#15: Thinking about GM fun
Hello, fine readers, and welcome to Issue #15. Who brought snacks?
I. The Different Types of GM Fun
This week, I tackle a topic I’ve been thinking about for a long time: What is the fun of being a GM? Or taking a leaf from the Manyfold Glossary, what are the various kinds of fun? This question first bubbled up in my mind at a time when I was really burned out with DMing a 5e campaign. The whole process had left me feeling like I was ‘responsible’ for everyone else’s fun. Like the group was a troop and I was the quartermaster who controlled our stock of fun and was in charge of rationing it out. Yes, it wasn’t a healthy dynamic. But it’s one that for better or worse, I have personally come to equate with trad games.
Since then, I think my relationship to GMing has become healthier. And an important part of which is that I GM less and play more now. At the same time, to understand specifically why I GM and what I’m looking for, I’ve been thinking of the various kinds of fun you can have as a GM. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
Audience: Brendan Conway of Magpie Games wrote about this on their official blog a while ago. This is the pleasure of sitting back and watching your players put on a show. You’ve created the situation - intentionally or otherwise - and now the players are taking it seriously and just talking to each others about it. You don’t have anything to do but enjoy the conversation.
Surprise: This is probably the most obvious one. The fun of providing a premise or question and having the players respond in a way that you didn’t pre-empt. It could be a line of dialogue or a plan of action or a morsel of worldbuilding. But when it happens, it’s instant delight.
Narrative Fulfilment: The pleasure of completing a narrative arc or tying together multiple plot threads in a satisfying way. This is what Kornelsen calls Kairosis in the Glossary. In his words, “If you find yourself saying "that was a good ending to that bit", you're probably experiencing Kairosis.”
Teaching: This is something that some people might think of as the opposite of fun. But let me assure you, there is definite pleasure in introducing someone to a game and facilitating their enjoyment of the process. This is what Kornelsen calls Naches: “the enjoyment of seeing someone that you have taught, or are responsible for, go on to do well with that knowledge.”
Performance: This is the fun of doing voices and other aesthetic shenanigans with music, lights, props, etc. Also, the option to play multiple people is often way more fun than playing a single person and is only available to the GM.
Revelation: This is the fun of revealing to the players all the cool and weird elements of the world. Whether you’re running a story-focused game like Heart or an OSR adventure like Electric Bastionland, the act is the same. You have an assortment of toys and can’t wait to show them off to your players.
Worldbuilding: Last, but not least, the fun of prep. Whether is making random tables or custom moves or maps or wikis, the fun of sitting down by yourself and dreaming a world into existence. This is the pleasure of fictioneering. It’s a lonely pleasure, often, but gaming is one way of sharing it with others.
Did I miss any? Let me know! This was my best shot.
What I found most interesting about listing these out explicitly is how several of these aspects are actively not fun to many people. Lots of people don’t enjoy performance or teaching or worldbuilding. But knowing which aspects you do enjoy can help you not only pick the game you want to play but also understand the play style or culture of the group you want to play the games with.
II. Watch of the Week
City of Mist is a tough game to review because it’s just so BIG. I’ll probably never play the game because it just feels so daunting. But that said, the game does feel rich, fun and intriguing. And this video captures some of that well.
If there’s someone who learned City of Mist by reading the book and then went out and started a game, I am so impressed. How did you do that? What are your secrets?
III. Links of the Week
Articles
CBR continues its TTRPG coverage with ‘7 Powered by the Apocalypse TTRPGs for History Buffs’
Related: Someone on reddit posted about how to use Urban Shadows set in a real, historical city. Check it out here: Shadows of Berlin
A review of Hit the Streets: Defend The Block, a street-level superhero game.
Resources
The Oracle, a new discord bot for Ironsworn.
Cyberpunk map assets (both free and paid) for your online games.
Fate has a new website for their SRD.
Audio/Video
Spencer Campbell is doing a series on Youtube about the Psychology of RPGs
Project Nerves spends 100$ buying indie RPGs from itch.io and then talks about them.
A video overview of all of Free League Publishing’s games.
IV. Small Ads
This section contains sponsored links and advertisements.
Is VR the next frontier for CRPGs? Zen Studios is exploring the medium on the back of the classic grid-based title Operencia. Read more about their process.
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As usual, this newsletter was written by me: Thomas! I’m a real person - like, an actual one. With bones! Here’s a link to my itch.io store and a link to my twitter.
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Your link for Cyberpunk Map Assets directs to the Shadows of Berlin reddit thread :)