Face to Face GM style: How do you do it?

[pennshome723]

Face to Face GM style: How do you do it?

Hello everyone, the purpose of this thread is to hear how other GM’s handle and run Face to Face game-play for their player groups? I am also interested in hear how players would like to see or prefer to play a Face to Face table top game session as well too!

So let me start with saying I am in the old school of GMing and etc. I am a 49 yrs. old male, and have been gaming D&D and Traveller now for over 37+ yrs. I have created and built my own campaign for D&D and Traveller and started creating my own set of House Rules some 25+ yrs. ago. These House Rules are all written up and updated as changes happen and the games that greatly influenced them were; D&D ver. 2.5, All Traveller versions, and BRP d100 system.

My gaming group is made up of 7 players that have played in my group now for 11+ yrs. with me always the GM, and we play every other week at my home at my dining room table that sits 8 people. My wife is kind enough to let me take over the dining room as long as we clean up afterwards. I should also point out that all my gamers are guys my own age or older and have gamed about the same amount of time that I have too. Also each player also has their own gaming group outside my group and they all GM their own games the other week that my game is not playing. I should point out too, that each of them use my set of house rules with each having a few of their own tweaks for their own specific games.

Note on the house Rules, we as a collective group have always voted on which rules and etc. we wanted to use in the House Rules. I view and consider all of my gamers as friends and we do a lot more than just gaming together. Our families do a lot of things together, and our wives and kids also get together too. My oldest son runs a Hero Systems v5R Super Heroes game with a number of my gamers kids as well too, they meet on a different day to game than we dad’s do.

So my game is held at my house every other Wednesday night. Starts at 6pm and runs till 10:30pm, when clean up begins. Now these guys start arriving from 5:35pm on and we usually do homemade chili with French bread. Everyone kicks in food stuffs, snacks, and soda! At the end of the night everyone helps out on total clean up and we are usually done and put away by 11 pm for my wife’s inspection!

Now as for the gaming room, I am lucky that I have box doors that I can close off the dining room with to cut down the noise factor. Next I have both Hex and grid battle matts that I lay on the table top, and then place down a Plexiglas cover over the top of the matts being used. The matts almost cover the table and works real well. We use Grease Pencils to draw with on the glass for situations and etc. Now we use painted figures, that I have hundreds of Lead ones (yes I have all the Traveller ones), or we use Resin minis too. Also I even have a Chalk board that I can roll into the room to draw things on or puts pictures up on to help with the story.

As for the seating around the table, I am at one end and then the rest are around the table. Three on either side with one at the end across from me. Next to me on my end I roll up a Victorian Tea cart, take off my wife’s silver Tea set and sprawl my 4 section GM screen on and then put note book, adventure info, figures I will need and dice all within the GMs screen area. Then the players have their game sheets, dice and figures out by them. They each have a figure painted in some detail for their characters and then there is their groups ship, Robots, and other items that are often used (air raft). Plus let’s not forget every ones glass on coasters<g>! I also have a large 5 minute hour glass that sits in front of me there that we might use if there is a called player Time Stop. We eat at the table so you also have plates and snacks around the table too. They get cleaned up as we go throughout the evening, makes clean up at the end a lot easier.

From there it is a typical guys Face to Face gaming session. Everyone gets along with each other, and they are all role players. They prefer politics and plot digs, than a combat. I will say they do like realism, and details a lot. They are all deep thinkers like myself, and that requires really well thought out plot lines and being able to “think on ones feet”. For me I run with the motto, that the players can go into any direction they want…all is an adventure for me. As I have said I always have plots within plots within plots. Now since I know my players, I know what each of them likes and wants, so I have an advantage in planning for that.

So that is my gaming situation for my Face to Face game and group…what do the rest of you like to do?

 

[HG_B]

Next to me on my end I roll up a Victorian Tea cart, take off my wife’s silver Tea set and sprawl my 4 section GM screen on and then put note book, ...

Now THAT'S interesting. I have these same two items near our dining table where I game. I was about to move the 19th century Silver set when I found out, much to my surprise (and pain), that my wife owns a cross bow and knows how to use it!

 

[pennshome723]

Now THAT'S interesting. I have these same two items near our dining table where I game. I was about to move the 19th century Silver set when I found out, much to my surprise (and pain), that my wife owns a cross bow and knows how to use it!

LMAO...:rofl: my wifes Silver set is also a Victorian but she lets me move it!

 

[Carlobrand]

Teacarts and silver sets? I'm jealous. I have three kids with one in college. We use the dining table and TV trays.

