What is Holding You Back from Being a Game Master on Myth-Weavers?

[RedRajah]

Dealing with the brainworms that make up my depression right now. That and the facts that my mapmaking skills are non-existent and the only game I really feel comfortable running is 1st ed 7th Sea.

[burninforyou]

I just suck at running any games past 2 or 3 sessions. Good with oneshots, but I crave longer term stuff

[Yamazaki]

For me, it's 90% time and energy. I got two young kids, after all, and they suck up a lot of my energy and free time. Also a small dash of depression sucking some of the excess gumption to GM, but I'm mustering some of that back to run for my live group at least.

 

10 hours ago, Kuri_kun said:

That said I think much of the reason why people dont run games is GMing is hard.

I kinda disagree on this. Is it easy? No. Is it hard? Only if you let it. It doesn't have to be as difficult or challenging or thankless as it can be, but it certainly can get that way if you allow things to.

Now, does GMing look difficult?  Oh gods, yes, it looks like this daunting task that only the most creative, insane, and masochistic of folks would be willing to do. But if you take the time to learn how to prep effectively and efficiently, it gets easier. And with more experience, GMing gets easier. Also helps to run systems that suit your GMing style.

 

15 hours ago, Vedast said:

Technology. I wouldn't be confident with creating and importing maps; images and so forth. Same thing for not trying ... umm ... virtual table tops?

Gonna share a few hot tips with you: you do not need to make maps, let alone pretty maps. When I actually bother with maps of any kind, I make most of mine in MS Paint - they are ugly and simple, but get the job done. And that assumes the game I'm running requires maps. Plus, a lot of tech based stuff is just playing around to find out. Don't let it intimidate you: you are the boss, not it.

Side note: we do have a guide for how to upload images to MW. It's mostly a drag-n-drop business, but there's some range to fiddle around as need be.

[Papa Bear]

11 hours ago, Yamazaki said:

That said I think much of the reason why people dont run games is GMing is hard.

 

11 hours ago, Yamazaki said:

I kinda disagree on this. Is it easy? No. Is it hard? Only if you let it.

GMing is harder (for me) than playing. Its hard to keep track of everything that happened already and keep things moving properly toward what I have planned, which I often forget details and clue and have to scramble to get them back in. Sometimes (like my games I'm GMing here), some of my players are just flat out smarter than I am. Thankfully they generally know they are smarter than me and are forgiving and gently point out things for me :)

But without having anything to do with me (as the GM), GMing becomes horribly difficult when your players are bickering and you have to spend more time putting out fires than GMing the game. It happened to me in a Song of Ice and Fire game I was running. I loved running that game, but some players just didn't like each other and it caused problems well beyond just those players (I didn't love running that part). Any game I do now has a sections in the app to be done in private asking about the applicant's opinions of the other applicants so I can hopefully avoid that mess again (though, not everyone has gamed with each other so its hardly fool proof). It has helped me choose one player over another when I knew that someone I decided on liked one of the other applicants.

[leons1701]

On 1/11/2024 at 1:02 AM, cailano said:

It can be challenging, but I don't find it thankless. It's obvious when players are enjoying a game (a lot of times, they tell you so), and knowing that you're helping to tell a story that people are enjoying can be rewarding.

It is however a bit disheartening when the only game your players really seemed to enjoy was the one where they turned a supposedly serious four color supers game into an unfunny version of Mystery Men meets The Boys. Every once in a while I'd get asked if I was going to run more adventures in that world and my internal response was pretty much "Oh God, I am not dealing with those shenanigans again."

[OzzyKP]

I GMed two games here on the Weave. Both Pathfinder 1e. My first, an arena combat game I was pretty into, lasted 4.5 years. My second, Reign of Winter (which I wasn't really into), lasted 3.5 years. For both I just ran out of momentum and couldn't keep up the pace which made things bog down terribly until it just was no longer tenable.

I want to GM again and I have a great idea I've been prepping for... a couple years now. Maybe I'll finish one day and actually run it, but we'll see. My ambition for it might be a bit too grand. Of course I'm worried that I'll spend all this time preparing for the game and then once I actually start it I'll be so slow or just bad at crafting a compelling story that the players won't get into it. I'm not a great writer and, as a player, I hate games where GMs provide terse or non-descriptive posts. I worry I'd do the same (or simply not be up to my own perfectionist standards).

My overall problem is a lack of time & energy, but also ADHD so most days I just can't bring myself to do anything with the game, other times I'm obsessively focused on it. Even as a player I'm very, very slow because of those factors. I'm also a bit of a perfectionist with my posts (not to say that they are ever perfect!), so even when I am able to even attempt a post and I have enough room in my schedule to post, the actual writing/researching the post takes way longer than it should. Towards the end, my arena game would take a couple hours per post. Since it is rare that I'd have that much time to fully focus on getting a post up, the time between posts stretched further and further apart.

