Written By: Dread Phantom
Document Scope: This document is to function as a partner document to the GM SOP. This will go into much more comprehensive detail on the steps outlined in the SOP and provide deeper insight from past experiences.
Document Disclosure: While this document on its own may provide some interesting insights, it is not meant to be used on its own as a guide to building and running a JTF2 ArmA mission. It should be used in conjunction to the SOP as a reference to provide insight and clarification to the workflow provided in the SOP. This document should not be read without prior reading of the JTF2 GM SOP in its entirety.
Any mission you make as a GM needs to keep the JTF2 ideals as paramount. Anyone can play with us as long as they're a team player. This is a video game, and we are all here to have fun. The importance and responsibility the role of GM has in ensuring everyone has a fun time playing this game cannot be understated. And they never will be. Your missions need to reflect that. Every single time.
As a GM you have the most control over whether or not any player has fun. And with that control comes the responsibility of putting the community's interests ahead of your own. Gauge the abilities of the players that signed up. Make your mission proportionally challenging. Prioritize fun over realism.
It cannot be understated the value of accomplishing as much as is possible ahead of time and planning ahead. Having notes on a mission idea ready to go whenever you feel like running one can remove a lot of stress and headaches from the process of putting one of these events together.
What’s a good idea?
The GM channel in the JTF2 discord exists as a place for GM’s to bounce ideas off each other and help inspire one another’s creativity. Don’t be afraid to ask around if an idea would be fun, or is even feasible.
You need to be cognizant of what you are capable of, what the players are capable of, and what the game is capable of. A good rule of thumb is about one GM per 10 players. But, if you expect complicated maneuvers, or teams to just be physically far away from one another, don’t be afraid to ask for more help. And if you had to lean one way or the other, get more GM’s on board than you think you might need. It is much easier to have a GM not really doing anything to go boots on the ground than it is for the opposite to happen.
On game capabilities: When coming up with a fresh idea for a mission that hasn’t been done before… there may be a good reason it hasn’t been done before. Things like stealth missions, big bombastic combined arms missions, or PVP missions are really hard to run correctly. Mods can be used as a crutch to get AI to function in a particular way, but this still has it’s limits. In most (if not all) cases, forcing the game to behave in a way it might not have been really designed for is an APM (actions per minute) intense operation. And GM’ing a mission is already a task that demands you to focus on a lot of different things at once. Adding a requirement for you to be constantly doing complex things with the AI will detract from your ability to do everything else and easily ruin a mission. New and interesting ideas that stretch what the game is capable of can be done, and are awesome when done correctly. But expect a lot more work to be done to ensure that mission is still fun.
Experience says we just cannot expect people to put their lives on hold, or to retain player’s attention for more than 3 hours. Some may want to play longer, but most can’t or won’t. It can also be difficult to judge how long a mission will take before you gain much experience on how things tend to flow. It is good practice to have a way to wrap things up and end the mission in mind, just in case the mission gets too long.
Selecting a Map
Different maps can have all kinds of different bugs. From the minor issues like the occasional floating rock or tree. To more inhibiting problems like roads not being properly smoothed. To the game breaking performance issues and AI T-pose sliding across the terrain or being unable to navigate to their given way points. The oddities of any modded map are numerous and in most cases the closer you look the more you find. It doesn’t matter how cool a map might look, if it runs like shit we aren’t using it. Be very thorough in checking a map for good performance and high quality.
Some maps may only have concerning issues in some areas, while other areas function fine. We still won’t use these maps. Even if the POI that you plan on using seems to run fine in your testing. If there’s problems elsewhere, there’s probably problems everywhere. And nothing is better at finding those problems in a map than 40 people running around in it, ruining your mission.
Coming up with a mod list
I could write entire novel on how absurdly painful it is testing and vetting mods to use in our missions. It is not uncommon for me to personally spend over 30 hours testing mods for each mission. Not to mention the hours of the modders, server providers, and even on occasion the developers themselves generously spend trying to fix problems I contact them about. When deciding what you think is necessary for your mission, keep things as simple as is feasible while trying to maintain being able to play with fresh ideas to retain the interest of the players.
