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There is a lot going into preparing oneself for game night. Not only do you have to prepare for the game, but you have to take care of yourself as well. I think about everything that goes into having a good session throughout the week prior, but what about the day of?
Game Prep: I’ve talked a lot about how to prepare your game session. There are many videos that you can also find about the best practices. Getting your players engaged in the action and setting up relatable NPCs are just a few ways of having an excellent game night. Physical Prep: Maps, monster stats, and technical equipment needed for the evening must be prepared ahead of time. On the day of the game, it is usually a bit too late to gather all the needed materials and put it together. There are a few exceptions to this of course, but I don’t have an extensive library of miniatures and maps. This also applies to a physical space. Tables, chairs, snacks, and drinks are just a few items that make playing in person more enjoyable and we have to think about those as well. Mental Prep: I have so much going on in my head during a game that I do not want the random, “Did I take care of…” to pop in and muddle everything else. I have to make sure my to-do list is manageable prior to the game and this includes making dinner for my family. There have been several times that I have declared that I am not making dinner on game night, but more often than I’d like, I still do it. When these things are taken care of, I am more free to truly enjoy my evening. So, when planning a game night (even if it is weekly) prepare yourself accordingly. As much as can be done prior to that day should be done, and don’t be afraid to recruit others to help. Assign snacks, ask another family member to cook dinner, take turns running the game…whatever helps you and your group make the best night possible.
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So you’ve been asked to run a game (or campaign) in a system you are unfamiliar with. Sure, you’ve played it a few times, but nothing extensive and someone else told you the rules as you needed to hear them. The GM was loosey-goosey with some rules while more strict with others, so your perception of the game is askew. How do you navigate running a game of your own?
Well, I’ve basically been asked to do just that! I am reading the core rulebook now, along with a couple supplemental books for the setting, and find it a bit overwhelming. (Remember the trash compactor in Star Wars….yeah, I’m in that.) I try to take it in bite size pieces, but have found myself getting confused. At some point, I just have to go with what I know and understand up to this point, and learn the rest as I play. Thankfully, my players are basically doing the same thing. I think session 0 is even more important at this point. Not really understanding the entirety of the system will make it more difficult to adjust things on-the-fly. A session 0, and even a one-shot to go along with it, helps to get my players aligned with each other and myself as we begin this new campaign. We can work through some issues that may arise, and discuss how to handle looking up rules (there is no way for one person to know them all). If you find yourself in this situation, do not be afraid to rely on your players. They can help you sift through which rules are quintessential and which ones are not necessary. You can also hold them responsible for knowing how their character works and the rules that go with it. You do not have to know everything to sit around the table and have fun! So I found out my players are addicted to this game. Even when it makes sense just to call off a night, they are begging to make it a different night instead. We all look at our schedules to see if it will work and find that we could actually make it work. This makes them all happy and we move on.
I am not going to lie, this makes me feel good. I’m running a game they enjoy and don’t want to skip a week for any reason (if possible). I am thankful to have a group so willing to run around in a world I am creating, with an ending that has yet to be solidified. I am touched that they trust me to show up and be prepared to run a good game. I hope I don’t disappoint. Although we go to various places for work, family, or just to get away, this group has been a blessing for me. They have always encouraged getting together to game regardless of circumstances or surroundings. Even when one player has to step away for a week (or more), they encourage the rest of us to game on and then return when they are able. I find it hard sometimes to take the backseat. When I am a player in a game, I can tend to spout out the rules for a situation without being asked. If you are with a good group, this really is not too big of an issue, but it can step into the GM’s space. They can find it difficult to enforce their own rulings and it can cause them to stifel their own plans.
As a GM, I do appreciate being reminded of the rules when it is noticed I’m trying to look things up. I am also okay with my players discussing rules and how they interpret them. This often gives me a deeper insight to the rules and sometimes helps me to understand them myself. I cave pretty easily if a player can logically argue their point about a rule or circumstance in the game. It is hard to set aside that GM hat though, and just be a player. I make a conscious effort to bite my tongue when questions come up. If there seems to be a long pause, or I am asked, I let it loose. I do my best to still be respectful of the current GM, and often end the comment with, “but that’s up to you.” I am not perfect at this by any means, but I continue to strive for my best each time I sit down at the table. I recently heard a podcast about when it is a good time to stop a campaign. I agreed with him, but what stood out to me was when he talked about running something simple while preparing for the next great thing. I find myself in that same position right now. I am working on wrapping up our current campaign while, at the same time, reading and building a new world for the next one.
