RfP #011 - So You Want to Become a Gamemaster?

Terry: 00:00:00

You're listening to episode 11. So you want to become a game master, huh? It's time once again to roll for Perceptocast. I'm Terry, your forever GM and lover of all things roleplay.

Evelyn: 00:00:25

And I'm Evelyn, role player, GM and unrepentant dice goblin.

Terry: 00:00:29

Join us as we roll our dice.

Evelyn: 00:00:31

And talk in strange voices and bring.

Terry: 00:00:34

To you our excitement and joy for all things tabletop role playing.

Evelyn: 00:00:38

For more on roll for Perceptacast, head over to www.rollforperception.com.

Terry: 00:00:47

Episode 11. We've hit double ones.

Evelyn: 00:00:51

What? That's like the worst possible role you could do though.

Terry: 00:00:55

I know, but regardless of which, how.

Evelyn: 00:00:58

Many sides of the dice there are.

Terry: 00:00:59

Actually super technically it's a crit succeed when playing Call of Cthulhu.

Evelyn: 00:01:03

Well, I suppose so. That. That's true.

Terry: 00:01:06

So.

Evelyn: 00:01:06

And it's not so bad for Dragon Vein either, right? Because.

Terry: 00:01:10

Right. It's not bad for Dragon. It's not good for pbta though.

Evelyn: 00:01:13

No, definitely not.

Terry: 00:01:15

All right, welcome back, friends. We have missed you. It's been a week and super excited to talk a little bit about being a game master.

And this is, you know, this is one of those things that I find really interesting because there are not enough game masters out there. Right.

Evelyn: 00:01:35

Yeah, that's true. Because there's always people looking for games. I mean, how many times do you see people that are just like, hey, I'm looking for a game to play.

Does anybody want to run a game?

Terry: 00:01:48

And though I love running games, you eventually run out of time. Time.

Evelyn: 00:01:52

Yeah, it's hard. It's hard because there's prep time outside of the actual session time, which is a. Oh.

Terry: 00:01:59

Which has been proven with our. Oh, man, I get to do a plug here which I have been prepping for a game that we have just begun recording.

Evelyn: 00:02:07

Yes, super exciting.

Terry: 00:02:09

Yep. It's called. Do you remember the name?

Evelyn: 00:02:13

Thousand's End.

Terry: 00:02:14

It is. It is thousands end.

Evelyn: 00:02:18

Pat on the head for the player.

Terry: 00:02:20

Well done. And we just recorded last night our first session.

We'll be recording a couple sessions before we actually release the podcast, but hopefully in the next couple of weeks we'll have the first five episodes released. It is a fantasy based game set in the world of. Well set using the system of Cypher.

Evelyn: 00:02:44

Yeah, the cipher system.

Terry: 00:02:45

Which is really kind of a cool role playing system. Evelyn is a character in it along with Eric and Tcat.

Evelyn: 00:02:53

Yes. We've got quite the trio right now.

Terry: 00:02:57

So if you're looking for an actual play, we are putting one Together. And like I said, we did our first recording last night.

We've got our next recording in less than a week and that'll give us five episodes and hopefully the week after will be when we start releasing them. So tune in and listen to those when you're not listening to us here on roll for perceptacast.

Evelyn: 00:03:17

Yes. Please come join us.

Terry: 00:03:20

Join us. All right, so we are talking about being a game master and let's talk a little bit about the responsibilities of being a game master.

Obviously the big one is creating and running the game world.

Evelyn: 00:03:36

Though sometimes you don't actually have to create the world. Sometimes other people who are very talented writers do that for you. If you end up running like, that's.

Terry: 00:03:46

Going to be a bump on the recording.

Evelyn: 00:03:47

Sorry about that, I shouldn't turn my chair. But anyway.

Terry: 00:03:54

But you're right.

Pathfinder 2e is a great example of a world that is well built and can be used in a variety of ways, whether using their adventure paths or you're creating your own story within it.

Evelyn: 00:04:07

Yes. And it's a very nice little playground that you can, can build, you know, home brew stories in using the pre established lore of the world.

I mean, you know, Dungeons and Dragons has their own very long history that goes along with their, their game as well.

Terry: 00:04:24

And now one of the things though that people have complained about is that it feels like a world of everything and the kitchen sink.

Evelyn: 00:04:35

Meaning maybe.

Terry: 00:04:39

Maybe. I mean, you've got, in parts of it, you've got genies, then in other parts you've got full countries of undead.

Then in other parts you have the more regular fantasy and then you have the wild west.

Evelyn: 00:04:52

That's also, yeah, you know, steampunk. So there's, there's that which is.

Terry: 00:05:00

It's not bad.

Evelyn: 00:05:01

It's just a blending of genres.

Terry: 00:05:03

Yeah. And if, you know, again, it makes it easy to just play the game.

Evelyn: 00:05:08

I feel like we're digressing a bit from our point.

Terry: 00:05:10

Sorry. Also, as a gm, it's your job to narrate the story.

Evelyn: 00:05:14

Absolutely. Yeah.

Terry: 00:05:15

So it's important to understand that you will be talking about everything that is happening that is not the players.

Evelyn: 00:05:23

Yep.

Terry: 00:05:25

And that takes a bit of skill. If you're doing good prep, it makes it easier.

Evelyn: 00:05:33

What? You shouldn't just write goblins question mark on a piece of paper.

Terry: 00:05:37

I mean.

Evelyn: 00:05:37

Yes, I think that's an excellent way of planning a game.

Terry: 00:05:42

Goblins for the win. And then you're now. Okay, so I'm going to agree and disagree a little bit with this. But in charge of managing the rules and mechanics.

Evelyn: 00:05:54

Yeah.

Terry: 00:05:55

And it's so funny that I've just finished working with somebody on some rules.

Evelyn: 00:06:00

Right.

Terry: 00:06:02

And it is one of those things where if you're the gm, everyone's going to expect you to know everything.

Evelyn: 00:06:09

And one thing that I regularly state when I'm running my games is I don't know everything.

And I will have to look things up occasionally because I only have so much space in my brain to store information and it's very important information for when I'm running my sessions. But I can't like, be a functional human and keep the entirety of the like, game mechanics and rule sets in my head.

Terry: 00:06:32

But here's the issue. If you say that you're gonna look something up, what should actually happen?

Evelyn: 00:06:40

I don't know. What else should I do?

Terry: 00:06:42

The player should look it up. Why? And this is, this is a frustration for me.

If we say we're not sure of the answer, as a player myself, I immediately go, okay, let me see if I can find it. But too many players don't. So that's another frustration that we'll kind of couch over here and we'll talk about on another. Another session.

All right. So you're also expected to facilitate player engagement and enjoyment. And that. That's true.

Evelyn: 00:07:14

That's important.

Terry: 00:07:15

It is. It. Well, it's, it's part of why I love GMing and I. Even with.