Coordinating with team leads
You need to keep in mind that people enjoy the game in different ways. And the players that volunteer themselves for PL, SL, or FTL will probably have a lot of fun coming up with their own strategy and executing that plan, rather than just doing as their told. When coordinating with the team leads give them as much strategic freedom as possible and design your mission around their plans. Sure you can be firm when needed to ensure you can still properly run the mission, but do so sparingly. Our job as GM’s is just to set the stage. Let them play the mission how they want. Only give them a peek behind the curtain when necessary to avoid breaking immersion.
Having a strategy building meeting with all the team leads far enough in advance of the mission to allow you time to properly level design along their expected path is an ideal situation. You should really strive to make that happen. But those roles are all volunteered; and whether or not they have the spare time to conduct a strategy meeting well enough in advance to allow the GM’s the time we want to do that level design is simply out of our control. They are under no obligation.
All the team leads will meet up each mission to go over the mission strategy before everyone steps off. This will happen regardless of if a plan had already been made in advance. Make sure you are there for this discussion. This will be the last plan made and therefore the one that’s followed. It is critical that the GM’s know what the players intend to do during the mission. Hopefully this isn’t the first time they are coming up with that plan, but it is what it is. If this is the first time everyone is getting together to put together a strategy for the mission, be as firm as you need to be to keep them in the areas you’ve planned for. We’ll respect their schedules and inability to meet up ahead of time, and in return they’ll respect our schedules and need for them to adhere to the paths you’ve set up for them.
Level design and mission flow
What I mean by level design is placing objects and other assets along the known path the players will take. Everything from random environmental storytelling objects to sandbags and the AI that will be dying behind them. Let your creative juices flow and build out some interesting areas for the players to interact in!
While performing level design isn’t strictly necessary, the number of stable and interesting maps and POIs can dry up surprisingly fast. Performing your own custom level design for the mission will keep things fresh for everyone and allow you the opportunity to do some environmental story telling.
When it comes to environmental storytelling, moments of intensity can make it easy to miss. Sure 90% of the players won’t notice the care you’ve put into the area they are playing in, but the few that do will really enjoy the attention to detail. And whether a player notices good environmental storytelling with intentionality or not; every player will notice when it’s bad. Everyone one has walked into that empty prefabricated building in a first person shooter and just had that crappy “blegh” feeling in the back of their mind. If you have the time for it, I really recommend exploring the assets available to you in GM mode and utilizing them to make your missions feel more realistic and lived in.
What I mean by mission “flow” is gauging the tempo and engagement of the players during your mission for its duration. Sure in your head you might think “And then they will go over here.” But how long does that move actually take to do smartly and carefully? How much time is there between fights? Are the players going to get bored? How long will this fight take and will they get bored of having to fight from the same spot for too long? These are things you should be thinking about when you are panning around looking at different POIs and doing your level design. Think about how it’d feel for you to be on the ground playing the mission for everything you are placing down. Literally spawn in a guy and walk around. Examine the sight lines. This is all kind of difficult to describe, even more difficult to monitor, and impossible for me to give great advice for without being there with you in the moment. Just remember to keep a close eye on the players and collect feedback for what’s fun and what isn’t. You’ll get better at it over time.
Logging in ahead of time
I really cannot stress enough the benefits of logging in ahead of time. It seems the unforeseen problems for players and even GM’s to run into when it is go time are endless. We’ve run hundreds of missions over the last 10+ years. There has never been a mission where everyone loaded in and everything was ready to go and we just started playing. You’ve spent hours at this point building and planning this mission. Logging in long before everyone else to make sure that everything and everyone is ready to go is just an obvious precaution. You should never expect everything to be ready to go and log in at the same time as everyone else. That level of shortsightedness is enough to risk such catastrophic disruption that the mission might not even happen at all.
Keeping yourself available
You need to be available to fix weird bugs happening at the drop of a hat. Arma is a clunky to play game at best. It isn’t uncommon for people to get trapped in vehicles, or fall through the ground, or any other crazy bugs or glitches. Depending on how often you are taking direct control of AI in game it can be near impossible to contact a GM using the in game radio. Be available, be seen in a discord voice channel for people to come into when they need help. But let the players know that you aren’t there to hang out with during the mission.
