GMing Mistakes You’ve Made in the Past

[Wofano Wotanto]

The one that come tommind though is from a very early campaign I ran - one of the first if not THE first - back in 1995 or so; this would be AD&D 2nd Edition. The party came acoss a cache of elven weapons, and I decided that it made sense for elven weapons to have grown more powerful over time. And that's how a party of low level characters ended up with swords and axes and whatnot randing from +3 to +6 in enchantment, plus armor and various other miscellaneous magicks.

I've deliberately done that sort of thing with various editions of D&D. The balance in the TSR editions is already so wonky it just means you can use some tougher foes than you would normally. WotC editions are a little more tightly designed and you have to be careful about unintended knock-on effects but it's still doable IME.

A neat complication is to have the super-items degrade as they're used, and add a gameplay loop where the PCs can charge them back up by questing to specific magical sites or slaying unique foes.

 

[Kannik]

Wow, my experience is the exact opposite. SOs have been huge assets to the group so long as they actually enjoy TTRPGs.

From my experience, I'd expand that to say that with everyone who aims to join the group, and broaden the question: Are they willing to contribute to the group and it's playstyle? If so, cool! They don't need to be as invested as everyone else, they don't need to contribute the most, this doesn't need to be their favoritest thing in the world, and even if they're there primarily because their friend/etc is there, if they participate in a way that makes the game a bit better/fun/exciting, then they're golden.

So for my main gaming group, though we're "short on players" I always vet (with everyone else) whether someone who'd like to join us will meet us where we are and if so we'll bring them in, no matter what relationship or not they may have with anyone.

I guess the lesson here is that once you have a great group, it pays to "protect" it while still walking the middle path to ensure you don't end up creating a spiked fortress wall.

 

[Ath'kethin]

Another one:

Letting girlfriends or boyfriend or husbands or wives play the game.

This sounds good....if your playing a board game. Or if your playing an RPG just like a simple board game. Or if your RPG will just be a casual fun time.

If you play to really play an RPG.....it just about never works. Most of the time there are a LOT of relationship problems going on, and this causes the "want" or "demand" for the couple to be Stuck Like Glue.

Roughly 100% of the time the SO is not a gamer and just does not care about the game. They might try and play a bit....like they would a board game....but mostly they will just sit there.

Worse, they will be a huge distraction....as they get bored sitting there and then disrupt the game with a story, joke or "watch this You Tube video".

And there is a better then zero chance that as soon as they "are not having fun" they will whine they they want to go home and they will take the player with them....

So....better to just say "no sos"

Hmm.

My wife and I have been friends for over 30 years, and she is one of the people who played in the first campaigns I ever ran. She's been a resourceful and innovative player from day one, and she's a delight to have in any group. She tends to think outside the box - big time - which can intimidate some other players, but she's great at worldbuilding too and always works for the betterment of the party. She also started running games shortly after she started playing, and proved herself a more than capable and skilled GM, too.

So I suppose mileage may vary on this front.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

From my experience, I'd expand that to say that with everyone who aims to join the group, and broaden the question: Are they willing to contribute to the group and it's playstyle? If so, cool!

As someone with severe ADHD I have to admit the phrase "willing to contribute" really induces deep panic in me, because in the UK it tends be associated with people who have very specific but completely unspoken expectations, and get very snippy if those aren't met. And like, not meeting unspoken expectations is possibly my least favourite thing (it's something that happens a lot when you have bad ADHD, too - especially in Britain, where a lot of people are very bad at explaining their expectations, yet often do not moderate those expectations).

So thank you for clarifying with:

they don't need to contribute the most, this doesn't need to be their favoritest thing in the world, and even if they're there primarily because their friend/etc is there, if they participate in a way that makes the game a bit better/fun/exciting, then they're golden

Because that's like ok, phew!

I know in the US people tend to use that phrase a bit differently and often more gently!

But yeah once I got over the "UH OH" I agree!

 

[bloodtide]

*To have players 'level up' at home: Once I did the huge waste of time of having one or all of the players gain a level during the game play. And sit there as the player(s) take huge amounts of time to level up a character. Often more then a hour as they goof around.

So, no more of that. First I give out XP and other rewards at the end of the game, close to when the players are leaving. And the player that "forgets" (that is does not care enough about the game to do so) to level of their character has to play with their old 'un leveled' character. I will not pause the game for you.


*Once I never gave much thought to downtime. Now, I railroad in Official Downtime roughly every 4-5 sessions. So, in general, the characters will be in a relatively 'safe' place without some deadline at the end of the game. This allows for players to do all sorts of downtime related activities. I often plan for 30 minutes of such Downtime. And good players make good use of it.

 

[Committed Hero]

In my first time GMing after a long absence I set up a pretty awful railroad. The players came up with a tactic I totally failed to predict and I had no way to adapt to it. I tend to gravitate to rules systems that discourage it, now.