As the year comes to a close, I took some time to reflect on some of the lessons I learned during the year. This year I was lucky enough to run four separate campaigns, two of which were completed in the second half of the year and two that will continue into next year. I also had the opportunity to compete in competitions that lasted most of the year. Finally, sprinkle in a few one-shot balls, some running and some hitting. It’s been a good year for gaming.
On average, I play 2-3 games a week. I spend some time each week preparing for one or more games. All the time, playing and preparing, gave me a lot to reflect on. Some of these experiences are new and some I’m relearning.
I want to share five of the most important…
Preparation can only help you so much
I’m sometimes called the “prep guy” and I’ve done a lot of prep this year so I feel like I can keep that nickname. But the best moments in games I’ve managed aren’t just because of my preparation, they’re because the players took what I presented and added it to the game.
Many of the best moments have been a mixture of things I prepared, some of which happened spontaneously at the dinner table. The constant between them is our team (GM and players). The best parts of the game come to the table when the GM and players interact.
What I’ve learned is that my best preparation, which I guarantee you is very good preparation, will only produce a “good” session at best if the players are dead fish. The only way to go from good to great is to play at the poker table.
When the campaign comes to a close, don’t procrastinate
There was a moment in the two campaigns I ended this year where I thought I could extend this ending into more stories. It’s not that I want to extend the game’s turn count, but I see the possibility of ending the campaign in multiple stories.
When I talked to the players, I understood that they were ready to finish the game. Their characters have crossed the power curve, they’ve done great things, and their stories are coming to an end. So rather than dragging out more turns, I found ways to simplify the plot to a satisfying outcome for both games.
I learned that you don’t need to pace the end of an event at the same pace as the rest of the event. In fact, the appropriate rhythm should be like this:
Start (fast) – middle (slow) – end (fast)
This structure gets the event started quickly, lets you build tension and develop characters in the middle, and then ends in an orderly fashion. I’ll be thinking more about this next year.
APs are both fun and tiring
This year I am the General Manager of Children of the Shroud AP on the Misdirected Mark network. This is my first time managing AP. While I’ve managed many games for many people, managing AP is different. This is more of a show than a convention game for strangers. GM needs to handle many activities while running the game, while AP requires you to add another task.
Performing requires several things. It’s about speaking clearly, sometimes more than a few words, because you’re rambling when you’re synthesizing an idea. It tells the audience what’s on the table, how you set up the dice pool, etc.
For me, performing is exhausting, but hosting Children of the Shroud is also energizing, in a way that they almost cancel each other out. I may do another AP in the future, but that’s not my calling.
Long-form games are satisfying
Before Covid, I was more of a short-term event GM. If a campaign lasts six months, it is considered a success. But recently, my campaigns have become longer, and as a result, I’m learning more about long-form games.
What I learned is that you have more room to build a complex arc of activity, an arc of activity made up of smaller arcs. Each small arc leads to a larger discovery or goal. Additionally, in longer games, your ability to call back previous materials is much greater, as are the opportunities you have to call back and the amount of materials you can draw upon.
So you need to do more campaign management to build these smaller arcs and integrate them into the larger plot. You also have to have a good way of managing all your information so you can utilize it during preparation and competition.
All systems have gaps and you need to fill them
I learned this lesson twice this year. The first time was with Cortactin. All three of my campaigns this year are running on the Cortex, and each campaign is different, based on the Prime set and Mods chosen. Some days there are no rules for what I am preparing or what appears on the table. In these cases, I either prepare something for my preparation or figure out the problem we want to solve in the game.
At the end of the year I started the Cyberpunk: Red campaign, and while I thought the CPR rules were an update to the Cyberpunk 2020 rules, there was something missing from the rules that I wanted and I planned to roll out some internals for the game Rules, just to fill in some mechanics that I like to have in all games.
It doesn’t matter. Everyone can become a game designer and you are free to make your own game rules. As long as the team agrees to the rules, then you’re playing “right-good-fun.”
Meanwhile, the 2023 season is coming to an end
2023 is going to be an amazing year for me and I suspect when I look back on this year it will be one of the best years I have ever experienced. For sure, this year was one of my top 5 most successful campaigns ever. That was my first time working on an AP campaign, and the first time I worked on multiple campaigns at the same time in more than a year.
What about you? How are you doing in the gaming world? What have you learned this year?
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