Briefing and debriefing
Now’s not the time to be shy. It’s well spelled out in the SOP on what to say and when, but it isn’t strictly what needs to be followed. Do what feels right. And don’t worry about being a little nervous. We’re all mature here. No one is going to make fun of anyone tripping over their words when speaking in front of dozens of people. If you need a pep talk feel free to ask anyone on the operations team about conducting the briefing and debriefing.
Running a fun yet challenging mission
So here is where I sort of tell you how to draw the rest of the fucking owl. We are going to get into the weeds here so buckle up. These guidelines aren’t in any particular order. Treat them as all being extremely important. If you can’t master these skills listed here, you won’t be trusted to run missions on your own.
Never be adversarial
It is absolutely paramount that you as the GM never feel like you are the player’s adversary. You are there to provide fun to the players. You need to keep yourself in check, and never create an impossible challenge for the players. Even when you think the players have made a mistake that would be punishable in a realistic way, you always need to keep in mind how this will make the players feel every time you click that button. Killing all the players with indirect fire and then hand-waving it off as “The enemy saw you there.” is just going to feel like absolute bullshit to the players. Even if you told them ahead of time there’s an enemy recon team that could see that area, and that the enemy has mortars. It would still just suck. Even if there’s sound reasoning for punishing the player’s activity, you need to be extremely measured in how you do it. They should never think “Ah, the GM saw that so now I’m being punished.” Yes, as GM’s we will witness what appears to us as the most absurd and moronic behavior. But it doesn’t look or feel that way to the players, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it. That doesn’t mean you can’t punish bad strategy or mistakes. But you need to make sure you are doing so in a way that wouldn’t detract from their fun in the mission. Any action that you are taking against the players that they aren’t expecting, they should be immediately able to explain to themselves why it is happening. If during the debrief or collecting feedback someone asks you “Why did that happen to us?” or you feel the need to explain why the mission went a certain way, you made a mistake.
Keep track of things from their perspective
It is too easy for us to lose what it feels like to be on the ground during the mission. A good way to keep things in perspective for yourself is to just invisibly stand amongst the players as they sort through the battle playing out around them. See what they see and listen in on their local chatter. This provides incredibly valuable real-time feedback for the mood of the mission, as well as insight on their perspective to better tune appropriate reactions to their behavior.
You should always be monitoring as many radio channels as you are comfortable with. What squad mates are telling each other is direct feedback for us on how things are going. Monitoring all the squad nets can get messy, but it isn’t so bad once you realize you don’t need to be actually registering what everyone is saying when they are talking over each other, because no one is talking to you. Listening in on contacts or WIA getting called, gives you great insight on the pressure levels a squad is feeling. And listening to the general banter can provide insight to the levels of stress the players are feeling based on their tone of voice and what is actually getting discussed. The more stressed a player, the more mindless mistakes will get made.
You must be able to accurately track how many wounded they are taking at all times. Things snowball out of hand incredibly fast once players start going unconscious. It can be easy to miss when a player gets heavily injured as the GM wouldn’t know just by looking at the mess of blue dots. Any WIA will get called out on their squad net, so you should be monitoring them all if possible. And ideally you’d already know about it before it even gets called thanks to you spending time in GM carefully watching player actions, not just spawning AI.
For example: A strong squad of 8 players can be reduced to almost no combat effectiveness by only taking 2 WIA. Two players are unconscious, two players are attempting to treat their wounds, at least one more player per body running security trying to make sure whoever is doing medical doesn’t get hit. So six players are now entirely taken up on managing wounded and this is all happening in an area that they likely shouldn’t be remaining in because those first two guys didn’t go down for no reason. And that is in ideal circumstances, with a squad of all very experienced players being effectively taken down to a sixth of their strength with only two WIA. We cannot plan for things to go that well. When haven’t you seen an entire fire team all looking down at the same body all trying to treat it at the same time with no security? And that’s if they even notice their buddies going down.
