DMs: Do you have performance anxiety?
- Thread starter EricNoah
- Start date
Coreyartus
Explorer
I have recently started judging for RPGA events, and I gotta say my big hangup is the rules. I have judged less than a dozen tables, and I think I've had maybe two players I've actually judged twice.
In my opinion, DMing a friendly, reoccuring home group is a real luxury. Especially one where you've all learned the rules at the same time. Players are often willing to forgive forgetfullness--those situations are as much about spending time with friends as they are the game itself.
But try judging for a table full of energetic, smiling strangers that expect you to provide them with a better gaming experience than the last one they played... Every one has to be a little expert on their own niche of rules that pertain to their particular character's concept because they play with different judges--more familiar than you will ever be because of the vast number of rules one needs to be familiar with. They're also comparing your DMing ability to every other judge they've every played with, and since reading the body language of strangers can sometimes be difficult, one never really knows for sure if you're engaging them at all! Sometimes I feel like I'm "judging blind" a bit...
Yeah, my anxiety comes from rules. It's tough to be a rules encyclopedia. And one that can act, add & subtract, extemporize, tactically analyze, and guide a free-form story while balancing the real world challenges of public speaking and small group communication.
Oy.
Coreyartus
In my opinion, DMing a friendly, reoccuring home group is a real luxury. Especially one where you've all learned the rules at the same time. Players are often willing to forgive forgetfullness--those situations are as much about spending time with friends as they are the game itself.
But try judging for a table full of energetic, smiling strangers that expect you to provide them with a better gaming experience than the last one they played... Every one has to be a little expert on their own niche of rules that pertain to their particular character's concept because they play with different judges--more familiar than you will ever be because of the vast number of rules one needs to be familiar with. They're also comparing your DMing ability to every other judge they've every played with, and since reading the body language of strangers can sometimes be difficult, one never really knows for sure if you're engaging them at all! Sometimes I feel like I'm "judging blind" a bit...
Yeah, my anxiety comes from rules. It's tough to be a rules encyclopedia. And one that can act, add & subtract, extemporize, tactically analyze, and guide a free-form story while balancing the real world challenges of public speaking and small group communication.
Oy.
Coreyartus
Aeric
Explorer
I always get that feeling before the first session of a new campaign. I always feel like I haven't prepared enough, the story isn't interesting or that it's geared more for an audience rather than for a group of players, etc. Many a would-be campaign has ended because I was unhappy with how the first couple of sessions went.
For the last campaign I ran, I got around this by using published adventures (the Freeport trilogy, to be precise). I wove enough of my own plot threads into the adventures that by the time the PCs finished the third module, it was a seamless transfer into my own material. By that point, I knew the players and their characters well enough to have total confidence in my ability to entertain them (and vice versa).
For the last campaign I ran, I got around this by using published adventures (the Freeport trilogy, to be precise). I wove enough of my own plot threads into the adventures that by the time the PCs finished the third module, it was a seamless transfer into my own material. By that point, I knew the players and their characters well enough to have total confidence in my ability to entertain them (and vice versa).
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