This guest post is from Amaril, who asked me to post it here on TT; I was happy to oblige. Hopefully the TT community can give Amaril a hand.
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I’ve been tested for adult ADHD recently and discovered my brain has difficulty controlling its focus while working on various tasks.
During more complex tasks that involve larger scale concepts rather than minutiae, my brain goes into what I call “super focus” mode, which causes me to focus only on a specific subject for longer than I need. It’s actually difficult for me to tear myself away from whatever I’m focused on, almost as though it were mentally painful.
For example, I will work on analyzing larger concepts pertaining to the setting or the adventure, but when it comes down to reading a module or the mechanical the details of a spell, feat, or other game mechanic, it takes me forever to get through the material.
I’m a DM in a D&D Eberron campaign, and have always found myself struggling with preparing for the next session and running a session for some length of time, particularly combat sequences with a significant number of NPCs. Most recently, I found myself getting frustrated running the final encounter in Shadows of the Last War.
While preparing for it, I had difficulty retaining focus on reading all of the sourcebooks and understanding how to run complex NPCs effectively. Actually running the encounter was worse. I won’t even bother trying to explain my experience with running Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Meanwhile, I have other friends who GM games and can read their material and prepare for their sessions easily enough.
By the time I’m running a game session, I think I’ve prepared quite a bit for an encounter having spent hours with my notes and material, but what I discover is that I hadn’t figured out how to run the NPCs in the encounter itself, or after running an encounter for a while, my brain has a hard time keeping track of what’s going on.
I’m curious if there are other GMs who have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD who also struggle with similar issues and what methods they use to overcome this difficulty.
I do not have this affliction. Nonetheless, I have a suggeestion. Run a simpler system.
I do not mean this in a d20-hater kinda way. Running a simpler system would free up that part of prep and allow you to not focus on it during play. There is a great deal of community supprt for a very simple, yet highly playable system called RISUS. It was originally written as a beer-and-pretzel game, but many folks run it in a serious campaign. It’s from S. John Ross, just google RISUS.
Oh, just thought of two more. Write a brief blurb (appearance, personailty, purpose in the encounter, attitude toward the PCs, whatever else you mayb need) about every NPC (and even some generic ones) on a note cards. When the time comes use the card to help remind you of the NPC and shift your focus.
Also, give the the players more responsiblilty in combat. This especially works if you have one who is a rules scholar. You can dole out all the recod keeping of a d20 ombat. This one keeps track of initiative, this one keeps track of spell durations, this one makes sure everyone takes/suffers attacks of opputunity, etc.
Good luck.
I have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD as well. I share your issues with hyperfocus, and the paradoxical lack of ability to control the object of your focus.
I also GM games. What I have found is that I need to run as much of the game as possible impromptu.
When using modules: I read through a module until I have a good general command of the story and the general flow. Then I get a good command of the major obstacles and their abilities (and motivations if available).
Then I make the rest up. I use pre-printed materials more as a template than an instruction sheet. I’ll often look at a room map and think about other interesting ways an encounter could occur there while still promoting the major factors of the campaign. Then I use the room, and encounter, whichever way best advances the purpose of the game, written materials be damned. 🙂 I find I can’t concentrate too much on the pre-written details or the game gets too bogged down for me.
When possible I use setting materials as references, but I find that if I don’t allow myself the creative latitude to adapt the adventure, I end up putting my players through retcon hell.
When I don’t use modules: I generally create a broad overview of major adventure points (broad world decisions, major npcs, a few interesting elements of conflict) and then let the rest evolve at the gaming table. I tend to make things up on the spot, making sure to write them down, and work those decisions into the overall plot.
I try to be careful not to create conflicting or confusing decisions, but other than that, I try and let the game tell itself. I browse online for neat monsters and npcs to use as challenges, but I don’t usually use anything past the stats. I tend to just make up the description of the monster and it’s abilities based on what fits into the campaign. This way I’m not tempted to bog my thinking down into too many details, but I make sure I have the tools available to me to run a fun game.
