GMs Don't Get Enough Love

 

North Texas RPG Con is just a couple weeks away and since Erik is attending, and likes to do the video/podcast thing with Bad Mike, you might have reached your fill about the event already.

Maybe not.

Don't worry, this isn't a post so much about the convention so my 12 13 readers can read on if not interested in this convention, but I will add my 2cp and simply say that if you are in a position to attend this convention and you aren't....your loss. Small con, big guests....I bet that NTRPG is like what the first handful of GenCons were like....well as close at it could be in this day and age.

Anyway, my point that I'm laboring to get to, evidently, is that I know I'm going to a convention in a couple of weeks, as a player, and I still have a lot of prep to do. Realistically I know all I need to do is pack my tablet, computer, RPG HDD, and my dice box and I'll be good to go.....10' packing tops. Maybe toss in some game books if I'm feeling froggy........even though I have PDFs of everything I need, I keep buying or printing out rulebooks 'because evidently I prefer the physicality of them at the table. Maybe I just like having multiple books "open" and that's harder to do on a tablet?

No, my big prep for the convention is trying to figure out, and then make, some GM "Thank You" gifts. Most of my convention experience is still as a GM and tournament organizer, not as a player. I can most definitely tell you that being a GM at a convention is largely a thankless task. Sure most players will express a simple "thanks" at the table, and a couple might shake your hand.

Now, there is nothing wrong with this, BUT.....there is a lot more to GMing that simply leading a table game for three or four hours. The average GM, well the average GM that cares about having a good game, easily puts in at least three or four hours for every hour at the table, even if they are running a pre-printed adventure. Conventions and game companies are quite a bit hit or miss in showing GMs any love as well.

Yes, many conventions do give free badges to GMs, but they usually make you work for it. That $50 badge, well maybe $85 or so now (depending on the convention) usually want a good 12-16 hours of GMing to qualify. Sixteen hours of table-time for an $50 badge, or twelve hours for an $85 badge makes that work worth $3.12 to $7.08 an hour, $0.78 to $2.36 an hour if you factor in non-table time. 

78¢ and hour and a couple handshakes, sign my ass up! Seriously though it isn't about money, but really the resources of time and energy. Twelve to Sixteen hours of time at a convention is a HUGE resource suck.

Don't even get me started about volunteering at a higher level than just a table GM as that involved me paying for the privilege of working.....again not to mention the time and energy suck.

No, in my experience (and I'm not just talking about my personal experience) GMs don't get enough love period. I really doubt that anything I can post will change that, but I will add a tiny bit of self-promotion in that I did make a couple of free "Thank You" cards that are available on DriveThuRPG.

• GM Thank You Card
• DM Thank You Card

What I can do, have done (although I totally dropped the ball last year), and will do, is make some small GM thank you gifts, along with the thank you card. A couple years ago I did some small boxes (that could double as a dice tray) and some coasters.  Both were just purchased from the hobby store and tweaked. I like the idea of something small and useful.

This year I'm thinking of some handmade wooden/leather dice trays and/or die rolling tower. Now I'm not much of a wood worker, but I'm learning, so the die rolling tower will probably be a bit much for me to pull off. Actually I could easily make some dice towers, but I mean dice towers in the style I want to make them, not what I can manage.

I've got a couple of weeks to get these GM Thank You's squared away, but I'll have to get started this week for certain, unless someone here at the Tavern has a better idea....and no, drinks at/after the game don't count because I'm already down for that (I tend to bring drinks to the game already).

One Not-So-Quick Thought on Increasing the Value for a Convention-Working GM

 

I'm only a couple thousand miles away from home right now, pretty much stuck in my hotel room due to quarantine restrictions, but I did have a chance to get out and enjoy some outside time yesterday.....which I did a hard pass on. Some of that was because the high temperature was a negative something Fahrenheit, but also because if I wasn't careful I might miss out on my bi-weekly online OSR game.

