Is it time to game yet?

When I first started playing, I was just a teenager and it felt like there was never anything getting in the way of us gaming. We played every weekend and more than that during the summer. When I got to college it was pretty much the same, but I also had a license and a car and could drive myself to games. Gaming was glorious and often.

Today, though, the biggest obstacle to playing is getting games scheduled. I think we can all acknowledge that the desire to play does not always equal the ability to get a game to the table.

Scheduling is a topic that has been covered before her on the Stew, both directly and indirectly, but it is a recurring issue we all face when engaging with this hobby. I am blessed with several ongoing games, but lately it seems like everyone has stumbled due to scheduling issues. Long gone are those rosy days of youth when our obligations were few and our free time expansive. Now we juggle our jobs, our families, our commitments, and any other hobbies we enjoy. Life is complicated.

When the D&D Movie, “Honor Among Thieves” had its opening pushed back this past March, we all joked that was about the most on the money thing that could happen to a movie based on an RPG.

So, let’s talk about some thoughts regarding scheduling:

• Have a cat herder. The title implies an impossible task, which it can certainly feel like, but it’s a crucial one for the health of a group. The cat herder can take different forms, but in my group it’s the person who starts the conversation about when we’re going to game and sends out the reminders or calendar invites to make sure everyone stays on the same page. Treasure your cat herders because they are most likely the glue keeping your gaming group together.
• Become a cat herder. If your group doesn’t have a cat herder or you’re trying to get one together, it’s time to look at learning what it takes to become one. This is a set of skills that can be developed over time. It’s a mix of managing a calendar to keep track of what’s supposed to happen when, but also of communication so everyone else knows what’s what. Believe me, if you can manage this skill, your gaming life will be better for it.
• Be consistent. Consistency matters for both communication and the dates that you play on. Whatever cadence of play the group has agreed on, try to stick to that. This doesn’t mean be inflexible about things, but if the group agreed that Sunday afternoons are good, don’t suddenly start asking that group to show up on Wednesday evening. The other key to this is communicating about when you’re going to play. Some of my groups have a particular day we play, but we still e-mail a few days before to remind everyone. Other groups will plan out when we can play over period of time through a poll and pick days that work for the group as a whole.
• Be realistic about your time. We’ve all seen someone, or been the someone, who commits to a game and then misses a session. Then another session. And maybe out of four sessions, they’ve made it to one. Groups should have an understanding that real life comes first, but we also must understand when we’re overcommitting. When that happens, the best thing to do might be to gently bow out of the game with apologies to the rest of the group.
• Time of year doesn’t really matter. Sometimes we delude ourselves into thinking that everything will be easier when we get to summer, and everyone’s schedule opens up. Then summer gets busy, and we start thinking, “Well, in the fall everyone will be available again.” But then before you know it, we’re careening headlong into the holiday season. When you’re trying to get a group of several people together, schedule conflicts are going to pop up throughout the whole year no matter what your plans are.
• Know you’re not alone. When you’re starting to get frustrated that it seems like it’s impossible to get a game together, take comfort that this is a common problem most of us are dealing with. Even the most secure and longest lasting groups still deal with scheduling issues on occasion. It’s not the end of the world for a group to take a short hiatus while scheduling conflicts are handled. More than likely you’re gaming with friends, or at least friendly acquaintances. Show yourself and them a little grace.
• Be kind to one another. We all want to play. Very rarely is someone intending to be malicious or purposefully rude with scheduling difficulties (and if they are, why would you want to game with them anyway). While everything I have already said is important: consistency, communication, etc., we still need to remember that life is complicated and we need to keep a degree of flexibility. And sometimes kindness is admitting when a game may not be working for everyone involved.

Thankfully my gaming schedule seems to be smoothing out a bit. Well, at least until we hit the holidays coming up. Ah well, I’m sure it will all work out in the end. Have you had schedule problems to deal with like this?

Today is the second day of GenCon. I’m not sure what attendance numbers will be this year, but many conventions are starting to see numbers close to what they were getting in the ‘Before Times’ (i.e. before 2020). Thing is, I’m not going to be there and I’m okay with that.

I attended GenCon consistently from 2006 to 2017 and I had a fun, if exhausting, time every year. My experiences ranged from absolutely amazing games to some of the most cringe worthy gamer horror stories in my repertoire. I came to know and love the downtown area surrounding the convention center and still happily share my convention going knowledge with anyone who wants to listen: stay hydrated, wear good shoes, bring extra socks, shower each day, eat at least one decent meal per day, and most importantly, don’t hurt yourself trying to do everything.

