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From: https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/1q9x6gn/trying_to_get_in_the_head_of_a_gm_who_keeps/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I thought I would update what happened with the "GM" I described over here since it did get a lot of votes in and people were interested in the psychological aspect. Ultimately, I think people who said he might suffer from sort of disorder might have it the best.

After another day of players and I asking him to run the game, he came back with "I don't want to run [x] wanna do something else?"

It's pretty much when I decided to confront him in the lightest, most gentle way possible: "Why do you keep making these games when you don't have a concrete game set-up?" He said he always does, and when I pointed out he hasn't even set up a story, setting, or anything concrete for players to engage with, there was a lot of self-victimization and self-pity responses about how he sucks, how bad do I want to make him feel, and probably the most important answer: he says his interests keep switching. I advised him to not advertise these games anymore and asked him to consider the feelings of players who keep joining and never getting a game. He just went to a cycle of self-pity, and probably the worst thing: blamed some of the other players who had at this point were no longer speaking. When I pointed out that one 1-3 days of joining that they had made character sheets, said they wanted [x] game, and everything was there for him to start the game opening, he either kicked me or deleted the server.

I do believe it is ADHD / Bipolar as some people have said. The self-pity responses and blaming others is incredibly lame but I would say tame compared to the toxicity you can find in tabletop games.

Not going to state his username or what games he was trying to run of course because I'm not doxing people or someone with disorders for that matter, and even if I wanted to I'm pretty sure it would violate terms here.

This week's RPG is Cy_Borg!

Have you played it? Have you run/GM'd it? How did it go?

What's your favourite memory from the game?

What is the best thing about this game?

What is the worst? How would you improve it?

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Last week was Burning Wheel. Join us again next week for Outgunned!

After having so much fun making our group leaders of a town in our PF2e campaign and memeing and imagined about how we'd run the town through the modern political systems we have.

I wondered if there's a ttrpg that focuses solely on politics, where the players are leaders or ministers of a town/city/country and that the mechanics revolve around pure politicking (e.g., using resources to gain leverage on a political issue or political opponent, accumulating favors to get someone to ally you or for them to give you favorable trades, money and political power is a resource, etc.), where in-person combat is utterly non-existant and for RP only (by that I mean, the physical scuffle between politicians during a heated debate as an example). Where the battleground is on the parliament/assembly/delegates as they talk about issues while navigating political alliances and foreign alliances with the endgame goal of surviving with them still in position until the end of their term.

I've played CPR, PF2e (even browsed Kingmaker), D&D, and even BiTD (also Court of Blades), and none of them scratches or fulfills this without compromising my idea of "no actual combat allowed" and that these games just make players "errand boys" to get political power rather than, well have the public already putting faith in them to be actual leaders.

So, I come here to ask if such a game exist?

I picked up Monster of The Week at the weekend. It was based upon a post I saw on here about how it has really good GM advice for creating mysteries. That post was correct. I have been very impressed with what I have read so far and I am looking to run a secret Alien scenario using the system, in lieu of having the Alien RPG. Which will be my first proper homebrew adventure, which the structure of Monster of The Week has given me confidence in writing.

With this in mind I have a couple of questions, as I went to the website for some resources. Has anyone created an Alien villain before in the system. I have created my own with a Facehugger minion but wondered if anyone else had already used one?

Also I then found the team sheets, which arent really referenced in the Hardcover book I have, but am familiar with their use in Blades in The Dark, is there any official guidance on their use though?

For those who dont know what outer wilds is, its a game where you are alone in the entire universe and you explore the mysteries of a lost civilization and how they disappeared.

So im running my first Fate oneshot this weekend and i wanted to run something similar. However in every adventure i read, the opposition was just people and monsters. I dont want the opposition to be something this small

I want the opposite to be the mystery. Or the unknown. Or the environment. Even monsters are fine as long as they are treated as a mystery or a hazard (gimmick) and not something to fight.

Are there any such adventures? Its fine if its a whole campaign. Ill just do the first few pages till a satisfying end

TLDR; Players you often don't know how important your feedback is to GMs.

I've been in a bit of a funk. I started a project around being an online GM but my approach was wrong. I decided to recalibrate but that sent me into an analysis paralysis spiral. That lead to me just sitting at my desk yesterday in a cloud of self-pity and doubt. Not a great place to be when I had to run a game in a few hours.

Then my players played their characters amazingly, which is actually the usual. And afterwards, one asked me when I was planning to run T2K and ALIEN again. One player, with whom I had a real rocky moment recently when their character died prematurely due to poor communication on my part, went so far as to say "I've been interested in playing that (T2K) and with you as GM I think it would be awesome." After the session another player said "I am really loving these games tbh, it's so narrative."

Those comments really lit a fire under my ass and have helped bring me out of my funk. I've still got a bit of analysis paralysis, but I'm moving again. I spent the next hour from 1am to 2am just doing prep work for their next session. And today I'm diving into T2K prep.

