What do you find hardest when running RPGs?

[Imaculata]

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.

I usually let everyone get all of their OC-talk out for about an hour, then I gently turn the fantasy music up, and eventually I'm able to get things rolling. I don't mind the delay.

 

[dragoner]

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

The longest I have played in has been around five years, that has been a while back, ones I have run, on and off for 30+ years, usually they are around 2 1/2 years long. Usually once every week to once a month depending, if you do a play-by-post, everyday almost; it takes a while to build a group that will play whatever you want to play, and we do get lazy and play board games a lot. As far as having the same characters, depends on the scenario, characters can die or players get bored with them and change.

 

[delericho]

Travelling adventures. I try to add lots of branching divergences, and set pieces, but at the end of the day, they have a destination they’re going, and sometimes I feel like we’re on the proverbial rails. “On Day 1, nothing happens. On Day 2 you encounter a Flumph. On Day 3 you’re ambushed by Orcs” and so on and on…

O.L.D. has some really quite interesting rules that might be worth looking at. Basically, it suggests tracking Fortune - a cumulative measure of how well or poorly the journey is going. Amongst other things, Fortune would then alter the chance of random encounters (as things get worse, they're liable to get even worse), and also the condition the party arrives at their destination in.

(That same section also discusses different levels of abstraction for journeys - suggesting that some should be resolved with just a couple of rolls, while others are covered day-by-day in rather more detail.)

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Interesting... how is Fortune accrued?

O.L.D. has some really quite interesting rules that might be worth looking at. Basically, it suggests tracking Fortune - a cumulative measure of how well or poorly the journey is going. Amongst other things, Fortune would then alter the chance of random encounters (as things get worse, they're liable to get even worse), and also the condition the party arrives at their destination in.

(That same section also discusses different levels of abstraction for journeys - suggesting that some should be resolved with just a couple of rolls, while others are covered day-by-day in rather more detail.)

 

[delericho]

Interesting... how is Fortune accrued?

It's been a little while since I read that section, and it would need adapted anyway.

IIRC, at the end of each period (typically a day), you'd have each member of the group declare a role: navigator, forager, etc. Each would then make an appropriate skill check, and if half the group or more pass then the group gains 1 Fortune (if not, they lose 1 Fortune). Then, depending on the current level there were various effects.

That's a very high-level summary, and may not be entirely accurate (since I'm working from memory), but it hopefully gives something you can work with.

 

[Enkhidu]

Taking notes of what happens during the game. I'm usually either talking or listening when running a session, and I can't competently do either and write at the same time...not if the writing is to be the least bit legible and-or make any sense, or if the speech is to be more than a drunken collection of random words.

I was going to say "remembering all the crap I had to make up on the fly because the players threw me a curveball," but your take is probably more accurate for my situation, too.

 

[Gilladian]

5-10 minutes. We start the game at 2 and stop at 5, so an hour is waaaayyy too much time to waste. But my players are pretty much all folks I know well and hang out with at other times, soit isnt a hardship.

 

[Grogg of the North]

For me, the hardest part is making sure everyone has their turn in the spotlight.

Player 1: Who murdered your brother? - Developed over the course of the campaign.
Player 2: How did you acquire these eldritch powers? And what are you going to do about your arranged marriage? - Plenty of time devoted to this.
Player 3: How did the evils of the lesser planes taint your bloodline? - Yea, I can maybe bring that up here and there. Oh no, we're running out of time / levels in the campaign! Quick, lets try and shoe horn this in! AGH!

I will weakly offer in my defense that it doesn't help when you introduce a story hook to deal with a character's personal issue and your players run screaming in the other direction.

 

[ChaosGenerators]

For me, the hardest part is making sure everyone has their turn in the spotlight.

Player 1: Who murdered your brother? - Developed over the course of the campaign.
Player 2: How did you acquire these eldritch powers? And what are you going to do about your arranged marriage? - Plenty of time devoted to this.
Player 3: How did the evils of the lesser planes taint your bloodline? - Yea, I can maybe bring that up here and there. Oh no, we're running out of time / levels in the campaign! Quick, lets try and shoe horn this in! AGH!

I will weakly offer in my defense that it doesn't help when you introduce a story hook to deal with a character's personal issue and your players run screaming in the other direction.

Do you try and give equal time in the spotlight or do you have some players who don't want very much spotlight?

 

[Grogg of the North]

I try to give everyone equal time in the spotlight. I, fortunately, have a group of players that are all comfortable being the center of attention.

One of the first things I ask my players is for them to come up with a goal. What do they do when there are no dungeons to go into? The three I listed above are the player goals from the last campaign. It played out pretty much like how I described.