I give you all a lot of GMing advice. I also take my advice as much as possible. The hardest kind of advice for me to take is the kind that affects my table style. It’s not that I am dismissive of my own advice, but rather, in the heat of running the game, the changes I want to make get lost in the myriad of other GMing activities I am doing. The end result is that any time I want to affect my table style, it takes longer than advice like prep, campaign management, etc. So I started to think about why this is, and how might I overcome the issue. So let’s talk about it. 

Table Style

We all have a table style when we run. You may be laid back or energetic, you might be organized or a hot mess, you might run it like you prepped it or you may be tossing your notes and winging it – or had no notes to begin with. Your style is inherently you, and as long as safety is intact and folks are having fun there is nothing wrong with it. There is no one right way to GM. 

That said, there are always going to be things about our table style that we like less or things that we want to improve. That is ok too, your style is not fixed. One of the great things about being a GM is the chance to improve your craft through play. I love this about GMing, it is one of the reasons it still holds my interest after doing it for 40+ years. I am always striving to improve something or change something about my style. 

What to Improve? 

That could be anything. I could make ten articles with lists of things you could improve. I will share some of mine in a bit. The best way to determine what you might want to improve is to do some introspection. Spend some time thinking about your most recent games. What do you wish you could have done better? What parts of the game did you struggle with? Those are things you want to improve.

Conversely, think about what parts of the game you enjoy the most. Is it the table banter, is it the way you portray NPCs, give descriptions of things, etc? These are things you want to ensure make it into your sessions or improve upon. 

I recently did some mind mapping about what elements make up the best games that I have run. I came up with six things:

  • Focus – everyone paying attention to what was happening at the table.
  • Intensity – the session is creating strong feelings in all of us.
  • Vibrant Characters – PCs and NPCs that were detailed and engaging.
  • Surprising Action – being surprised about how things played out at the table.
  • Exciting Stories – stories that had plot twists, high stakes, action, drama, etc.
  • Mastery – understanding the game mechanics and using them well to support the game and story.

 

Of those things some of them I do well at (Surprising Action and Exciting Stories) and others I could improve upon. Mastery, while important at the table, is something that I can do between sessions, by doing some studying. The rest are things that I could incorporate into my Table Style. 

After more brainstorming and reflection I decided there were two things that I wanted to start with:

Focus

I have two problems with Focus. One, I don’t always have good self-control and sometimes tangent into things not pertinent to the game. I need to improve by not saying everything that pops into my head while running, and rather save some things to talk about during breaks. 

Two, I sometimes tend to be too chill and don’t command the table, which sometimes results in other people, who also do not have self-control, derailing the table or hijacking the focus. I need to assert some control, and shut things like that down to help maintain focus.

Intensity

Another struggle I have, and I have talked about this in previous articles, is that I am always afraid that I will be “too much” at the table, and so I tend to be a bit more reserved, more chill, when running a game, when I really would like to be a bit more animated, even if that comes off as we old folks say, as a bit of a spazz. I want to be more bold and animated when I run.

 The 8 Things

Before we can talk about the challenges in trying to improve your Table Style we need to talk about something that my co-host Senda and I jokingly call “The 8 Things” (shameless plug for my podcast: Panda’s Talking Games). 

On the show, we often refer to the 8 Things or skills that GMs are doing every moment they are running a game. The joke part is that it’s 8. I made the number up one day, and when you have a bit, you commit to the bit. The truth of it is that when you are running a game, you are performing a host of skills all at the same time, such as: 

  • Adjudication of rules
  • Reading the table
  • Acting
  • Narrating
  • Controlling spotlight 
  • Managing the story
  • Recalling information (rules, setting, story)

We do these things continuously while we run the game, often cycling through these things over and over. 

Toss in Another Ball

For me, the new thing gets lost in the running of the game. I get caught up in what is happening at the table, and I wind up focusing on keeping the game going and struggle to remember to make the desired change.

This is where you can, and certainly I, struggle when it comes to improving or changing my Table Style. I am already doing the 8 Things and sometimes working pretty hard to keep those 8 Things going, and now I need to consciously add/stop/change one of those things. For me, the new thing gets lost in the running of the game. I get caught up in what is happening at the table, and I wind up focusing on keeping the game going and struggle to remember to make the desired change. 

The Need… 

So we have a desired change. We have a struggle to implement it. We now need a solution. 

I pondered this for a while and what I realized I needed was some kind of external artifact to remind me of the desired change. Something that I would see in the middle of the game, reminding me of the change, so that I could be mindful of it so that when opportunities came to make the change, I would not forget. 

To be clear, this solution is very much for me, based on who I am. I am hoping that it will also resonate with you, but recognize that it is not the only solution to this problem. 

Implementation

I did a lot of thinking about external artifacts. Did it need to be literal, like a card saying “Be Bold” or could it be symbolic, like a special die that I could put in my GMing space? How big would it need to be? How much space could I spare, to fit it in with my other materials? How prevalent did it need to be in the space? Did it just need to be on the table, occasionally covered up with cheat sheets or other ephemera, or did I need to be able to see it all the time?

My first solution was to keep it simple – the duct tape of the RPG table, index cards. I took two index cards, one for Focus and one for Intensity, and I wrote some words on them: “Maintain Control” and “Be Bold”. I put them out on the table with my other gaming gear for the session.

Results and Improvement

And it worked. Having them on the table helped me to be mindful of both concepts as I was running the session. I did notice that they did get swallowed up from time to time, with other handouts and cheat sheets.

I now want to improve on this, in two ways. The first is that I want to make the cards easier to see. To that, I ordered an acrylic playing card holder. It’s about a foot long and holds cards at a 70-degree angle. I plan on putting it out toward the front edge of my GM space and standing the cards up horizontally. It will be like a very low-profile GM screen (note I generally don’t use a GM screen). There should be enough room in the holder for both cards, or more if I orient the cards vertically. 

The second thing I want to do is make better cards. This will require my amateur graphic design skills, where I can use some fonts and some simple graphics to make more visually appealing cards. I can also consider making them playing card size so that I can utilize the holder better. 

Applying This Technique

So if you are interested in trying this, here is what you need to do:

  1. Identify what you want to improve. I recommend 1-2 things for starters. 
  2. Think about a visual artifact that you can use to remind you. 
  3. Think about where you can place it in your GMing space while you run.

This could be as simple as a post-it note inside your GM Screen or it could be index cards, or you could 3D print something. As long as it fits in your space, and catches your eye while you are playing, it’s a solution. 

Be Your Own Table Coach

GMing is an art form that benefits from constant improvement. As such, changing your table style can help elevate your sessions. The challenge in improving your table style is to remember what you are trying to change among all the other things you have to do, to keep the game running. By creating a visual artifact that can grab your attention, you can coach yourself into the changes you want. 

What would you like to change/improve in your table style? What reminder do you need to leave yourself?