And, and I, I think we talk a little bit about the things that can kind of grade on you later on. But that's part of the reason why I love doing this. And I really do, I really do enjoy like, like seeing other people enjoy the game.

Evelyn: 00:07:49

Oh, absolutely. I mean, that's a, that's a major part of it. I think when I run games, like if, if, if we're all telling a story together, I feel like as.

It's more exciting for me if everybody is getting as into it as I am.

Terry: 00:08:04

That's exactly.

Evelyn: 00:08:05

And that's. And that's really kind of shows that, you know, everybody's having fun. And that's kind of what it all comes down to.

Terry: 00:08:12

Well, and of course we, we do believe that we should be having fun.

Evelyn: 00:08:15

Well, yeah, of course, like, that was thus my, my statement just said about. I enjoy it more when I see everybody around the table also really getting into the story that I'm telling.

Terry: 00:08:24

Plus my statement. I like that.

Evelyn: 00:08:27

Thank you. Thank you.

Terry: 00:08:30

So, importance of a GM in tabletop role playing games. You're starting to understand why they're important, but also understand that different GMs are going to GM differently.

Evelyn: 00:08:43

Well, yeah, absolutely.

Terry: 00:08:44

And so if you're somebody like me who plays with lots of different people.

Evelyn: 00:08:48

Yes.

Terry: 00:08:49

In lots of different games, both as a GM and as a player, you have to have the understanding that not everybody's going to do things the way you do.

Evelyn: 00:09:00

Absolutely. Yeah.

Terry: 00:09:01

Now, sometimes that means stepping back from a game, which I've had to do. In fact, Eric is looking forward to doing a Starfinder 2e game.

And I was super excited for him and I told him, Evelyn can play in that game, but I cannot because I am burnt out from D and D and Pathfinder 2e.

Evelyn: 00:09:25

Yeah, we've played a lot of it.

Terry: 00:09:27

So we have. And so you as a gm have to also understand that you, you know, if a, if, if, if you're GMing, you don't have to jam games that you don't want to gm.

Evelyn: 00:09:41

Absolutely.

Terry: 00:09:42

Like, I don't GM Pathfinder anymore. Nope. Evelyn still does. Does a very good job at it.

Evelyn: 00:09:48

Thank you.

Terry: 00:09:49

But it's not something that I want to do. So let me, let me ask you.

Evelyn: 00:09:56

Yeah.

Terry: 00:09:57

What drew you to GMing?

Evelyn: 00:10:01

Okay, so funny story, kind of, I guess so. Way back when I first played, you know, that wasn't really a thing that crossed my mind.

You know, I thought you had to kind of like, be super, like, geared into it because, you know, I was 18 at the time. I thought you had to be like, super geared into it to be the type of person that would be able to run a game.

Like, that wasn't something that, like, even crossed my mind. I was like, you know, I show up at the table, I play my character, I go home.

But many moons later, I am getting ready to join a group of people doing Pathfinder 1e. And I wanted to do a bit of kind of refresher on tabletop role playing games and like, what, you know, goes into playing them and blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, and there were a series of YouTube videos that Matt Marsher had done about GMing. Like it was GM tips. And then someone else had done some as well. And I watched a few of those and that was kind of interesting.

But really what got me interested, tying into that was, and a lot of people say, oh, the reason I started GMing was because of Matt Mercer. And he's great and all. He's an excellent DM for what he does. However, it wasn't Matt that was the inspiration for me.

It was actually some of his players when they were running in between games for when they were having downtime in the actual campaign and seeing some who had never DM'd before, who are not like lifelong DMs, like Matt, and seeing that they could do it too, and were really good at it, even, like, just trying, I was like, okay, well, maybe this is something that I might actually be able to do because I love the game, right? And I love the lore. And I've always been someone who likes to tell stories in.

You know, I have spent time writing and, like, a lot, especially when I was younger, when I had, you know, time. But I've always loved to read and really delve into that storytelling aspect.

And of course, you know, in my life of doing theater, just storytelling has always been kind of an integral part of who I am as a person. And so being able to kind of open up a world, even if it's one that's already written, where I can pull things for it.

Though I have run a game in a setting that I've been working on for a while, because you actually got to play in that little shot that I had done with that nonetheless, so that. That's really kind of the love of doing. Doing storytelling and seeing that it.

You didn't have to be this, like, lifelong DM who was super, like, geared into all the rules and. And technical stuff. I realized that I. I might want to try it too. And so I started off doing a lot of one shots, right?

And like, little, like, mini things to see how I felt about it. And I kind of got hooked on it because I love it. I love.

I love that the aspect of, like, getting people, you know, into a story and having them be able to kind of disappear into a world that isn't the one around them, especially in the way things are at the moment in the world, in a lot of places and times, and being able to kind of escape a little bit and live in kind of this imagined space being someone else getting to try on someone else's shoes. And with a gm, you get to try on everybody's shoes because you are all the parts of the world you help make it a living, breathing thing.

And so that is just. I mean, that, that. All of that.

Terry: 00:14:28

Yeah. And, you know, it's. It. It's funny I just said that I. I don't play Pathfinder 2 anymore, but that is literally the reason I got in to GMing.

We were playing D&D Pathfinder 1e at the time, and I had gotten the humble bundle.

Evelyn: 00:14:49

Yep. For 2e.

Terry: 00:14:50

For 2e. And I was like, oh, this is Cool.

And I started reading it and how it played in the three action, economy and rules for days, so you didn't have to think or make, you know, decisions out of the air. And I was like, this is so cool. And. And I'm not gonna do anything half hearted. We streamed my first.

Evelyn: 00:15:14

Yeah.

Terry: 00:15:14

Attempted attempt at DMing or DMing. So I put myself out there and said, hey, look, here I am. And the campaign was fun.

I think the only reason it ended really is because some people's lives got busy and we had to take a step back from it. But that was Extinction Curse, which is not really a great.

Evelyn: 00:15:35

And it came with the humble bundle, which made it super nice. Cause the whole venture path was right there with the, with the rule books. And they do this a lot, by the way, if you're ever curious about it.

Terry: 00:15:45

We were playing on fantasy ground, I remember. And we didn't get. We. We got through like the first book or the first two chapters. I don't know. I'd have to go back and look.

Evelyn: 00:15:55

It wasn't very far.

Terry: 00:15:56

I know that wasn't very far, but it was, it was a lot of fun.

Evelyn: 00:15:59

Yeah.

Terry: 00:16:00

I remember fighting with snakes in the tents.

Evelyn: 00:16:02

Yeah. Well, and. And getting to do the like our circus acts and stuff and describe them. That was pretty cool.

Terry: 00:16:09

Trying to knock down the.

Evelyn: 00:16:14

The cart.

Terry: 00:16:14

The cart.

Evelyn: 00:16:15

The ringmaster's cart.

Terry: 00:16:17

So. So yeah. So there's a lot of reasons why people get into it.

And hopefully if you're listening to this podcast, you'll want to get into it a bit more as we continue talking. So we kind of did kind of an overview of everything and we're going to kind of dive deep.

