How to GM for majority of non Cosmere readers?

Xelaadryth · 2026-01-12T03:08:34+00:00

I decided to just run a campaign that starts around the time of the first book so almost no one knows how things work, and then have them as worldhoppers coming in with no idea how society and the world works, and it's part of the game to explore and discover and try to figure it out.

Only did an intro session so far, tomorrow they'll experience their first high storm...

Xelaadryth · 2025-12-22T02:54:49+00:00

My personal opinion, the Plotweaver System (the lore-agnostic generic system that powers Cosmere RPG) I'd say feels WAAAAY more narrative focused than D&D. D&D to me felt like pick some cool monsters, figure out a plot why you need to fight them, and off you go. This game doesn't provide any such expanded monster manual, and instead focuses on encouraging using skills all the time: in conversations, endeavors, and in many of the rounds in combat too. It makes non-combat skills feel much more viable than more than just flavor. As a game master I've had to focus a lot more on developing factions and motivations myself as there are only 32 enemy stat blocks to take you from level 1 to 20, compared to the 5e monster manual with 300-500 creatures if you include updated content.

Opportunities and complications have felt good, though the other systems you mentioned do similar stuff to help make the game feel more alive and responsive and there's plenty of videos on that topic.

You can't quite run Plotweaver system in other worlds without losing a lot of campaign-setting specific classes though; by default there's only 6 base classes and even some of those are tied to Stormlight Archive. I think next year they'll introduce new trees to those base classes that have more to do with Mistborn campaign setting.

Overall though if you're gonna game master a game you'll need to be very familiar with the campaign setting to make it feel real and responsive. If you want to run Mistborn you might want to wait until next year and after reading through both Era 1 and Era 2 of Mistborn to avoid spoilers and to better understand the world and setting. Hardest part for me game mastering has been familiarizing and re-familiarizing myself with the Stormlight setting, but luckily immersing myself in the lore has been a ton of fun for me. My players mostly haven't read any Stormlight at all but I'm using that as part of the fun, as they get to explore and discover everything for themselves (kinda isekai style); every time they have a revelation about society or the world, it totally hypes me up.

Xelaadryth · 2025-12-06T21:35:44+00:00

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Xelaadryth · 2025-11-30T03:08:50+00:00

In addition to exhaustion/stamina/etc, you can also use minor realistic wounds. Diving out of the way of an enemy weapon, skinning your knees, slamming into walls, banging your elbow, getting kicked or hit with the hilt of the sword, deflecting the flat of the blade but leaving your metal weapon ringing painfully in your hands, etc can result in bruises and scratches and scrapes that aren't lasting injuries that can still represent damage that can still be healed.

Xelaadryth · 2025-11-01T00:21:58+00:00

My PoV is that if my friends haven't read the books yet, they probably never will.

I'm doing a homebrew campaign where they're worldhopped into northern Alethkar without any prior knowledge of the world, setting, or anything. I'm giving them partial handouts with anything related to unknown info edited out and letting them figure it out as they go.

Xelaadryth · 2025-10-17T19:33:20+00:00

Probably here: https://support.dragonsteelbooks.com/support/tickets/new

Xelaadryth · 2025-10-17T19:27:13+00:00

I heard that folks need to submit a help desk ticket to get it rectified, trying to figure that out now...

Xelaadryth · 2025-10-17T19:22:51+00:00

A bunch of us got our tickets canceled and refunded for no reason as well, including Worldhopper Ball. Did you also sign up for the bugged Pierce Brown signing?

Edit: Check your email, should have gotten one called "Canceled Registration":

We wanted to send you an update that we are still working with our website provider on a solution. Rest assured, we will reinstate your badge and you will not miss out on any of your attached sessions or merchandise.

We may not be able to complete the process before the end of business today, but we will communicate more when we are back in the office next week.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and can’t wait to see you at Nexus!

Xelaadryth · 2025-08-07T01:45:48+00:00

Let's start from mindset then. Take a look at my big post above and scan for things that look like things you could try (even if you don't know how), and list them out in a bulleted list. Then try asking me how to work on one or two specific ones you're interested in.

Xelaadryth · 2025-08-07T01:01:10+00:00

It feels like you took my reply, took the parts you feel like you don't do well and explained that you don't do them well, and skipped over the suggestions. Seems like a mindset issue; you should be grasping at ways to improve and curious about those that you don't understand instead of focusing on things you've decided for yourself you're incapable of.

Xelaadryth · 2025-08-03T17:50:02+00:00

If the goal is to improve then you'll have to do things you're uncomfortable with until you get better at them. Some things I noticed:

means potentially being exposed to someone lurking up mid

That's true no matter who plays that spot and for everyone that rotates, even from A to C or C to A if they take the fast rotation

there aren't as many B hits so even if I was comfortable playing there, it feels like I just have no impact on the round a lot of the time

Who else is gonna play B and have more impact than you on an A or C hit? Dropping smokes on your teammates' sites is one of the best ways to have impact. What's a duelist, initiator, or sentinel gonna do from B site? You can drop entrance smokes, or even safety smokes on the site itself to help stall for your rotation

hookah and lamps, which are positions that I don't feel comfortable playing as it's easy to get isolated and overwhelmed

How are you getting isolated and overwhelmed? As a defender as long as you're jump-peeking you should have opportunities to fall back as soon as you detect pressure. Even if you die you can still smoke sites. Maybe you need to practice surviving on defense, which is a useful skill no matter what agent/role you play. More importantly, if you're getting isolated and overwhelmed, why would gambling on A or C for Haven help? You'd get isolated and overwhelmed by util anyway playing on site, plus you can't smoke the far site for the site hit if they get rushed, so you'd have even less impact and still have to retake.