It works for me, your milage may vary.
-tdr-
My sympathies Amaril. While I don’t have ADD, I do have symptoms of it and was on Ritalin when I was younger.
I’ve found the best way to deal with my “something isn’t holding my attention, gotta get into something else” is through generalized lists. I tend to take a very make it up as you go attitude, and this kind of helps. If I’m running from a module (something I rarely do for the reasons you list), I usually make a list of the elements I want to incorporate, and a list of the enemies that I want to use, along with the page numbers. With that skeleton in place I try to freeform it as much as possible from there. It helps that I don’t have a lot distracting me, or a lot of mechanical jargon that I’m trying to get through. I’ve got the basic idea, and I let my mind run from there detailing something, then moving on to something else.
Dynamics of the room where you are running can also help. If you have a conference type of table it’s easy to focus on the players and what is going on because they are all in front of you. At the end of the table there is all that negative space, where when your eyes wander there you find nothing to hold your attention.
The best advice, I think for any GM, is to learn how to improvise. It won’t matter if you’ve done your prep well or not, if you can effectively make it up on the spot. Prep will always help, but if you are at a loss and can cover, or if you have the basics down for the situation and can get the feel that you want for the encounter, then no one will be able to tell if the fireball was about a foot short, or the enemy had a +2 instead of a +3 resistance bonus. They’ll be too busy talking about how cool the game was, and the fun stuff their characters got to do.
I have no idea whether or not what I am about to suggest is applicable to your situation, but I’m a firm believer in turning your weaknesses into strengths based on personal experience.
Try creating a prep template and timeline. I do this sometimes when I know I will be busy in the days before the game (and I always am). You list every major category that you need to prep for and assign dates for the prep work to be done by. Then you can focus on just one area at a time. NPCs could be a category, combat scenes another, etc.
Sometimes I find myself focussing for too long on one particular aspect of the prep work, so I started planting “distraction bombs” to keep me on track. I have a timer program that plays a WAV file at a certain increment of time. So if I am working on NPCs and I spend too much time on the seedy gun smuggler if the my laptop plays the WAV I stop working on that NPC and move right onto the next one regardless of what I have completed. I may go through all of the NPCs without “finishing” a single one, but I have found that having partially completed NPCs is okay if you are good at improvising the missing details. Plus this encourages me to get the most important details out of the way first.
I also tend to plan adventures to be very accomodating to my on the fly GMing style. I build frameworks using the methods that I described above, but I never stick with what I planned to do and instead improvise a lot based on what my players become interested in. Like TDR suggested above, just use whatever best advances the purpose of the game for you at that moment.
Hope that helps!
Our GM has ADHD, but it manifests differently, so I don’t know how helpful this will be.
He tends to avoid true modules, but does take elements (like WotC web articles) and spin adventures around them. His creatures are rarely optimized– heck, after 18+ months, he still has trouble finding things in the stat blocks.
As players, we try to help him; if we suspect a creature has spell resistance, we’ll ask– not just wait for him to declare it. If we “know” a creature, we remind him of unusual powers, or help adjudicate powers, so he doesn’t have to look each one up to use it. (This is the same as MZRyan’s first comment.)
Spell casters are particularly bad for him to run, since there’s a whole list of spells to master for each opponent in each fight.
If you run without a module, your hyper focus might work for you– you can do a lot of tailoring to your group that someone else might not bother with. I know that we’re very appreciative of the custom storylines that enhance our character’s deeds with cool choices.
What I discover is that I hadn’t figured out how to run the NPCs in the encounter itself, or after running an encounter for a while, my brain has a hard time keeping track of what’s going on.
I have a good suggestion of how to deal with this problem, and it comes from the realm of sports of all places: scripting. Many football coaches script the first 20 or so plays of a game. They run the plays in order, generally without alternating due to situations (this sometimes leads to odd things like run plays on 3rd and 20). The idea is that the game plan is developed over the entire week, and should be solid. Scripting keeps the team running the game plan, no matter what situation might come up (quick turnovers, quarterback injury, etc), and not begin to second guess themselves.
