Secret of the Reaction Point | Advanced Gamemastery 

Fun fact: learning not to fear silence is a big part of learning to be an effective mental health counselor. Much in the same way that players will process what you've said, and conjure their reactions to it during a silence, the same thing happens in therapy. People often just need a moment to decide what they think or how they feel about something. Respecting silence is a great micro-skill to practice, both as a game master and as a person.

THIS is a perfect example of why GMs are NOT story tellers but the prompters for the players to create the story that will be told after the adventure.

Every time I see one of these videos I can feel the future of the hobby brightening as authors and game masters acquire these gems of insight. You are, as ever, a river to your people.

Reminds me of a popular rule of thumb in the corporate world for people leading business meetings, which is after asking a question or opening up the floor for feedback, count to 7 in your head to wait for people to speak up. Even if someone has a comment ready, it can take a few seconds to feel like "I've definitely given everyone else a chance to speak up, it is finally my turn to say my piece." Sometimes these sort of "last-second contributors" provide excellent insight -- part the reason they take so long to respond is they are conscious of their peers and considerate of their needs , which is just want you want in a team setting. Dynamic works just the same in D&D as it does in business

I think this is exactly why the sterotypical dungeon description always ends with "That's what you see, so what do you do?" Having that explicit statement makes sure the players know that the GM is done giving relevant information and they can safely declare actions based on what they've heard, and the GM knows that the players know that the ball's in their court, so he doesn't have to fear the silence as much.

This is something I had to tackle when we started using VTTs (as I'm sure many groups do since 2020) - I used to have enemy tokens out in the open, and as soon as the players opened a door, the fog of war would reveal a room full of enemies. As I started describing the room, there was this surreal moment of me going over the tapestries and decor while a snarling monster token was staring right at the PCs. I've since learned to hide NPC tokens, and then reveal them as they become relevant to my narration.

This was a really good topic. Presentations like these are why I still have The Alexandrian as a tab I haven't closed on my phone's web browser for months.

thank you for having good subtitles

Justin: "When you find yourself bubbling over with infinite improv" Me: *wheezing 😬

The actionable chunks is also useful in those longer descriptions such as the plants erupting one where there are multiple reactions points and something the characters would do in response to the first reaction point would change or negate a future reaction point, e.g. doing something that would have caused the OX to not via off into the stalls, but if you've already described that happening it can be tricky to retcon that back so the characters can change what happened as it was described to them.

Fearing the silence is also a problem for some classroom teachers I have worked with. For DM's, ending your brief descriptions with "What do you do?" can work wonders. It makes it explicit that you will say no more until players act or at least ask questions.

Wow, I just read this article a week or two ago, and yet seeing the video I still feel like every word was informative and useful. How do you always manage to pack so much insight into what is ostensibly an incredibly simple and easy to understand idea?

I think describing things, or just reading out loud for that matters, while being interesting is a skill many people do not realise they do not have. I've seen many, many times, good descriptions poorly read that just made the game drag soooo bad. As for myself, I'm trying to get better but I know it's not my strenght, so I keep descriptions to exactly 3 points, and it serve's me well. One visual cue, one sound, and one thing regarding either touch, athmosphere, temperature, then I throw the ball to the players, never had a problem with that.

Your final bit of advise about shifting your mindset to focus on seeing what the players do reminds me of a bit of advise that's become my core principle as a GM. "Be a fan of the PCs", it's from the core rulebook of the game "Masks: A New Generation" it encourages you to get excited about what your players do with their characters and getting excited about seeing them do cool things and overcome interesting challenges. I find it especially helpful because it also curbs my impulse to make things too easy for the players. You don't want your favorite characters that you're a fan of to be able to overcome any situation without challenge, you want it to feel earned.

This really helped a lot. Sometimes it'll take em a minute. Like a literal 60 second span of silence.

You know what, the hunt for a properly transparent window effect was worth it haha

Thanks for the English subtitles, it makes the video easier to watch by translating it into Spanish. (Google Translate)

Great advice! A good RPG is series of questions for the players to answer. By framing descriptions this way creates a natural flow. If I may, when describing non-action scenes without an action prompt to end on, I pick a player and end the description with, "How does your character react to hearing the music of the tavern?" Or whatever prompt that fits the setting. This tells the player's I'm done talking and gives a player an immediate starting point to initiate their own activities.

I've been reading your blogs for a while. I just found out that you have a book forthcoming and a RU-vid channel. This is the first video of yours that I have watched and it is absolutely excellent!

