#nerdy9th

Originally shared by Curt Thompson

#nerdy9th

One of things I want to talk about today is GMing. If you aren’t a tabletop RPG nerd, what I’m talking about is being the person in charge of ‘running’ a tabletop game. There are various titles for that depending on the game, from Dungeon Master to Game Master to Narrator to (my favorite) Hollyhock God. What all those titles have in common is that they describe the person who describes and sometimes even creates the world in which the player’s characters reside and act.

And it is a skill that is actually a portfolio of diverse skills. Depending on the game you’re playing, you’re probably going to have to get comfortable with math (and sometimes higher math), narrative structure and plot, characterisation, worldbuilding, politics and organization.You have to learn to herd cats, to get your players at the table. You have to learn to act a little. And cultivate a good poker face. You have to learn your players’ personalities, likes and dislikes to give them the best gaming experience. And having learned all these things, you have to learn to throw everything out the window and improvise your ass off when (and it’s always when, not if) your players throw you a curve.

For me, there is an almost spiritual feeling about sitting down to the gaming table. I’ve been doing it for 30 years and there is a ritual and weight to it. There is a wonderful moment, right before things get started, where I look around the table and try to read my player’s moods. Who has had a bad week? Who’s in a good mood? Is there anticipation to get started right away, or do I need to ease them into the game? Should we start with an action scene, or something light and work our way into the conflict? Making those choices, I take a sip of my drink, glance down at my notes, take my dice in hand (even if I don’t need them right that second) and the game is on. 

It is a singular and unique pleasure to be able to take people out of their lives for a few hours at a time. To become lost, together, in a fantastic world of magic or warp drives or superheroes. To see the unguarded emotions on people’s faces as they confront the challenges of the game and do their level best to save the day. Or at least keep their heads above water. Making sure each player gets time to shine and their character gets the spotlight for a while. Being able to evoke emotional responses and to have my players surprise me with not just their character’s actions, but how well they live those characters sometimes. 

Those are the moments when I lose myself. Or perhaps find myself. And there is no other kind of entertainment that comes close to roleplaying when it comes to letting you get to those heights of shared imagination.

We don’t talk about it much, as gamers, largely because self-examination in a group can be obnoxious and because our modern society has a problem with admitting that any any kind of love exists, outside eros and storge, which is to say romantic love and familial. But GMing is, in some ways, an expression of agape and philia. The love of one’s fellows and a kind of spiritual love, for your shared experience and one another. 

The fact that the experience isn’t real isn’t all that important. Most of the ‘best’ memories you have with friends and family are already mythologized and embroidered until what everybody remembers has little to do with the truth. Gaming memories are just that taken a little further, into the worlds that were never really there.

What matters is that there is a kind of service to others in GMing. My pleasure in running a game is almost entirely reflected. Am I making my players happy? That makes me happy. Are they experiencing a second of awe and wonder at something? I feel it with them, along with the pride of having helped get them there. Do they hate my villains and love my supporting NPCs? There is no higher praise than that. GMing is the illusion of control over an illusionary universe, freeing your players and yourself to step outside themselves and live, just for a few hours, in worlds where anything is possible and everybody gets to be the protagonist.

That is a powerful, wonderful shared experience and one of my favorite things in life.