Playing not GMing

Got to play last Saturday, and again this evening.

Our primary GM crapped out on us Saturday, so thankfully someone else stepped in and did a great job - good to have friends prepared to GM.

And now headed over to his house for more of the same tonight.

Even got in a little time playing Star Wars Minis. Still waiting to use the Falcon and Slave 1

Lots less pressure when "just" playing and not GMing.

Different set of responsibilities.

Help keep the fun going instead of leading
Step in with comments when things get quiet (when it helps!)
Let other people take the spotlight
Most Important - Have fun.



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Gaming Buddies

Tomorrow is the latest installment in the MarCon saga.

One of the fellows from the gaming group moved to a small town about an hour south of the Twin Cities. Unfortunately that makes it impossible to make our weekly gaming sessions (except in the summer - he is a teacher and works in the cities in the summer). So every couple months, we hold a MarCon in his honor.

A typical MarCon includes:
Breakfast - size large - at a local establishment
general goofing off until noon
A four hour game that will last for at least six hours
Possibly a board game or some other activity
Video games until we collapse

The entire day is liberally sprinkled with drinking and eating.

A good time is normally had by all.

I am hoping to play some X-wing miniatures, but other than that I will be just a player. One of the other fellows wants to try out a GenCon game he is planning to run. Pathfinder, so not my favorite, but should still be fun.


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Food for Gaming

Besides the "rigors" of creating the adventure, preparing the bad guys and NPCs, and drawing the maps the most difficult part of hosting gaming is picking the food.

So what have I learned about feeding gamers?

The crockpot is your friend. I don't get home until about 60 minutes before gaming is supposed to start (OK realistically eating is from 6 - 7ish, gaming starts sometime after that). So preparing something to eat and doing last minute game prep is next to impossible. Good crockpot recipes (chili) are awesome.

All Recipes is also your friend. They have a good selection of crockpot and other recipes. It is also easy to scale the recipe up for more people.

Bread is a good filler. Easy bread mixes (cornbread) are good fillers.

Cheese. Put cheese on it to - everything is better with cheese.

Yes, I left off bacon - don't share bacon.


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Still Working on Playing Together

So still working on getting the player to participate more. Tried handing off narrative control, but was not very successful. I think I need to pick my spots a little better. Much easier for players to take control during a fight scene than during between times, or when just starting play for the evening.

Once engaged with the NPCs, things went better, and you can't go too far wrong with trolls under the bridge.

On a more fun note, I got my Precision Dice from a recent Kickstarter, and they are awesome.



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The Kids Are Alright

Tremendous fun this afternoon, spent it playing a role playing game with my two sons (age 9 and 10). We played the Beginners version of Star Wars Edge of the Empire by Fantasy Flight.

The dice mechanics were a little odd at first, but the boys picked it up pretty fast. They use a dice pool where "good" results are compared to "bad" results to see what happens. It reminded me little of the mechanic in Dungeon World that lets you succeed, but with a complication.

Dominic decided to be a droid and Rowan decided to play the Wookiee - I'm afraid that there was a little but of min/maxing on their part (at least with Rowan and the wookiee).

It took a couple battles to get them to stop just rushing in with blasters and vibro-axe, but they did get the idea. My two favorite moments were Dominic deciding to use a stun grenade instead of just firing into the room with non-combatants, and Rowan using a dewback as a distraction to enter the spaceport control room.

Anyway, we played long enough to have them level up one level, and next session they are off to steal their first starship - so proud.


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Hey PC - Participate

This could just as easily be titled Hey GM - stop talking.

So still talking about Dungeon World, and had a pretty good game last night. The players made it through the temple, and after a combat - had to choose. Of course things bogged down here - nothing to kill, and I didn't give them a clear cut choice.

The frustrating thing was I was talking too much, and not letting players describe or take over the fiction of the game. Some of the players don't want to do this - at least I infer this by there always having their phone out and never looking up except if I use their name - sigh. Others are still a little resistant to the system, so are looking for holes - sigh squared. But, I'm still walking over the actions of the folks who would really like to include themselves in the fiction of the game (triple sigh on me).

So more Dungeon World next week - and now I have my goal.

Just need to figure out what should/might/could happen

Away from Gaming

I've been away from gaming at a software user conference al week. Bummed to miss my regular Tuesday game after last week went so well. Able to catch up on some web browsing of sites, but not much more than that.

Very excited to get home and see the game I won from CarpeGM - http://carpegm.net/

They were kind enough to send me a copy of the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game. I'm going to see if the boys want to play - got to start them young.

Back to more gaming notes next week.

Derick


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