That last bit is why I made the call to stop attending GenCon. For me, it was getting logistically, financially, and physically taxing to make happen, so it made sense to pull back and put my focus on other events that provided an equal or greater level of fun, but at an easier cost to manage. I was initially worried that I was going to be consumed with a deep sense of missing out during the con when I didn’t attend, but that didn’t happen quite as badly as I thought.

Since then, I have been quietly examining my personal levels of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) related to all things gaming. We live in a society that encourages you to treat yourself and do all the things you desire but doesn’t acknowledge when that’s unfeasible or just not a good idea. As a result, we’re always wrestling with FOMO for the things we can’t do, regardless of why. With conventions like GenCon, it can be hard to see all the social media posts from your friends that are attending, forcing us to wrestle with finding that balance between being kind to ourselves and feeling sad we’re missing out.

I think this is especially crucial for all of us RPG players. By the very nature of the games we play, there are a limited number of seats at the table. Most RPGs can handle between four to six players. Once those seats fill up, whether it’s a convention one-shot or someone’s home game, that’s it. If you’re not in one of those seats, you miss out. There are other games to play, but that doesn’t always ease the sting.

This is something I’ve dealt with on many levels: Conventions I can’t attend, games that friends are in that I’m not, new games or game products I want to buy, but can’t or shouldn’t. The more friends I make in the gaming community, the more opportunities there are to game, but also the more opportunities there are to feel like I’m missing out.

So, what do I do?

• Remind myself that I can’t be everywhere at once. Just the same as the reasons I stopped going to GenCon, there are financial, physical, and logistic reasons that sometimes you need to miss out. Life is complicated and busy and we have to make our choices carefully. For me, cutting GenCon allowed me to invest more in other conventions and focus on other financial goals.
• Know that it’s not personal. Look, we’ve all got our mental health issues we’re dealing with. It can be very easy to see friends getting together without you and assume the worst. Even for those of us who aren’t dealing with clinical anxiety or depression, the brain weasels like to help us make the worst assumptions. It’s probably not any kind of drama that’s excluding you. And if it is drama? Well, you’ve got other issues to deal with than a game you’re missing out on.
• Be happy for other people doing cool things. Hey, those friends of yours getting to go to a convention you can’t, or play a game you’re not in? They’re still your friends. Celebrate the awesome experiences they’re having. Ask them how it went and enthusiastically listen. I love getting to hear about my friends’ campaigns, and all this week I’ve been checking in with my friends going to GenCon and encouraging them to have a fantastic time (and sharing my geeky knowledge of downtown Indy).
• Plan your own fun. Take the energy of your emotions related to missing out and turn it into other opportunities. There’s nothing stopping you from reaching out to folks you want to game with and see if you can pull something together. With all the virtual options we have today, distance isn’t even as much of a factor. Can’t afford to attend a convention? Invite some friends for a gaming weekend and make your own mini-con from the comfort of your own home. When you feel like you’re missing out, it’s time to look for the ways you can make cool experiences happen.

I still encourage everyone interested in conventions to try GenCon at least once in their lives, but I’m honest about the reasons I no longer attend. I’m at a point in my life where I make sure I get as many gaming experiences as I can and mitigate that fear of missing out because I know I’ve got something cool coming just around the corner.

Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk

For an upcoming game, I’ve been working on a character that was born in Spain many centuries ago. As part of working up who she is, I have been pondering whether to try for an accent when roleplaying her conversations. This, of course, got me thinking about the murky waters of accents in RPGs, and the dynamics of using special voices for our characters.

When I started gaming way back in the mid 1980’s, being able to do a good voice for your character was considered a hallmark skill as a roleplayer. I still meet the occasional grognard who feels the need to apologize for not being able to do a specific voice for their character or NPCs. It’s a complicated issue but having someone at the table who is both a good player and someone who brings a character to life with the perfect way of speaking can be incredibly exciting and fun.

At the same time, this perceived pinnacle of roleplaying skill puts a lot of pressure on players and GMs. It has been rightly pointed out that the use of accents can sometimes be problematic or even outright racist. A few years ago, I was in a Savage Worlds pulp game set in the 1930’s, much like Indiana Jones. One of the player characters was Chinese and the player who chose him kept using an accent for the character that was downright painful. I know the player didn’t mean any harm, but that doesn’t change that the caricature accent he was using was offensive. It’s enough of a concern that I’ve heard some folks in RPG circles declare that accents should NEVER ever be used.

