Maintaining Your GM
Tips for encouraging your GM to continue the game you’re
currently enjoying.
A guest article by Amy Driscoll
With thanks to Colin “Relapse” Morris and Robbie “Head
Wound” Eberhardt for constructive criticism.
A group of friends and fellow gamers asked me last year to
commit to GMing a regular, long-term campaign. Long-term
campaigns hold several attractions for me. There’s the
intense character development, the simple plot wrinkles that
snowball into world-shaking events, and the kind of campaign
stories you reminisce about for years afterward. So I said
yes.
After a year real-time of gaming though, I found myself
dreading upcoming sessions. I was leaping upon the
opportunity to postpone sessions and struggling to come up
with the next session plan. In the end, I nominated myself
for a break, and one of the players has taken over as GM for
a few sessions. I still love gaming, I still want the game
to keep going - I just do not want to run a session at the
moment.
I’m not alone. I’ve discussed the burnout scenario with
other GMs, trying to work out the causes and patterns
leading to my current GMing antipathy. In the course of
that, I’ve put together a few general pointers for players.
There are already tips out there for burnt out GMs (believe
me, I know), so these are focused on what a player can do to
help their GM maintain enthusiasm and keep the game rolling.
1. Give The GM Something To Work With
==============================
Short test: Which character does the GM prefer to game with?
The GM knows Character A wants to bust up a local drug ring
by finding the source and cutting it off. He also
desperately needs to find the cure to a mystical infection
ravaging his girlfriend, and to return to his village before
his sister is married to the local bully against her wishes.
The GM knows Character B likes horses, wears a trench coat,
and has a wicked left hook.
Answer? A, obviously. Not only is it going to be easier to
plot out an involving session for Character A, it’s also
going to be simpler to motivate the PC to get involved with
conflicts. If the GM has to make up something on the fly to
keep the game going, Character A is probably going to get a
lead role because the GM knows what Character A wants.
Character B will have to tag along for the ride or head for
the sideline.
Maybe your character is already a fully realised, well-
developed person with hooks, flaws, and a background full of
loose ends. Does the GM know? While you might have given a
list or summary to your GM at the beginning of the campaign,
you will need to update it every now and then as the plot
and your character develop. If the GM doesn’t know about
your character’s hooks, they will never appear in the game.
And without those hooks, there’s nothing for the GM to use
to attach your character to the plot.
If you can’t think of anything, try using a pre-existing
sub-plot. Character A’s interest in the drug ring might have
stemmed from a brief brush with them in a previous session.
Now, the player has decided the character is desperate to
bring an end to their perfidy. Great. The GM can flesh out
the NPCs and add more background without too much trouble.
This is significantly easier than coming up with a gripping
new plot from scratch.
Give your character driving goals and motivations, and make
these abundantly clear to the GM. Your GM will be spending
more time on plot lines they know you are interested in,
taking your character places you want to go. In turn, you’ll
be making the task of session prep that much easier on the
GM, which cuts down on GM burnout and builds up their
enjoyment and anticipation for each session. They already
know you’ll enjoy what they have in store for you.
2. Lend A Hand With The Technical Aspects
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The less peripheral paperwork a GM must track in a session,
the more they can concentrate on the game itself.
That’s pretty straightforward. If your GM is answering
questions from other players, looking up references,
checking their session notes, making up a new NPC, and
trying to describe the scene before you, the plot is going
to get continuity errors and the action will start to lag as
they hurry to catch up. Performing some of these tasks for
the GM is only going to improve the game for you, especially
when the alternative is sitting around waiting for the GM to
catch up.
* Is the GM constantly handing over a source copy reference
to the players? Get a second copy.
* Does the GM keep referencing the same pages for specific
information? Build cue cards with all that information, such
as for your spells or combat specialties, and give a set to
the GM to keep.
* Can you help a player with a question? If the GM can avoid
breaking off to help someone go over a technical aspect, the
game is going to run more smoothly.
* Offer to role-play an NPC in an encounter.
* Start a game journal to keep detailed notes.
One of the best tasks a player ever performed for me was
starting a gaming journal. The player kept a relatively
detailed journal and published it in a Word document sent to
myself and the other players later that week, so I only
needed to take light notes in-session. Everything - NPC
names, locations visited, what the players did and when -
could be checked against the journal later. The journal also
gave me a player’s eye view of the game. Was that last clue
too oblique? Do I need to spend more time describing NPCs?
What do the players think is really going on?
Bear in mind that simply asking, “Can I help?” is not
practical. People will instantly react with, “No, I’m fine,
thanks,” whether or not this is true. Come up with real
solutions and implement them.
3. Make Your Own Entertainment
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It’s a lull in the game - for you. The GM left the room with
Bob to run a scene. You can wait for them to get back, check
through resources, or talk about what’s good on TV.
Alternatively, you could turn to Jess on your left and start
up an in-character conversation. It might not be about
what’s happening. It might be the general kind of
conversation you could have already had somewhere on the
road, or it could be about Bob’s character’s toe-nail
polish. The point is you aren’t depending on the GM for your
gaming entertainment. You’re building your own characters,
practicing basic improvisation skills, entertaining each
other, and maintaining the tone and flow of the game. And -
gasp! - the GM didn’t have to be there for you to do it.
You could also:
* Pass notes to other players
* Write letters home
* Pull small, in-game pranks
* Play sports
* Flirt
* Mock each other
* Lay some bets
* Improvise a game of invisible cards
Try anything that doesn’t affect the basic plot but is
reasonable to do when stuck with a wait. Make sure it’s in-
game, in-character entertainment so it keeps everyone in the
game zone. This should also have the side benefit of
distracting attention seekers - the players that disrupt the
scene the GM is currently running in an attempt to get more
spotlight time.
Some GMs hate this. It’s moving parts of the story out of
their control, or they feel it’s disrupting other players.
Some love it. It can be a great relief when the GM realises
they aren’t the sole source of all entertainment for the
game, and the players are able to entertain themselves when
the GM has to concentrate on another player. Find out which
GM you have and run with it.
4. Acknowledgement
=============================
Players get XP, treasure, sidekicks, and subplots. GMs get
to see their carefully plotted groundwork twisted into
destruction three minutes into the session. So when they do
something well, tell them they did good!
Try to cite a specific example, and share your enthusiasm
with them. “I was just stunned when it turned out the hot
dog vendor was behind the blackmailing plot!” “I really
liked the combat against the Jawa Flea Circus!”
Even if you’ve just had a less then stellar session, find
something good about the game and mention it to the GM. They
already know the session wasn’t as good as it could have
been, and they need you to let them know you enjoyed it
anyway.
Your enjoyment is one of the reasons they do this, after
all. Like Pavlov’s dog, if your GM feels good when you game,
they’re going to want to keep gaming with you.
* * *
Try using these tips to support your GM to help develop a
long-lasting campaign and better sessions. Remember, a good
GM is hard to find, and maintaining your own is the best way
to make sure you always have one on hand.