The Game Master is the Leader of the Group

This guest post by TT forum member Telas was the 1st Place winner in our Guest Post Contest, which posed the question “What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned as a GM?” Congratulations, Telas!
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The most important lesson I have learned is that the Game Master is the leader of the group. This probably isn’t news to anyone, but the implications of this are tremendous. As a GM, you will of course have the freedom and power that come with that position, but (most importantly) you will have the RESPONSIBILITY of being a leader.

Because that’s what real leadership is — responsibility. Ask any military officer how heavy a burden leadership can be.

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The Power of Video for GMs

Back in middle school, I was the player in a solo campaign set in the Forgotten Realms. When my character first entered the desert of Anauroch, my friend flipped on his TV and played a short clip from a movie he’d cued up.

It showed the windswept, rock-strewn badlands one often encounters at the edges of true deserts. As it played, he said “I wanted to show you exactly what the edge of Anauroch looks like.”

That was about 16 years ago, and while I’ve forgotten the name of the movie and countless other details from the campaign, I remember that 30 seconds of video with perfect clarity — and the video itself wasn’t even that interesting: all it showed was some featureless desert terrain.

But there was something powerful about the connection between hearing his description, seeing it in motion and combining the two in my head as the game continued. And whatever that power of video is, it’s different than GMing with pictures.

Have you ever used short video clips to enhance your game?

Groom Like it’s a Workday

When I GM, I nearly always shave before the game — just as if I was going to work that day.

I’ve found this to be helpful, as it puts me in the right mindset: I want to bring my A game, pull off a polished performance and present the evening’s session well. I have no idea if shaving sends that signal to my players, but it certainly sends it to my brain.

(When I play, I usually don’t shave. It’s the weekend for a reason, right? I tend to be more relaxed as a player, and this ties into that, but not shaving doesn’t mean I can’t bring my A game — somehow, it’s different than when I GM.)

Apologies for the flat-out guy-centric tip, but it seemed useful enough to share. Is there a corresponding grooming chore for women that has a similar impact?

What GMing Products Would You Like to See?

As a GM, what products do you wish RPG publishers would hurry up and make for you?

Books, widgets, funky dice, 12-panel screens — the field is wide open. Even if you don’t think it’s feasible or has the slightest chance of turning a profit, tell us about it!

An Experiment: Gaming Spaces Flickr Group

Yesterday, two ideas that had been floating around for awhile finally banged together in my head: Why not create a public photo group where gamers all over the world can share photos of the places where they game?

So I did. It’s called Gaming Spaces, and it’s a photo group on Flickr, a nifty (and free) photo-sharing site.

We’ve talked about gaming spaces on TT before, in VV_GM’s guest post Setting Up Your Game Space and in the forum thread on proxemics and gaming environments. It was the collision with Avlor’s Flickr group suggestion for GM’s Day that made me decide to give this a shot.

It’s pretty sparse right now, but I’m hoping that will change. I don’t know about you, but I love seeing how other GMs set up their gaming spaces — it gives me all sorts of ideas for how to improve my own little slice of heaven.

If that grabs you, I hope you’ll join the group and post some photos of your own!

Combat: To Map, or Not to Map?

A deceptively simple question: Do you use tactical maps and minis (or counters, etc.) for combat, or not?

And is your choice at all influenced by whether or not the system you’re using recommends mapping out your combats?

Have Your Players Ask Worldbuilding Questions

Jeff Rients is trying something interesting with his current campaign: he’s letting his players ask questions about the setting via email, and incorporating the answers (which he provides) into the game.

As Jeff says, “So far I really like this approach, as it forces me to think in directions maybe I wouldn’t explore myself and it let’s me know what interests my players.”

This sounds like a pretty cool worldbuilding technique to me: low prep, promotes player buy-in, encourages creativity and helps you take your game in new directions. Have you ever tried something like this?

Scheduling Your Gaming Sessions

Like many of the organizational aspects of gaming, as the GM you’ll usually be the one taking the lead when it comes to scheduling your group’s sessions.

There are five basic approaches to this task — let’s take a look at each them.

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