I am not in that camp, but I think we should be mindful of the way we give our characters unique voices different from our own. This is a conversation that is complicated, but worth having. So, let’s cover some points about doing character voices:

• Doing voices for your characters is NEVER a requirement for players or GMs. Let’s get this one out of the way up front. No matter what folks think about the height of gamer skill, doing special voices, accent or no, is not a requirement for being a good gamer. Today we have an abundance of well-produced actual play shows with voice actors doing amazing things with their PROFESSIONALLY TRAINED voices for their characters and NPCs. Combine that with the lingering attitude of special voices being a required skill, and there are many folks, both new and old, who feel insecure about their own skills at the table. This is absolutely not the case and even those professionally trained voice actors would tell you that’s silly. There are many amazing players and GMs who help bring awesome games to the table without ever using a special voice.
• Accents can be fun, but tread carefully. Yeah, even though there are troublesome aspects to doing accents for characters, it can also be incredibly fun. Even with as obnoxious as it is, everyone loves a surly Scottish dwarf (who decided dwarves are Scottish anyway?), and giving your Twi’lek a vaguely French accent fits in with the way they were portrayed in the Star Wars cartoons. I recently got to play Magik from the X-men and giving her a vaguely Russian accent was a ton of fun, especially with her snarky, cocky attitude. So, yes, accents can be fun, but you need to be respectful of how and why you’re using the accent. Be especially careful with accents for cultures that have been, or are, the victims of racism and other kinds of prejudice. If there’s no difference between the accent you’re using and the way some jerks at the bar are making fun of someone from a marginalized group or culture (and you’re not part of that culture) then you’ve probably crossed a line.
• Less is more. Maintaining a specific character voice for the full length of a game can be difficult. Players may have trouble keeping it up for a whole session, GMs can lose track of which NPC sounds like what, and the other players may even have trouble understanding you. I can’t watch British shows or movies with my dad because there’s just something about the accents he has trouble parsing. Focusing on a few chosen words or phrases can be enough to get the same idea across without exhausting you or everyone else at the table. For example, when playing a character from the southern United States, a couple of y’alls gets the gist across.
• Speech patterns are quietly powerful. Don’t underestimate the power of switching up your speech patterns for a particular character. You probably already have an understanding of how formal or informal that character is, so think about that affecting how they talk. Do they come from an upper crust background and choose to never use contractions, enunciating each word carefully? Or perhaps they’re young and impulsive so they talk at the speed of thought and give a running commentary of what’s going on in their head. None of this has to involve an accent or a special voice, but it automatically helps portray who the character is.
• Pitch, Posture, and Attitude. Similar to speech patterns, just adjusting how you physically present yourself when talking as the character can do wonders for bringing a character to life. Sitting straight and tall, with your chin held high, looking down your nose at everyone can instantly bring that snobbish attitude to life. Slumping your shoulders, lowering your voice, speaking slowly and sadly is a completely different character from widening your eyes, tilting your head and speaking in a higher pitched, lilting tone.
• Avoid rude and ugly stereotypes. This should be a no brainer and I already said this in the bullet point about accents, but I just wanted to reiterate it. If the voice or accent you are thinking of using is an over the top caricature that would cost an actor or comedian their job today, don’t bring it to the table. Done with some thought and respect, and voices can be great fun. So don’t ruin it for the rest of us.

Ultimately, none of this is required for playing roleplaying games, but if you were considering trying some unique voices out for your characters, I hope these tips help or at least offered some food for thought.

There are connections to be found…

Somewhere around 2010, I read an article talking about how older adults are slower to make friends than young adults, teens, and children. This confounded me because I was definitely an older adult but I had a whole swath of newish friends I’d become close with around that time. And then it hit me. I made all of those friends because of roleplaying games.

There’s a lot of talk lately about what is being called the Loneliness Epidemic. While it seems new, this is something that has been building for many years but was made worse and abundantly clear during the early days of the pandemic when isolation was encouraged to protect everyone. That time exposed how vulnerable we are as a society to feeling disconnected and alone. Between a fast-paced world that seems like its careening from disaster to disaster and the devices we lose ourselves in for distraction, there are many reasons why loneliness is becoming a massive societal problem. It’s such a prominent issue that the United States Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, recently wrote an editorial about it in the New York Times.

I’m no doctor or psychologist. I’m just an artsy nerd who works with photography and computers for a living and then spends most of my off hours obsessing about playing pretend with my friends. What I can speak to on this subject are my own experiences and how I believe staying active and involved with roleplaying games is an excellent way to build friendships and community to help push back the loneliness hovering ominously in the shadows.