So our next thing we want to talk about is preparing to be a game master.

Evelyn: 00:16:38

Yeah.

Terry: 00:16:38

Right. And the first one is probably, I would say, the hardest and easiest at the same point. And that's choosing the right game system.

Evelyn: 00:16:49

Right, for you? Yeah, absolutely. It's a major part because.

Terry: 00:16:54

And. And obviously there are large systems like Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder 2e.

Evelyn: 00:16:59

Right.

Terry: 00:16:59

There are mid sized systems, I would say, not mid sized. D and D and Pathfinder tend to be the, the big elephants in the.

Evelyn: 00:17:08

Room, especially in the fantasy genre.

Terry: 00:17:10

Exactly. And then as you start to kind of go just under that, I would say is the Call of Cthulhu.

Evelyn: 00:17:16

Right.

Terry: 00:17:17

Is the osr.

Evelyn: 00:17:19

You got Vampire, the Masquerade.

Terry: 00:17:21

Vampire, the Masquerade and all of the pbta.

Evelyn: 00:17:24

All the blank. The Blank. So like Hunter, the Reckoning and all those. Those ones. And then. Yeah, you have your PBTA's, you have.

Terry: 00:17:31

Your cipher system and you know that list can go on and on. There are so many systems out there, so.

So part of it is going to be what you feel comfortable with getting into it or if you're like me, not comfortable at all and just gonna dive into it.

Evelyn: 00:17:47

Well, and find, and find a genre you like. Because like, if you are not a person who enjoys fantasy based stuff, obviously Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder probably not your jam.

Terry: 00:17:58

Right?

Evelyn: 00:17:59

But like, I mean you can find cyberpunk, you can find, you know, modern, you can find superheroes, you can find My Little Pony and Power Rangers. And like, I mean like if there's something you're interested in, it's probably a ttrpg and if it's not already, you could write one.

Terry: 00:18:22

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Evelyn: 00:18:24

Jumping ahead there, I mean, you know, I might be subtly encouraging more, more TTRPGs.

Terry: 00:18:32

Now if you're the type of person who feels like they can make decisions on the fly, then I would encourage you to look at games like in the Mist. Games such as City in the Mist or Metro Otherscape. Take a look at Legend in the Mist. Well, it's not out yet, so that's why I was.

But as it comes out, Legend in the Mist, look at Cipher System, look at Fate and Genesis, both of those tend to be less rule heavy.

Evelyn: 00:19:01

Right.

Terry: 00:19:02

And so it would give you a more of a chance to kind of do what you want. If you're looking for, you know, the this, the tried and true crunchy stuff, then you're looking at Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder.

Evelyn: 00:19:13

And if you want really crunchy, there's. Which is, what's the one that we got?

Terry: 00:19:20

Mythcraft.

Evelyn: 00:19:21

Yes, Mythcraft.

Terry: 00:19:22

That's super crunchy. Super crunchy. If you're looking for stuff in the middle, Powered by the Apocalypse is great.

Evelyn: 00:19:28

Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's definitely somewhere mid range. And, and if you're a GM that never wants to roll dice, definitely do.

Powered by the Apocalypse because you don't ever have to roll a single die as a gm, you just tell everybody what happens based on what they roll, which is kind of neat.

Terry: 00:19:44

I'm one of those people, I don't want to roll dice, I just want to tell this story.

Evelyn: 00:19:47

I get really nervous sometimes when like my monsters are rolling well because I don't want to kill my players.

Terry: 00:19:53

Yeah, see that's. I put all the onus on the players. Then you've got to understand the rules and mechanics. And the biggest thing here is read the Core rule books.

And some of these core rule books are thick.

Evelyn: 00:20:07

Oh, yeah.

Terry: 00:20:08

So just be prepared for that. As somebody who loves reading rule books, I am a.

Evelyn: 00:20:13

He's read many.

Terry: 00:20:14

Yeah, I'm a bit of a weirdo in that way. I just love reading rules.

Evelyn: 00:20:22

Yeah. I mean, anytime we get a new board game, he's the. That's the first thing that usually comes out of the box.

Terry: 00:20:27

I just. I need to. I need to know and understand and so if you're going to run a game, you need to know the rules. Now.

You don't have to be an expert in the rules when you just start.

Evelyn: 00:20:36

Right.

Terry: 00:20:37

I was not an Expert in Pathfinder 2e. What I did is I let my players, as we said earlier, let the players know and. And have them understand that we're gonna make mistakes.

Evelyn: 00:20:48

Yeah, well.

And a lot of the systems, especially when you're starting off and you're learning it, it's a good idea to get the GM screen that goes with that system because a lot of that has, like, the quick and easy, like, rules, like, at a glance sort of stuff.

So, like, if you need things like, you know, what checks should be and sort of, you know, you know, DCs and stuff for that sort of thing, or like, what's the currency that they should be starting at for this particular level? No. Archives of Nephis, obviously, is really handy because they have the Game Master screen as a thing on their. On their website.

So if you're doing it online, that's super helpful. I don't know as far as, like, other systems, what, what all is available easily, but I know that a lot of systems have various, like.

Terry: 00:21:32

Well, Cipher system has a pretty good website by old Gus. Yeah, D. And D, of course, has theirs. I believe Call of Cthulhu has a decent one.

Evelyn: 00:21:41

Well, and I know a lot of, like, the systems in general have sort of like a cheat sheet to the rules that you can use, so you know that that helps a lot.

Terry: 00:21:49

But read, read those texts, read those core rule books, have a pretty good understanding. And if you can watch or listen to tutorials and gameplay videos.

Evelyn: 00:21:58

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Terry: 00:21:59

One of the things that I like to do is I like to listen to other podcasts so that I can hear how other people are doing it and then I can steal from them.

Evelyn: 00:22:08

Well, and like, actual plays in general tend to be very useful for learning, like, how something works because you can kind of see, like, the people figuring out or working through the things in the. Whatever game you're interested in, which is Always useful.

Terry: 00:22:23

But don't judge yourself by those people.

Evelyn: 00:22:25

That is one of the big things. And keep in mind that a lot of times GMs will have their own house rules for things.

So like the, the house rules might not be the actual like game rules.

So just like when, when you're watching something and there's might be like rules disagreements, always remember that there could be house rule things. Especially if you know the system when you're going into watching it and be like, well, that's not the rules. Yeah. Sometimes it gets changed.

Terry: 00:22:52

So here's a question for you.

Evelyn: 00:22:54

Yeah.

Terry: 00:22:54

Knowing what you know now, regarding the first game that you were GM of.

Evelyn: 00:23:01

Yes.

Terry: 00:23:02

Is there another system you wish you would have come in on rather than the system that you started with to make your transition to GMing easier?

Evelyn: 00:23:13

So my first game that I, that I jammed was actually Honey Heist, so that was probably the easiest. Yeah, that was my very first one. So that was a very easy one to do.