 

[SpaceBadger]

We also usually use the dining room table, but fortunately only have to move my wife's current table decoration and fold up the tablecloth before we can play. We have a double-sided battlemat that can be drawn on and wiped off easily. For combat miniatures we sometimes use cardstock figures (such as the Traveller Cardboard Heroes that I still have from college), but just as often will use dice or coins to represent the PCs and their friends and enemies.

Depending on the game, the GM will be either me or my eldest son. Players vary; me, my two sons, my two stepsons, and some of their friends. My youngest daughter used to play sometimes but has lost interest. I'm naturally the oldest, having just turned 50; the boys range from 16 to 20.

GM style depends on the game.

For Pathfinder, we have developed a style to allow the DM to also participate with a PC, since we often don't have many players and both of us are mature enough to keep our DM-knowledge and PC-knowledge separated. We don't create a lot of intricate plots where knowledge is a big issue, tending more to straight dungeon-delves and sometimes even randomly generating as we go.

For Traveller or StarPath (my son's homebrew Star Wars game based on Pathfinder) the adventures tend to involve more intrigue and problem solving, so whoever is GMing does not also run a PC.

For Paranoia, obviously the GM (me) cannot play a PC, as it is important to the mood of the game that the PCs be pretty much completely in the dark as to what is going on, and a little bit of "GM vs Players" attitude is even encouraged.

My eldest son and I both have small laptops (netbooks, really) that we use for reference while GMing: PDFs or online SRDs, plus any prepared adventure notes. We usually keep notes in-game on legal pads. NPCs are usually on index cards.

(I also have to use my laptop in our current Pathfinder game even though I am only playing and not GMing, as my character is a Magus and I have never been one to play magic-using classes, so I need the SRD as a reference to keep straight how my guy's spells function.)

 

[JimMarn]

Hmmm. So far I have DMed AD&D first edition and TOON games.

A table, me at one end, players at the other chairs. I have some homemade dungeon floor tiles made with manila envelopes and an exacto knife. I've used dice, plastic rings from another game, and miniatures to represent monsters and player characters. I put a rectangular green felt sheet down on the table, so the counters and floor tiles stay put better.

I have them draw up a marching order for the characters for 10 foot and 20 foot wide corridors.

I have a clear plastic shelf contact paper notebook to help me track combat sequence. We go around the table for each player's turn based on the marching order.

We had a large dining table, but it kinda broke apart a few years ago in storage. The tables at CoastCon in Biloxi, MS are round and we don't like gaming on them much.

I first started gaming in Lou Zocchi's warehouse in 1980, then in his store when it opened later that year. We stopped, except for the occasioal game at CoastCon, in 1985. I get asked each year at CoastCon if I'm going to run a game, I may run one next year in something I'm familiar with. Before this, I was in Texas in 1979, and found Tunnels and Trolls. I was leaving the university there, and saw a 1st edition AD&D players handbook. I was shocked to find such a thnig. My last day there and no one had realized I would be interested. So I tend to bring it up now.

I had a Sinclair ZX-81 in 1984 and used that at home to help me run my games, all self-written software. Later I got an Amiga A1000, then an A500 Amiga, to run my games and help me calculate experuience and treasure division.

I tried to learn two versions of Basic to write the same software for Windows, but I really haven't had time to do that. Other hobbies have been taking up my time.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Teacarts and silver sets? I'm jealous. I have three kids with one in college. We use the dining table and TV trays.

Haven't you people ever heard of laps?!?

 

[Carlobrand]

Haven't you people ever heard of laps?!?

Dude, shop Goodwill. TV trays for a song!

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Dude, shop Goodwill. TV trays for a song!

You had Goodwill? Dang, we only had Badwill when I was growing up. Heck, we had to make dice out of the bones of the roadkill we scavenged to eat. My first referee screen was a tattooed opossum hide stretched over a rusted wagon wheel I found in a ditch. That was a bear to keep from rolling away - and from toppling over and killing the players. We had an agreement after the first little accident: your character automatically went up a level if the wagon wheel fell on you; if it killed you, I had to make your character Lord level. *sigh* We eventually figured out that the next guy to run your character was just going to ruin him, so we stopped that. Ah, the old days - not like you younguns that have it so easy today....... :nonono:

 

[Hemdian]

For Traveller games we like to have a large open area (sometimes a large table, often the floor) where maps and minis can be used as and when necessary.