Connections with new people take time to grow into meaningful friendships. Psychologists have written studies on the amount of time that needs to be spent creating that bond, but it basically boils down to regular blocks of time together and shared experiences. When you’ve got a busy job, a family to care for, responsibilities around the house and any other number of the obligations you pick up as an adult, it can be hard to make new friends. Busy adults just don’t have the time to invest in creating those needed shared experiences. But hey look, roleplaying games can give you that!

Whether it’s finding a group through your friendly local game store, online through a focused RPG community, or attending a convention to try out new games, roleplaying games let you spend a few hours with like-minded folks playing games together. Do it on a regular or a semi-regular basis and it is pretty much guaranteed you’ll make a friend or two that can last beyond the game itself. Gaming gives us both time together and shared experiences, both important ingredients in brewing up a friendship.

Play RPGs! Be part of an ensemble of friends!

Twenty years ago, I was fed up. While I was still close with my college group of friends, we didn’t game together anymore. I was heavily involved with Everquest and had some friends from that game, but it wasn’t quite the same. I honestly just missed gaming. So, I tentatively started trying to find a regular game to play. I’ve told this story before, so I won’t get into the nitty gritty details, but through some twists and turns, I found three guys that I enjoyed gaming with and we started the core of a regular gaming group that is still going strong today. Over the years, we’ve picked up some other folks along the way and I can confidently say we are a close-knit group of friends.

Around that same time, I also started going to conventions to experience new games. Almost instantly I started making connections with other gamers I would regularly see at conventions. It’s been long enough now that some of those friendships have come and gone, but more have taken their place. Heck, I wouldn’t be here writing this article if I hadn’t met John Arcadian at Origins way back when. I even just spent the last weekend in Ohio at a hotel with 30 beloved convention friends having a fantastic time gaming and hanging out.

Now, what worked for me may not work for everyone. I know plenty of people who do not enjoy gaming with strangers and conventions are not for everyone. What I can say is that if you know you enjoy gaming and you are struggling with a lack of connection in your life, it is worth reaching out to your local or online gaming community. Gamers, for all our awkward nerdy natures, are social creatures. We thrive on creating that shared experience at the table.

Life is kind of a lot right now, and we need the kinship we get from a shared love of games. Whether you’re looking for making some new connections or meet someone looking for the same, roleplaying games can make bonds and friendships like almost nothing else.

The whole map to explore…

My experience with hex crawls is limited, despite gaming for many years. Of course, I know the general concept, and most ‘traditional’ fantasy games have a degree of traversing the wilderness, but in most the focus was on getting from point a to b rather than actual exploration. Despite this lack of experience, I shocked myself by deciding that my Depths of Xen’drik campaign was going to be a pseudo hex crawl.

In early 2022, I decided the next game I was going to run for my regular group was going to be a D&D 5e Eberron campaign. I batted around a few ideas, but eventually settled on the PCs competing to partake in an expedition to Xen’drik. It’s an area of the setting I haven’t been able to play or run very much and thought it could be fun. For those not familiar with Eberron, Xen’drik is a bit of a lost continent. In ancient times it was the seat of a powerful giant empire that was destroyed by a magical cataclysm that fractured the continent. It’s a place of wild magic, dangerous ruins, and many mysteries to explore and discover.

The early stage of this campaign was built around the competition to be chosen to accompany the expedition to Xen’drik. Consider it ‘Sharn’s Next Top Adventurer’ or whatever reality competition comparison you want to make. This turned out to be a great way to start off the campaign as it let each of the players introduce their character on their own terms, while steadily bonding together as they interacted with the NPCs and the challenges. Once the challenge was over, they boarded a ship to sail across the sea and… well… I realized I needed to figure out how I was going to handle them wandering off into the jungle to just explore.

I have never been a railroad GM and adapt pretty well to what my players do, but I also rarely do sandbox style games, so I usually have an idea of what plot they’re involved in at the time and where they’re going next. This helps with prep quite a bit. But doing a game where they can pretty much go where they want and do what they want? For a few moments, I considered just creating a bunch of encounters and slotting them in whenever it felt appropriate, but that felt a little bit like cheating. This game was going to call for a hex crawl plan.

While my experience with hex crawls is limited, I do get the general concept. I started doing some research and looking at the way other games handle this type of thing. I had played through the first part of Pathfinder’s Kingmaker adventure path, so had a little bit of understanding from that. I also looked at Forbidden Lands and how it breaks down the exploration phases of the game. I still wanted to keep this loose to fit my GMing style, but wanted enough structure to help both me and the players engage with the game.

The first thing I did was write up some exploration rules.

