motivations to referee ...

[GamingGlen]

I really need some. I'm so easily distracted from working on adventure stuff before game day. On game day, hours before game time, then the ideas flow and I can't write stuff down fast enough or flesh out the ideas properly.

Today I spent some time researching/looking for deck plans for a research submersible for my next Traveller game (see the T20 section for my latest Gateway to Destiny posting). I was distracted a bit by the images of super yachts (sigh, those owners spend more in a minute than I make in a year), and more so by images of submersible yachts, many being conceptional. But, I did not find any useable deck plans. I'll probably wing it, using movie scenes of subs like the Nemo's Nautilus; but then I don't plan on having any action aboard the research sub anyway.

I still need to make up some stats for a very large water creature, a hunter, to threaten trapped octopi children (I'll use the dagshark miniatures I have, at 25m scale, to threaten the 15m scale character figures I normally use :devil. But I'll wait until game day, Thursday, to write them up.

I should research underwater activities and effects on some skills. And, do a quick run through, in my mind, of what should happen. But.. I see that icon of Civ5 winking at me, once again, or Age of Empires II, or any other game just so I don't work on the adventure. Sigh, I have no will power.

I've thought about having my own PC in the game, a female character, to act sort of as a muse (and I do, but I've put her in the background). I tend to not like "gamemaster characters" as they tend to be better or get more stuff than the players' characters, or it distracts me from giving NPCs the attention they deserve.

Btw, the reason I am running a Traveller game is that I wanted so badly to have some sci-fi gaming at my game store, even if it's badly run by me. Better to have bad sci-fi than none, right? (but then, that could be SyFy's motto... :file_28

Anyway.. what motivates you to run a game?

 

[SpaceBadger]

Anyway.. what motivates you to run a game?

1) I would like to play Traveller, but no one else wants to GM, so that may be the only way I get to play.

2) I like making up campaign settings and adventures, and it is kind of a hollow exercise if no one ever plays a game in what I have prepared.


Edit: Re-reading your post, it looks like a good part of your question is not so much what motivates one to run a game, but how to keep oneself focused on getting prepared for a game you have already arranged to run. For me, that is just that I hate trying to run something and doing a bad job of it, as that is not fun for either the GM or the players, and tends to lead to no more play time on later dates if no one enjoyed it. For me, there is a sweet spot in preparation that will let me run the adventure competently while still leaving me room to improvise and make stuff up on the fly during the actual session, as that is part of the fun.

 

[tancred]

We have 3 GMs in our group. Of the other two, one exclusively runs d20, the other runs a mix of d20 and Hero.
I run mostly Hero, but have finally (third time really was the charm) managed to start a successful game of TravellerHero.

What I realized several years ago was that I always end up running the games I wish I was playing.

Our d20-only GM is the only other player who knows anything about Traveller, but isn't able/willing to teach the actual system and run just Traveller.

I settled on TravellerHero (full disclosure: yes, I'm that Tancred, I helped create TravellerHero) because I desperately wanted to play in a Traveller game and my players are all already very familiar with the Hero System.

What motivates me to prepare for the game, when it's a good one, is the characters. The NPCs have their own backstories that they demand I tell.

Like Badger said, there's nothing I hate worse than running a game badly and the players not having fun. So that's my motivation for finding the time to prepare sufficiently.

With the caveat that with my players there is no "sufficient" amount of preparation. If there are 2 ways to solve something, my players will find a 3rd, 4th, and probably a 5th way too.
I have to do enough preparation to be ready to just roll with the punches and improvise as necessary, because a LOT of improvisation is guaranteed to be necessary.

 

[Putraack]

Why do I referee? I get a terrific emotional boost out of seeing the players' enjoyment of this thing that I have produced.

How do I stay focused on the prep that needs to get done?
...
I'll get back to you.

 

[GamingGlen]

Why do I referee? I get a terrific emotional boost out of seeing the players' enjoyment of this thing that I have produced.

How do I stay focused on the prep that needs to get done?
...
I'll get back to you.

Hah! Yeah, that's my problem, too. It's like doing homework.

You reminded me, I should check out underwater weaponry for the gunbunny player who's ex-marine character hasn't much to do outside of combat. Hmm, he has a thing for getting a combat pet in fantasy RPGs. Perhaps an aquatic one he befriends might add a little variety to his character :file_21: (someone else has a beaked monkey for a pet, wonder if I should call it Blip at some point :file_22.

 

[mpoles]

I find there's a danger in starting out thinking that you have to prepare every vehicle, every deckplan, every animal, every NPC's detailed skills. That takes time. And then given that you almost certainly won't have as much time as you'd like, other, 'softer' parts of the prep lose out.

I've definitely been guilty of this myself. Will your players enjoy the game more if the unusual new grav tank they encounter briefly was created properly using Fire, Fusion & Steel? No. They won't even notice the difference from one that you scribbled down quickly (or even on the spur of the moment).

But will your players enjoy the game more if you take twenty more minutes to really think about an important NPC's motivations, background, appearance, accent, peculiarities? Abso-bloody-lutely.

I speak as someone who, before running The Traveller Adventure, decided that none of the different Traveller rulesets had a trade system that I really liked, so clearly I had to create an improved one with a 24mb spreadsheet that gave the mid-price of any given commodity on any given day for the next three years with a separate tab for Aramis subsector plus the closer worlds in surrounding subsectors...