Application of this concept to D&D is simple. Plan out 5 or 6 rounds of each NPC you plan to run. Follow this plan regardless of what everyone else is doing. This means that during the battle, you don’t have to constantly evaluate options or make decisions. You just follow what the script dictates. For example:
Round 1: Cast Mage Armor, move away from foes
Round 2: Cast Shield and move closer
Round 3: Cast burning hands on group of foes, move backward out of melee range.
You can also include all of the mechanics of each action with the script, so it is all easy to find (ex: Shield gives a +4 Shield Bonus to AC).
Once you are comfortable with creating and running single path scripts, you add options to the script. These can be simple, such as:
When he has only 1/4 HPs, the NPC drinks a potion instead of his scripted action.
Or they can be complex multiple paths such as:
Cast Hold Person on brainless meatshield.
If successful, next turn move up and attack. Coup de grace on the third turn.
If spell fails, next turn cast Bear’s Endurance and take out potion of Enlarge Person. Drink potion of Enlarge Person and move toward nearest foe.
These multiple paths will allow a more dynamic NPC, with more flexibility. The next idea is as script that cycles, and thus allows the character to run for as many rounds as necessary. In a recent session, I had a ogre sorcerer who’s script ended in two commands:
Cast invisibility and move. Move to line up shot, and cast lightning bolt. Repeat.
Finally, there is the end cap. When does the NPC stop fighting? They can be simple: Fight until dead, or more complex Flee when more than half of allies are at half or less HPs. Not only is this usually in general scripting terms, it can serve as a good reminder to run a game where all do not end in death.
Of course, you may find that making the script beforehand is just as difficult for you as doing it during the game. But in that thought lies to real strength of this method. You don’t have to write the script all on your own. Since it is done beforehand, you can ask for help from any players/DMs you know outside of that particular game. You can even ask the collective wisdom of this website or others you frequent. I’m sure there are some out there who could write up great scripts for you.
So in conclusion, I think scripting will help by removing the decision making process from the immediate game and allow access to outside help to plan how to run NPCs. Good luck.
Thank you all for your suggestions. I was just recently diagnosed last week, and last night via email was the first time I mentioned it to my players, all of whom are good personal friends of mine (we were all friends before I suckered… er… invited them to play D&D).
There have been some great ideas presented here, and I plan on using quite a few of them. tdr’s suggestions are right on target with what I’m most comfortable trying. No offense, lebkin, but you lost me after the third paragraph. Writing a script is far more than my brain can track.
Tonight I’ll present some of MountZionRyan’s suggestions about delegating responsibilities to the players. I’m also going to suggest the playing style shift to a more freestyle method of gaming (at least for me).
I like the idea of using modules as scaffold for an adventure rather than a script. I think sticking to the greater concept of an adventure and the experience of the encounters will work best for me. Basically, I’ll go with what makes sense rather than worry about what the rules say.
Keep the ideas and shared experiences coming. It’s refreshing to see others who experience similar difficulties and suggestions for new techniques are always welcome.
Scripting is a great time-saver for me, too. To expand on Lebkin’s comments (and your subsequent ones), you may just want to define preferred targets for each NPC. (Wizard targets Monks and Rogues; Orc chieftain targets the biggest melee fighter, etc).
Another option is to simplify the scripting, maybe even down to “Rage, charge the smallest character, power attack at -2, continue attacking one until he falls, repeat”. Or “Fireball, move towards secret door, then Scorching Ray and Magic Missile whoever’s closest.”
Finally, when I was using paper character sheets and init cards, I highlighted the most powerful or most overlooked abilities on them.
Good luck! Finding what works for me is one of the most interesting parts of DMing.
