I still want to gm something again

The problem is I have several decently developed settings in my head

But the actual plot and conflicts within them are extremely nebulous

I’m like “ten pages of history about an interdimensional empire that conquered earth, unskippable”

And then someone is like “cool so what’s our part in this stuggle?”

Cricket noises

the best gming advice i've gotten is those cricket noises are actually an advantage

you can get your players together and ask

"okay. what kind of story would you guys want to play around w/ in this setting"

it gives you ideas and the players an opportunity to contribute to the setting/story, making sure that they'll vibe w/it

That

Is actually very good advice

give the players the narrative they're interested in

I do feel like my two most successful games, Anglerfish abd Project Lancer, were carried at least somewhat by having compelling antagonists

Primus and his fucking insane plan to punish humanity for eternity

also: don't flesh out the setting too much. leave blank spaces for the players to fill in

that was my big mistake w/the very first campaign i ran

The Anglerfish’s destructive connection with our dimension combined with its terror of being trapped in its own dimension all alone again

for my own pet setting, i put together a bunch of different antagonists/antagonistic factions all w/different thematic goals/angles

suitable for both a plan clusterfuck and focusing on any particular one that the players find interesting

That was the thing you were using for srwq?

srwq was all lily, lmao

and mine's different. inspired by 5ss primarily

Right sorry

What’s 5ss?

five star stories, mamoru nagano's magnum opus

Oh shit I have heard of this

it's fucking INCREDIBLE, eric

The Five Star Stories - MangaDex

What Ive seen looks crazy

if you're looking for inspiration on marrying epic fantasy/gritty sci-fi/mechs, it's a great place to start

In that particular regard, I have never lacked for ideas

But I might have to read that even so

it's a foundational work

Project Lancer was so good.