[Riff]: Getting ‘The Itch’ Back.
Writer: Dean Underhill
Originally posted by Reddit user /u/ zny700, via /r/DndMemes.
Game Mastering (GM’ing) is an interesting beast. A delicate balance. There is always at least a subtle amount of pressure. How is this manifest? Initially, in the preparation of an adventure or campaign. The preparation for a day's session. Or, maintaining players' interest and engagement during a session. For those that have never run a game and enjoyed the minimal responsibilities of turning up to play their beloved character, this may seem foreign or intriguing. For GM’s, this pressure is all too familiar. And if it’s not, it bloody well should be!
Regardless of what the hobby, vocation or pursuit is, consistency of form, progress in ability and satisfaction in the eventual outcomes, is imperative to its longevity. Musicians, athletes and CEOs all know this, and you do too. As a GM, how do you maintain the spark? The enthusiasm for the shared narrative? The eagerness for the next session?
If you’re only running adventures in isolation, this is probably not a concern. However, you as a GM need to engineer even those short adventures so the players are invested and it’s not just a scheduled social opportunity.
via Unsplash (click image for link).
For long-term campaigns, players are ideally more likely to be emotionally invested in their characters’ long term journey, but the GM needs to ensure that the campaign remains relative and engaging for each player. The campaign also needs to be dynamic, unpredictable and rewarding. It’s a challenge akin to balancing a Tarrasque on a tight rope.
There is no magic formula to maintain an effective and inspiring campaign. Despite the bulk of responsibility that falls on the GM’s shoulders, there is also a shared responsibility from the players to ‘work themselves’ into the campaign. To keep the campaign compelling and memorable can be an exhausting process for the GM. How this exhaustion manifests itself and transpires depends entirely on the GM’s personal circumstance.
If you’re single and married to the game, perhaps a holiday is a simple fix. For myself, I’ve been running a D&D campaign for seven years, and I concede this would have been impossible without the great group of players that have been with me from the outset. Our group meets every fortnight for a marathon session which averages six to seven hours. I’m full-time employed (and this is a demanding job) and a family head… What’s my secret?
Being able to step away.
I’m now on my second hiatus. I’m blessed to have players in my group that are supportive and understanding of my limitations. I’m also blessed to have players who are capable of GM’ing either D&D or other systems. There are many benefits to passing over the reins. Primarily you get a chance to catch your breath, stop thinking about your campaign and be open to other inspiration and stimulus.
For your players, one may have the opportunity of experiencing the dedication and preparation that you apply each session, which in turn cultivates appreciation. As a group, you can also diverge to playing another system entirely, in an alternative setting. This is an enjoyable distraction which results in everyone being in anticipation and eager for the campaign when it comes around again.
[Editor’s Note: Godawful meme credit = me. Brady]
As the GM, you can now experience what it's like to be a player again. You gain a fresh perspective. You start thinking about the game from the point of view of a player. You immerse yourself in that experience and are reminded of what ignites players and gives them the impetus to keep questing and progressing in the milieu that you have created. Now if GM’ing is in your blood, you start cultivating ‘the itch’.
This singular mindset is something that can only be experienced by GM’s. Not to claim that we are elite to TTRPG’s. Good players are the substance of memorable campaigns, and are complementary for the wellbeing and longevity of the playing experience. It is however, an indescribable feeling to preside as a god, over a world of your making, and conduct your players on a fantastical, momentous journey against all odds. The players, to potentially experience the elation of rising from obscurity to prominence as heroes (possibly anti-heroes) and ultimately demi-gods.
GM’ing is a manifestation of the unique human condition of dreaming, envisioning and creating for what appears to be superfluous to our existence as a species but is inherently necessary to our experience. To design, to manufacture, to experiment, to share and manifest a production that is enjoyed and aesthetically pleasing to like minded individuals, friends. Not only partaken of, but embraced and collaboratively enhanced by the collective mindset of your players. This shared endeavour is what excites GM’s from the outset of an idea, through the design process, manifesting your ideas through gameplay and then the shared satisfaction of the playing group’s creation of an epic story.
Running a prolonged campaign can and should be a taxing experience. After all, you are producing masterful, memorable entertainment for your players. Stories that are intended to be captivating, engrossing and inspiring. Tales that can be remembered and recounted in years to come. If that is not your intention as a GM, then I think you have chosen the wrong hobby. In light of such a pre-occupation, exhaustion will (and does) occur. When it does, how do you or your GM respond to what could potentially derail or destroy a long immersive campaign?
As a GM, you may feel overtly protective of your campaign setting. It is your baby, and you are probably very focused and specific in the particular flavour and atmosphere that you have established for your playing group. This makes the proposition of walking away for some self-restorative, recuperative time as anxious a proposition as Aragorn supplicating the Army of The Dead for assistance.
Will your group still have the level of enthusiasm for your campaign when they return? Stepping back and eliciting a craving works in tandem with our human nature. As a GM you already know that one of your greatest tools is exploiting anticipation. Giving yourself and your players a hiatus from your campaign establishes the longing for all the memorable experiences that have made your campaign so desirable in the first place. Most importantly it gives you, the GM the possibility to reflect on the things which worked well and give you the space to create unique scenarios once more.
