Joyful GMing: RPG Success Strategies

Running a table top RPG could be seen as: get and learn a rulebook, find players, make characters, write an adventure, run the adventure, and repeat the last two over and over. The challenge a GM is going to face is that all of those important steps are tactics. Well-executed tactics lead to accomplishing a GM’s strategy and achieving success.

Portal Steampunk Surreal - Free photo on Pixabay​

What is TTRPG Success?​

Success for a GM will have various nuances, but certain results are mandatory for success. After these critical conditions are considered, a GM can dig deeper and find unique outcomes he is seeking.

• Assumptions: The GM wants to continue to run games with no end date currently foreseen, the GM wants a regular game on a regular schedule, the GM wants a campaign (one set of ongoing adventures with a group of player characters interested in those connected events), and the GM wants to successfully end the campaign with a wrap up. After that, the GM and player can start a new campaign and repeat the process. With the assumptions considered, the victory conditions become clear. An individual GM may have more desired outcomes such as wanting to build a shared world or have events from one campaign resonate into the next campaign. But let’s stick to the barebones basics for now.
• Success: A series of ongoing campaigns with a group of interested players played on a regular cadence with a finale for each campaign. If this sounds easy to you, then I assume you haven’t talked to many GMs! Pursuing this success is a worthy endeavor, but it takes a lot to become a skilled GM and have more victories than defeats.

What is TTRPG Strategy?​

Most GMs probably agree on the basic tactics and the desired success when running TTRPGs. And yes, it is a lot of work, a lot of fun as well, but then why do so many hard-working GMs struggle to have more victories? Why do we discuss GM burnout, games ending due to a lack of interest or participation, or even games not being able to get started at all?

• Assumptions: The GM lives somewhere with enough people to get players who are willing to show up on a regular basis and contribute to playing a TTRPG. This assumption sounds easy, but it isn’t. If a GM is committed to success, he has to find players who are willing to show up on a regular basis and play to the best of their ability. The good news is, a GM can experiment to find the right mix of players. This is strategy.
• Strategy: The GM is ready and willing to do the work to achieve success. The GM must always be on the lookout for players who show up and play to the best of their ability to introduce into his campaign. The GM must then strive to lead those players to success. This strategy takes a bit of work. A GM will likely want to start at a public venue if they don’t want to invite strangers into their home. Here are some suggested guidelines.
  1. The GM will need to advertise to find players. Many game stores or libraries will help with this step.
  2. The GM picks the same night and time (every other Wednesday from 6 to 10 PM for example).
  3. The GM starts with one adventure but with a promise of another one to follow the next scheduled night.
  4. If the table does not fill up or repeat players do not start appearing, the GM may need to try a new game system.
  5. Once regular players start to show up, the GM will find his table being full for future game nights.
  6. The GM must then hone tactics, chase strategy, and strive for leading his players to success.
  7. A GM who develops a reputation for achieving success will find that players want to be part of his ongoing campaigns.

In all of my forty years of GMing, I have never had to invoke guideline 4 except with D&D 4E. I showed up at college and offered to run Warhammer Fantasy RPG. I never wanted for players and one of my players still gets together with me to game every once in a while. I married another one of the players!

As a GM I have had to start completely over at step 1 sometimes because of a move and one time because of D&D 4E. I still see some former players, so all was not lost. But I did have to form a new group in those instances. Starting with new players does not change the strategy, it just means more work to get going each time it happens.

Running the Race​

I wanted to cover this topic because many TTRPGs have excellent GM advice for that particular RPG. But GMs usually want to ply their trade for the long haul. With a bit of planning ahead, the GM can lead his players to strive toward victory. However, as originally discussed by Helmuth von Moltke the Elder and later paraphrased, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy." Or as Mike Tyson put it, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." A GM has to bend and move with ever changing events to achieve success. Strategy will need to be modified, resilience built up and practiced, and GM brilliance and skill developed. Those are great topics for another day!

Your Turn: What is your long-term strategy as a GM?

 

[Ramaster]

Very cool article, and I love that you are trying to dissect this issue with such a cold approach!