Edited January 12 by OzzyKP (see edit history)

[OzzyKP]

It is quite interesting hearing everyone's thoughts and challenges. For my part, I'm rather technically proficient. I love making maps, policing the mechanics, formatting posts, finding/making images to go with posts, etc. I'm also good at crafting the big picture of the story and making all the pieces fit together. It is just the day to day moving the action forward, setting a scene stuff I struggle with.

Does anyone have any experience with a co-GM? Someone with strengths and weaknesses that compliment your own? Like I could keep track of all the details for Papa Bear or do the technical stuff for Vedast and we'd be better as a team. I'd love to find a co-GM to help run the game I've been prepping whenever I'm ready.

Edited January 12 by OzzyKP (see edit history)

[OzzyKP]

I wonder also if there'd be interest in/space for a "GM as mercenary" or gig-worker model? Like "crap, there are 40 applications for my game, how am I going to review them all and pick players?" Maybe bring in another GM just to help you make the selection. Or "nuts, I painted myself into a corner with this plot, how do I move forward" bring in another GM as an advisor just to get you past that spot and back on track. Or hell, even "my anxiety and depression is going nuts right now, I could use a break for a month" and call in a sub.

The typical live model it is you and 4 friends and you're in a room together. Everything falls onto a single GM. But we're online, it doesn't have to be that way. In many ways we're attempting to replicate an in-person model of TTRPGs onto a web forum instead of getting creative with the possibilities a web forum offers us. You can't call up someone to come to your house in the middle of a 5 hour session to help with one thing for 20 minutes, but we can absolutely do that here. We've got dozens (hundreds?) of people available to us and the opportunity cost for small contributions is much lower.

 

[hakootoko]

I think it's an excellent idea, OzzyKP. Perhaps start a new thread where 'assistant GMs' can offer help and list their skill sets?

[RedMax]

1 hour ago, OzzyKP said:

I wonder also if there'd be interest in/space for a "GM as mercenary" or gig-worker model? Like "crap, there are 40 applications for my game, how am I going to review them all and pick players?" Maybe bring in another GM just to help you make the selection. Or "nuts, I painted myself into a corner with this plot, how do I move forward" bring in another GM as an advisor just to get you past that spot and back on track. Or hell, even "my anxiety and depression is going nuts right now, I could use a break for a month" and call in a sub.

The typical live model it is you and 4 friends and you're in a room together. Everything falls onto a single GM. But we're online, it doesn't have to be that way. In many ways we're attempting to replicate an in-person model of TTRPGs onto a web forum instead of getting creative with the possibilities a web forum offers us. You can't call up someone to come to your house in the middle of a 5 hour session to help with one thing for 20 minutes, but we can absolutely do that here. We've got dozens (hundreds?) of people available to us and the opportunity cost for small contributions is much lower.

 

Smart!

[OzzyKP]

Cool, I'm glad to see there is some interest. I posted a thread here:

https://www.myth-weavers.com/index.php?/topic/15236-the-myth-weavers-gm-talent-pool/

Let me know if there is anything I'm missing, and by all means add your information to the list!

[Vladim]

3 hours ago, OzzyKP said:

Does anyone have any experience with a co-GM? Someone with strengths and weaknesses that compliment your own? Like I could keep track of all the details for Papa Bear or do the technical stuff for Vedast and we'd be better as a team. I'd love to find a co-GM to help run the game I've been prepping whenever I'm ready.

Not a co-GM precisely, but I was part of a game where I rotated the GM position with another player, and we took turns running adventures (and there were other players too that didn't GM). It works well if the GMs have compatible playstyles.

I've also been experimenting with GM-less games, which is another way of dealing with GM-related issues. I like the possibility of having every participant be equal and share authority.

[cailano]

On 1/11/2024 at 8:37 AM, hakootoko said:

I prefer to run games for friends (including online friends in, say, discord groups) because I find them more reliable and unlikely to ghost. Pitches I've made to discord friends who are on MW have consistently not gotten interest, so I have yet to run anything here.

Is ghosting really a big problem on the Weave? I've had it happen (we all have, I'm sure) but I just over-recruit by a couple of players and usually end up with a solid group after a month or two.

[Papa Bear]

54 minutes ago, cailano said:

Is ghosting really a big problem on the Weave? I've had it happen (we all have, I'm sure) but I just over-recruit by a couple of players and usually end up with a solid group after a month or two.

Heh, I agree. I usually 'draft' a player or two more than I plan to run the game... say I advertise 3 to 5, I'll probably take 5 or 6 knowing one or two will most definitely drop because that's just how it is in PBP.

Also, had an 'assistant GM' in one game which was fun as he ran some of the important NPCs as if they were his characters with foreknowledge of what the NPC's role was in the adventure.

[RocknRollFTW]

What's holding me back is my terrible procrastination habits and lack of confidence because of my terrible procrastination habits. I tried to run a game on the older MW site awhile back, but I ended up ghosting my players, something I still feel a little bad about. I don't want a repeat of that.