Terry: 00:23:25

So that's Grant. How it.

Evelyn: 00:23:26

Yeah, he's awesome. He has, I mean he's, he's written for other stuff, but he had his website, he has a bunch of one page RPGs, TTRPGs, which are awesome.

And I read through a bunch of them and Honey Heist just seemed really cool.

Terry: 00:23:43

Yeah.

Evelyn: 00:23:45

And let me do more of the story part without having to worry so much about keeping track of rules because it's super rules light and so you kind of just get to roll with it.

And so it allowed me to kind of figure out the narrative parts because that's the part I was always the most concern is being able to tell a good story.

Terry: 00:24:08

Yeah.

Evelyn: 00:24:09

Because if I, if I can tell a good story, then I can figure out the mechanics later.

You know, like that's, that's easy because especially with systems like, I mean like Pathfinder, like, I mean Cipher and some of these other ones where like there's, they're very like cut and dry sort of rules for the way things work.

Terry: 00:24:31

Yeah.

Evelyn: 00:24:32

So if I can tell a good story, I can pull in the, implement all of the mechanical bits later.

Terry: 00:24:39

So then you get into creating your first adventure. And this is more important if you're doing your own homebrew stuff.

Evelyn: 00:24:44

Yeah.

Terry: 00:24:45

Obviously if you're doing something with established stories like Call of Cthulhu has wonderful scenarios. There's plenty of scenario adventure paths for Pathfinder and plenty of stuff for Dungeons and Dragons.

But if you're creating your own stuff, the first thing you need to think about is basic plot structure and a Rule book that does that really well is City of Mists. It gives you a good idea on how to completely build your entire campaign.

Evelyn: 00:25:21

Yeah.

Terry: 00:25:22

And they use the, the inverted iceberg. No, no, not inverted, but the iceberg.

Evelyn: 00:25:29

Where. Yeah, like there's a little bit above the surface and everything else is below almost.

Terry: 00:25:33

But there it's wide across the top and where. Connection.

Evelyn: 00:25:38

That's right. I remember you showed me one of the diagrams for City of Mist.

Terry: 00:25:42

City of Mist.

Evelyn: 00:25:43

Right.

Terry: 00:25:44

And so that is a, a good way to kind of think about it. You need to think about how you're going to design your encounters and your challenges. Now this again, a lot of games have help with that.

Legend in the Mist talks about how you can set up your challenges for your players. Call of Cthulhu's got a little bit of information in that. There is like I said, the all of the Mists have a ton of stuff.

If you look at the game mastery stuff for, for Pathfinder, there's a little bit. So different games are going to have different amounts of information on how to design your encounters.

Evelyn: 00:26:20

Yeah, absolutely.

Terry: 00:26:21

So you have to be aware of that and then of course balancing difficulty and player enjoyment. So when you're designing, when you're creating your first adventure, you've got to kind of keep all this in mind.

Evelyn: 00:26:31

Right.

Well and you also have to like one of the things to, with all of that to take into account obviously is like if you're DMing for different groups of people.

Terry: 00:26:42

Yep.

Evelyn: 00:26:42

Who you know, you might enjoy them as players, they enjoy you as gm. You're you, you mesh well between.

Terry: 00:26:50

Right.

Evelyn: 00:26:50

But you're still gonna have, if you don't have the same people at every single table, you're going to have different personalities and different play styles a lot of times amongst your players. And of course like, especially if you're running professional games, you're going to come across this a lot more often.

Terry: 00:27:05

Right.

Evelyn: 00:27:07

That you know, when you're designing encounters for group A, it might not necessarily work as well for group B. Yeah. Because like sometimes like one group might want more social and RP encounters versus like, you know, combat encounters.

And you have to keep those things in mind and balance those accordingly as well. To the preferences differences of the party.

Terry: 00:27:30

Yep.

Evelyn: 00:27:31

But also keeping in mind what you enjoy because obviously if you're not someone who enjoys doing meat grinder combat encounter after combat encounter after combat encounter, that's going to feel like a soul sucking endeavor as the DM for that game.

Terry: 00:27:45

That's true.

Evelyn: 00:27:46

So you know, keep player enjoyment but also your own enjoyment with the construction of these combats and various encounters in mind too. Because yes, you're trying to kind of most appeal to the whole, the greater whole.

Terry: 00:28:02

Right.

Evelyn: 00:28:04

But also you have to enjoy it too.

Terry: 00:28:07

Yes. Yeah. And you know, it's, it's so important. We're going to, we're going to harp on that. Always make sure that you're enjoying it as well.

And ideally, if you want, when you are starting out, try and do one that has sessions or scenarios or adventure paths or any of those things.

Evelyn: 00:28:31

So question for you. What game system do you think is the most beginner friendly for GMs?

Terry: 00:28:37

Quest RPG? That's easy. Quest RPG, which is the PDF is free online. The full PDF, not like just the SRD is something that you can very quickly get.

And okay, that's ignoring one page TTRPGs which those are very easy to get into and don't take a lot of work. But Quest RPG is great if you have your own story because it's a single die. Everything's in the book.

Lots of great information and you can run it very simply. And that is I think key to getting into it. West rpg. We've played it a little bit. I've loved it.

I would play that almost instantly again because it's so simple.

Evelyn: 00:29:28

Right. Well. And it's easy to like just drop it down at a table and find some people to play.

Terry: 00:29:33

That's exactly.

Evelyn: 00:29:33

And it works great for kids too.

Terry: 00:29:36

And most people don't know the game.

Evelyn: 00:29:37

Yeah.

Terry: 00:29:38

It's so funny is because it's no longer in print. I always go back to their website just to see, you know, if they're going to do a new printing or anything.

But the previous printer that they use is no longer available because they did.

Evelyn: 00:29:55

That big sale which is why we have the. We got all the books.

Terry: 00:29:59

Yeah. The only stuff left are digital game books, digital character catalog and the digital treasure catalog which we own both of those.

The main book is no longer available and it's kind of sad. It is such a good game. So you can check it out. It's at Adventure Game is the website and lots of good information there. We should do a giveaway.

We still have a bunch of Quest books.

Evelyn: 00:30:27

We have two extras still I believe.

Terry: 00:30:30

So we'll look at setting up a giveaway for the Quest RPG book. It's. It's been a while since we've done a good, good giveaway and it's a book for.

But I think we're going to do it a little different we'll do something where. Because one of the other podcasts did this where they did a giveaway, but people submitted character art.

Evelyn: 00:30:48

Oh, cool.

Terry: 00:30:49

And the chose the character art.

Evelyn: 00:30:53

Nice.

Terry: 00:30:54

And that's who the winner was, which I thought was really cool. But what we might have is, you know, something somebody tells.

Write a story about their most interesting game master situation or something like that.

Evelyn: 00:31:08

TTRPG stories.

Terry: 00:31:09

Yeah. So we will, we'll talk about that.

Evelyn: 00:31:11

And we'll come back, figure something out.

