The Game Master Emulator

 

One of the things I’ve noticed since starting the Power Rangers RPG is the total lack of scene building support. There’s a gaping hole in the structure, where whatever you want can be slotted in easily. I’ve spent too long doing story games to railroad. Nope. I’m not stepping into that breach! So I sit back and let the players take the reins, throwing in mechanical challenges when I think it appropriate. I’m deeply fortunate to have great players, who I can trust to do that. But what if they’d had a bad night? And what if I had a bad night too? There’s no safety system in place to help guide things along until people could get their groove back. 

And it’s not just Power Rangers that has this problem. Pathfinder, 5e, all these “trad” games have this glaring hole in their setup. It’s up to the GM to pace and set up scenes. That leaves beginning GMs in a total no-man’s land; the wheel must be reinvented, every time.In fact, I’d argue that one of the similarities between trad games is the utter lack of support for scene construction.

Whether it’s meant to or not the Game Master’s Emulator is a great patch for this common trad mistake. It includes a full set of rules that take best practices in scene construction and world building and gamifies them. The Emulator operates on answering Yes/No questions and making random scenes; all that’s really left is for the GM to interpret the results the Emulator gives. And that is not a bad thing, at all. The notion of GM as story creator needs to die in a fire, with GM as story director taking its place. It’s not only less exhausting for the GM, but it also allow the GM to discover the story, along with his players.

Most of the Emulator is advice on how to use it, with the engine consolidated in the back for ease of use. I do not suggest skipping the advice, as it is crucial to understanding the engine itself. The Emulator’s engine allows for a variety of results beyond simple Yes/No, and its scene generation rules are keyed into the plots and NPCs already made in the game. This lets player choice really matter, as well as being flexible in allowing new plots and NPCs to come in. It’s a cool little engine! There was clearly some thought and playtestimg that went into this.

The Emulator is also meant to facilitate GM-less and Solo play. I like being the dude who interprets the bone tosses, so I doubt I’d go either route, but I could easily see this engine being able to take on much of the role of a GM, provided the players are willing and able to take on those responsibilities. It is viable, provided everyone wants to take on just a bit more work.

The book itself is a floppy softcover, sized as a normal DnD book. I’m kinda worried about how fragile the thing feels in my hands; that may not be fair, as my ability to passively wreck objects I hold is a running joke between my wife and I. Maybe you don’t have that issue and won’t be afraid for the product? That being said, the Emulator is cheap, clocking in around thirteen bucks on Amazon. It’s really hard to quibble with that price given that it’s a universal scene building system.

My greatest critique of the presentation are the relatively tasteless pictures of mostly naked women strewn throughout the book. There doesn’t seem to be much thought put into the art direction beyond “lots of hot girls and weird aliens” which I find… boring. I’d have much rathered no art at all than what we got. Fortunately, what with the engine for the Emulator being in the back, I don’t really have to look at most of it, and the one image that I kinda hafta see isn’t the worse one of the bunch, so there’s that.

The Game Master’s Emulator is a vital product. It recognizes the need for scene building tools and allows a GM to discover the story along with his players. While it can go fully GMless it would take a bit more work from all the players involved. Which isn’t to say people wouldn’t be willing to do it! The Emulator will go there if you will! But the whole product is bogged down a bit by bad art and a relatively flimsy set up. But for the price you’re getting a metric ton of value. I will be using it for all my trad systems, which I’ve avoided using up until now. And for that I am thankful.