• 

  The party arguing over a map, drawn by one of the players.

  Each hex is determined to be 15 miles and can be explored fully within a day, provided there are no distractions, like ruins to explore, monsters to fight, or so on.

• One special thing they had to contend with for Eberron is the Traveler’s Curse. Xen’drik is a place of unpredictable, wild magic and as a result it is easy for travelers to get lost or magically delayed. I decided that each day spent traveling through the wilds, the PCs would make a Wisdom or Intelligence save to determine how affected they were by the curse. The DC would change depending on the nature of the place they were camping. Failure would impose a level of Exhausted (from the new One D&D playtest rules).
• Each of the PCs would take on an exploration role and make a skill check to determine how successful the group is. The roles are Navigate, Watch, Spotter, and Morale. We decided that if more than one person wanted to do Morale, it would slow down the exploration since they would be having too much fun to do their job right.
• There were also camping roles to determine how secure they were overnight. Those were a little more flexible and later I realized I could have better defined them since taking a watch overnight is a bit different than camp set-up.

The next thing I had to take care of was populating the map. Eberron is an established setting, but the continent of Xen’drik is quite large with very large areas for GMs to put in whatever they want. The official maps of the continent are gorgeous, but don’t provide too much for me to hang the exploration on, meaning it’s up to me to fill out the map and provide things for the players to explore and discover.

This has probably been the hardest part for me, because I tend to work a bit more loosely with planning out a campaign. I have an idea of where things are going to go, but I generally don’t flesh things out fully until I know the players are about to engage with a thing. I can’t really do that in this campaign. I have to populate the map with enough stuff to be able to legitimately let the players go where they want, but still be prepared to give them an interesting session. If I have some really cool stuff planned in the hex to the west and just loose ideas of the hex to the east and they go east, I’m in a bit of a pickle.

We’ve played multiple sessions in this exploration phase of the campaign and so far its going pretty well. I’m learning the balance of how much to prep without burning myself out, but still giving the players enough to explore. I still panic a bit when I have a bunch of cool stuff in one area and they talk about going in a different direction, but I’m also learning better ways to offer them clues about where stuff might be.

All in all, this has been a good experience, even if it’s not a style of GMing I’m used to. Do you have any stories of switching to a different style of campaign and how you handled it?

Take your moment to shine, but pass it on!

Continuing a series discussing how to be a better player, this article is the belated third one on the subject. Most gaming advice out there is pointed at game masters, and while players can gain a fair amount of insight from those articles, it’s always a byproduct. The intention with this series is to offer advice on the skills players can cultivate to be an asset to any game table, both in their actions and in their understanding of the game table.

Now, just to state it up front, I am not a perfect player. Many of my articles have talked about my own foibles as a player. Let’s just state it, I have no chill, and if I’m irritated it always comes out. Still, I am always trying to improve so my favorite GMs keep inviting me back to their table. At the very least, I can talk about the things myself and other GMs look for in the players that join our games.

Help Share the Spotlight Around the Table

A very foundational and common piece of advice consistently given to GMs is to keep the spotlight moving around the table. GMs are expected to make sure everyone gets a moment to shine. If someone has been a little quiet for too long, find a way to pull their character center stage and give them an opportunity to be awesome. This is a crucial skill for GMs to hone, but the task is helped immensely when we have players who understand why we do it and can help move the focus of the game to their fellow players. Gaming is ultimately a cooperative experience and working to help facilitate sharing the spotlight can be one of the most rewarding experiences in roleplaying games.

Remember it’s an Ensemble Show

Our characters may be the star of the movies we’re creating inside our head, but when you’re at the table playing the game it is important to remember that the game is much more like an ensemble show rather than a solo star vehicle. The other characters are NOT your supporting cast. They’re equally billed stars of the show and they deserve an equal share of the spotlight. It’s the difference between Matt Damon in Ocean’s Eleven and Matt Damon in The Martian. You may be able to have fun with your character in either situation, but the rest of the players at the table will have more fun if you remember that it’s a big ensemble show.

I know this sounds like common sense to folks who have been playing for a long time or immediately get the whole ensemble cast nature of an RPG game, but there are plenty of new and old players who need this to be stated plainly. It doesn’t matter how good you are at roleplaying, how great you are at voices, how awesome your character comes across. If you are bad at being part of an ensemble cast with everyone getting awesome moments for their characters with and without the group, you are not as much fun as you think to have at the table for the GM or the other players.