Terry: 00:31:13

Next week we'll have more information on that. A brand new giveaway that we just.

Evelyn: 00:31:16

Made up sitting here right now.

Terry: 00:31:19

All right, so you've got all your prep, you've got all your setup. It is time to run your first game. You've got to set the stage for your players. And what do you do in the beginning?

Evelyn: 00:31:31

Have a session zero.

Terry: 00:31:33

Oh, you're right.

Evelyn: 00:31:36

Because that's really, really important.

Terry: 00:31:37

You're right. No, you're completely right. And what is a session zero?

Evelyn: 00:31:42

So session zero is essentially the pre campaign session. And you, I mean I've even. You can even do this with one shots and stuff.

It's an opportunity for you to sit down with your players and lay out your expectations, what they can expect and like what your general rules for your table are kind of the topics you'll handle, topics that won't be covered for whatever reason. You figure out their level of comfort for certain things. At least at the. That is the case for mine. And I, you know, prefer to do it that way.

And then a lot of times it's a. You do a bit of character building.

Terry: 00:32:26

Yeah.

Evelyn: 00:32:26

In that session zero kind of help them figure out, you know, what they want to play, especially if they're brand new players. That's when you sit down and go, hey, what are you interested in? What kind of character are you imagine, are you a magic user?

Are you someone who uses a sword and shield? Are you, you know, do you want to shoot arrows and, and be very dashing, you know, th. Those sorts of things.

You help them kind of come the, you know, as. And, and, and it's a great idea to kind of have these discussions in the group because that, that's what.

How they can kind of figure out their group composition as well. Like kind of what might mesh better. And there's a lot of actually really excellent session zero resources out there on the Internet.

So if you, you know, are wanting to learn how to run a really excellent session zero, you can find the things you should discuss and the questions you should ask and kind of you lay out your schedule and like, are we going to meet every week or are we going to meet twice a month? You know, that sort of stuff. Is it going to be the same time every time? You know, and all that sort of stuff.

So session zero is always super duper important. This is going to also be very important when, if you're building an entire homebrew situation, right?

Because you can be like, hey, okay, let's figure out what kind of story you guys want to take part in.

Terry: 00:33:48

Right?

Evelyn: 00:33:49

Because I had a session zero, sort of like that, where I had a very general idea of a story I wanted to do. I was like, here's what I'm thinking. Does that sound good to everybody? And then, oh, you know, give them time to say, okay, this, this sounds cool.

What if we did blah. And that gives you the opportunity to kind of know what direction would get them super enthusiastic about it.

So I think that, yeah, session zero, always important. Before you even sit down to start the campaign, always have session zero.

Terry: 00:34:20

So once you've done your session zero, it's time to move into your first session, session one. And as I said, you begin by setting the stage. You are describing the setting and atmosphere. Now, look, we understand that people watch actual plays.

Evelyn: 00:34:36

That.

Terry: 00:34:37

And players unfortunately sometimes feel that that's what they want from their GM in a game. The theatricality and the. All the voices and the deep use of college words.

Evelyn: 00:34:59

What? You can't use college words.

Terry: 00:35:00

But look, but look, but look, as a college professor, I don't even have all the college words. But here's the thing. Understand that you are not getting paid to do this.

Except if you are, that, then you should be describing it with college words. That's a different situation. But for those new, know that, you know, your goal is to describe and.

Evelyn: 00:35:27

Kind of set the feel.

Terry: 00:35:28

Yeah.

Evelyn: 00:35:29

And the pace.

Terry: 00:35:30

Yeah. The atmosphere.

Evelyn: 00:35:32

It, it shouldn't feel like the most daunting thing you've ever done in your life, you know, because you're, you're just. It just kind of helps pull them. It's the initial hook to the game, right? So it doesn't have to be some perfect cinema graphic like setting.

I mean, you know, like people who have had a long time to develop because it's skills that you develop, correct. It's like any muscle, if you've never worked it before, it's not gonna do much for you. So the.

These storytelling muscles, you, as you learn and develop them, they will get stronger and these openings to these campaigns will become stronger and stronger. As you grow.

Terry: 00:36:18

So just have fun with it. Right. I mean, and of course you're also introducing your non player characters and you want to be descriptive about them.

You want to kind of imbue them with personality.

Evelyn: 00:36:33

And it doesn't have to be by doing voices, right? No, you can just like that. This is, this is the whole like thing that I think we've covered before at some point or another.

I feel like I've talked about this in the past, but you can establish character by the way you speak.

Not, not by changing your accent or changing like the, the, the, you know, the sound of your voice necessarily, but just your inflection and your pace and you know, you, you can lower or raise your voice without having to, to try to do a bunch of character voices.

Terry: 00:37:12

We've talked about it in a couple episodes. Check out episode three, breathing life into town NPCs. And also episode six when we did role playing tips for new players.

Both of those can kind of give you some insight on how to bring to life your NPCs without having to.

Evelyn: 00:37:33

Feel pressured to be the best voice actor ever in the history of Evan.

Terry: 00:37:38

Now, truth be told, I will be doing voices when I dm. I like it and I think it's fun.

Evelyn: 00:37:45

I mean.

Terry: 00:37:45

Yeah, no, it's true. He does. It's totally hard. Completely.

Evelyn: 00:37:50

You also will spend a lot of time talking to yourself at times.

Terry: 00:37:55

I don't know what you're talking about. I've never done that at all. Yeah. Oh, man. I like doing voices. All right, so you've got.

Evelyn: 00:38:06

But don't feel pressured to do that.

Terry: 00:38:08

No, no, no. Not pressure at all to do these voices. Understood. So you've got to manage your player expectations and engagement.

And a lot of that comes with the session Zero we talked about and handling different player personalities and play styles. Now this is where you can get a little. It can be a little. Can be a little difficult.

Evelyn: 00:38:30

Yeah.

Terry: 00:38:31

And might take some time. And so you've got to. That's. It's one of those things is. And, and you've been at my table.

Evelyn: 00:38:43

Yes.

Terry: 00:38:43

You have seen some of the personalities.

Evelyn: 00:38:46

Yes.

Terry: 00:38:47

Is what we'll call them.

Evelyn: 00:38:48

Yeah.

I mean, no matter what game you're playing, there can be personality conflicts between not only people at the table, between each other, but, you know, between the GM and some players.

Terry: 00:39:06

Yep.

Evelyn: 00:39:07

Because everybody is their own person, believe it or not. And part of being a GM is handling those conflicts. We are both storyteller and mediator at times.

Terry: 00:39:21

And it can. And, and trust me, it can be frustrating even for the most experienced.

Evelyn: 00:39:27

Oh, yes, absolutely, gm.

Terry: 00:39:28

And so that's one of those things that it kind of goes back to that session zero. And talking with your players and making sure that they understand what is expected out of them.

Evelyn: 00:39:37

Absolutely. And what is your hard line essentially? Like what will be completely zero tolerance, unacceptable.

