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Ever benched a GM?
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<blockquote data-quote="ledded" data-source="post: 1782088" data-attributes="member: 12744"><p>Amen to that, Piratecat. Even though our group is a tight-knit group of long-time friends, I am near-obsessive about trying to gauge or perceive that people might be not having as good a time as they should. I ask for feedback, and even have posted anonymous voting polls on our yahoo group so that people could voice their opinion without worry about a personal slight or being ridiculed by the remainder of the group.</p><p> </p><p>That being said, I've GM'd short campaigns that I made sure wrapped up quickly even though I *really* wanted to continue to a better stopping point, because I could tell that one or two of the gang weren't into it, or that particular game had just had its run and it was time to move on. I've also let games be taken in a direction that I may not have intended or even wanted to go; my WW2/superheros game is one example of that. I wanted to do a side campaign that was gritty straight-up WW2 (and a couple of players were behind that), but a couple of the players wanted to do a superhero campaign and weren't that interested in doing the WW2. I ended up compromising my initial idea (reluctantly) and ended up with a very fun side campaign by combining both into the same game. I also spent time with the one guy who was not a war or ww2 buff at all, and found ways to inspire him and give him ideas for how it could even be more fun (loaned him my Band of Brothers DVD's and encouraged him to watch them, told him great anecdotes from the many books I had read, discussed cool character ideas that appealled to him and were slanted towards the genre, got him into some comics that fit the genre, etc). Soon, he caught the bug and we've had a blast with it most of the time, even though sometimes it still gets a bit more campy than I would like. But that doesnt matter, if that's the way the players want to take it, then I let them and sometimes even encourage it, and we have fun; after all, I'm only one of the five people who play. </p><p> </p><p>It helps as a GM to keep a close eye on what the players do when you are having critical moments in the game. If they can't ever remember key facts or interesting plot twists, or they seem to get bored/constantly talk tangents while you are GM'ing, or do things that seem intended to derail your game and they normally aren't the seditious type, *you* may have a problem with your game. You obviously cant please all of the people all of the time, but if you are careful and considerate you can please most of 'em, most of the time. You just have to know when to bench yourself, if necessary <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ledded, post: 1782088, member: 12744"] Amen to that, Piratecat. Even though our group is a tight-knit group of long-time friends, I am near-obsessive about trying to gauge or perceive that people might be not having as good a time as they should. I ask for feedback, and even have posted anonymous voting polls on our yahoo group so that people could voice their opinion without worry about a personal slight or being ridiculed by the remainder of the group. That being said, I've GM'd short campaigns that I made sure wrapped up quickly even though I *really* wanted to continue to a better stopping point, because I could tell that one or two of the gang weren't into it, or that particular game had just had its run and it was time to move on. I've also let games be taken in a direction that I may not have intended or even wanted to go; my WW2/superheros game is one example of that. I wanted to do a side campaign that was gritty straight-up WW2 (and a couple of players were behind that), but a couple of the players wanted to do a superhero campaign and weren't that interested in doing the WW2. I ended up compromising my initial idea (reluctantly) and ended up with a very fun side campaign by combining both into the same game. I also spent time with the one guy who was not a war or ww2 buff at all, and found ways to inspire him and give him ideas for how it could even be more fun (loaned him my Band of Brothers DVD's and encouraged him to watch them, told him great anecdotes from the many books I had read, discussed cool character ideas that appealled to him and were slanted towards the genre, got him into some comics that fit the genre, etc). Soon, he caught the bug and we've had a blast with it most of the time, even though sometimes it still gets a bit more campy than I would like. But that doesnt matter, if that's the way the players want to take it, then I let them and sometimes even encourage it, and we have fun; after all, I'm only one of the five people who play. It helps as a GM to keep a close eye on what the players do when you are having critical moments in the game. If they can't ever remember key facts or interesting plot twists, or they seem to get bored/constantly talk tangents while you are GM'ing, or do things that seem intended to derail your game and they normally aren't the seditious type, *you* may have a problem with your game. You obviously cant please all of the people all of the time, but if you are careful and considerate you can please most of 'em, most of the time. You just have to know when to bench yourself, if necessary :) [/QUOTE]
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