Plays Well with Others

Speaking of other players wanting you at the table, it really helps if you are fun and engaging to play with. In addition to knowing when to step back and let other people have their moment in the spotlight, it also means finding ways to have your actions and reactions involve the other characters. Learn the tropes of the game in a way that enhances your fun and the fun of everyone else at the table.

What does this mean practically? Interact with your fellow players’ characters. Roleplay getting to know them, asking questions about their favorite food, or where they grew up, or just things that can let you better understand that character and establish a relationship between their character and yours. Make sure your actions involve other characters. Don’t be the lone wolf that goes off and does things on their own. Pull the other characters into your harebrained schemes.

Essentially, involve them in your story and support them in their stories.

Be an Enthusiastic Audience

Another key aspect of sharing the spotlight is being just as excited about their stories as you are about your own character’s. A piece of advice that came out of the Powered by the Apocalypse style of game is for the GMs to be a fan of the characters. This goes just as much for the other players at the table. If you’ve taken the time to get to know their characters, you know when a big moment is happening for them. While a big moment happening for someone else may sideline your character for a moment, if you remember that we’re here for everyone’s stories, it can be equally fun to see the cool moments for the other characters at the table.

All of this said, a GM is the ultimate ringmaster of the game, making sure everyone gets to do cool stuff and have awesome moments, but their job can be so much easier when the players are on board with making sure everyone gets a chance to shine.

So what are your thoughts on this topic? Do you have some good examples of helping move the spotlight around the table as a player?

Which way do we go?

“What do you want to play?”
“I don’t know, what do you want to run?”
“I don’t know, what do you want to play?”

Recently in one of my groups, someone offered to step up and take a turn running a game. He’d needed a break last year, so several other members of the group took turns running. Now he’s refreshed and ready to GM again. But he didn’t really have a particular game in mind, so asked the group what we wanted to play. As expected, the response was a resounding, “I don’t know. I’ll play anything.” I quietly winced because I’ve seen this happen soooo many times in my thirty-five-plus years of playing roleplaying games. It’s almost as bad as trying to pick a restaurant for the evening!

It’s super important for any game group to align what the GM wants to run with what the players want to play. Any time those things don’t synch up, the game is usually destined to, at best, fade into obscurity as no one is excited to play, or create drama in the group as no one is happy with how the game is going. Sure, there are occasionally magical moments where the GM falls in love with a game they didn’t really want to run but did it for their players, or a player gets happily engrossed in a game they didn’t think they’d like, but let’s be honest. Those are the exception, not the rule.

Now, none of this is against my friend who is stepping up to run. I’m grateful he’s stepping up as it means I get to go back to being a player, and I also understand where he’s coming from. He truly is open to running something the players are interested in and doesn’t have a specific idea for the game, but the way it was phrased was too broad, too open. The scope of what is on the table, figuratively and literally, needs to be narrowed down.

So what to do when it’s your turn to run?

• If you’ve got an idea, be specific! Seriously, if you have a game or campaign idea you’re excited to run, pitch that idea to your players. Give your players the elevator pitch for that campaign. Cover the system, the genre, the tone and the scope of the game so everyone knows what you’re offering. Earlier this year I got an itch to run an Eberron campaign again. I noodled on the idea for a while and when I was pretty sure how I wanted to structure it, I pitched it to the group as a future campaign when our current game ended or the GM needed a break.
• If you don’t have an idea, offer clear choices. When it’s your turn to run, but don’t really have a burning desire for any particular system or campaign, offer your players some choices. While you want to give your players something they will enjoy, you’re still going to need to make sure it is something you enjoy and is a game you’ll be comfortable running. Come up with a couple or a few ideas of games you’d like to run and pitch those ideas to the group. Even if they’re still mostly willing to play whatever you run, by offering choices you’re more likely to get an idea of which they’d be more interested in.
• Do a poll! In addition to offering specific choices, you could do a poll to narrow down those choices even more. Google offers a pretty easy method of creating polls that you can share with your players. This can be a good way to find out what systems or genres your players are interested in, or even narrow down the type of campaign you’d like to run. When Jared was gearing up to run a new Star Trek campaign, he used a poll to pitch certain ideas to his players to narrow down what they’d be most excited to play in the setting.
• Try something new for a short campaign. Okay, so maybe you really are willing to run whatever your players want, or maybe you want to try a shiny new game. Great, that’s awesome. Consider setting a limit on how long you plan on running that campaign. A short campaign of a handful of sessions is a good test run that allows you to learn the system and figure out if the game is a good fit for your group. While you can always do a ‘second season’ of a short campaign if everyone loves it, it can be frustrating for everyone involved to abruptly end an ‘indefinite’ campaign.