Let’s just start by telling everyone that I don’t have to do a lot of preparations for our current campaign at this point. I’m quite familiar with the rules and can come up with the story and encounters on-the-fly. This is almost on autopilot now and I only have to tweak it slightly. I can now take the time I would normally use to prepare the next session and familiarize myself with the next world we are going to run around in. This takes time and energy. Since it was already announced we are switching systems, I can share that I’m learning new things and refreshing some others long forgotten. Yes, I have played in this system before, but I never really grasped it. I only knew what my character could do, and even that was a bit dicey. I know that when we start, I’ll still be feeling clueless on the rules and even some of the aspects of the genre, but I’m still excited to give it a try. I just want to encourage you game masters out there. It is okay to “put a pin in it” and shelve the campaign until you are prepared to come back to it. In the meantime, play something more familiar so you can have the free time to work on the next thing. If you want to switch systems entirely, use the time to read and research what you want to move into. Above all, give yourself grace and don’t feel guilty for pausing (or even dropping) a campaign. A gaming group is like a little family. There are multiple factors why you keep coming back to the table week after week (or game after game). You enjoy time together and have fun sharing these experiences and stories. However, like family, you also have your differences and disagreements. If someone leaves, do not take that personally as there are multiple reasons why one would walk away.
Not the right fit. Everyone has a style of play they really enjoy. A player may be looking for something combat heavy, but most of the group are doing more character development, roleplaying social encounters (and even the occasional shopping episode). They become bored with this gaming style quickly, and if it happens often enough they will walk away. The opposite can also be true for someone into roleplaying sitting at a table that is combat heavy. This is okay! Encourage them to find a group that fits what they are looking for and to keep gaming. Too much water. Sometimes the player has had enough conflicting moments between other players that they are now experiencing tension between them. If they are experiencing issues with the other players (or they are the “problem player”), it may not be an issue with another group of people, but at this table it is. Trust me when I say some people know when they are the problem. Sometimes they will discuss this with you, other times they will just stop showing up. This is okay! Again, encourage them to find another group to play with. Don’t like the system. *Gasp* Yes, people stop showing up for games because of the system or genre. Players who are into epic fantasy stories are not going to enjoy running space traveling merchants. They will often graciously duck out of the games until you circle around to a system or genre they like, then rejoin. This is okay! Remember to call them up when you start something you think they’ll enjoy and invite them back. Players come and go, it’s usually nothing personal. If there are issues that you can discuss and come to a resolution on, then it is worth having that conversation. Will it bring that player back? Maybe not, but be okay with their decision. Do not try to convince a player to return if issues are not resolved as that will only cause more. There are many great players that would not be a good fit for my table. I am okay with that, and they are too. When you have little to no time to plan a session, sometimes you have to use whatever is available to you. For short notice one-shots, this is what I have done. Thanks to the many conventions and extra sessions I’ve been asked to run, I have things I can pull from at the ready. If one of my players cannot make it, that is exactly what I do.
I’ve recently come across some great resources to pull from. In my digging I have found RuneFoundry and Loke provide some great scenarios and maps to go with them. I struggle with both on the fly and these two provide both, and at a reasonable cost (some even free). I am sure those are not the only ones, but I find both of these give just enough. The scenarios provided give good foundations to pull from without causing a complete trainwreck if the players go off track. They also give just enough options that the players will not feel pushed to do something in particular. I like to take these ideas and mold them to how I know they like to play and anticipate a bit of shenanigans. You can always adjust anything you have to work for you. Make it yours. Switch out the monsters, change the setting, even the genre can be flipped to some degree. If you struggle to come up with sessions, go look up a few for yourself and let me know if you have a “go-to” for last minute planning. New Year resolutions are often made with good intentions, but quickly fall to the wayside a few weeks in. This is why I don’t make one, I know it’ll be forgotten just as quickly as I commit to it. However, I still have goals, ones that have an end date in mind while others are pretty infinite. One such goal is to learn and run games in other systems.