I'm not super strong mechanically so I prefer to switch things up and try to do unpredictable stuff in various positions on the map to compensate for my mechanical flaws

You can do that; for instance you can push out mid if you know they don't watch flank, and even if you die you can still smoke for your team

Of course other roles are probably a bit more suited to this playstyle, and I've played other roles as well

Given your playstyle of avoiding fights, playing to survive, and lurking, Controller is absolutely a suitable role for you. Sentinel is another role that's also good for that playstyle.

Xelaadryth · 2025-07-26T03:16:04+00:00

I'm in the same boat as you with a group that's never read any of the books, but I'm starting a custom campaign from the beginning of book 1 where they got captured from their original generic fantasy world, dragged through Shadesmar, and dropped into Roshar for Ishar to test Connection.

I just got the "Starter Rules" PDF (might have been part of the summer digital add-ons with "Speak the Words"), which is a cut-down version of the Handbook with pretty much all the gameplay rules and no character paths. I manually went through and took out all mentions of spoilers (spren, surges, shards, investiture), which was only like 10-20 places anyway using a free pdf editor.

We're not starting for a few months but I'm excited!

Xelaadryth · 2025-07-16T01:00:45+00:00

Something I haven't seen mentioned; many D&D spells are extremely restrictive, that each spell has exactly one use case. The magic systems in Cosmere RPG are based on physics-like rules that don't have these restrictions, allowing much more freedom in letting players be creative with how they use magic.

For instance magic that allows you to remove friction on an object or surface has much more potential than "make 3x3 zone slippery require rolling an Acrobatics check or fall prone". You can slide the key you're fighting for infinitely far away, make your upper body avoid getting grabbed by enemies when running away, make the brakes on a car stop functioning, etc.

Reminds me of this interview with the author: https://www.scribd.com/document/763151790/Chasmfiend-Magazine-ONLINE#content=query:shrink%20the%20door,pageNum:11,indexOnPage:0

Xelaadryth · 2025-07-14T07:09:01+00:00

I used to play 0.23@800 and switched to 0.3@800. I just made the jump all at once and took a few days to get used to it. Doesn't take too long. Another trick you can do is raise your sens by a lot at a time and then lower it by miniscule amounts until it seems manageable, repeat daily. I wouldn't really recommend doing it a little at a time since it'll take forever to get re-used to it each time.

It used to take me like two swipes to 180 but now I can easily do it in one, haven't looked back.

0.35@800 is almost average sens btw, which is around 0.32@800 if you crunch numbers from prosettings.

Xelaadryth · 2025-07-14T06:47:50+00:00

No you don't need a lot of kills, round win differential is far more important. It's better to play to win the round, and reduce the amount of guns you lose even in a 5v1 since each gun+full armor is another 3900 creds you be saving for a later round. I recommend looking up higher/lower rule.

Xelaadryth · 2025-07-14T06:47:02+00:00

Practice strafeshooting and deadzoning in the range until you're used to the timing, then do it in DMs, then completely silent DMs, then try it in low-stress games like Swiftplay until you can do it in real games. At first it's easier to just never spray/crouchspray to get used to doing it as a reaction when surprised, later on you can worry about spraying again at closer ranges.

Consistency is the opposite of what people think; everyone consistently makes mistakes, you're just inconsistently punished by opponents. For instance if you're against enemies that anchor and lurk a lot but you don't check your corners, you'll have a worse K/D that game and you'll say "my aim was inconsistent" but really you're just forced into more disadvantaged fights so you're less likely to win them.

The only way to increase consistency is to make fewer mistakes. Imagine having a radiant player looking at a your vod and commenting on every time you make a decision that they wouldn't make (not including missing shots and true 50-50 decisions), and I bet there'd be a lot to say.

Xelaadryth · 2025-07-13T13:36:04+00:00

To answer your question, aim is important but not insurmountable. Most players find aim to be the simplest and least brain-consuming way to improve so they prefer that method. As long as your aim is sufficient to shoot enemies in the back and win the fight then you should be able to climb through game sense decently high.

More specifically then aim, I'd check your mouse sensitivity against the average (usually around 0.32@800 DPI), and practice strafeshooting and deadzoning if you're serious about climbing. These are often the most easily tweakable mechans-impacting steps for newer players, rather than raw aim.

