In my last post, I talked about how momentum was key to getting a regular game night going, especially something like a long-term TTRPG campaign.
I really do think momentum is the secret sauce. I’ve seen two regular game nights that I was certain were bound for collapse at first firm up simply because we kept at it (admittedly: I am a pessimist when it comes to these things).
But momentum isn’t a panacea, and sometimes you get bogged down when life happens. If you want to keep a game night going, you need to be proactive about switching course in those moments (if at all possible).
Keep it simple
It’s easy to over-complicate GMing, especially if you’re new or haven’t GMed in a while.
Everyone has the platonic ideal of the game they want to run, which isn’t always sustainable over a longer campaign. Or maybe they feel like over-preparing is the only way to provide an enjoyable experience to the players.
In most cases, you can only get so much out of GM prep. Past that point, it’s really not effective and in fact can derail an ongoing game over time.
Remember, just showing up and running a game is a lot of effort on its own, and most people will be appreciative of it.
You can find a vast amount of advice online on how to streamline gamemastering, such as:
- Design and writing techniques like spiral campaign design, which help keep you focused on what you need at the table. Avoiding busywork that seems necessary but doesn’t add much when you’re actually GMing takes some of the load off.
- GM prep techniques like those outlined in the D&D 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide or Sly Flourish’s Eight Steps, which help keep you focused on just the steps you need to take for the next session. (Whether you treat them as guidelines or a strict checklist depends on what you find most useful.)
- Tools to help mitigate writer’s block, letting you focus on the most important parts of your story. Tools that bring the rest of the players into planning–such as Ryuutama‘s World and Town Creation worksheets–can spread the work around while giving players input over what they want to see. Pre-drawn maps allow you to fill in locations as you create them, rather than trying to design a world from scratch.
- Streamline your tools. Only use what you need, and only bring what you’ll use. One of my favorite GMing changes from the past few years is using meeples in place of miniatures, or sticking to generic VTT tokens whenever possible. That way, I can write my adventures to be flexible–and their success doesn’t hinge on whether I have the right miniature for a potential encounter. The time I would spend curating that collection can be put towards planning.
Of course, you don’t have to use the tools I’ve suggested here. Just pay attention to what you use (and what you don’t) when you’re at the table. Know what you feel comfortable improv’ing in the moment–and be honest about what you don’t. Focus on the things you’re most likely to need.
Knowing your own habits and needs is the first step to simplifying your GM prep.
Support the GM
GMs carry a lot of responsibility, and I’ve talked before about how this can slip into a parent/child sort of relationship if you’re not careful (where the player just shows up and everything else falls to the GM).
If you’re not one of the GMs:
- Be encouraging. It’s such a small thing, but if you enjoy something that the GM did (especially if it was off-the-cuff, or they aren’t sure about how it went), be sure to tell them. Some of us worry we aren’t doing enough even when everyone’s enjoying the game. Reassurance tells us we don’t have to push ourselves so hard. (I’m bad at this, I’ll admit.)
- Watch for struggles with prep or writer’s block. You can always share some of the tools and techniques that have helped you. But avoid being overbearing–trying out a new technique might feel like one more responsibility they have to pick up.
- Jump in when they have to skip a session. If you can run a one-shot or bring a board game, especially on short notice, that will help keep the momentum going.
In a future post, I’ll talk about other ways you can do this for GMs who are new, returning to the GM’s seat after a long absence, or trying out a new game.
Alternate GMs between weeks
My friends and I started a weekly in-person game night at a centrally-located game store this year. One of the best decisions we made was to alternate GMs week-to-week.
When we were doing one-shots and board games, that could be anybody. Now we’ve got two GMs alternating between ongoing Land of Eem and Orbital Blues games.
The weekly schedule (and the momentum we’ve built over 8-9 months) isn’t resting on one person’s shoulders. If a GM has to skip a week or isn’t prepared to run, there’s someone else stepping in next week anyway. That mitigates so much risk of the game night bogging down after a few sessions slip.
If someone wants to give GMing a go, it’s also much easier to fit them in for a one-shot when you’re already varying the schedule. And–as I’ll discuss in a future post–I think having lots of potential GMs has a lot of good side-effects.
Other people aren’t your responsibility
Trying to organize and schedule games (and other plans) has been a real struggle for me over the years. I keep having the experience where everyone says they really want to do something, but trying to get anyone to commit to it is like pulling teeth.
I’m coming to grips with the fact my default response to this pattern is to be harder on myself.
I take things at face-value, and so I want to make people’s words match their actions. And I tend to put that responsibility on myself when it fails. I think that if I can just put more effort into being flexible, accessible, conscientious of people’s conflicts, etc. that I can “fix” it.
Don’t hurt yourself over other people being non-responsive. Start your game night with whoever shows up. Try to avoid fixating on who isn’t showing up (or isn’t even responding), and instead pay attention to who is. (That sounds obvious, but it’s really tough for some of us!)
Ask people what they want and need. Be responsive to people’s concerns and conflicts when they express them. But it’s not your responsibility to mind-read reasons into people’s non-responses.
Do what works for most people. Try to be as flexible and understanding as possible. But keep showing up if at all possible, because that’s the only way you build momentum.