We need to be cognizant of the skill level of all our players and remember that a team is only as strong as its weakest link. Mishaps and misfortune start snowballing out of hand incredibly fast and incredibly easy. Every possible tool at your disposal to monitor the players needs to be utilized.
Monitoring how many casualties the players are taking at the same time you are monitoring how many AI are going down at all times is critically important. Without doing this you have no way of judging how things are going, and before you know it you’ve caused a mass casualty event. If the AI are dropping fast, and the players are taking no injuries, then you know you can make things more dangerous for players. If a single squad has any more than one unconscious player at anytime, it is time to take your foot off the gas and let them get their shit together.
Be invisible
The players should never feel the GM’s hand.
Anything you spawn in should never be within sight of the players.
Don’t break immersion and inform them of things they wouldn’t realistically know.
Be realistic
Before you spawn in any AI or give any orders to them, think to yourself: “Would the enemy team actually know to do this?” Having clear AI reactions to player actions makes a mission more immersive and believable.
Have an enemy base of operations in mind for a direction enemy QRF comes from. If you are flanking the players, would the enemy have had time by now to get there? Could they have gotten there without being spotted?
Be proportional
Don’t spawn in anything the players are not equipped to handle.
Explicitly state whether or not they will need AT before the mission starts.
Don’t spawn in overwhelming numbers.
It only takes 2-3 AI per player for things to get out of control. But this number can vary wildly depending on the skill level of the players. Pay close attention.
Be kind
Make sure your announcements are clear so a player knows what they are signing up for. No one wants to set aside hours of their weekend to play a game and not have fun. Not every mission is for everyone. If you intend on a punishing and challenging mission, or maybe a relaxed and easy one, just tell them that straight up.
Be cognizant of misfortune. We are attempting to simulate combat. It is difficult to imagine a more dynamic situation. The player’s can be doing everything right, and still catch a bullet at the absolute worst time. And with how much we already know how bad things snowball, we need to be forgiving when we notice things getting bad and it is no one’s fault. For example an enemy vehicle could be approaching and the only guy with AT just so happens to catch a bullet. Maybe the GM comes in and has him gain consciousness earlier than they would normally so the vehicle doesn’t just blast everyone.
A large contributor to this is just how the AI work in Arma Reforger. They always miss, right up until they decide they don’t. That level of micromanagement just isn’t available to us. Adjusting global difficulty sliders, or suppression properties, or whatever tools you might have at your disposal, will only tune how much an AI might miss before it decides to hit. When exactly AI land their shots is just not under our control. And that is something we have to plan around by not giving the AI any tools at their disposal that can cause mass casualties if the algorithm decides to make that shot count. Knowing which spawned groups have MG’s or AT or even grenade launchers, and not spawning those groups is a critical skill. If you want to give the players an experience of a close call, do it yourself. You need to be the one sending that near miss RPG out, because if you don’t the AI might not make it a near miss no matter how hard you try to order it. You have time to spawn in two fire teams of riflemen instead of one fully kitted squad.
Monitor stress levels and be aware that any mildly confusing task can turn into an impossible ask when someone is stressed out. If you are planning an intense and challenging mission, it is probably best to not have all that action be concurrent with anything else requiring much thought. For example think about how easy it is to call our your current grid on the map. Now think about how easy it is to call your current grid on the map as the mayday call for your helicopter as it careens towards the ground. Same task. Vastly different context and vastly different levels of difficulty to complete.
Avoid mass casualties
It is rarely fun to play a game and watch everyone die. It sucks. And no matter how hard we might try to avoid them, they’ll probably happen away. If any tool you are using to challenge the player could result in a mass casualty, then you either need to be assuming direct control of that tool to make sure it doesn’t. Or if that isn’t at all possible, have the AI use it in a way that you know, you are 100% certain, you are as certain of this as you are that you need to breathe to live, it won’t result in a mass casualty.
Mass casualties sucks in more than a group of people feeling bad because they died. The operations of the entire platoon has to shift to make up for those losses until they can return. This means putting more players in riskier situations in addition to logistical headaches and a total stalling out of mission progress. Just don’t do it.