I’ve found that when I reach a reaction point for a player to respond to, I outright ask a player what their character does and lock that action in. Then if necessary, going round the table asking each character, and then unlock the actions and adjudicate as necessary.

Great tips, Justin. This is something I've been subconsciously working on for several years. Now that you have put a spotlight on it, I'll be sure to curate that emphasis for my tables. Thanks for sharing!

For describing a scene before the players take their actions, I like to use what I call the Freeze-Frame Approach: employ as many descriptions as needed to make the scene understandable for the players, but nothing is allowed to actually move until the players declare their own actions. Essentially, everything in the game world is frozen in time, which I justify by stating that the PCs are the only ones making initiative checks. Also, the only possible exceptions might be beings that are faster than the PCs, but they would only get to take actions as limited by their options, as defined by their position in the initiative order, and only then if they won an initiative check versus the PCs' average roll. This accomplishes the same thing as what Justin describes here: imposing a limit on what the GM is allowed to say before the players have to engage with the game world, and maximizing the impact of the GMs words to facilitate engaging play for the players.

Seriously this is such great and applicable advice for any GM I love it. So much of the content on-line is so generic and rehashed, so it’s nice to see something actually new.

Yup, human working memory usually struggles if it has to remember more than seven items at once. So describing too many things will make the players forget - unless they are simultaneously taking notes!

Easy one of the best videos/GM advice from the best GM content creator on RU-vid. Thanks again.

Always good advice - I especially like the idea of creating a situation, dropping the PC's in it mostly to see what they will do ... I've done this, it's always fun, and they have rarely done what I expected which is just as much fun for the DM as the PC's

This video deserves more views.

Tremendous tutorial! Strategic positioning the reaction point(s) and including continued area descriptions during combat or party actions will definitely take my GMing to the next level. Thank you! Can't wait for my copy of your book!

This!!! This is me. I always have the feeling I talk over my players after I finished my descriptions. I love how the Grognars (The Alexandrian, Professor DM and Sly Flourish) teach us so much with so little.

Really, really liked the goblins example.

_...and nine is right out!_

I've done exercises in improv classes where silence is enforced into the scene in order to force pauses and allow non-verbal reactions, etc. As well as discussions/practice during other classes that silence is ok, to build tension/emotions, and allow a scene partner to progress the scene on their own pace. Likewise, i just completed facilitation training where we discussed the value of being silent during discussion/debate to allow for ideas to get out and responses not be so off the cuff.

This is literally what I was trying to research for the last few days. Thanks!!

Such an excellent, practical piece of advice!

Absolutely love your videos, ive followed your blog for a long time and find all of it insightful. I do find your videos to be wonderful to listen to during the creative process however, magnificent audio for it.

That is why I prefer roleplaying games which have no dedicated GM, but have the narrative rights allocated around the table thus everybody is directly beholden to keep the flow going and not just one person. It also removes the need for questions and let them add to the scene to give themselves whatever they need to set their character properly up. But that actionable chunks point you make is great, that works equally well for a game without a GM, since then also no player will hog the spotlight and just add what they need to keep the flow up.

Wow. I have the opposite problem, if anything - as a player, descriptive text generally bored the shit out of me, so I tend to use (overly) minimalist descriptions. For that matter, a novel that introduces the 'slavering monster' and then spends a paragraph describing the room, thats a paratraph I skip straight over. And if it happens too often, thats a writer that gets skipped over

Great video as always, Justin!

Excellent points about the reaction points! 😄

This was a beautiful piece of work. Thank you so much! Sincerely, Alicia from Sweden

Excellent video. Happy New Years

I found the formalized GM moves from pbta games (they're described as "GM reactions" and it's explicitly expected that the players should react to it, unless they want to suffer consequences) quite useful in understanding how to spot this reaction point.

Thank you. Amazing advice.

Lol. I have the opposite problem. My PCs try and short circuit descriptions to gain a combat or diplomatic advantage.

What a great video! I never feel that you retread old ground when you talk about rpgs. I should really get around to reading your blogs more.

Love the details!

All of your videos and articles are DM gold

Great tip once again!