So, this post is just a shout out to players. Thanks for playing and don't hesitate to let your GMs know you're having a good time. It can really make a world of difference both in their personal lives and how they prepare for your experience at the table.

I recently ran a pulp one-shot inspired by the 80s comic Lost Planet (a crazy setting with dinosaurs, swords, sorcery, ancient technology and stranded humans from our world). It was extremely fun. This made me think about the pulp genre in RPGs. It seems a bit overshadowed by others like heroic fantasy and sci-fi.

Do you think pulp is underused in RPGs? Which rpgs capture the true pulp spirit?

Or is good formatting a prerequisite for something even being considered in a positive light for you?

Which do you prefer and what do you think are the advantages of one over the other? I personally much prefer Dice Pooling because I think it makes outcomes much more likely to actually reflect the character's abilities but I'm open to the idea that there might be a lot of benefits to Flat Probability that I'm not seeing.

TLDR: Shop owners, how do you even make money on RPGs? Help me to help you.

I'm getting back to the hobby after a bit of a hiatus. I ran the circuit of my FLGSs today. This is basically my first time checking out these places since moving to the area. One of the stores in particular resonated with me. It's an old school place with an old school vibe. It was small, but had more rpg books than all the other locations combined. I was able to talk with the manager for a bit and he was cool, too.

My original intent was try to get some BX (OSE) or my homebrew cosmic horror game to a table for a public game. I figured I could do B/X West Marches style so folks could pop in/out as they like and I can take whatever tourists that show up into a dungeon. For the homebrew, I can run it episodically and it only takes about 10-15 minutes to teach and make a character.

I got to talking to the manager and it may have adjusted my priorities. They're really more into the board game and rpg scene. They sell TCGs, but they don't really compete with the "big box" gaming stores that are constantly running magic tournaments and have rows of tables with folding chairs. They used to do board game nights, but they would get a couple dozen people in (and it's a rather small place), and nobody would buy anything to support the space. They would save a couple bucks by bringing in games they bought online and wouldn't even buy drinks or anything.

That kinda bothered me. Where I lived before, I was the organizer for a board game meetup. We didn't charge any table fees but encouraged people to buy their games from the FLGS kind enough to host us. Most people, including myself, did. I get that times are tough, but really we're talking about a $5 or less difference ffs.

The manager was cool with blocking time for me to run whatever there, and it's no charge (plus I get a discount on purchases) if I run a public game (which was my plan anyway). I'm trying to figure out a way I can go about this that could also help out the shop. The thing is, I don't think me running games is going to help them out much, especially if I'm running BX or homebrew.

He did mention having a lot of CoC product, but I don't even see how running that could help. It would be mostly me buying the scenarios and rulebooks, except I already have them. I don't see people coming in to play pick up games of CoC turning into purchases for the shop. Maybe they will buy some drinks, but it's a game shop, not a juice bar. I don't want this place to close down. There have been a few closures of some old school shops in the area and this is one of the few still standing.

Anyway, I'd like to come up with a way to go about this that would help the shop out. The only thing I'm not willing to do is run WotC D&D, Pathfinder, or PbtA. But, as I already said, I don't think what I run would even matter. I did talk with the manager a bit about this, but we really couldn't brainstorm any ideas for a way to run pickup games that could be any benefit to the shop.

If you own/run an FLGS and had someone like me that was in this situation, what could I do as a GM that would be the most help? Thanks!

So there's a certain GM that I see always advertising to run games, and he in particular says he wants to run a niche game setting that I really enjoy. I joined this guy's game about 3 years ago and after like 2 months of waiting for him to start the game and him dodging questions of when the game starts, left the game obviously. A year passes, he's saying he's going to run the same game. I join again. He sets up session time and... Doesn't come for the session. Twice. Like completely ignores me and other players asking if he's around while we twiddle our thumbs for like an hour. When one of the players says something like, "Dude we waited like an hour wtf?" the GM a day later does some meme headpat picture in response. I left a bit pissed off after that.

And the thing is I see this guy posting advertisements that he'll run games like every 1-2 months. Constantly. Clearly he isn't actually running games at this point. I decided, for the hell of it, maybe I can be proven wrong, join for the third time.

Same shit. Players ask when the game is going to start. No answer. 24 hours later just goes "Hey morning guys." Some greetings exchange here and there, question is asked again: do we have a starting game time? Or at least can you post the starting story? No answer. 24 hours later, vaguely says he's ready to do some game stuff. People say they're ready to play... And guess what? Nothing. No response and goes silent again as soon as people say or ask about his game.

I'm just trying to figure out what is going on in this person's headspace. He just wants a social group and using the GMing as an excuse? He's a troll and gets his kick off of seeing players annoyed? He just has anxiety and for the past 3 years keeps trying to GM but can't do it?

Genuinely baffling.