Like you have to know, like, when it's okay to give someone another chance if they've been right, having issues, and when it is absolutely non negotiable.

And you need to establish that early on, because if you do not establish that early on, some people will toe the line as much as they possibly can and try to see how they will test it as much as. As much as they can to see how far that they can get away with things.

Terry: 00:40:22

Yes.

Evelyn: 00:40:23

And one of the big things is you have to know what your. What is kind of your hard, hard line for that.

Terry: 00:40:33

Correct. That's exactly it. And then another piece with running your game is your improvisation and your adaptability. Right.

Dealing with unexpected player actions. And I'm one of those players.

Evelyn: 00:40:46

Oh my gosh, yes, he is.

Terry: 00:40:48

I will go sideways because any chance.

Evelyn: 00:40:51

He gets because it's fun.

Terry: 00:40:54

And so I've also had players like that. And as a gm, you just have to be. One of the things is go with the flow.

Evelyn: 00:41:01

Yeah, absolutely.

Terry: 00:41:02

Don't get angry if somebody decides to go in a different direction. Just go, go. Okay, we're going in this direction now and we're gonna make it happen. And it, you know, it is what it is. It's.

You've gotta, you gotta be willing to deal with it.

Evelyn: 00:41:20

Yeah.

And I mean, like, you can allow them to kind of go off the rails at times and find ways to get them back to places, you know, like to get them back to the point you were trying to get them to. Even if they take a detour over here to grandma's house through the woods, because there's always kind of ways to bring them back.

There's a mysterious cloaked man in the woods and he has a mysterious prophecy to share with you.

Terry: 00:41:46

He does indeed.

Evelyn: 00:41:47

And it's very important.

So, you know, like it's, it's one of those, those skills once again that like you kind of develop over time because it can feel very overwhelming when everybody's running different directions.

Terry: 00:42:06

Yep. And so, you know, kind of with that is.

And when we talk about improvisation, we're not saying that you've got to be, you know, an actor on whose line it is. Is it anyway? No, because I want to make sure that I hit that two weeks in a row now.

But the idea that you can improvise your game is what's important and keeping your story moving forward.

Evelyn: 00:42:32

Like, for me, as long as I hit my major, like, plot points and my arcs that I'm trying to do, because I have arcs within arcs within a really big arc that essentially is. Is a story, you know, as long as you can get to those.

Those key points that you're trying to get to and the story you're trying to tell, then how they get there isn't as important.

Terry: 00:42:52

Then you've got me who, you know, I don't know what an arc is, so.

Evelyn: 00:42:59

Well, it's a. It's a half circle.

Terry: 00:43:00

I let my players lead me sometimes, so I know you. You will have an answer for this. But an NPC that has stuck with.

Evelyn: 00:43:10

You as far as like, my. My personal NPCs or just like, ones that I've enjoyed interacting.

Terry: 00:43:17

Ones you have enjoyed interacting with ones.

Evelyn: 00:43:19

That you've created memorable NPCs. Well, I absolutely.

One of the most memorable NPCs, I think for me was a character called Yash Tox that we were dealing with in another campaign who always turned up and was just this very like, kind of swaggering, kind of rogue, roguish kind of fellow who we never really learned the. The mystery behind Yash talks. But man, he was a character and a half.

Probably one of my most intensely terrifying characters that I, I definitely remember was a bar keeper for an inn, a tavern, and that I wasn't expecting my players to go into. And I had to like, create him on the fly. And he was the most revolting person in the entire world.

But he took a fancy, fancy to one of the party characters and they were just like, okay, what have we gotten ourselves into? And they ended up making him apologize for being terrible. Yeah. And like sitting like, they left him up in one of the. The rooms.

Just kind of rethinking his life choices, basically.

Terry: 00:44:50

Okay, that's awesome.

Evelyn: 00:44:51

Yeah. So that's probably one of my major ones. I mean, I have lot of, you know, especially with characters that I've been writing myself.

Like, I'm attached to a lot of them because they're all a little bit of. Of me. But another one that I think sticks with me is like, Tamily. I love Tam Tandervelle.

Terry: 00:45:12

Yeah.

Evelyn: 00:45:13

Great npc. She's the one that is the. She owns the Atari fishery.

Terry: 00:45:19

Yep.

Evelyn: 00:45:20

And that's in the banner's box. And I mean, she appears In. In some of the other things as well. Yeah. Tamley's great.

And my first introduction with her was when you ran the beginner's box. And just like how.

How you characterize her very much, like, affected the way that I played her when I ran my own beginners box because it just like I felt like there was this warmth and genuine, like, enthusiasm to her and like, I just wanted to carry that on.

Terry: 00:45:50

I love me some tamily.

Evelyn: 00:45:52

Yeah, she's great. What about you?

Terry: 00:45:54

Oh, man, oh, man, oh, man. So that is there. Like, I've GM'd a lot of games in a lot of different ways.

Evelyn: 00:46:03

Right.

Terry: 00:46:04

Both my homemade. I mean, Nub.

Evelyn: 00:46:06

Oh, Nub.

Terry: 00:46:07

Nub was awesome. Nub was a goblin who died.

Evelyn: 00:46:12

He was the ambassador of the shinies.

Terry: 00:46:14

He was the ambassador of the shinies in the puddles.

Evelyn: 00:46:18

Yeah.

Terry: 00:46:19

And I love him. He was fantastic. Victor, of course the victor is, you know, those are two that, that are very memorable for me as a. As a gm, as a player.

You know, honestly, I haven't had a chance to play as much as I have GM'd. I mean, if we look at. But what I've been doing my entire gaming time has, you know, I would say probably 80 to 90% of it has been GMing.

Evelyn: 00:46:50

Right.

Terry: 00:46:50

But you know, as a. As a player, I would say Yaz is probably one of the.

Evelyn: 00:46:59

The most memorable.

Terry: 00:47:00

Yeah. Like, still sticks in my head and we've talked about it before.

Evelyn: 00:47:05

Yeah.

Terry: 00:47:06

And so that's the type of character that's just cool.

Evelyn: 00:47:09

Yeah.

Terry: 00:47:09

I thought you were going to bring up. And I don't know his name, but the. There was the. The tavern keeper in Hummel.

Evelyn: 00:47:18

Oh, Federim. Yeah, he was awesome too. I forgot his name there for half a second, but yeah, he was. He and one of our.

Or Druid actually had had a very special kind of relationship in the in game and. Yeah.

Terry: 00:47:33

And so. All right, let's. Let's move on to tips and tricks for new game masters.

The first one is, you know, trying to build your confidence, which I think is probably going to be most important for. For. For almost everyone. And obviously starting with one shots and shorter campaigns are going to make your life easier.

Evelyn: 00:47:53

100%.

Terry: 00:47:54

1 shots are great.

Evelyn: 00:47:55

It allows you to get your brain around either the rules or just like how to run a game in general. You only have to do it once and then you get everybody's feedback either through them, like how they react to it immediately at the table and it.