The DM describes the environment. The DM tells the players where their adventurers are and what’s around them, presenting the basic scope of options that present themselves (how many doors lead out of a room, what’s on a table, who’s in the tavern, and so on). The players describe what they want to do. Sometimes one player speaks for the whole party, saying, “We’ll take the east door,” for example. Other times, different adventurers do different things: one adventurer might search a treasure chest while a second examines an esoteric symbol engraved on a wall and a third keeps watch for monsters. The players don’t need to take turns, but the DM listens to every player and decides how to resolve those actions. Sometimes, resolving a task is easy. If an adventurer wants to walk across a room and open a door, the DM might just say that the door opens and describe what lies beyond. But the door might be locked, the floor might hide a deadly trap, or some other circumstance might make it challenging for an adventurer to complete a task. In those cases, the DM decides what happens, often relying on the roll of a die to determine the results of an action. The DM narrates the results of the adventurers’ actions. Describing the results often leads to another decision point, which brings the flow of the game right back to step 1.

The issue with the Radiant Citadel was almost all the writers are novelists & cook book writers before they got into D&D. An many of them got into D&D and TTRPGS because they got a job at wizards of the Coast.

Man, your advice is always brilliant.I'm going to print "reaction point" and put it on my dm screen. Can't wait to read your book. I was wondering if you could give some tips on adventure creation and how you do it, I've been running games for more than thirty years, but there are always things to learn.

Running a game online makes you x5 worried about silence, specially if you aren't playing with a cam. And because having everyone talk at the same time is really hard to track, you need to slow things down. Stuff like this shows why Initiative in D&D evolved the way it did. If you play games like Apocalypse World, PbtA games or PbtD games, the concept of Reaction Points is the basis for every Soft/Hard Move the GM do during a scene.

It's going to depend on individual GMs, groups, and the preferences of each, but I generally find overdescription to be a problem in itself. Rather than lengthy, florid prose (like that Descrybe example) the best descriptions are short, informative, and to the point. More Hemingway or Chandler than Dickens or Tolkien. Describe the essential features that will affect how the PCs are most likely to interact and then get out of the way. Even better, remember that a picture is worth a thousand words and have an image for the players to set the scene rather than spending time on a long verbal description. Whether that's an establishing picture, a map, or what have you, it conveys far more much faster.

Solid stuff.

Would love to hear your thoughts on using AI as a prep tool.

Doh! I had no idea you made videos!

Right! The suspense might be killing you but never kill the suspense. 😎 You actually *want* unnerving silence bc it will make your players nervous. I usually like a minimalist but dramatic description style. I also encourage my players to ask questions and/or discuss with each other. This has been my most effective way for my players to stay highly engaged. Allowing players to discuss their information before taking action can feel a little metagame-y at first but I think of it as the players helping each other to authentically play their characters as skilled adventurers. Also, players engaging with each other give me a little more time to decide my next move. Goblin example: (Note: Every time I say something I'll wait for the players to react, no matter how long it may take.) Me: *slams hands on table* Five goblins are at the door. *intense look at my players* Player 1: *confused* What? Where did they come from? Player 2: I think they just slammed the other door open. They have probably heard us when I kicked open the first door. Me: *smiles* That's right, and they are _furious_ when they see you. *shakes fist and makes goblin noises* Player 2: I ready my weapon. Me: *nods and turns to player 1* Player 1: Well... Can I see something behind the goblins? Me: okay, while P2 is readying her weapon you try to glimpse behind the goblins..? Player 1: *nods* Me: There's a big hallway with several bookshelves, partly emptied. There also seems to be a big chasm or hole in the ground behind them. Meanwhile, the goblins are coming into the room. Player 1: Anything else? Player 2: Let's focus on the goblins, please? I scream at you: "Goblins! Look out!" Player 1: Ok, ok, I attempt to cast a spell. Me: Let's roll initiative. P1, I'd say you're surprised but since you were looking at your environment you may roll perception if you spot something useful. Sounds good? Player 1: Actually, no, let's scrap it. I cast the spell. P2 is right. I can look around later. Me: *shrugs* Everything's fine with me as long as my goblins get to hack you into tiny pieces. They can't wait to shed your blood. Player 2: We'll see about that! *Everyone rolls initiative*

Quick typo in the font of knowledge: change dyscryb to descryb

This is really useful, but personally I have the other problem: I pause for dramatic effect or to collect my thoughts, intending to keep speaking, and my players cut me off or won't let me finish.

This is one of my biggest flaws right now. I feel so incredibly uncomfortable when there is silence.

I’m going to continue to word vomit until someone cuts me off.

Minor quibble, but I'd probably refer this more so as a "Decision Point" or "Choice" to avoid associations with reaction mechanics

Hey brother, been a a huge fan of your work and website. Just picked up your book on Kindle and print to show my support, do you have a patreon or similar ?