It’s funny that you mention init cards. I use The Game Mechanics’ Init cards for two reasons:
1. It helps me to understand the NPC or monster if I copy it onto a card. Reading it, thinking about it, and writing it down is a great way for me to process and retain at least some of that information.
2. It helps me keep track of rounds and who’s turn it is. Having all of the information about the creature right there on the card helps me to adjudicate attacks and saving throws more quickly, too.
They were something I adopted well before I got tested. It just seemed like a good tool to use, and now I know why I rely on them so much.
By the way, regarding spellcasters, I almost always use spontaneous casters. I played a cleric once, and it was a bad mistake. I felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of spells available. I stuck to mostly attacking and turning undead. I hate NPC wizards, too, especially when they have an arsenal of scrolls, wands, and potions.
I don’t mean to downplay the impact of ADD/ADHA but if you remove the article’s first and last paragraphs I suspect you’ll find that most people, at some point in their DM career, have had a similar experience.
D&D is, inherently, a complex system. I wouldn’t be too concerned about many of the issues voiced; couple ADD/ADHA with a such a complex dearth of rules and books and a person is bound to feel overwhelmed.
Others have given much better advice, among them to farm out some of the workload or even consider a different rules set. I know it may sound like sacrilege but if running the game becomes a source of dissatisfaction or stress…well, you probably have enough stress already in your life.
Move away from modules…streamline your adventures…get the other players to help. These things and more could probably make quite the difference.
Mostly, though, understand that while your condition may exacerbate the problem, plenty of people without ADD/ADHA have felt just as overwhelmed when running a game. You are not alone.
I’ve got some symptoms of ADD/ADHD as well, but mine manifest in a slightly different fashion due to a few things I have, as mine tend to manifest during manic periods, which add a few other problems you may or may not have.
I am a big proponent of behavioral mitigation techniques. I can’t use ordinary ADD/ADHD meds, so where others might use Ritalin, I need to control mine using mental techniques. Thus, I agree with VV_GM, here: try to turn “weaknesses” into strengths. If you don’t want meds, or the meds wouldn’t/don’t help, that’s really the only thing you can do. If you learn how your ADD/ADHD affects your behavior, you can adapt and make it BENEFICIAL to a degree. Most people can’t switch focus or hyperfocus as readily as a person with ADD/ADHD can. Therefore, you can do things easily others may not be able to, and if you adjust how you go about certain things, you can work around problems and make them less serious.
Hyperfocus (what you described as “superfocus” which is medically called “hyperfocus”) is EXCELLENT for trying to finish complex tasks, if you know how to break them down. Lists help, but only to a degree. Better still is learning to break down tasks and/or group tasks together till you have “meta-tasks” that don’t break workflow but allow you to work on several things at once, because chances are, you’ll have fewer problems multi-tasking than others might have, but workflow’s more important to you than it might be for others. The “meta-task” of “build NPC X” is one that hyperfocus will make difficult, because it breaks workflow a lot. Instead, possibly one “meta-task” which might work better for you is “Figure out NPC goals” which allows you to stop once you get the goals worked out, and mentally move on. Then, instead of working out their stats yourself, you can instead use the task “find stats” and search for NPC statblocks that might be useful online. Since you already have the goals and approximate level worked out, you can compare things which is a lot easier to focus on than designing.
I also say streamlining adventures is a good idea. Since I am not particularly good at running modules, but I’m very creative when I get ADD-ish, I create adventures from scratch, and tailor them to players, which helps make my games feel fresher. In this way, I adapt. I can’t do one thing well, but I focus on doing another similar thing much better than anyone else, because most other people can’t “wing it” as easily as I am often able to. Similarly, I can run one-shots more easily than most people I know, since coming up with oddball ideas is a specialty.
VV’s “Distraction bombs” might work for you somewhat, but they may not. I suggest lights on timers, since dark -> light transitions or vice versa tend to cause me to recoil a bit and break my focus because I can’t see, and therefore can’t work on what I’ve been concentrating on, which causes my brain to break it’s lock.