Missing out on a chance to freeze my balls off to make sure I don't miss a game.....pretty much a no-brainer....but don't worry as I'll be venturing out into the cold today because I can.

I'm certain I've posted, either directly or indirectly, about how important a regular game is for me....and I bet for a lot of you too. My coworker/associate/brothers don't get the importance of the "gaming thing" initially, but when matched against hanging out drinking & playing cards on a TDY, or watching a football game together instead of by oneself.....I think they understand a bit more.

Having to explain things to my coworkers, some of whom probably think I'm just goofing off on the Xbox I definitely didn't bring with me, made me think about this whole fun vs. work dichotomy.....maybe not initially, but like everyone else my mind wanders in weird ways. I was thinking of my GM being stuck in his own version of quarantine and how his involvement in this social activity that is a Role Playing Game is by essentially having to work as the GM.

Now don't get me wrong.....being a GM is, or can be, a fun job, but in many ways it is a job....it is work. There is usually a decent amount of prep work outside of the group gaming table before/after/during gaming sessions. Trying to make the game interesting and an appropriate challenge can be taxing......and that's something a GM is probably doing for/with friends.

The hapless GM working at a Game Convention? That can really crank up the "work" factor and has the potential to exponentially increase the "suck" factor. Now odds are, any given game session will go well and everybody will have fun, but there is still the wild card factor....and I've been to a LOT of game conventions and have had more than my fair share of wild cards.....but those are a story for another day and not something on my current train of thought.

No, what I'm thinking about, and hoping to plant the seed for, is an idea to make make the "work" for a convention GM a little more worthwhile, but let me bury the lead a bit further. Right now I'd say the average GM pays to attend a gaming convention and runs a session or three because they want to. Some conventions, especially the larger ones like Origins or GenCon, have the resources to "pay" GMs to run games, usually through a free badge or maybe part of a hotel room. As the organized play manager for a game company I've seen these "benefit packages" and while not insignificant, a GM usually has to run at least a game session (four hours) a day to get part of a room. Part of a room and a free badge, you're probably the con's bitch. If you don't have players show up to one of your games you could be screwed. Some GMs might be sponsored by a game company. For a few years I got a free badge from Kenzer & Company. At least once I was listed as one of the D-Team's kids, but whatever. At the end of the day, pretty much no matter how you figure it out, it ends up the GM is working/paying to attend the game convention and getting to play is difficult.

The idea I have here is far from an original one.....thanks to Kenzer & Company for the exposure: game companies, in conjunction with the game convention should organize a GM only game at the convention. I'll go so far as to filter the original idea a bit more and say that the GM has to be running at least a game session (maybe more) at the convention to qualify. Give a bit of fun reward to the GMs for paying to go work for part of a convention. Now I'd suggest that the game companies provide material support and maybe even the GMs, but also go ahead and let some of these gaming guys sit in and play as well. I will say that as a GM getting to run for, play under, or sit beside some of these game designers.....really just names on gaming products before, quickly became a highlight of the convention for me. 

My experience doing this with KenzerCo at Origins was a bit broader in that you pretty much just had to have GM credentials to qualify and it was just for the HackMaster GMs, but it got big enough I think we had six or seven tables easy at the one GM Game I wrote for. Yep, that was another year of writing, running at a con that cost me a couple grand....literally paying to work at a convention FT, but even then....that GM game was a ton of fun for me and made that con a much more positive experience, probably more so than any other thing. I didn't realize I had written in a joking insult to the all the assembled GMs that got huge laughs.......the on-going theme of this annual GM game was that it had to be a joke/parody/non-serious session....my game had a Saturday Morning Cartoon theme.

Anyway.....that was fun and I think all the GMs enjoyed it, but that is more an aside and just anecdotal to what I think could be a good addition to any gaming convention. There....I consider the bug in our collective ear planted. If you happen to be connected to a game convention (Bad Mike.....) or know of anyone who is (Erik.....) please mention this. Anything we do to make it a better value proposition for the average convention GM should, theoretically, "raise the tide" for all boats (players).  

