, but you may.

Scheduling Sessions

Once you have been made a Gamemaster on the Kanka, you will be able to head to Sessions and create new sessions in the top right. (+ Session).

Through this, you are able to pitch your Blackrock sessions. You can look at others for an example of how to format these pitches. To summarize, the required information is:

  • A Pitch Description
  • Proposed Date(s) & Time
  • Players Level Ranges
  • Number of Players
  • Restrictions on Flying Races, Centaurs, etc. - if there are any

Please add these into the main article of the session. When you save your newly created session, please check one thing:

- SET THE VISIBILITY TO PRIVATE -

My apologies for shouting, but it's incredibly easy to forget, believe me. So, that's your reminder.

Additional Information

In addition to this, please write a rough outline of how the session is expected to go, what goal(s) will be set to the players, and whether or not you would like to include any magic items as potential loot, for your players. If you are creating new NPCs - which you most likely will be - please include their names and who they are as well. We may find use for them in the future.

Please also make sure that the visibility for this article is set to Only me & Admins. This is to make sure the information added there does not get published, when the session's visibility is eventually set to Public.

That is all the information that is required.

GM Meetings

Near the end of each month, we will gather to discuss what sessions we can run the following month.

If you submit a session as described above, that falls into said timeframe, it will be added to the protocol for this meeting, and be discussed there. We will then decide which sessions we can offer, based on a number of factors, such as whether they are in line with our intended goals and the tone of the campaign (which is fairly broad).

If your session would have to happen earlier, it'll have to be looked at by the Loremaster, in advance of the meeting, and cleared or denied.

You will receive more information about these meetings, when you contact the Loremaster and when they get back to you.

After the Meeting

Once a session has been cleared, it will be set to Public on the Blackrock Kanka, an Event will be created for it on the KuL Discord and a Thread will be opened for it in the Blackrock-Sessions chat.

In said chat, the Loremaster will reach out to any players who are signed up and ask about which character they want to participate with, as well as make sure these characters fall within the requirements you outlined above.

At this point, all you have to do is wait for the date.

Post-Session Reports

After your session has concluded, you will be asked to write a brief report about what happened. This is done similarly to how you handle publishing a session. You head over to reports, and create a new one, then add the following details:

  • Attendees - Players & Characters, it's important for progression
  • Deaths - Player Characters & NPCs
  • What Did They Do? - Successes and Failures
  • Magic Items - Any which were gained, lost or used (consumables)
  • Anything Else Important - Use your best judgement, keep it brief

What should be included here - especially in the last part - is information that is relevant to the Loremaster and the overall plot.

The overall plot is something that you will learn about during your contact with the Loremaster, if you haven't already.