I can identify with this–I too have ADD, and trying to get all the details straight or keep track of everything going on in a game is tough. I use some combination of the following to do it, some of which have already been mentioned:
Listing. I find it easier to keep track of, say, NPC details if they’re in the form of a list of representative traits and details rather than exhaustive complex paragraphs. Pick out the few details that will most remind you of what’s important about an NPC during play and list them in as simple a form as you can.
Enlist your players. I’m firmly in the camp of communicating with your players and making them your allies. I encourage my players to let me know when I’m forgetting something (such as a creature’s ability, or the way a rule works). My husband is my best ally here, since his brain works in kind of the opposite way–he’s awesome at memorizing rules and such, and so completely not a rules-lawyer that I know he’ll only use that to help. While I also try to take my own notes about things that happen during game, I also encourage a player to take simple notes as well, which helps in keeping events straight.
Improvise. I try not to plan things out too much in advance, and rarely run pre-prepared modules unless they’re pretty short and straightforward in scope. Since I tend to come up with random material as I get inspired, such as an NPC here, a location there, etc., I keep such things on hand and toss them in whenever I need something and I can make it fit. Rather than forcing myself to exhaustively prepare an adventure I try to come up with bits and pieces of plots, characters, etc. that will produce something interesting when I use them to improvise.
Take breaks. Whenever I run into a quandry, am not sure what should happen next, or just plain get a bit lost, I take a break to figure things out.
When I do need to plan out a more complex adventure, I try to standardize the format a bit so that it’ll be easy for me to find whatever I’m looking for whenever I need it (I came up with a mission template when coming up with Stargate SG-1 missions for example). I put most information for one adventure in one computer file so I can also use the find function any time I need to find something.
I hope that helps a little. I won’t say it makes things easy, but it does make things easier.
Kestral and Heather, thanks for sharing your experience and techniques, it was very insightful. Since I’m just learning how to “work with” this problem, these little bits of insight help me to see other techniques and processes that might help me.
Out of curiosity, are there any individuals who have reading difficulties, basically just being a slow reader or processing what you’re reading more slowly than others?
On slow reading–sometimes, yes. Sometimes I can whiz through a big hardback in a day (hyperfocus) while other times it’ll take me weeks to get through something. Drives me nuts as I’m a book reviewer! I find it’s partly based on how interesting I find the book and topic; partly on how restless I am at the time; and partly on how many other things I have going on that distract me.
One thing I haven’t seen in this great list of suggestions is a mention of storytelling or another method for communicating. From what little I understand of neuroscience, you can perform an activity twice in almost the exact same way, but use completely different parts of your brain simply by thinking through the activity differently. Maybe storytelling can get you to think differently about GMing and hopefully I can convey a way to do this below.
Most people I’ve seen that get hung up on monster stats and npc motivations are trying think from a perspective of the smallest detail (e.g. Ranged Attack Bonus, Spot skill, Who does this NPC hate?, etc.). Communication between the players and the GM is really occurring at a much higher level of abstraction (e.g. I waste him with my crossbow, We open the door quietly, My character challenges the king to a duel, etc.). When you’re operating from a perspective of the most minute detail and you want to get everything right, you spend all your energy doing just that. Everything your players are telling you gets translated into this complicated detail level which takes up more space in your head. Most people don’t have enough mental bandwidth to track all the details and keep up with the action at the abstract level. It’s quite a lot to try to keep in your head when you think about it. It’s also very frustrating for GMs and makes them feel like everyone is eternally waiting for them to get their game together so the players can actually play.
Next time you get together with your group, try an impromptu community storytelling session at the beginning. Keep all the books closed and generally out of sight. Don’t think about it ahead of time. Well, try not to, even though you probably will :). The story can be about D&D or something unrelated. When you feel like you’re mentally going down the path of too much detail, hand off the storytelling to someone else. Keep the story bouncing around and don’t let anyone bog it down. If you’re not used to it you’ll probably feel dumb and you may think it’s a waste of time. But I can almost guarantee you that everyone who is paying attention will remember every single detail of the story a week later.