The article itself, as usual, could use with an extra editing pass ("Pursuing this success is a grand hobby and a worthy endeavor to pursue").

My experience and thoughts are very aligned with it. It is mostly trial and error, sadly. And the journey is long as well. But I would 100% define the endgame of it as "Success"!

 

[J.M]

As GMs we tend to take things personally when sessions aren't great (or at least I do), but I think we sometimes overestimate the importance of the GM as the sole driver of fun, and underestimate the importance of group chemistry. Some GM/player groups just mesh well, and some don't, so it can take a bit of time and effort to find (or create) a group that's on the same wavelength.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

As GMs we tend to take things personally when sessions aren't great (or at least I do), but I think we sometimes overestimate the importance of the GM as the sole driver of fun, and underestimate the importance of group chemistry. Some GM/player groups just mesh well, and some don't, so it can take a bit of time and effort to find (or create) a group that's on the same wavelength.

I understand what you're saying, but in my experience an overwhelming amount of responsibility for having fun falls on the GM. If the players don't show up and play well, then no GM prep helps. But I buy the RPGs, schedule the game, write the adventures, run the game, update the campaign, and keep things moving forward. None of my players come close to shouldering the workload I do. In forty years of gaming, I have never seen a long running series of campaigns driven by players. It is always the GM who makes the decision to keep driving forward every other week after every other week, for years and into decades.

I do have players who host the game, provide miniatures and battle maps, and even provide a meal. And my players show up on a regular basis and play well almost all the time, which I really appreciate. Any work done by the players is wonderful and really helps out. But the GM has to want the current campaign to succeed, and really want ongoing mutliple campaigns to work, to find long lasting success. In my experience.

 

[J.M]

My experience is similar to yours and I agree with you, as long as we recognize that players also have a responsibility for the game's success beyond just showing up. Sounds like you have great players!

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

My experience is similar to yours and I agree with you, as long as we recognize that players also have a responsibility for the game's success beyond just showing up. Sounds like you have great players!

Agreed. Showing up is the first requirement though, and some players can't even manage that! Luckily, those players are also easy to weed out unless a regular starts to flake out. Might be a good topic for a future article.

My players are great. They are a real pain sometimes, especially that one (you know who you are), but they are great. Who am I kidding, my players don't read my articles!

 

[Theory of Games]

Finding the perfect group of players. With that, I can run whatever I want whenever I want

 

[Dire Bare]

I understand what you're saying, but in my experience an overwhelming amount of responsibility for having fun falls on the GM. If the players don't show up and play well, then no GM prep helps. But I buy the RPGs, schedule the game, write the adventures, run the game, update the campaign, and keep things moving forward. None of my players come close to shouldering the workload I do. In forty years of gaming, I have never seen a long running series of campaigns driven by players. It is always the GM who makes the decision to keep driving forward every other week after every other week, for years and into decades.

I do have players who host the game, provide miniatures and battle maps, and even provide a meal. And my players show up on a regular basis and play well almost all the time, which I really appreciate. Any work done by the players is wonderful and really helps out. But the GM has to want the current campaign to succeed, and really want ongoing mutliple campaigns to work, to find long lasting success. In my experience.

This, to me, is the "classic" player-DM arrangement and what I was used to when I was younger. It works for some groups, but is part of the barriers to entry for folks into TTRPGs . . . that you have to find that dedicated DM to run games!

I'm not interested in that dynamic anymore and I'm lucky enough to have a current playgroup that isn't either. We rotate the DM spot to reduce that load . . . it's now my turn, and I'm trying to push us even further into a more collaborative approach, which my fellow gamers are open to, but don't have those muscles (yet)!

But all of that weight on the DM? Or worse, the "forever DM"? I don't have that kind of energy anymore in my old age!

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Finding the perfect group of players. With that, I can run whatever I want whenever I want

It isn't so much finding perfection but leading players onwards towards ever more enjoyable adventures, improved game play, and continuing campaign success.

 

[Piperken]

1. The GM will need to advertise to find players. Many game stores or libraries will help with this step.

Asking other GMs who run public games at either their local library or game store for suggestions that they've found helpful is worth pursuing as well. There are a lot people more who do this then I thought!