Throw a Wrap Party and End Your Campaign in Style

To commemorate the end of my group’s two-year Stargate SG-4 campaign, our GM, Don, threw a wrap party. After we finished up the tail end of our previous session (which had carried over), he disappeared for ten minutes while we took a quick break before diving into the finale.

When he ushered us back into the dining room, we found several surprises waiting for us: a Stargate cake, topped with a cardboard stargate that read “Congratulations Stargate SG-4,” three plaques commemorating our two seasons of adventures along with a desert camo Stargate cap for each of us. It was totally awesome.

Not only was it awesome, but it made me think that every campaign should end with an event like this.

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GM-Fu Seminar and Informal TT Meetup at GenCon

As the 2007 GenCon countdown clock winds down (10 more days!), I wanted to mention two TT-related events that will be taking place at the con.

The first is Mastering Your GM-Fu, a free game mastering seminar led by Zachary Houghton (formerly the author of RPG Blog), Vicki Potter (editor at Tabletop Adventures), experienced game master Phil Vecchione and myself. This seminar will take place on Saturday, August 18th in the Embassy Suites (Chancellor 3, 5th floor) from 2:00-4:00 PM.

When we ran this seminar at last year’s GenCon, we fielded a ton of great GMing questions and everyone seemed to have a good time. We’re sticking to the same format this year, but apparently we’ll be in a nicer location — a larger room that’s actually on the convention map. We’ll also be giving away official “GM-Fu d2s,” which should be pretty nifty.

With 100 seats this year, we had about 40 spots open as of the close of online registration. Between folks we know will be there but who didn’t register and folks who learn about the seminar between now and the con, we expect a full house again this year. You don’t need an event ticket to attend, and you’re welcome to show up without registering — I hope to see you there!

On that note, it looks like there will be a very informal TT gathering right after the seminar. I’m not sure what we’ll be doing, but going out for burgers and beer is pretty likely — and whatever we do, it’ll be low-key. If you’d like to meet some fellow GMs and TT readers, commenters and forum members, stop by and say hello.

(Update: Also, voting for the 2008 ENnie Awards judges opens today. If you’re interested in the ENnies, check out the nominees, read their qualifications and take a few moments to vote. These folks do a ton of work in choosing the ENnie-nominated products (the technical term is “a shitload” — you can get a feel for that by reading In my judgment, 2007 judge Jeramy Ware’s blog about the judging process), and they could use your support.)

How Do You Decide What to Handwave?

Handwaving can be a very useful GMing tool, although if you do it too often, there’s not much point in playing an RPG at all.

I’ve handwaved chunks of past sessions for a range of reasons: time constraints, because my players were (or seemed) bored, because I made a mistake, and needed to ensure an encounter went a certain way, because I realized something wasn’t going to be fun to play through, etc.

There have also been times when I should have handwaved something, but didn’t — and that’s the sort of judgment call where it’s very useful to hear how other GMs approach the same kinds of situations.

So how about it: Do you have a hard and fast rule about handwaving? What kinds of things have you handwaved? What handwaving opportunities have you missed?

Embrace the Familiar

Sometimes, it’s good to play to your players’ expectations. When you expect something about a game to turn out a certain way and it does, that can be quite enjoyable.

It’s like watching an action movie: stuff will blow up, the hero’s girl will be threatened, but he’ll win out in the end. In gaming terms, it’s fun when:

…orcs are always evil brutes.

…evil masterminds always employ elaborate deathtraps, rather than just killing you.

…the Big Bad is always in the last chamber of the dungeon.

…your NPC sidekicks never waver, happily marching into the jaws of death.

Those game elements are fun partly because they’re so familiar; there’s an element of nostalgia involved in encountering them, and seeing how your group tackles them keeps them different enough to be interesting.

Don’t shy away from incorporating the familiar into your campaign. Avoid using comfortable standbys as shortcuts, nail the details and your players are likely to greet them like old friends — which, of course, is exactly what they are.

Fight the Familiar

Over the years, both in your games and in other campaigns with other groups, your players have developed a set of expectations about the way things usually go.

Orcs? Always evil, dumb and brutal.

Their mysterious patron? Always mysterious.

The black-robed guy in the tavern who offered them a job? Always planning to backstab them in the end.

That NPC who’s never had a kind word for the party? Always a dick.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with “always,” but it can get old. Don’t be afraid to do something different with campaign elements that are common RPG tropes, or that are common to your games.

Just make sure those changes make sense in the context of the game world (Why are these orcs our buddies? Why did our patron reveal herself?), don’t overdo it and have fun with them — your players are likely to appreciate the results.

Little Ways to Shake Things Up

Particularly when you’ve gamed with the same group, on the same night of the week and at the same place for awhile, those traditions become an integral part of your gaming experience — and that’s a good thing.

But it can also be a good thing to shake up that formula a bit from time to time. Small changes can sharpen you up a bit (and ditto for your players), tweaking your perspective on the game slightly, but noticeably.

Here are six little changes you can use to keep your group on their toes without doing anything drastic:

That’s just the tip of the “micro change” iceberg, of course — what small stuff like this have you done in your own campaigns?

Keep Spare Gaming Supplies on Hand

This is a pretty basic tip, but perhaps a handy one for novice GMs: Your players will forget stuff, so have spare dice, pencils, pads and other supplies on hand. This goes double if you’re running a convention game.

My RPG to-go box includes three full poly sets (d4 through d%), two full sets of 10d10 (for White Wolf games) and enough d6s to choke a horse, plus two pens, two pencils and two clicky erasers. When I GM, I also have notepads on hand, as well as lots more of all of the above.

One of the other GMs in my group, Don, used to keep a spare set of dice on hand called the Dice of Shame. The Dice of Shame were the ugliest, most mismatched dice his group could find, and if you forgot your dice, that’s what you used. I’ve always gotten a kick out of that idea — keeping spare stuff for your players doesn’t have to be boring.

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