Meet My New Monster, the Ball-Buster
GMs have a lot of power in most RPGs, and that includes the power to continue personal, out-of-game disputes at the gaming table. For instance:
- Player: “I’m going to scale the castle wall“
- Crappy GM: “Okay…it’s windy, so that’s +2, and the wall has mildew on it for another +2. Plus your leg still hurts from the last battle, so that’s +3.“
- Player: “It didn’t look mildewy — and what do you mean my leg hurts? Nobody took a called shot on my leg!“
- Crappy GM: “Do you want to roll, or not?“
Contuining our “hey, it’s a series” bad GMing theme (My Girlfriend is AC 100, Gandalf Flies in on His Gold Dragon…Again and The Iron Fist and Abused GM Syndrome), here’s another common example: The ball-busting GM.
The Iron Fist and Abused GM Syndrome
Continuing our informal series on bad GMing (which began with My Girlfriend is AC 100 and Gandalf Flies in on His Gold Dragon…Again), here’s another classic example of GMing gone wrong: “My way or the highway.”
Gandalf Flies in on His Gold Dragon…Again
Fresh on the heels of yesterday’s post about classically bad GMing, My Girlfriend is AC 100, let’s look at another slippery slope: The powerful canon NPC.
- Crappy GM: “Having already knocked out Frodo and Samwise, the orcs are about to overwhelm your position.“
- Player: “Oh man, we’re really going to have to roll some 20s to get out of this one!“
- Crappy GM: “Suddenly, Gandalf rides down on his gold dragon. Its breath incinerates all of the orcs, and Gandalf does a touchdown dance on their smoldering corpses.“
Sweet! Oh wait, no, that was actually pretty boring.
My Girlfriend is AC 100
A recent TT forum thread on bad GMing got me to thinking about this one — see if it sounds familiar:
- Crappy GM: “The ogre misses Arwen again.“
- Player: “Again? It missed the last five times, too.“
- Crappy GM: “Uh…yeah…it missed.“
Suuuuure it did.
So what’s at work here — why is this a classic example of crappy GMing?
Treasure Tables Store Feedback
Have you ever visited the Treasure Tables store without buying anything? If so, I’d love to hear from you, either here in the comments or via email.
Plenty of people check out the store, but very few buy our goodies — I’d like to find out what I can do to improve the store, and hopefully change that.
Martin on All Games Considered
The excellent All Games Considered RPG podcast was kind enough to have me on for their GMing episode.
Mark, Chris and I chatted about GMing, social contracts, game systems and questions from their forum, and generally had a good time. Apparently, you’re not supposed to say “fuck,” though.
RPTips Covers Player Feedback
The latest issue of Roleplaying Tips includes a guest article entitled Getting Player Feedback, which covers several types of feedback that you can request from your players.
This dovetails nicely with the popular TT post of the same name, which focuses on ways to get that feedback.
Endpoints and Expectations
A simple but loaded question:
When you start GMing a new campaign, how long do you expect it to last?
Do you:
- Plan to play forever?
- Intend to play as long as you can, but not forever?
- Expect interest to flag eventually, quietly killing the game?
- Have an endpoint in mind (”This game will last for a year/for X sessions”)?
- Discuss any of these options with your players?
Based on my experiences as a GM and player, #1 is the most common (often unspoken) mindset for GMs and players alike, #2 is the second most common, #3 can be very difficult to avoid and I really wish #5 happened more often than it does. Also, the older I get the more appealing #4 becomes.
What do you think?
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100% GMing
Treasure Tables is dedicated to game masters, offering GMing advice and ideas since 2005. I'm Martin Ralya, and I've been GMing since 1989 and writing for the RPG industry since 2004.