Fictions & Fragments

I just ran my roughest game in a long, long time. The issues in the game were things that could have been prevented or mitigated, but instead I had to do damage control and bring things to a halt. Some of the lessons I learned (again): Safety tools need to be introduced. Use a session zero or pre-session to assess how a group works together.. No game is better than bad game. If you want to use something during your game, prep it. Safety tools need to be introduced No one wants to cause a problem or halt a game. Everyone came to play, so players will put off a lot before they find themselves objecting to the direction of the game. As a gamemaster (GM) I outlined a series of safety tools and put them in the game prep area. I congratulated myself on doing that before I even put in character creation steps. Then I promptly left them alone until there was a problem. When there was conflict between players, I could have handled it sooner. When I did handle it, the offended play...

Describing difficulty to players Some RPG games have player mechanisms that affect success. In D&D there's Inspiration, Advantage and a number of race/class abilities that can affect rolls. In Numenera and all the other MCG games you can spend from your Ability Pools to affect success. In Star Trek Adventures you can spend Momentum, use Talents, use Foci, etc. Some games like Apocalypse World tell the players exactly what they need to succeed: 7-9, 10+, etc. But for these other games you need to know what your target for success is to play the game in the best way possible- which to me, means have fun, feel like you have knowledge and agency in game). Explaining the rules to players is a part of the job for anyone inviting others to play a game. You can tell them to read the book, recommend they check out an article, or do anything beforehand, but at the time the game is taking place, if you want to run the game, you have to help players engage with the rules, includin...