What do you find hardest when running RPGs?

[Azurewraith]

Finding the time to do all my prepping (I prep a lot!), and finding the time to distribute xp awards to my players.

Oh god XP I can't count the amount of times I have to send out a group message saying I owe you XP.

 

[ChaosGenerators]

Oh god XP I can't count the amount of times I have to send out a group message saying I owe you XP.

I was much happier when I moved to a milestone approach for XP and just let my players know when they've levelled. As we keep everyone at the same level it just removed a headache.

This is harder for games where they spend XP directly....

 

[Azurewraith]

I was much happier when I moved to a milestone approach for XP and just let my players know when they've levelled. As we keep everyone at the same level it just removed a headache.

This is harder for games where they spend XP directly....

Ye I'm running savage worlds atm so it's 1-3 xp a session spent in groups of 5.

 

[aramis erak]

For me, it's the players who turn social scenes into hostile tactical exercises as a default mode... in no small part that they prevent others from being able to use non-combat solutions.

 

[dragoner]

Maintaining interest, I can do a campaign for about three years, after that my attention starts to wander. Prepping can be a chore sometimes, except as a labor of love, it can be a good predictor for how much a game is going to hold my interest.

 

[Lanefan]

I try to keep the pace by not dwelling for too long on boring things. If the players want to buy and sell all of their loot, I tend to sort it out during downtime, or I try to speed it up in some way.

No matter what I do, treasury division can only be sped up so much, largely because most of the decisions etc. are in the players' hands rather than mine. I can usually rely on at least one entire session and probably part of another getting blown up every time they divide a treasury.

I also try to have players and characters run into each other a lot.

I do this too, but sometimes it can be like herding cats when I'm hoping they'll run into each other and they (without knowing I want them to meet) each go everywhere except where the other is.

I tend to flesh out all of the npc's a lot, and give them enough backstory to have an informed opinion on things. Often the first step in making your players care about npc's, is caring about the npc's yourself.

It's about equally as often the first step in making your players despise the npcs...it's a fine line.

Lanefan

 

[Lanefan]

Oh god XP I can't count the amount of times I have to send out a group message saying I owe you XP.

If I know nobody's close to bumping I'll let xp pile up for a while - several sessions, often - then do all the calculations during prep one week and give 'em all out at the first convenient point during the next session.

But if I know someone's close to bumping then I'll give them out more often.

 

[ChaosGenerators]

Ye I'm running savage worlds atm so it's 1-3 xp a session spent in groups of 5.

I'm running savage worlds too! Currently just tell them when they get their next advance.

 

[ChaosGenerators]

Maintaining interest, I can do a campaign for about three years, after that my attention starts to wander. Prepping can be a chore sometimes, except as a labor of love, it can be a good predictor for how much a game is going to hold my interest.

Three years is longer than I've ran any campaign! How often are these campaigns being played? and is it the same characters generally?

 

[Les Moore]

Just getting started at the beginning of each session. It's always a bit of a hump to get over that initial introverted hesitancy to take charge and be the center of attention at the start of each and every gaming session I run. I can deal with it, but it is a thing I have to struggle with a little each time.

Too right. We used to have a game where the DM and one player would just dick around interminably for hours before we finally got started. We'd show up at
8:00, and things would drag along till about 1 AM, when we would finally get started. Needless to say, this kind of queered the whole campaign for everybody else.

If you're a DM, and you want to marry a guy, just do it on your own time. Don't
ruin the game for everybody else.