And it's not as kind of daunting as trying to plot out an entire campaign. So yeah, one shots for the win.

Terry: 00:48:21

Now obviously one shots, different one shots are easier than others. Games that have less prep for character creation are going to be better.

Evelyn: 00:48:29

Right.

Terry: 00:48:30

Or games that have pre gen characters like Call of Cthulhu, we've done well.

Evelyn: 00:48:34

And like the beginner's box of a lot of things or starter box, depending on what you want to call it. A lot of those come with like anywhere from four to six pre generated.

Terry: 00:48:45

Characters that you can pick from starter boxes. Oh yes, we do need to play.

Evelyn: 00:48:49

Oh yeah. I'm just like looking at all the boxes.

Terry: 00:48:51

So if you're interested in playing starter boxes, you let us know and we will find a time and play.

Evelyn: 00:48:56

Make it happen.

Terry: 00:48:57

We have so many starter boxes.

Evelyn: 00:48:59

1, 2, 3, 4.

Terry: 00:49:01

She can see better than me right now. They're all behind me.

Evelyn: 00:49:04

7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

Terry: 00:49:07

We need to play a few.

Evelyn: 00:49:08

At least 11, maybe more.

Terry: 00:49:11

And then, yeah, as you said, seek feedback from your players, see what worked, see what didn't work. You know, find out from them how they're feeling about things. Of course you've got tools and resources for GMs. There's lots of things online now.

Evelyn: 00:49:24

Oh, absolutely. Pretty much everything has a digital version.

Terry: 00:49:30

Yeah, we did it with Cypher System.

Evelyn: 00:49:32

Yeah.

Well, and some of the game companies will include the PDF with the purchase of the physical book, which is lovely because then if you're running it in person, you have your book you can flip through. If you're running it online, you don't have to have, you know, a separate thing, you just have both sources.

You have the digital file and you have the physical one.

Terry: 00:49:55

And we, we have, we have a lot.

Evelyn: 00:49:57

Yeah, well, because when you're on your computer, you don't have to dig the book out and flip a bunch of pages. If you just pull it up on your screen, it makes life a lot easier.

Terry: 00:50:06

And then you mentioned it earlier, the GM screen.

Evelyn: 00:50:08

Yeah, it's super helpful.

Terry: 00:50:10

A lot of them, especially in person. Now I wouldn't sit in front of.

Evelyn: 00:50:13

My computer with a GM screen. I've done that though.

Terry: 00:50:17

Have you?

Evelyn: 00:50:18

So the very first time, Very first time I ran a Pathfinder 1E game.

Terry: 00:50:23

Yeah.

Evelyn: 00:50:26

Where I was doing it remotely. Because I don't know if Archives1e had the GM screen on there or not. If it does, you know, I just didn't know.

But I had the GM screen because it came with my stuff and so I just set it up on the side of my desk with my dice tray. And so that I could like, glance down and like, look at the, the stuff when I needed to. So.

Terry: 00:50:53

Well, there you go, folks.

Evelyn: 00:50:54

I. I had, I had it on my desk. I don't have as much desk real estate real estate anymore as I did back then, though.

Terry: 00:51:01

That makes sense.

So, so GM screens, you know, anything that can help you have the rules that you know that you're going to come in contact with fairly regularly in front of you is going to be super helpful.

Evelyn: 00:51:14

Absolutely.

Terry: 00:51:15

Common pitfalls to avoid over preparing and underpreparing. I. That it's so true.

Evelyn: 00:51:23

Yeah.

Terry: 00:51:23

And I would say most people over prepare more than under prepare GMs.

Evelyn: 00:51:29

Yeah. Well. And like some of the, like the, the Goblins question mark was kind of a joke.

But like Some, like veteran GMs can literally just make a note like that Goblins come up in their stories at some point and they can run a whole session with just that. Yeah, like it's impressive.

Terry: 00:51:46

And, and that's, you know.

Evelyn: 00:51:47

But that's veteran GMs. P.S.

Terry: 00:51:49

Yes, but there's a lot of resources online that, that talk about the quick prep. The lazy GM is a good example of it.

You know, if you look up lazy GM online and find out that there's a whole bunch of articles that deal with quick prep and, and be a lazy gm but still being successful, you.

Evelyn: 00:52:12

Just need a shower for your thoughts to come out.

Terry: 00:52:16

That's exactly it. And of course, don't be too rigid with the storyline. Now. If you're doing an adventure path or something, you've got, you kind of have.

Evelyn: 00:52:24

To be because it doesn't allow us a ton of flexibility.

Terry: 00:52:27

But if you're, if you're not, if you're doing your own campaign, like, like my Cipher System game that we started last night, it did not go in the direction that I anticipated it to go, which is awesome. And we just kind of went with it. And you've got to be willing to allow your players to do things such as that, you know, embrace that player agency.

Say yes and when possible.

Evelyn: 00:52:54

Yeah, because the, the other tool is. No, but, but you have to use no but correctly because that's, that's a trick. That's a trickier one to do.

Terry: 00:53:03

Well, so, so, so how do you, how do you stay flexible when. When players derail your plot?

Evelyn: 00:53:11

Well, I mean, it comes back to the, the thing I said earlier about like, okay, I have notes about where I need them to get to. So I just go, okay, I need them. They're over here. And I need to get them over here. So let's let you know.

And then I figure out some interesting way to get them there right now.

Sometimes that involves using a red herring when they think a sweet little old lady who, who lives out in the woods is, is a hag and, and she's actually just a sweet old lady who lives out in the wood who happens to be an herbalist who makes like, tinctures and stuff to sell to travelers and, and in this little city nearby. But like, that's, that's kind of fun too, because then they're like, oh, what mystery is going on here?

And it draws them back to that place that I can use. Then to bring them to another place by having like, something, you know, strange happen nearby that, that over here or, you know, there's a.

So it's all a matter of like, knowing how to take a really interesting direction.

Terry: 00:54:25

Right.

Evelyn: 00:54:26

Because like, I want to see where they're going to take me.

Terry: 00:54:28

Yeah.

Evelyn: 00:54:29

Because that can be really fun in and of itself. I want to see where they're going to take me and then I'm going to be like, okay, now I'm going to lob this back to you.

You know, so that's kind of the fun of, of, you know, the more loosely built, like, sandboxy type campaign.

Terry: 00:54:46

Oh, yeah, no, completely agree with that. All right. The final area we want to talk about is learning and growing as a game master.

And one of the things that you should always do is continuously learn and improve. It is the reason I read so many rule books and then I also read fan.

Like right now I'm reading the Wheel of Time and I also read about how to write TTRPGs. And so I've written a one page TTRPG with you. And we've done, we've. We've created a journaling one page ttrpg.

And so doing all these things helps you become a better gm. Like, like just in the past year with what I've been doing, I feel like I am a stronger GM than I was before.

Part of it for me was finding the right system.

Evelyn: 00:55:41

Yeah, yeah. Which find something that meshes with your gaming style.