What does this get you? Well, hopefully during your storytelling session you’ll be able to feel your brain thinking a little differently. Try to remember what that feels like and try to keep your head ‘there’ when you’re GMing. It will certainly be uncomfortable, but you may find things move more smoothly in the game from your players’ perspectives. Experiment with other techniques if you like. Sing. Talk in rhyme. Close your eyes every time you talk. The goal is to find a way to get your head un-stuck and make it work the way you want it to work.
I don’t know if I’ve got ADHD, but I’ve always had a lot of the problems others have listed here – especially the gawd-awful slow reading. Like many other people, I used to run rules-heavy games and get bogged down in the details. A few years ago I gave up on the concept of complete control and understanding of my games. Now I run in rules-light systems and it’s the best GMing I’ve ever done. Not because I changed systems, but because I approach each session as if I’m telling a cool story and my players are going to help me out. The rules-light system just helps keep things moving along and makes it easier to cover up my impromptu mistakes (which I not afraid to make now).
Sorry this is so long. Hopefully someone will get some use out of this rambling. 🙂
Amaril,
I’ve never been tested, but I see myself in almost all the people who have been. I do read slow and have problems remembering everything I’ve read. I use pre-written modules and find that even if I read them multiple times, I still manage to miss lots of little things, a door here, a monsters SR. I’ve started copying the modules and useing different color highlighters to try a help locate information. It helps a little. I also use a laptop with DM software on it. This does help me keep things a little more organized.
lebkin:
I have a question about the scripting idea. I think it is a good idea, but I can see a problem I would have. What happens when the PC’s do things that completely throw off the script? I’m not real good at improvising, but I’m working on it. I think it would really throw me off if I had all these actions planned of an NPC and then had to throw them all out the window because the PC’s did something to change the script. And you know that is the PC’s job!
Beldar
Amaril,
I have a question for you. Would you mind e-mailing me and letting me know what getting tested involed. I’m thinking about calling my Doctor and would like some information. My e-mail is beldar1215@gmail.com. Thanks in advance.
Beldar
Beldar: Testing’s not complex. Just go to a psychiatrist and they’ll go through the necessary steps. I suggest avoiding a GP/Family practitioner, since psychiatric issues are often mis-diagnosed, and psychiatrists often know a broader range of techniques in treatment and diagnosis. ADD’s definitely a psych issue, so don’t treat it as a thing a GP’s likely to specialize in.
That said…
Amaril, I’m glad to help. Thankfully, for me, slow reading is not an issue, but I can tell you that to some degree, speed-reading programs DO work, and that will save you significant amounts of time if you can learn the trick. Part of it is typically to learn to break bad habits. Some courses suggest using a finger to mark your spot, but I find that slows one down, so YMMV. Subvocalizing (basically, not quite actually speaking, but getting close to it.. a good description is sort of imagining speaking to yourself without using your voice or whispering) is also an issue, and it seems to be the larger hindrance. Learn to stop doing those things, and focus more heavily on the words and sentences themselves and less on letters (essentially taking in larger letter/word groups per eyerest) and generally, you can reach VERY fast speeds without losing comprehension, while often gaining it. 600-900 WPM is attainable without doing multiple words per eyerest. (an eyerest is defined as the eye’s ‘stopping’ on a word) That level can dramatically decrease the amount of time it takes to get through information-dense materials like the PHB, DMG, and MM.
Kestral, thanks again for the tips. That might help quite a bit.
Beldar, I would definitely see someone who specilaized in psychiatry or psychology, particularly one who is experienced with testing for ADHD. It’s not a bad idea to ask your practitioner if he or she could refer you to someone as a starting point.
Testing actually takes about 3-4 hours, which I split across two different appointments. There was a third appointment to review the results.