Pacing: When a GM Should Cut to the Next Scene

A game master should cut to the next scene when nothing between here and there needs a decision from the player, and should stay in a scene for as long as the player still has choices to make in it. AI game masters can get this wrong in both directions: they race through moments the player wanted to play, or linger where nothing needs the player at all. The fix is a GM that sums up the in-between quickly, stops at each decision and asks before it skips anything, so the player sets the pace.

This post is part of our guide, Can an AI Be a Good Game Master?.

What Does Bad Pacing From an AI GM Look Like?

Bad pacing from an AI game master usually looks like one reply doing the work of several turns. A fight or a negotiation is settled in one go, and the player never gets to make the choices that would have shaped it. Pacing can also go wrong the other way, with a long ride told in detail when nothing on the road needs the player.

PC Gamer reported on a chatbot GM that tried "to wrap up an entire combat in a single reply". When that happens, a fight you'd planned your turns for is over before you've taken one. That's a pacing failure, and it's also the GM making your character's choices for you, which Why Your AI Game Master Keeps Playing Your Character looks at in more depth.

Why Do AI Game Masters Struggle With Pacing?

In my experience of trying to make chatbots run my games, AI game masters struggle with pacing because pacing is a judgement made every turn: what matters most right now, and does the player need to decide anything before the next moment worth playing? The facts of a whole campaign fit easily in what a language model can read at once. Picking out, turn after turn, which of those facts the moment turns on is the part that kept going wrong.

I spent a long time on this, and the failure I saw again and again was the choice of what to dwell on and what to pass over. When I told a chatbot how to pace a scene, it obeyed for a while, and then it started breaking again. Why AI Game Masters Forget Your Campaign looks at the same problem from the memory side.

How Should a GM Decide When to Skip Ahead?

A GM should skip ahead when the next stretch of time holds no decision for the player and nothing the player has said they want to see. Travel, waiting and routine work can be summed up in a line or two, and the summary stops as soon as something calls for a choice. When a scene might matter to the player, the GM asks before skipping it.

Four habits make up most of good pacing, at a table or with an AI:

• Sum up the in-between. A week on the road can be three sentences if nothing on it needs the player.
• Stop at the next decision. The summary ends the moment there's a choice to make, such as a fork in the road or a stranger at the gate.
• Ask before skipping a scene the player might want. A question like "Do you want to play out the evening at the inn, or go straight to morning?" takes one line and keeps a scene the player may have been looking forward to.
• Fit the length to the moment. A tense exchange of words suits short replies, and a first sight of a new city has room for more.

If you play with a chatbot, ask for these habits at the start: "Sum up travel and waiting, stop at every decision, and ask me before you skip a scene." Steer with plain signals as you go, such as "skip to the gate" or "slow down", and repeat the request when the pace starts to slip.

How Does Fable Smith Handle Pacing?

Fable Smith, our AI game master in Discord, lets you set the pace and asks before it skips ahead. Journeys and waits you start are summed up quickly and stop at the next decision, and plain signals such as "skip to the gate" or "slow down" are followed.

Fable Smith is vivid where it matters: a world that moves, and a GM who knows what to show you. Set out on a three-day ride, and the road passes in a couple of sentences until the ford, where riders are waiting, and the GM doesn't settle that meeting for you in the same post.

• Each post is only as long as the moment needs. A quick exchange gets a short reply, and a long post is kept for a moment that earns it.
• Every post ends where you'd decide. The GM stops at the point where your character would act, with no menu of options.
• You play in your own time. Write your turn, add a roll or a few more lines and press Continue when you're ready, or have the GM answer each post straight away. Solo Play-by-Post on Discord covers this in more detail.

We think pacing is one of the things Fable Smith does well, and speed is still its weak spot. Fable Smith is in a free closed beta, where today you play on your own with the GM in your own Discord channel. It's slow, and a turn can take minutes. It also still makes mistakes sometimes.

Want a GM that asks before it skips and lets you set the pace? Join the waitlist for the free closed beta on the Fable Smith page.

Sources

• PC Gamer, Jody Macgregor, Generative AI is dividing RPG fans, 25 October 2024, for a chatbot GM trying to settle a whole fight in one reply.
• Anthropic, Context windows, for how much text a language model can read at once.
• The Forge & The Fable, Fable Smith, for every claim about Fable Smith.