To sum up, we live in a time where there is an abundance of wonderful RPGs to play and run, so when offering to run for your group, be clear about what you’re willing to run, whether it’s a very specific campaign idea or an option of a few different choices.

What are your experiences with pitching game ideas to your groups?

Find someone who’s been there, done that and can help you figure it out…

Everyone that runs games took their own route to becoming a gamemaster. While some folks (grognards back in the day but also new gamers even today) read the books and dive right in to run games, most of us had to see how games were run by starting out as players. It can be intimidating to take that first step into running, and one of the things that can help is mentoring.

I’ve talked many times of how I had to be gently but firmly pushed into running games back in the mid 2000’s. That wouldn’t have happened if one of the other GMs in my group hadn’t insisted that I had what it took, I just needed to try. Now, he did this primarily out of self-interest because he likes games and wants to make sure he has good GMs around him, but he honestly believed that I could be a good GM based on what he knew of me as a player. He was my first GM mentor.

So, what is a mentor? Simply, they are an experienced and trusted advisor that offers guidance as you attempt to learn and master whatever subject they’re mentoring you for. While this can be a formal relationship like with work and school stuff, with gaming it is often something a bit more casual. It’s reaching out to an experienced GM to ask advice on an upcoming campaign or how to deal with a particular problem your game is having. Mostly it’s having a sounding board you can trust with your ideas, questions, and concerns.

While you can and should regularly ask your players for feedback, for the type of advice I’m talking about, it should really be someone outside of the game. Even for the most shared narrative game, or even the most prep-light GM, having someone not playing in that game offers an outside perspective that can be invaluable when trying to address whatever thing you need help with.

I’ve sought this kind of guidance several times over my years as a GM. Originally it was because I wasn’t very confident in my skills and wanted to make sure someone I trusted also thought my ideas would work. More recently, it’s usually looking for words of wisdom or tips and tricks from people who already have experience with the system I’m trying for the first time, or to offer advice on a particular style of game I’m running.

I’ve also had the pleasure of serving as someone else’s sounding board for their game. It’s very exciting getting to hear all of their ideas and offer constructive feedback that helps build up their confidence as a GM and prepare them for things they might not have otherwise thought of. Every time I help someone like this, I look forward to hearing how the game went and whether what we talked about helped or not.

On the other end of that, to all GMs, no matter your skill or experience level, be ready and willing to help out your fellow GMs when they need someone they can go to bounce their ideas off of. It can take some time to develop the right skills at being able to offer truly helpful constructive feedback, but it’s a good skill to have. You’ll also be surprised at how much it will help your own games when you start thinking about some of these things your fellow GM brings up.

We here at Gnome Stew offer a ton of GMing advice and there are many, many more resources out there, but there is something special to be said for having a friend you can go to and just talk about the art and mastery of running games.

Loki knows that he is a people and regularly claims a seat at the game table.

This spring, we thought it was time to vary up our content a bit. While we all still love roleplaying games and all that comes with it, it was decided we needed a fresh look at the hobby. After all, who better to bring their opinions to us than the loveable furballs so many of us belong to. After all, cats have not forgotten that they were once worshipped as gods.

• No matter what happens, you meant to do that. Whether you are a player or a GM, that wasn’t an accident (even if you slid across the floor into the stove face first), it was your plan all along.

Roc, always gorgeous.

• Naps are of critical importance. Nap before game, nap after game, and nap during the game if necessary.
• If more than one person gets distracted by something (a toy, a wrapper, a bug on the ceiling), it’s probably a good time to call for a break.

Ernie doesn’t always give game advice, but when he does…

• Make sure there are snacks. If there are no snacks, or can see the bottom of the snack bowl, you are obligated to complain loudly.

Bella will always make sure you know when the bowl is empty.

• Remember: The GM must kill you nine times before your character is truly gone from the game. (If you happen to be playing Paranoia, each clone has 9 lives, so that’s a total of 54 lives!)
• Regardless, if the GM kills your character, you are within your rights to hork a hairball into their shoe.

Loki hiding. He’s innocent, he swears.

• If someone else makes a dice tower at the table, it is perfectly acceptable to make direct eye contact with them as you knock the tower over and the dice off the table.
• If you should find your fellow players starting to get annoyed at you, resort to the cute and innocent “I’m a baby” look and all will be forgiven.

Tamzin perfected the innocent look.

• You can be aloof to your humans, but when you find some that you like, make sure you hang onto them.

Loki declares this human as his.