Terry: 00:55:45

Which I'm getting closer, I think, every day.

Evelyn: 00:55:48

Yeah. I've already read like five books this year so far now, and I've haven't started Wheel of Time yet. We got it and I'm going to start it.

But I think one of the. That, that's one of your biggest tools in your arsenal. Be a really good reader, especially of the genre that you want to Tell stories in.

Because if you understand kind of the general elements of the plot of the stories, especially the stories you enjoy. Yeah, like pay attention to those. Those give you tools in your toolbox that you can utilize, especially creating characters that are interesting.

Like if.

Because sometimes you can borrow an archetype of a character that you were like, oh, that guy was really cool, and then put him in a different costume and call him something else, you know, that sort of thing.

That's, that's one of the biggest things I think that's always helped me doing this is just being a really, really good reader because that's really what, what establishes those good storytelling muscles in a lot of ways.

Terry: 00:56:56

Exactly it. Yeah. No, and then of course you can read GM advice blogs and books we.

Evelyn: 00:57:01

Have and watch YouTube videos or you know, short form, whatever that'll give you tips and things on that as well. Because you know, we're giving you our, our personal advice obviously.

But other GMs from their experience will have their own things that they might suggest.

So you know, obviously listen to, to varying, you know, takes on GMing because you're going to have a more rounded kind of look at what it means to be a GM in certain games. If you look at many different perspectives on being a gm.

Terry: 00:57:44

That's exactly it. And if you want to read some of the stuff I do, write the blog on rollforperception.com you can see me and all my glorious new.

Because I've been putting my face on my blog pictures now. But, but yeah, so there's lots of. And there's. And I still read a lot of blogs. I read a ton of blogs of course, incorporating player feedback.

We talked about that a little bit. And adapting to player preferences.

Evelyn: 00:58:12

Now obviously that's the, the use of stars and wishes.

Terry: 00:58:15

Exactly.

Evelyn: 00:58:16

Super helpful. And that's a tool I don't know, you know, if everybody uses at their table.

But I find it is a very useful tool for getting player feedback because a, A lot of times they will, you know, give the, the, you know, praise to the other players, which they always deserve. Oh yeah, like let your, let your fellow players know that they're doing a really good job.

But that's an opportunity for them to also tell us like what we can do to improve the game for them or like what they, what they are looking for more of or less of. And it gives us an opportunity to tweak things as we go.

Terry: 00:58:57

And of course then, yeah, work, work in your player preferences. Keep the communication open.

Evelyn: 00:59:02

Always.

Terry: 00:59:03

Always you need to, you need to be willing to talk to your players outside of the game. If things come up, don't let them build up.

Evelyn: 00:59:11

It can be a good TTRPG game is like a good relationship. Communication is key.

Terry: 00:59:20

When was the last time you thought, whoa, I really leveled up as a gm?

Evelyn: 00:59:24

I mean, every time I run a game, like, I mean, really, like, I'm being completely sincere. Like, I think that every time I run a game, I discovered new things about myself as a gm. I discover new things about my players.

And like, as I see the connections being made and stuff, it makes me feel like I'm, I'm on the right track and I'm doing a good job. So, I mean, and like, I just had a big kind of moment for my, one of my groups where I'm running an Avenger path for that one.

And we just finished the first book out of three of the books. And that was huge for me. Like, that's, that's five levels that they've done. And then, you know, it was, it was awesome.

And they, I think they're enjoying it. They seem to be so. But yeah, I mean, like, it's, it, it. Like I said, it's. It's always.

You're always growing and you should always be growing because if you stagnate, then you lose. That's. That leads to burnout. And we talked about that last, Last podcast.

Terry: 01:00:30

Two podcasts.

Evelyn: 01:00:31

Oh, yeah, two podcasts ago. Yeah, last non game review podcast.

Terry: 01:00:37

But it was three podcasts ago.

Evelyn: 01:00:39

Was it three?

Terry: 01:00:40

Yeah, because last week was Whose Story is It?

Evelyn: 01:00:41

Oh my gosh, everything's blurring together. But yes, I think, I think always, always, always, you know, look at yourself, reflect on the game and keep doing stuff.

Terry: 01:00:53

We've got to make sure to say everything right, because otherwise Horace will message me after he listens to it and say, you messed up there. And I'll be like, oh, you're right, we're not.

Evelyn: 01:01:03

I, I don't claim to be perfect. That's one thing that I, I let my players know up front.

Terry: 01:01:07

Well, we, we have talked actually probably longer than we have on a podcast. In a while we could probably talk twice as long. But we do are going to pull it to a close because we do try to keep hour.

Evelyn: 01:01:18

Yeah.

Terry: 01:01:18

And so, you know, as we look back, understand the things that we talked about in here, you know, understanding the role of the game master, preparing yourself for it, you know, how do you run that first game? These are things that as a game master, you've got to think about, prepare when it's your first time.

Evelyn: 01:01:37

Yeah.

Terry: 01:01:37

Don't be nervous. You know, nerves happen. Yes.

Evelyn: 01:01:42

But don't let it get the best of you.

Terry: 01:01:44

Yes, exactly.

You know, if you're thinking about jamming and you need players, send Evelyn and I a DM for a one shot or something and we'll, we'll be more than happy to play. We love playing in games and we think it's a blast. She didn't know that I was going to volunteer her.

Evelyn: 01:02:02

I mean, I'm totally willing to play in one shots. I love one shots.

Terry: 01:02:05

And we do want to hear from you.

If you have experiences as a GM that you think new GMs should hear or questions, feel free to send it to contactrollforperception.com you can also reach us on our Discord, which is Discord GG backslash rfp.

Evelyn: 01:02:24

Yep.

Terry: 01:02:25

We are always available to chat with people when we have the time, so feel free to do that. So next week's episode is going to be super exciting. We are exploring Vasin Mythic Horror and the Scandinavian North.

We're going to talk a little bit about the Lore Walker Chronicles that we did the mini campaign. And my hope is to get Eric on here to talk too. Yeah, I'm going to reach out to him and see if he can chat as well.

And so super excited having you here for next week. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. I already mentioned the website.

Evelyn: 01:03:01

Yep. And check us out on Bluesky and Facebook.

Terry: 01:03:05

TikTok, Insta.

Evelyn: 01:03:07

Instagram. Yeah. Yeah, we're all over the place. Roll for perception. That's R O L E. R O L E. Because it's a pun.

Terry: 01:03:15

Yeah. Because we're punny. Yeah. No, that's. That's a good way to end the podcast. As always, I want to thank you for joining us for this week's podcast.

We hope we inspired you to continue your TTRPG journey, however that may look.

Evelyn: 01:03:33

Make sure to stop by at www.rollforperception.com and leave a comment on our podcast page. We're always looking to answer questions and discuss new TTRPGs, so make sure to.

Terry: 01:03:44

Have your D20 ready and your goblin voice arrested as you head out into the world of TTRPGs with roll for Percept.