Using my Soapbox to "Discourage" a Problem at Some Tables...

So I'm not 100% when this post will be, well posted, but I'm running with the assumption that this will be my 1st weekly entry here at the Tavern.

There's so many things I could write about, but one thing popped into my head, something I feel strongly about and something that has a back story. There are probably three things I'm passionate about, well maybe five things, or 50........I really don't keep track, but clearly I'm a passionate, passionate man.....

So here I am with an audience....not entirely mine, but hey....I really ought to use this pulpit to educate and eradicate this one particular bane of RPGs. Seriously, there is no worse scourge than the abomination that is the.....wait for it....

The GMPC.

Not the GameMaster working some temporary Non-Player Characters, but a full-on Player Character being run in the game side-by-side with the rest of the players. What's the harm in this, you might ask? Well 1st off, the GM should be impartial when running a game. I know some systems have the GM working in more of an adversarial role, but even if it was a cooperative game system, letting the GM run a PC is just.....it's just wrong. They should not be benefiting from the rulings they make at the table. If the GM wants to actually play on the other side of the table, then by all means....sit down as a player....with someone else serving as the GM. Switch off the duties and spread that work load around.

I was asked to join a gaming group once and eventually the GM left and another player stepped up to GM....but we had to let him run his PC with the others. Best damned thief you ever saw.....never missed a trap, always managed to land a backstab when the party needed it, etc. It was a little childish, but hey...it was a game....until it became too much. Because not everyone could game every week we had two different campaigns: one large group and one smaller group.

The larger group was running the Temple of Elemental Evil and I was playing a Pacifist Monk. It was a very specific build.......and wouldn't you know it, the GM had himself a PC with the same build! Thanks for letting me have something unique! The GMPC Monk was actually one of two GMPCs he had in this campaign. As we were going through the adventure there was one big battle where we were clearly heading for a Total Party Kill (TPK). More than half of the party was already dead, and most everyone else was sucking on fumes with single-digit HP left. My PC was in a position to make a break for it and flee the battle, which only made sense because the authorities needed to know what was going on and TPK would prevent that. Of course once my PC bolts the one GMPC, the other Pacifist Monk, miraculously manages to disengage as well. The next week's game we meet and somehow the GM justifies bringing all the dead PCs back to life, save one. His dead PC.....somehow managed to come back actually stronger than he was before he died....seriously, WTF?

We had his awesome Thief in the smaller group and nothing ever touched this PC, which was normal. Nothing new here, but without the other/older GM playing the level of control this PC had over our game was a bit much. Of course he always got the best magic items. I'd try to get the group to agree to some other method for the division of treasure. Didn't really matter, the GMPC got first pick again. This time though, we had one extra magic item, a cursed item at that. The PC who ended up with the last pick got the extra item.....which was my guy. The GM allowed us to sell whatever we didn't want based on some formula in the book, whatever. I had already sold the "extra".....come on it was cursed...item and was divvying that coin out to the other PCs when the GM pipes up, basically telling me to STFU because this time...this time my guy got two magic items when everybody else only got one.

That was the straw that broke the camel's back with me. I told him I'm out and he could go play with himself all he wanted.

The fun part was that on the next business day the GM stopped by my place of work to tell me that he talked with the group and he was "uncomfortable" GMing with me at the table.....wow...what part of "I quit" didn't he get.

Yeah, no more GMPCs at any table I'm playing at....never again. Sure you could write off that this GM was just an asshat or something else, but outside of the GMPC BS he ran a decent enough game. Clearly the temptation to...well I'll just say it....cheat, was too much. A GM cheating is a post in and of itself, but for the purposes of this post, a GM should not be in position where cheating gives a tangible benefit.