Wik
First Post
For those of you who mostly run games, it's always fun to get on the other side of the table. And, what I've always noticed is just how much I LEARN while playing, simply by watching the GM run his game. Sometimes, it's things not to do, and other times, it's simply "hey, that's a neat way of handling that!".
So, spill your guts. What secrets have you learned by watching?
***
When I watched my friend S. run a game, at first I really enjoyed how he had set the game up - give us a loose goal, and let us get there our own way. Unfortunately, once he began to get comfortable as a GM (it was his first time), he got lazy... and then the game dissolved. He would throw bigger and badder beasties at us, almost as if he were trying to "win". And he wound up being a huge fan of GMNPCs - at one point, he was running an entire adventuring party that was three levels higher than us in level. We watched these NPCs, and the GM, roll dice at each other. And when we came to a fight against some really big ogres that killed all of those GMNPCs in the first three rounds, we were surprised when the GM was mocking us for trying to run. WE decided "to hell with it" and charged in, knowing full well we'd die - we hated the game that much.
Anyways, he taught me to always put in the time for a game, and to watch the reactions of my players more. I remember many times being in his game thinking "geez, if he'd only look up and see we're bored stiff". Which made me realize I should be watching my players more, not getting buried in notes.
***
A poster at ENWorld (I forget his screen name... blargney should know it) ran a short-lived Eberron game about a year ago. It was pretty fun, and it seemed to mesh seemlessly. I didn't know until the end that we had actually gone through three Dragon adventures - everything blurred together so well that I thought we were in one ongoing plotline.
While he had other talents, that was the one that stuck out for me. I really try to emulate that in my games now, linking adventures together by common threads. I actually did that fairly well in an Eberron campaign I ran a while back - and it worked wonders. Something I still need to work on, though.
***
A friend R., who is usually a player in my games, but also GMs using his own rules system for another group, is a pretty fun GM. He's definately "fast and loose" in style, which encourages the players to get creative. One of the few times I was playing in his system, I had a sword and board fighter, in a fight with a skeleton.
More or less, I had one skeleton up against a wall, pinning him there with my shield, while two skeletons were behind me. I had also been disarmed. The problem was, if I moved the shield, the skeleton would get away, but if I didn't move soon, the two skeletons behind me would get me.
My character wound up ripping off the pinned skeleton's skull and hucking it at one of the other skeletons. The GM had no rules for this, but was totally willing to wing it (and the next action of mine, where I threw my shield Captain America-style to take out the last skeleton). The event stands out in my head, because it reminded me of an easy-to-forget rule: if the rules are hard to remember, just make it up.
I also taught me that it's fun for a player to do cool, unexpected stuff, and if the rules really get in the way of that, they're not good. Now, when my players want to do something particularly cool/movie-like, they still have to roll dice - but I tend to give them a bit of an edge, so that it's likely that cool stunt of theirs will work.
***
I'm sure there are more, but I'll stop here. You get the general point.
So, spill your guts. What secrets have you learned by watching?
***
When I watched my friend S. run a game, at first I really enjoyed how he had set the game up - give us a loose goal, and let us get there our own way. Unfortunately, once he began to get comfortable as a GM (it was his first time), he got lazy... and then the game dissolved. He would throw bigger and badder beasties at us, almost as if he were trying to "win". And he wound up being a huge fan of GMNPCs - at one point, he was running an entire adventuring party that was three levels higher than us in level. We watched these NPCs, and the GM, roll dice at each other. And when we came to a fight against some really big ogres that killed all of those GMNPCs in the first three rounds, we were surprised when the GM was mocking us for trying to run. WE decided "to hell with it" and charged in, knowing full well we'd die - we hated the game that much.
Anyways, he taught me to always put in the time for a game, and to watch the reactions of my players more. I remember many times being in his game thinking "geez, if he'd only look up and see we're bored stiff". Which made me realize I should be watching my players more, not getting buried in notes.
***
A poster at ENWorld (I forget his screen name... blargney should know it) ran a short-lived Eberron game about a year ago. It was pretty fun, and it seemed to mesh seemlessly. I didn't know until the end that we had actually gone through three Dragon adventures - everything blurred together so well that I thought we were in one ongoing plotline.
While he had other talents, that was the one that stuck out for me. I really try to emulate that in my games now, linking adventures together by common threads. I actually did that fairly well in an Eberron campaign I ran a while back - and it worked wonders. Something I still need to work on, though.
***
A friend R., who is usually a player in my games, but also GMs using his own rules system for another group, is a pretty fun GM. He's definately "fast and loose" in style, which encourages the players to get creative. One of the few times I was playing in his system, I had a sword and board fighter, in a fight with a skeleton.
More or less, I had one skeleton up against a wall, pinning him there with my shield, while two skeletons were behind me. I had also been disarmed. The problem was, if I moved the shield, the skeleton would get away, but if I didn't move soon, the two skeletons behind me would get me.
My character wound up ripping off the pinned skeleton's skull and hucking it at one of the other skeletons. The GM had no rules for this, but was totally willing to wing it (and the next action of mine, where I threw my shield Captain America-style to take out the last skeleton). The event stands out in my head, because it reminded me of an easy-to-forget rule: if the rules are hard to remember, just make it up.
I also taught me that it's fun for a player to do cool, unexpected stuff, and if the rules really get in the way of that, they're not good. Now, when my players want to do something particularly cool/movie-like, they still have to roll dice - but I tend to give them a bit of an edge, so that it's likely that cool stunt of theirs will work.
***
I'm sure there are more, but I'll stop here. You get the general point.
