GUIDING
When navigating the vestige, your guide (sometimes referred to as the “gamemaster,” or GM) is responsible for narrating your experiences. They describe what you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. They keep track of the world around you, including its people, its creatures, its weather, and its resources. Your guide is your tie to the vestige, and through them, you are able to connect to another world.
The guide is responsible for the following:
- Setting the scene
- Describing the results of the actions that people take
- Describing the actions that others take in the world around you
- Declaring when combat begins and ends
- Making rolls on behalf of your allies and enemies
- Recording changes made to the people around your companions
- Prompting the post-game conversation
- Awarding extra morale at the end of the session for completing personal goals
SETTING THE SCENE
When preparing for your vestige sessions, you will want to consider what sort of stories your companions are hoping to experience. The people of vestige are driven by their relationships with one another, but how those relationships change over time will impact the flow of the stories and conversely, the stories will impact the way the relationships change. It is up to you, as a guide, to think about the flow of the story and what will happen during each session.
You are not responsible for the story itself, though. You simply lead it, describing what happens, who your companions encounter. Your companions, ultimately, are the authors of this story. Their actions shape the story itself. You, instead, should learn to respond to them.
Your preparations should not be thorough. Think, instead, about what is necessary for you to bring to the table. Where are your companions going? What will they encounter there? What are the rest of the people on the vestige doing at this time? And whose lives, if any, will intersect? Understand, first and foremost, the place you are in. Think about the people, their values, and their goals. When you know the people, then the story and the experiences you will be describing will come much more easily to you.
Be aware, though, of your group’s comfort. Before you introduce experiences that might be violent, jarring, cruel, or explicit, ask your companions if they are comfortable with the experiences they are about to encounter and to what extent they are comfortable with them. If even one member is uncomfortable with these situations, consider guiding your companions away.
You are their guide, after all. You are the person they rely on to lead them through the vestige. You will, of course, do it well.