As this campaign is coming to a close, we have discussed what we would like to do next. There was some tossing about of various systems and even possibly staying with D&D. I made mention of some systems I do not particularly care for (too number-crunchy for me), but in the process, mentioned one that I was thinking about reading through anyway. Of course my players jumped on THAT one. So now I find myself reading, and re-reading the core book as well as a few supplemental resources. I have only actually played in this system for two campaigns, and although they were longer campaigns, I still didn’t have a real grasp on the world as I lived in the small world of my character, not looking at the bigger picture. I also did not truly understand the mechanics. I had cheat sheets that I followed for any rolls from the first time I played until the last session nearly 2 years later. As big of a project as running a game in a system I am only vaguely familiar with is, I’m excited to try something new. I do hope others who are interested in trying this are encouraged by my attempts at it, successful or not. Be with me on my failures, but also join me to celebrate when I can quote Hannibal saying, “I love it when a plan comes together.” I have recently come across some posts about metagaming. Definitions vary in some details, but the general idea is that this is when a player uses his/her real knowledge instead of the character’s. In this broad sense, anything the player knows (including mechanics to an extent) could be considered as metagaming. I personally think this is hogwash as my family would say.
If you are a die hard “no metagaming at the table” type of person, I will not be playing with you in any long-term capacity. As a GM, I often give descriptions of people, places, and things with modern day likeness. This allows my players to understand what I am picturing the easiest and keeps from consuming too much time on narrative. However, in that broad definition, I’ve just told my players to metagame. They may change their decisions or actions based on that likeness. I am also okay with cross-table chatter. If someone finds their character alone and is stuck on ideas on how to proceed, I’d rather my other players give them ideas instead of spending the next thirty minutes waiting for them to come up with it on their own. Some would say I should guide them to a decision, but that can be counterproductive and leave the player feeling defeated. However, if it comes from the players it is seen as helping each other and they have now overcome that obstacle together. Some would go so far as to not allow the players to share their actions during battle. This prevents the coordination of an active adventuring party that travels together and most likely knows what each other may be doing. Table chatter on what you plan to do next, or aiding each others’ efforts is the best way to display these tactics. Each time they do this, they learn more about each other, their play styles, and their preferred battle strategies. They will hone in wonderful combinations that make the game truly epic. Now, let’s talk elephants! Player knowledge of monsters the adventuring party encounters is the worst type of metagaming. It can drain the fun so badly that I actually put this type into more of a “cheating” category. If your character has never encountered a siren, and has spent no time on the docks or on a ship, they will not know about their song-like enticement. However, if they encounter a red dragon that emits heat and breathes fire, it is logical that the characters may think it is immune to fire. All of this comes, of course, with a grain of salt. Your players need to give room for each other to have those “private” conversations, take the moment to think through a situation, and share only what they want. The rest of the group need to respect that their party member is keeping something secret from the rest of them with a purpose, and allow it to come to the surface organically. The group should never assume everything is shared all the time (unless stated otherwise), and if anyone is not sure, it’s okay to ask, “Did you share that?” We all fall off the horse eventually, it’s what we do after we hit the ground that matters. Struggling to keep up with life, the universe, and everything, I cling to the answer…42, unfortunately that is only half the problem. What’s the question?!
As I realize I was late (again) for posting a GM Corner, I am also dropping the ball on other things as well. I have hyper focused on cleaning the house, and as a result other things slip by me. Before I know it, the new year will have come and gone and I’ll still be sitting at my desk thinking about Christmas gifts. It also shows in my games. I’m less prepared, meaning no maps, easy monsters, very predictable story plots, and late posts. This does not mean it will be less fun, but it will not have the air of excitement that we all love. The “tool box” comes in very handy in these instances. All those plots, NPCs, locations, etc. that the players have skipped over, can now be pulled out with little preparation (since I did it already). If you find yourself on the ground. Whether it be too much going on in your life, or just in your head, remember you are not alone. We have all fallen off at some point or another. Just pick yourself up, dust off, and get back on! |
AuthorJodie 
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March 2025
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