TTRPG Game Master Essentials

I've had quite a few comments on the original blog, and I thought I'd write a follow-up. Firstly, safety tools. These are quite a new thing for me, as they have only been around for a few years, but they are absolutely essential. I would be absolutely mortified if something happened in a game I was running that made someone uncomfortable beyond acceptable limits. At Expo this year, I ran a game with two fairly young children as players. This was a game which featured some mild elements of body horror, and I was somewhat concerned. So I checked in with the parents present, made it clear what sort of thing we could expect and gave them a means of raising concerns. Then, I toned it down somewhat. If you're an old curmudgeon like me and you've been doing this for years, it's not acceptable to say "we did without them all that time." Who knows what effect you had on players that went unreported. Safety tools. Use them. No excuses. Secondly, playtesting. Don'

I'm just back from GMing five games at UK Games Expo, and I thought I'd share my experiences. I'm hoping this might be especially useful for GMs who aren't used to running convention games. There are significant differences between running games at conventions and running your home game, and you need to be aware of them. Some of these things are going to sound obvious, but they may not be to everyone. Some of them are going to be common sense. Most importantly, they are things that everyone can do to make games fun. I've been running games at conventions for more than thirty years, and here's my distilled list of what I find works. If you disagree, that's totally cool. Put something in the comments and tell me how you do it better! 1) Turn up ahead of your players. You should be in your seat 15 minutes ahead of the start time of the game. No excuses. Having players turn up and not knowing what's happening sets the tone badly for the game. First impressio