• Whenever the dice betray you, it is okay to bat it off the table for a free reroll.
• It is totally acceptable to spend a lot of time thinking about your game, usually with your eyes closed in the sunshine. You don’t have to have a whole lot of notes because not everyone’s prep looks the same.

Thor’s blep of contemplation.

• The battle map is for the express purpose of napping. Or scratching if the desire should arise.
• Make sure to cement your claim to your share of the loot by rubbing your chin on it. More extreme measures of marking territory are considered socially unacceptable (though a good way to get rid of a gamer you don’t want to come back…)

Ernie, in a box.

• A critical miss is usually accompanied by someone accidentally discovering a hairball with their foot. Someone must suffer after all.
• Always be kind to the kittens… er, newbies. Someone has to teach them the ways of being awesome after all. Never let them forget who is boss but take them under your wing.

Pashenko insisted he hated the kittens.

And there you have it, gaming advice from cats! I mean, they must be experts. After all, who domesticated who when it comes to the relationship between cats and people. They certainly don’t worship us like dogs do, so there must be something going on there. Well, we’re off. Roc has to get to his D&D game and play his sorcerer.

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One of my Saturday groups has just started up a Traveller game. Even though we knew we’d be doing a Session 0 to make characters together, we still had an e-mail discussion about what everyone wanted to play. Very quickly had a couple of folks who wanted to go the military route, someone wanted to try for an engineer or a pilot, while I decided I wanted to go for a scientist/medic type. When the remaining two players asked what roles might be left to fill, it was pointed that the group didn’t have a dedicated Face, i.e. someone who could negotiate and be diplomatic. Both remaining players immediately responded that there was no way they could play a charismatic, social character.

While not every game has clearly defined roles for the players to design characters around, there’s still a general inclination to make sure certain niches are covered. Regardless of the genre, most groups in traditional-ish games have the tough one, the sneaky one, the smart one, and so on. One of those useful roles is the social one as every group could use someone who can talk them out of trouble or negotiate better deals for the group. Let’s be honest, though: while there absolutely are exceptions, many gamers claim that charisma is their dump stat and stay away from playing characters that focus on being smooth and charming.

I’ve noticed when I run my Tales from the Loop one-shots at cons, the last character chosen is almost always the Popular Kid. Poor Sean is one of my favorites of the PCs, but most players look at his skills and decide there’s no way they can play a character where the focus is on being the master of social stuff.

In some ways, it’s a bit like that classic gamer trope where the same player always has to play the cleric because no one else wants to. In my groups, I’ve noticed the same players tend to always end up taking on the social responsibilities for the group, even if they didn’t want to be the designated Face. Sometimes, though, even they want to play someone who prefers to punch their problems in the face.

So what’s a table to do when no one wants to play the Face?

For Players:

• Aw, come on. Take a chance and play something different. Yeah, it might be out of your comfort zone, but you can add other flavor to the character that’s more in your wheelhouse. Just because your D&D group needs a Face doesn’t mean you have to play a Bard. Sorcerer and Warlock also both focus on Charisma and other characters can make it a secondary stat. In whatever system or genre you’re playing, you can give the character skills you know you’ll enjoy while also making them adept at talking to people.
• If the idea of trying to roleplay someone way more charming than you think you are horrifies you, you can always take a moment and let the GM know what you’re hoping to achieve with the scene. The GM probably doesn’t want to turn it into all dice rolls since roleplaying characters is a big part of the fun, but if you set the framework for what you’re going for, your fumbles learning how to roleplay being flirtatious, charming, or manipulative will be taken into account with a bit more grace.

For GMs:

• Following up on what I just said to players, be kind to the player who is obviously out of their comfort zone and struggling to be as smooth or as social as their character is on paper. We don’t demand that our players be as strong or as smart as their PC, so why do we hold it against the player when they can’t be as suave as their character should be? Remember who the character SHOULD be in the narrative and play to that. Have the NPCs react to the PCs based on what their stats and skills are.
• Honestly, if no one at your table is willing to play the Face, limit the number of social encounters your group must work through. This doesn’t mean you eliminate every social interaction, but don’t throw a group with a lack of social skills into a high intrigue social event unless you’re prepared for it to go hilariously south when someone decides to punch the high muckity muck in the face. Sometimes having a brash barbarian at high tea can be fun to play but give your group encounters that fit who they built.

So, that Traveller campaign? In the end, the character creation dice rolls decided it for us and my doctor apparently has a really good bedside manner. I have a feeling she’s going to have to the voice of reason before the shooting starts. At least I’ll be able to lecture the two Vargr ex-marines as I patch them up.