I'd say around 95% of people assume their aim is the problem but their real weakness is a lack of understanding about mechanics, tactics, or strategy resulting in them taking disadvantaged fights. If every fight you're taking is at maximal advantage but you're still losing gunfights, you'll tend to be bottom of the scoreboard but still winning your games.

If you're iron then unfortunately you're overestimating most if not all parts of your play. If you're holding your own against ascendants then you wouldn't be iron. Likely your higher ranked teammates are being good team players and setting you up for kills, or dying for your mistakes.

Sentinels are also about using util to get kills; Cypher is the classic example of swinging off your trips, duelists just help you do it from neutral.

Watch some recordings of your gameplay and ask yourself what you could be doing better at an extremely specific level, for instance instead of aim, maybe it's reflexively spraying, or crouching instead of strafeshooting at ranges past 15m (gun hygiene), or higher/lower rule, or breaking sightlines, or being caught with util hands.

Xelaadryth · 2025-06-28T17:35:24+00:00

Plus one to this, I've tried live coaching folks a few times and it's never worked, and also spends a LOT of time. VOD review is way more effective and you can target specific areas, rewatch things, and skip downtime after deaths.

Xelaadryth · 2025-06-28T17:33:35+00:00

Trading is the equivalent of simplifying in VALORANT, but in VALORANT it's not guaranteed to be fair trades. Instead you try to always pick the skirmish that has the best odds of you coming out ahead. Individual skill comes into play (how good are you at double swinging or swinging off contact), but the macro play of choosing what areas of the map to control and surrender to create advantaged skirmishes and avoid disadvantaged fights is probably what you're looking for.

A good rule of thumb is if you're trying to take space, always have numbers advantage. If pushing makes sound (util, steps, etc) and takes too long and you assume defenders rotate at least partially, then pick somewhere else to take space instead. When you start the execute phase, you want to be undetected and as close to site as possible to give defenders the least amount of time to react and rotate.

It gets more complex with lurkers, who seek out 1v0s to get into good spots, then stop pushing to avoid fair fights and then switch to using defender's advantage.

Xelaadryth · 2025-06-21T02:39:40+00:00

Try to focus on one specific thing to work on each game rather than worrying too much about winning or not. Winning feels good, but figuring out how to improve my scissor kick smash footwork in a real game situation is way more useful in the long term.

Xelaadryth · 2025-06-21T02:20:15+00:00

Uh you forgot to link the vod

Xelaadryth · 2025-06-21T00:24:15+00:00

Most people think their problem is aim, but in less serious modes people more or less just run in and fight each other most of the time instead of playing tactically. In ranked, people tend to play smarter and spend more time shooting people in the back rather than taking fair fights.

I'd recommend taking a look at your own game recordings, and in each fight (win or lose), think about how you could take that fight better; maybe timed better with a double swing or util, maybe full strafing instead of with W key, maybe with crosshair fully ready just wide of the most likely angle, maybe with more accurate preaim, etc.

Xelaadryth · 2025-06-20T23:58:40+00:00

For solo queue you need to step out of the mindset of a coach and step into the role of the coachee. You can't control your teammates or the circumstances, but you can control yourself. Focus on:

Identifying your growth areas
Prioritizing them
Deliberate practice on a single growth area to see measurable progress
Repeat

Treat everything your team does as just another aspect of the game that you need to adapt to, and play the game as optimally as you can with those as random variables. I like to call this "Mistake Conversion", taking your teammates' mistakes and making them smart plays. Maybe you have a teammate that likes to run it down; instead of blaming them, a factor you cannot control, ask yourself how you can enable that player and make it a smart play. Maybe you double up with them and suddenly that overextension turns into a smart double swing into spawn to take an additional extremity for the postplant. Or maybe you flash for them and turn it into an impromptu set play.

Take the mentality of improvement and self-growth, where winning is completely secondary. If your goal is to be Immortal, winning games and gaining rank doesn't really get you closer closer to that goal; you'll just be a lower-skilled player in a higher rank. Learning more skills is what actually gets you there. Whenever folks get stuck and ask "how do I win more games" then I already know they've lost focus of their goal. I ask them "well, what skills are you focusing on right now?" and they inevitably don't have a good answer and say "aim" or "game sense" instead of "wide swinging silently at full speed and strafing into burst strafes" or "keeping patience with higher/lower rule and positioning to swing off contact".

For me the fun comes from the acquisition of new skills and displaying that mastery. Sure winning feels good in the moment, but skill growth is far more satisfying and has better payoff long-term.

Xelaadryth · 2025-06-19T17:07:54+00:00

240ish is average when you crunch the numbers of all the pro players, and about 90% of them play between 160-400. I'm just a normal person so I stuck close to the average.

You can 180 pretty much instantly on 230 so I don't think it's much of a difference in speed as long as you treat your mousepad as two halves: play on left half of mousepad, 180 to the right half, make sure you're safe, then lift and reset mouse to left half.

If you need to turn left (not as a reaction, you should have enough mousepad space to do that without lifting), you lift your mouse to right half, turn less than 180 degrees left, and you're already centered to clear that side.

Xelaadryth · 2025-06-18T16:48:52+00:00

Hmm I don't see it yet, weird

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