Game Details

Recently I was asked some questions by a reader ... and now seems like a good time to answer them.  The question was about my gaming group (I have two of them), which admittedly I don't talk about much.  There's a reason for that:  I've no wish to parade them in front of my readers for the sake of views, given that they have private lives and their participation in my game is a private thing.  Still, there are some things I can say that I haven't related so far.

I'm going to answer these in the reversed order they were asked ... but only the asker and I know that, so I don't know why I'm bothering to say it.  Meh.  There it is.

Question: would I run my game differently if I could run only once a month?  How would I address finding the balance between wanting to run an immersive game vs. the players having to work hard to pull threads and find their own adventure?

In this country, Canada, we have a social system that has successfully passed laws that have been passed to control the spread of covid in order to protect the greater number of people.  This law-passing process occurs because there is only one Government body involved, which is not limited in its power by bullshit laws about phony filibusters, or even real ones.  One of these laws at the present, disallows private gatherings of any kind where more than two households are involved; period.  If such a thing occurs, the police can appear, demand the end of the private function and, if not complied with, can make arrests and end the meeting legally.  This actually occurs, despite the nutjobs in this country who make stupid videos ... because in Canada, the actual law is the law, and not what internet boobs pretend the law to be.  Therefore, for some time now, since the appearance of the Delta Strain, I haven't run D&D in person, at all.  Although, for a brief time in early 2021, I ran it a few times, about a month apart.

I ran the game exactly the way I always run the game.  After 40 years of play, I know of only one way to run; that is, with the expectation that I will run again, definitely.  When we pick up the game at some point in the future, the first session will begin with where the last session left off, even though that may be a year or more in time.

Keep in mind I have participants who have advanced as players for more than a decade, couched in the sort of game I run.  They also play in other games (though not lately), and tell me about distinct differences, but once they sit down with me they're ready to be immersive as soon as I'm ready to run.  It is a mindset that both DM and player possess, when they're adjusted to thinking of the game that way.  It's evidence of the "practice" I describe regularly.  There's no "hard work" involved.  While away from the game, the players consider and think about the things they'd like to do next, even calling me up and chatting about them out of game, whereupon I'll offer advice or angles they perhaps hadn't considered ... and when the game starts again, they'll say, "Oh, and there's that thing I wanted to do.  What are the numbers on that, or can I meet with the right people, or we get started on our way to pick up the thing we'll need.  Can we buy the land tonight?  How much is it?  That kind of thing.  They're as anxious to get started on their ideas when the game starts as I am to answer.

I've been experiencing this dynamic for virtually all the time I've been running, so it's weird for me to think that most players seem compelled to begin each game session utterly cold, with nothing to think about until the DM tells them what's in the next room.  Seems a very stale enterprise.  Yet until now, I don't think I've mentioned what goes on outside my games in just this manner.

Question: Can I tell a little bit about the dynamics of my in-person gaming group.

Okay, sticking to the character names and concealing some details.

The Smaller Party consists of one family member and two close friends.  This is variously called "Demifee's Party" or the "Airship Party," the latter because the players uncovered an ancient airship in Egypt and have been tooling around in it returning sacred objects to their origin in order to raise a member of their party who was in bondage on another plane of existence.  That member has been returned, those quests are over and the party has decided to use the airship — which is driven by force of will and not by currents of air — to venture to the Moon.  They were busy insulating the ship against the cold when last we played.  It has been almost two years before I've been able to get together with this party, though the four of us recently took a trip to B.C. together.  We hope to begin playing again in February.

The Larger Party consists of two direct family members, two in-laws, one member who was a cousin of my first wife Michelle and is therefore a cousin of my daughter, two lesbians — and "the lesbians" is how they expect to be called by everyone, all the time, with their expectation that we should do so — and one friend, for a total of eight people besides myself.  This game has been ongoing since 2004, though not everyone has played for that long.  It is typically thought of as "Falyn and Pikel's Party;" with the original "main" characters and their henchfolk, the total number of "party characters" available to the players equals somewhere around 35.  As some have reached name level, another 40 followers, whom the players are free to run, can be added to that number.  These are scattered in three groups, with the middle body in Transylvania, where the players possess land, a secondary group in Volhynia, in Poland, where they are attempting to seat one of their number, who drew royal blood as a background, on a throne of some kind, and the primary group which is off the coast of the Canary Islands, submerged below the sea, having transmuted themselves into waterbreathers in the hopes of finding one of two missing treasure ships of the Portuguese Crown that were stuffed full by Antonio, Prior of Cato; by the story the players discovered, these ships were driven south by Dutch pirates, only to fall prey to a Spanish patrol that sunk the ships somewhere immediately south of the island of Gran Canaria.  Either ship might contain as much as a million gold pieces in valuables, perhaps much more.

When they sit around my table, using their main characters, Arne the ranger sits on my immediate left; Arne is very much the "enthusiastic" player I described in my book, How to Run.  Falcon the mage sits on Arne's left; Falcon is an intense bookkeeper, keeping track of names, where things happen, how much everyone has and so on, without my expecting it.  Sebastien the cleric sits to the left of Falcon.  Sebastien is a talker; he gets bored more easily than the others and he has to be shut down by me regularly if he's not directly involved in play.  Hof the thief sits to the left of Sebastien; Hof is a jovial, Santa-like figure, clever and very innovative.  If there's a strange, excellent way to do something, Hof will think of it.   However, he's self-sacrificing and fiery in combat, making him a lot of fun to battle with.  Garalzapan the wizard sits next to Hof; he's much more powerful than Falcon and one of the first two participants in the game, along with Falyn.  Unfortunately, Garalzapan cannot tell the difference between an eight-sided and a ten-sided at a glance; so Pikel the druid sits next to Garalzapan and gently sorts out some of the game's details.  Pikel is my power player, my munchkin.  He's stoic, patient, a die roller of mysterious and devastating luck (which occasionally runs out) and decidedly the brains of the outfit where it comes to tactics, organisation and problem solving.  He talks very little with NPCs.  Next to Pikel is Fayln the other ranger; Falyn is the role-player, the scrounger, the one who remembers to buy everything that anyone ever needs on the equipment page.  Falyn started with Garalzapan, Pikel joined to make it three ... and all three remember clearly when they were brittle, fragile neophyte adventurers.  They've come a long way and been joined by smart people.

There's one missing; an in-law.  Very eager to play, very anxious, but has recently joined our number and hasn't had a chance to roll a first character.  Once again, we hope to start running again in February, but it will depend on what the restrictions are after Christmas.

Question:  How long is a session?

Sessions for either party start between 6 and 7 PM, depending on when everyone can arrive.  By 7:15 we're usually in full swing.  There's often a 15 minute break between 9:30 and 10, which often involves a run to the local convenience store.  This last summer I moved to a place that's literally 150 yards from a 7/11 (do they have those in the States?), so it will get visited a lot.  Games then run until midnight, usually, even if people have to work the next day.  Now that the grandson is 13 months old, I don't know about that end point; we'll have to see.  In former times, if a good battle was still in swing, it wasn't impossible to keep playing until 1 or 2 AM; but none of us are as young as we used to be.

 

Well, if anyone else has a question, I'd be happy to answer.