Each PC has a folder which contains the character sheet and an equipment sheet (similar to the ones done by DGP) for each piece of equipment they have. If a character has two revolvers then they get two revolver sheets. Any equipment sheet they take out of the folder with their character sheet is assumed to be on their person, anything left in the folder they still own but is not with them at that moment. If one character lends another character a piece of equipment then the equipment sheet is passed over. All this helps track who has what and avoids arguments. I’ve tried doing something similar for money, even to the point of designing my own notes and getting a local printers to make me a stack of different denominations, but for some reasons it doesn’t work so well in actual play.

If a character is about to do something where a failed die roll will result in the death of their character, the player looks up everything they need to know and then hands the character sheet over to me prior to making the roll. This is an opportunity for a character to ‘chicken out’ and players do often reconsider their action when I ask for their sheets. If they make the roll they get their sheet back, if they don’t then I tear their sheet in half in front of them (signifying character death). We have on occasion, after the session, burned dead character sheets in an open fire place (if present) while playing ‘Amazing Grace’ from the Star Trek 2 OST album.

Years ago I discovered the impact of audio SFX. On a hot summer day I played ‘polar wind’ from a FX CD and within ten minutes some people actually felt cold. This was pre multimedia PCs so I had to do everything analogue. I hunted down as many FX CDs and cassette tapes as I could and dubbed selected sounds onto blank tape over and over. Then I bought four cheap cassette players (with auto reverse) and a cheap four channel mixer from Radio Shack and built a portable sound system. The first one I built was mounted in an old briefcase, a later one was slightly more advanced. The trick I found was to focus on ambient sounds and ignore event sounds, otherwise you end up playing DJ rather than Traveller. I had general starship hum, bridge bleeps, engineering, low tech urban, mid tech urban, high tech urban, sea, storm, polar, distant gunfire, etc. Over time I’d adjust the selection of sounds I’d take with me when visiting a friend’s house. The one exception to the no events sound rule was I had a selection of alarms. It was almost Pavlovian watching the players react to the emergency decompression alarm once they’d become familiar with it. (Unfortunately, a few years ago, when I moved from the UK to Canada, I was forced to jettison some of my props. So I’m looking at software alternatives. I did have a VB6 program that would run on WinXP, and the Realmsound Project on Kickstarter looks interesting ... if they make their target.)

 

[SpaceBadger]

If a character is about to do something where a failed die roll will result in the death of their character, the player looks up everything they need to know and then hands the character sheet over to me prior to making the roll. This is an opportunity for a character to ‘chicken out’ and players do often reconsider their action when I ask for their sheets. If they make the roll they get their sheet back, if they don’t then I tear their sheet in half in front of them (signifying character death). We have on occasion, after the session, burned dead character sheets in an open fire place (if present) while playing ‘Amazing Grace’ from the Star Trek 2 OST album.

I would not like mandatory destruction of a character sheet just for dying. Some characters who died well deserve to be remembered more than others who never died. I have some folders of sheets for old characters that I played as far back as high-school - those are part of my gaming memorabilia. It would be like burning all of the campaign notes at the end of a campaign.

 

[Hemdian]

I would not like mandatory destruction of a character sheet just for dying. Some characters who died well deserve to be remembered more than others who never died.

I understand what you are saying, and perhaps it's not for everyone, but I think it is interesting that people play their characters more cautiously when this rule is in force. It certainly reduces the number of stupid deaths. At the same time, making the roll and getting your sheet back feels more rewarding too (more adrenaline). I don't mind sacrificing some memorabilia for a more visceral gaming experience. YMMV.

 

[rancke]

If a character is about to do something where a failed die roll will result in the death of their character, the player looks up everything they need to know and then hands the character sheet over to me prior to making the roll. This is an opportunity for a character to ‘chicken out’ and players do often reconsider their action when I ask for their sheets. If they make the roll they get their sheet back, if they don’t then I tear their sheet in half in front of them (signifying character death). We have on occasion, after the session, burned dead character sheets in an open fire place (if present) while playing ‘Amazing Grace’ from the Star Trek 2 OST album.

I always keep the sheets of dead characters. You never know when his counterpart from an alternate dimension may drop by or when I may run an afterlife or Riverworld-type campaign.


Hans

 

[McPerth]

I always keep the sheets of dead characters. You never know when his counterpart from an alternate dimension may drop by or when I may run an afterlife or Riverworld-type campaign.


Hans

Or when this same carácter will appear on another playing group, having the personality and stats already defined beforehand...

 

[Hemdian]

<snip>

I do keep my own private copies for my records. These will have the attributes, skills, background, etc. Just not any of the penciled notes and stuff that the players have added once play starts.

 

[JimMarn]

Back when I DMed AD&D, a number of the players kept losing, or forgetting to bring, their character sheets. So I kept copies. And made copies for them when they forgot. I still have them.