A strategy that has worked particularly well for myself is to engineer the campaign to a position where it is possible to have a fellow group member step into the reigns to GM, for either a specified or non-specified period. I must admit this was not purely of my own devising but something concocted in consultation with a member of my phenomenal group (Mark). In our D&D campaign, on the heels of delivering a powerful lost artefact to a ruling Dao emperor, Mark suggested that the party be sold into slavery to these oppressive masters. This inevitably resulted in the party being confined to the elemental plane of earth for a period of time. This occurred to me as the perfect ‘sandbox within a sandbox’ for me to entrust Mark with GM’ing the campaign for a considerable amount of time to guarantee myself the opportunity to rejuvenate ‘the itch’.
What has been manifest to myself and the rest of the group is that (naturally) Mark’s GM’ing style and vision is considerably different to mine and results in a parallel gaming experience. The story arc is still moving forward with intention, but the experience is of a different nuance. My influences, (Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, David Eddings, Ursula Le Guin etc.) lead me to present a world of high fantasy, dependable, solid and serious at its core. Mark on the other hand presides over more fluid and comical storytelling, which reminds me somewhat of authors in the vein of Terry Pratchett. Having read his works, I appreciate Mark’s presentation and diversion of theme as I’m sure the rest of the group are enjoying the change of pace.
I am now playing a former NPC and an emerging critical member of the party. Through this I have the opportunity not only to step back and revel in playing and developing a character in my own campaign, I can also subtly influence direction if I see the requirement. In this role I also have space to observe and reflect on how other members of the group contribute, what absorbs and elicits their engagement and appreciate how I can diversify my own approach in the future to keep the experience fresh and compelling for all.
Now you must excuse me, ‘The Itch’ calls and I am excited to plan the next chapter…
afterword: Some Words From the editor (& player in dean’s campaign):
(((but first, another awful meme from me - this one’s for you, DnD group))):
(Okay. Now on to serious-business):
Great map of the city of Calimport, as posted by Reddit user /u/JManofDOOM to the /r/DungeonsandDragons subreddit.
[As a player in this campaign since late 2018/early 2019, I’d also like to double-up on Dean’s sentiments about how rich and immersive our Mark-led sojourn into the Elemental Plane of Earth has been. Especially considering source/reference material is relatively sparse compared to say, The Sword Coast et al.
Heck, I’m going to admit that I don’t even like 5e that much (like, at all) - however, I’ve rocked up to most fortnightly games for our group for seven (?! that long, Dean and Co?!) years. As much as I’m a stickler for finding a ruleset and mechanics that I vibe with, this campaign has been massively influential for me as a budding GM re: the power of shared narrative, collaboration and the like for elevating pretty much any one-shot/campaign.
Dean’s done a fantastic job of not only immersive and comprehensive storytelling/worldbuilding, but fostering a social environment/contract that allows folks like Mark, Stephen and myself to thrive running our ‘palate-cleansers’ where the DM is taking a much-needed long rest. We as a group are all busy adults and, each of us having experience in 5e/other systems, it’s advantageous to pass the GM-baton on once in a while.
TL:DR - both Mark and Dean are kick-ass GMs, and I’m grateful for our group. Absolute fire campaign/s, and a massive influence on me as a comparatively newer gamemaster. And yes, it was also influential in my decision to bring Dean on as a contributor here, too. Turns out a good GM is a very safe bet for a blog. Thanks for being an inspirational group - see you Sunday! - Brady]
Bonus: My arsehole of a Texan-coded slave-boat operator, Zogdush, ate the dust by Leeroy Jenkins-ing himself into a magical mirror filled with demonic promises (Rest in Piss - honestly, I’m not even sure I liked the guy).
Here’s a rough approximation of my current character, Khalil Hass-dan I, an older ex-bodyguard for the mercantile trade routes for a now-fallen Pashur in Calimshan (where the party were prior to being yeeted inter-dimensionally). Obvious creative licence is taken to transfer the below from a semi-futurist setting to a fantasy one, but the vibe is absolutely on-point for the aesthetic of a Samurai Fighter (finally, a Xanathar’s character!).
Check out the original post here, which contains the full image.
Credit: Reddit user /u/LongWang, via the /r/Kenshi subreddit.
Having put nearly two thousand hours into the apocalyptic swordpunk/dungeonpunk RPG/RTS/cRPG/Every-Genre-Ever masterpiece that is Kenshi (review of that incoming, some day), Dean placing us in the Arabian-flavoured sands of Calimshan aligned perfectly with this games’ aesthetic. I was stoked to have some input with the background history of this new city in a way that felt meaningful, tangible and rational given the characters’ age, backstory, etc.
Finally, I’ll leave you with an absolutely fantastic lore primer on the region of Calimshan by Lorebrary.
I mentioned some minor gripes about Fifth Edition DnD before, and they’re admittedly just that. Lore-wise, though, what helped me immerse myself in that environment (as well as get way more hyperfixated on DnD/Forgotten Realms lore than expected!) was this guys’s superb channel:
Didn’t think I’d enjoy DnD; with a good group, I do.
Didn’t think I’d enjoy the Fighter class, either - turns out it’s a goddamn blast, and way less headachey than cleric spell-list prepping.
Just some of many reasons why new hobbies, titles and indeed life itself should be approached with curiosity, openness and flexibility. You too could find yourself almost a decade into a campaign so interesting, you’ll never want it to conclude!]
Peace, Love and Prayers for Natural 20 - Brady.
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