Take Your Game Master Traits from Worst to Best

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted illustrate how Game Masters of roleplaying games make the best players on the other side of the screen too. At the same time there’s plenty of ways for GMs to be the worst players in someone else’s game. Since they thoroughly cover both sides of the coin so well in the video, over here I thought it might be helpful for players and GMs to share a few insights from my own experience on differences between running games and playing in them with player groups of mixed GM experience. We might even discover how to make a drawback into an advantage during a game.

Running an RPG for mostly Game Masters

This is my most dreaded scenario as a GM. To illustrate I’ll use the Nerdarchy Team Game we play each week. Me, Dave, Ted, Megan and Steven get together on Thursday mornings to roll funny shaped dice. It’s a great team building activity and we’re all nerds who love tabletop RPGs so it’s a win win. I pitched the idea for two reasons. First, I’d been in a game slump meaning not getting to play very much and I figured I’d propose a game for our team to playtest the content we create. Second, I was the only one who regularly interacted with everyone and some of us had never even met each other. Considering it’s the advice we so often dispense I should have known better than to think someone else would run the game. If you want to play D&D or any game, your best bet is running it yourself. Naturally the assumption all around — except from me — was I’d take the reins as GM. (Thankfully we’re rotating GM duties so when our first arc wraps up someone else will run a short campaign.)

OMG the GM anxiety intensifies before every game session. Running a game for your bosses and close colleagues who are all experienced GMs is stressful. I’m considering this one extreme end of the discussion — running an campaign for a group of GMs who’re also your close friends, co-workers and employers. They know all my tricks! And since we commiserate with each other anyway plus share all our secrets and techniques — and weak points — they know all that stuff too.

But all the anxiety is for naught. So far we’ve rollicked our way through several heavily fey and folklore quests. The players took to my campaign setting right away and their characters quickly grew attached to the small coastal village where they were dropped off from an ocean voyage as 1st level Adventurers of Adventure. On their first day in town they got a shy firbolg who runs an auberge to open up about his sad past, baked a phenomenal batch of shortbread cookies to bring a reclusive wizard and determined to solve a supernatural problem in the form of a frightful yeth hound. None of these things were planned by me. There’s a lot going on in and around the little town and those are the things they gravitated toward.

With this in mind let’s look at the best and worst qualities a GM might display as a player. Specifically I’m curious on how the best traits can become even better and the worst traits turned into benefits for a GM.

Best to better

• They know the rules, perhaps even better than you. D&D is but one of many RPGs out there and for the most part no one knows all the rules to every game, even if it’s their favorite. Even if the game designer themselves runs their own game they might forget something. Since GMs generally grasp rules fairly well this can really become a strength playing with another GM. As a player you can see how they do things and since you’re directly involved it doesn’t feel like learning in a vacuum. You feel the effects and results, and hopefully take something away to try when you’re running the game.
• They tend to get involved without being prompted. So much this! A group of GMs might even display this trait more than you can handle. But this is such a thrill to play with a group who takes the initiative. Even a GM who strictly runs published material by the book knows the pages don’t have all the answers and you wind up creating some stuff in the moment. Anything from a commoner at the market stall to a secret network of talking horses who know everything going on in the streets of Waterdeep (this happened when we played Waterdeep: Dragon Heist), GMs love poking around campaign settings and getting a feel for the place. This helps tremendously to hone your imagination and offers fantastic opportunities to share things about the setting that might have gone completely unnoticed.
• They respect the Game Master and know what you are going through. Every GM feels the pressure, stumbles over words, needs moments to think or read or simply reaches an impasse not know. I’ve heard luminaries like Chris Perkins and Matt Mercer express feeling jittery before every game, whether you’re live streaming for tens of thousands of people, a ballroom full of audience viewers or a kitchen table with a few close friends. Playing with a group of GMs you can take solace in knowing they can all sympathize.

Worst to best

• They can be a spotlight hog. There’s a line, and leading up to it players enrich the story, help paint scenes and share their own imaginations to inspire a GM behind the screen. Going beyond the line can lead to hogging the spotlight but I’ll tell you this: I’d rather have a table full of players clamoring to participate than a group of people expecting the GM to create the whole experience.
• They can be argumentative. Painting contentious players in a positive light seems like a tall order. Like the previous trait there’s a fine line and here it’s even more hairline. Players and GMs alike should feel free to ask if something seems amiss, and it’s not hard to tell when the question comes from a place of frustration regarding a ruling or otherwise. Knowing when to accept things and let them go is a leaning experience for everyone involved. For a GM-as-player this is a scenario they can takeaway perspective for the next time they’re running the game.
• They can be judgmental. Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater. Nobody’s perfect and challenging your ideas offers an opportunity for growth. Running a game for a group of GMs potentially compounds this dynamic and could easily get out of hand. But on occasion, whether in the moment or through reflection later, putting your perspective in a crucible of subjectivity is bound to be an improvement. You’ll either reinforce your idea or gain new insight and change.