Game Mastering is often fun, but it’s a little taxing at times.
There are a lot of truths being told about the fine art of Game Mastering on social media and YouTube. Speaking as someone who has been at it for over 40 years, I will be the first to say it has its ups and downs. We work hard. We play hard. (By that I mean we have lots of fun.)
Roleplaying games should be a positive experience no matter what game you’re involved in. Some games are game masterless (gasp!) which is not my style, but they do exist. Other groups and/or other games pass the GM duties around and share the joy. Most games have a single GM at the head of the table, and that’s what we are going to talk about today.
Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.
Here’s a peek behind the screen at all those notes and die rolls.
Chances are your first GM was a kind and gentle warlord at the head of the table for your first session. They’re your friend, but they’re tasked with playing all those Non Player Characters you meet, monsters you slay, and decides all that loot your character carries off out of the dungeon they designed. That’s not even mentioning all of the plotting and scheming, the hours of backstory consideration, plus possibly coming up with a way to challenge both players and characters alike. It’s more work than one might easily imagine.
Even running a pre-published setting in a pre-published world requires some work on the part of your friendly GM. “Sandbox open world” games require more prep work to occupy all of those hexes without relying on random rolls. Random charts still need the GM to roll the dice and pull up whatever encounter, monster, or settlement is called for. No game is created in a vacuum, and it takes some effort to get everything going. Somebody has to have all of those charts to roll on and NPCs ready to meet.
The schedule is every GM’s worst enemy. Sometimes running a game, coming up with a location, possibly providing food, drinks, and supplies can be a lot of work. But all of it goes to pieces, even in online games, if people can’t make it on the agreed-upon night. It might even contribute to GM pattern baldness for some of us, but that has yet to be scientifically proven. It’s a downer to get everything ready to go for a 6 player RPG session and then have to convert it to a boardgame night for three.
Being a first time player can be a little nerve-wracking, but being a first time GM…
Some first time GMs need a lot of love and encouragement. I always tell them, even on X (Twitter,) “There’s nothing to worry about. It’s gonna be okay.” But people are going to people and be nervous anyway in a lot of cases. I have walked new GMs through creating their first adventure and running it before they ever got in front of the players. I’m always a little nervous for other (new) GM’s but just as happy when everything goes well, and the players have a great time.
Some GMs, and I freely admit I still get this way for players I don’t know yet, get nervous before every session. It’s an effect akin to stage fright. Some GMs never sweat it while others of us have a high degree of social anxiety. Some people fly airplanes or drive race cars out in the real world, others get nervous stepping out on their driveway. We know it’s going to be okay eventually, it’s just a matter of getting there. I promise being a GM can be a huge cathartic rush five minutes after everyone has gone home and cleanup is done. Like, “Wow! I really did that thing and survived.”
GM plans don’t always survive contact with the players.
In other words, crit happens, or rather crits happen. Sometimes a Player Character gets devoured whole by the giant cave bear and other times that Big Bad Evil Genius goes down in one hit instead of using all the cool defensive countermeasures the GM figured out well in advance of that day. If random, crazy things weren’t meant to happen in RPGs, we wouldn’t be using dice, cards, etc when we play.
A great RPGA Dungeon Master once told me, “Sometimes you just have to throw the module over your shoulder and ask the players what they want to do next.”
That advice has gotten me through any number of convention games and sessions of my home games. No writer or GM can accurately predict what the PCs are going to do from one encounter to the next. Sometimes it’s a matter of how well we know the NPCs and encounters that were planned to see if maybe something fits in later. Otherwise, the players are guiding the adventure, and the GM is just dropping in NPCs, bad guys, and loot wherever appropriate.
What it all boils down to.
Please try to cut the GM a little bit of slack. A popular notion going around the tabletop RPG community right now is that the GM is a player, too. While I think that is kind of true, I also come from the generation that the GM is the Alpha and the Omega when it comes to running their game. Without the GM, it’s usually movie or board game night. GM’s are players at the table in the sense that they occupy a seat at the table, but it’s usually the head of the table.
Sometimes that means leaning into the story a little bit. In pre-published adventures, that usually means following along with the NPC dialogues and rolling with the punches a little bit. It means staying with the party more often than not. Individuality is great, but maybe best expressed in character interacting with the party rather than sneaking off on a solo mission.
Cutting the GM some slack also takes form in being actively engaged with the game at pretty much all times. I ask my players to keep their phones put away at the table. Unfortunately I have to keep mine on pretty much all the time because of my family and my one health app but I don’t look at it. Maybe it means taking notes and giving a recap at the beginning of the next session.
Maybe it’s as simple as being ready to rock when it’s your character’s turn in combat. Knowing your spell list or heroic maneuver goes a long way. Sometimes the solution to your character’s actions lie in the situation they’re in and not on the character sheet. Situational awareness both as a player and in character helps a lot.
The bottom line is:
We GMs love y’all players so much. It’s not a game without everyone functioning together more or less in harmony with one another. GMs are people, too. We’re going to make mistakes. We’re going to share in the joys of the PC’s triumphs. We’re here for you, the players.
Please be kind to your GM. Be kind to your fellow players. As odd as it sounds, please be kind to your fellow TTRPG enthusiasts on social media and YouTube. We’re all in this together. We all just want to have some fun gaming and hanging out together.
Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.
Jeff's Game Box 